Harvest

I never heard of gypsy moths on blue spruce, but they're eating the top of mine! What do I spray? It's too prickly to band. Gypsy moths are back, and spruce is a new target. It's too late this year to spray with Bt, the recommended insecticide. Right now, shade tree owners should install burlap bands on trunks where caterpillars can hide and be destroyed daily. Before next April, you can scrape egg masses off trees, buildings and any other place the females found handy. Do not inhale the irritating tiny hairs covering the egg mass.

Maryland watermen are wrapping up their best oyster season in five years, an improvement state officials attribute to natural conditions and government efforts.The harvest for the season, which ends tomorrow, is expected to top 300,000 bushels, according to preliminary tallies by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. That is more than three times the all-time low catch of 79,618 bushels in the 1993-1994 season, but well below the 1 million-plus harvests recorded as recently as the mid-1980s.

A year after the worst July crab harvest on record, state environmental officials say the traditional peak month for Maryland's favorite seafood was no better this year. But watermen throughout the Chesapeake appear not the least concerned.Despite what look like grim statistics -- two straight seasons in which the midsummer catch was nearly 40 percent below average -- a late surge of crustaceans is filling crab pots, peeler pots and trot lines from Rock Hall to the lower Eastern Shore."We had a real slow start, that's for sure; now it's crabs everywhere, like they fell from the sky," said Jim Jacquette, who heads the Kent County Watermen's Association.

That must have been a fluke -- not crabs -- that we had for dinner in June. They were big, heavy blue crabs -- local, too, caught in waters of the upper Chesapeake, steamed in classic Baltimore crabhouse seasoning. At the time, I found seafood dealers crowing about the quality and quantity of crabs.But since then, all we've heard is the blues. When a Talbot County waterman, Greg Schnaitman, told me two weeks ago that this is the worst crab harvest he'd seen in 27 years, I figured he might have been overstating things.

Commercial striped bass harvests jumped 77 percent in 1996 in the Chesapeake Bay area, the largest increase since Maryland lifted its rockfish moratorium in 1989, the federal government has reported.The rise from 1.98 million pounds in 1995 to 3.51 million pounds in 1996 was possible because federal scientists - growing more confident that once-depleted striped bass stocks continue to gain strength - raised the annual harvest quota. The 1997 quota was raised to 4.3 million pounds.But watermen say the government is being too cautious.

When the short grain matures early and you don't know whether to harvest, who you gonna call?The extension office, of course. But at a new telephone number. Starting Monday, the Maryland Cooperative Extension service office phone number will be 410-386-2760, or toll free at 888-326-9645.If you lose the number -- and the kitchen magnet the office is sending to 5,000 newsletter subscribers -- the phone book will be no help. It will have the old number.Since at least the Eisenhower administration, Carroll County farmers knew that if they couldn't depend on cooperative weather, they could count on reaching the cooperative extension agent at 4611.

The horseshoe crab has outlasted the dinosaurs -- but it probably won't outlast the international fishing trade without government help.So said Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening yesterday, announcing new protections for the homely, hard-hatted creature that has endured for nearly 360 million years. In the process of preserving the crab, Maryland officials also hope to protect the millions of shorebirds that flock to mid-Atlantic beaches in late spring to feast on the crabs' tiny eggs, along with the growing tourist trade in crab- and bird-watchers.

* Item: Green Giant Harvest Burgers for Recipes* Servings per package: 12 ounces or 6 servings* Cost: $2.99* Preparation time: varies with recipe.* Review: Here's a convenient, fat-free, low-cholesterol alternative to crumbled ground beef for use in sauces and casseroles. This frozen, prebrowned soy protein resembles the genuine article and was priced a bit higher than ground sirloin at my grocer. Its springy texture won't fool sophisticated palates, but it shouldn't offend them either. Flavored with dried onion and garlic, two cups of the Harvest Burger tasted fine in a taco filling and worked even better in spaghetti sauce.

A Catholic Relief Services official from Parkville will soon lead what he said will be the first American delegation allowed by North Korea to monitor the distribution of American food within the drought-stricken country.Michael J. Frank, 47, director of government relations, will observe the delivery of food to orphanages, old-age homes, hospitals and other agencies in Pyongyang and in the countryside.Frank and officials of four other humanitarian agencies will be in the country for three months.

Tired of battling larger grocery chains that have begun to dominate the South Carroll market, the owners of the Harvest Fare Supermarket in Eldersburg Plaza have decided to call it quits.The store, a fixture at the strip center for 15 years, will begin a liquidation sale today.Harvest Fare, whose customers continue to refer to it as "George's," has experienced a steady decline in business in recent years, even as the burgeoning Sykesville-Eldersburg area has lured Giant, Food Lion and Wal-Mart stores -- all at or near the busy intersection of Liberty Road and Route 32.The Baltimore-based B. Green Co. purchased the supermarket, originally known as George's IGA, from owner George Mezardash in March 1994, changing the name to Harvest Fare.

The moon was full at precisely 2:11 a.m. this morning, but we won't see it until it rises for Baltimore at 6:37 p.m. Out at the beaches, look for the moon to peek above the ocean at 6:32 p.m. And, because it's the full moon closest in time to the autumnal equinox, it's regarded as the Harvest Moon, the one that illuminated the fields as farmers worked late to bring in their crops.

Zach Rose is a farmer, not a painter, but he has inadvertently created a brilliant yellow landscape in northern Harford County. His fields of sunflowers have become the talk of the town, a magnet for photographers and a mood-lifter for those who happen upon the cheerful, end-of-summer vista. When Rose planted 600 acres of sunflowers at his White Hall farm in July, he was thinking birdseed. He expects to harvest thousands of pounds of seed around the first of December from the sunflowers now in full bloom.

On August 16, 2009; DELLA M. WILLIAMS. On Friday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road, from 4:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Saturday, Mrs. Williams will lie instate at Greater Harvest Baptist Church, 1617 W. Saratoga Street, where the family will receive friends from 10:30-11:00 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 655-0015.

The number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay has increased significantly over the past year, Maryland and Virginia officials announced Friday, saying that harvest limits designed to combat steep declines in the population appear to be working. Results of the 2008-2009 winter dredge survey show that the number of female crabs in the bay doubled in the past year. Catch restrictions were aimed at preserving females so they could survive to produce the next generation. Overall, the number of crabs in the bay increased from 280 million in 2007-2008 to more than 418 million in 2008-2009, officials estimate, a rapid and surprising rebound.

ROCK HALL -After sitting idle since fall, the crab pots need a tuneup - a little tightening and some cleaning. Brian Pierce is eager to get ready, even though he's not sure what kind of living he'll be able to make on the Chesapeake Bay this season. "Hopefully, this year's going to be better," the 32-year-old waterman says as he and his helper, Michael Orr, work their way through towering stacks of the wire-mesh crab traps. The crab season's traditional April 1 start couldn't come soon enough for watermen like Pierce and Orr, who've endured a long, lean winter.

Use state's own data to manage crab catch If commercial crabbers actually harvested more crabs than fisheries managers had anticipated, that raises questions about the accuracy of the data used to develop the state's crab management plan ("Questions arise over reports of increased blue crab harvest in '08," Jan. 29). The state Department of Natural Resources uses "fisheries-dependent data," i.e., information supplied by commercial crab harvesters, as well as scientific data collected by its biologists, to develop its fisheries management plans.

Maryland watermen reported catching more blue crabs last year than in 2007, despite new rules to protect the iconic Chesapeake Bay species, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. State officials say they believe the figures were inflated by watermen angry about the catch restrictions. Still, scientists say reports of an increased harvest raise questions about the effectiveness of Maryland's rules. And the situation is awkward politically, since Virginia joined Maryland in pledging to restrict the catch - and that state is reporting success.

Maryland's oysters, though ravaged by disease and loss of habitat, are showing some signs of resilience, state biologists reported yesterday. A survey last fall of Maryland's part of the Chesapeake Bay indicates that while most oysters are infected, fewer are dying from the parasitic diseases that have devastated them over the past 25 years, according to the Department of Natural Resources. "They're not out of the woods," said Chris Dungan, who tested the oysters for diseases at a joint state-federal laboratory in Oxford.

Loews Harvest of Benefits What's the deal?: In this season of economic belt-tightening, Loews Hotels' "Harvest of Benefits Package" offers $50, $75 or $100 in dining credit to guests staying two, three or four consecutive nights, respectively, valid at Loews' on-site restaurants or for room service. What's the savings?: You'll at least save the cost of a meal. The longer you stay, the more free food you can eat. While harvesting their own benefits, Loews' guests can help out others by purchasing a "Cinnamon, Spice and Everything Nice" cocktail, available through Dec. 31 at all 18 Loews properties, including Loews Annapolis Hotel.

It's pleasant to imagine that all that ails Maryland's once-thriving oyster industry could be swept away if a few healthy, disease-resistant Asian oysters could be tossed into the Chesapeake Bay and given a little privacy. Instead of harvesting 80,000 bushels, watermen might return to harvesting a couple of million. But the reality of what researchers have found these last four years studying the potential impact of introducing Asian oysters is quite different. Their work raises so many questions that it's hard to believe that such a move is worth the risk - or even necessarily would produce the desired results.