Thanksgiving

Two dozen volunteers were on their hands and knees Sunday morning, harvesting abundant greens or bagging them to give away in a Baltimore neighborhood where both healthy food and money are in short supply. Thanksgiving was on some of their minds, but the effort is about far more than eating well on one day of the year. Gather Baltimore, the fledging group that organized the rapid harvest, does this work every week - collecting food that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it in city neighborhoods.

Mara Kaminowitz knows the roads. That's why the professional mapmaker and her husband will be taking the train to New York City to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. "That's our strategy for how to deal with holiday traffic - avoid I-95 at all costs," said Kaminowitz, a Columbia resident who works as a mapmaker for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which studies regional issues including transportation. Marylanders will begin heading for the exits this weekend, kicking off the traditional trek to somewhere else to gorge on food and fellowship.

The climate pattern that has sent two storms up the East Coast in the past month could re-emerge around Thanksgiving, making for a possibly wet holiday. Blocking over the Atlantic is expected next week, though where it settles and how it interacts with weather systems isn't clear yet. But one important indicator, the North Atlantic Oscillation, is showing stormy weather is likely, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Henry Margusity. The National Weather Service expects the highest rain potential for the coastal Carolinas and the Delmarva peninsula, according to the latest models . But it's not clear yet how closely the storm will track to the coast, forecasters say. AccuWeather's Elliot Abrams is leaning toward a mild and dry Thanksgiving, but a large storm is lurking off the coast in models, which could change as the time nears.

You can cook Thanksgiving dinner yourself, or you can all go out to eat in a restaurant. Here's a third option. Have it catered. Some of your favorite restaurants are preparing Thanksgiving meals this year. We'll list them as we find them. First up, Havana Road Cafe in Towson is offering both Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner and a Cuban Thanksgiving Dinner for 4 for $40. The traditional dinner includes sliced turkey breast with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans with honey-glazed carrots.

Thanksgiving can be an overwhelming holiday. Even the most seasoned cooks can become agitated by the menu planning and trying to get all the details just perfect. Relax. Area farmers' markets have got you covered. Even as the growing season draws to a close, the markets' bustle increases with shoppers looking for ingredients for their Thanksgiving feast and farmers selling their last big crops of the year. The weekend before Thanksgiving is traditionally the markets' biggest weekend of the year (though many run until the week before Christmas)

Not to be beat by Walmart's plans for Black Friday sales, Target will open on Thanksgiving night too, at 9 p.m. Walmart said last week it will start the holiday rush at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest Black Friday opening ever. Today, Target said it plans to give shoppers earlier- than-ever access with a 9 p.m. Nov. 22 opening.  Doorbuster specials will start at 4 a.m. Friday, Nov. 23, the mass discounter said. "We heard from our guests that they look forward to kicking off their holiday shopping with deal-hunting on Thanksgiving night," Kathee Tesija, executive vice president of merchandising for Target, said in a statement.

What are three quick tips to spruce up your Thanksgiving Day table? 1. Choose a fun, bright color to use as an accent. Just because Thanksgiving is a harvest holiday, you don't need to restrict yourself to traditional harvest colors like russets and golds. For example, turquoise and lime green both look great against a traditional brown or orange. To create accent pieces, you can get crafty - try painting some acorns and filling glass jars with them. Or keep it even simpler by picking up some napkins in your accent color.

There are just 24 days until Thanksgiving.  This year, Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 22, which puts 2012 in a tie with nine other years* for having the earliest Thanksgiving ever. Good grief. We'll be putting together a list of Thanksgiving openings again this year. Please send details about Thanksgiving restaurant openings to richard.gorelick@baltsun.com I know you want to see my Pinterest Pumpkin board! Follow Baltimore Diner on Twitter @gorelickingood *1951, 1956, 1962, 1973, 1979, 1984, 1990, 2001 and 2007.

Pop tunes blasted from loudspeakers into the cavernous warehouse at the Maryland Food Bank on Thursday, energizing about 300 volunteers filling 15,000 boxes with holiday staples for the needy. "You can get exercise, help those who don't have a meal for the holiday, and then there's the whole camaraderie thing with your co-workers," said Gerri Gardner, the liveliest of the CSX railroad's packing team, which included workers from MTA and MARC trains. This time of year, the bank, which distributes food to about 600 soup kitchens, pantries and shelters across the state from its Halethorpe headquarters, gears up for its own Thanksgiving rush.

With Labor Day still a few weeks away, the time to make Thanksgiving travel plans seems as far off as the Curiosity rover. This year, however, if you snooze, you lose. Airfares are climbing with no leveling-off in sight. The cheapest fares likely are the ones you're seeing now. And if you hope Amtrak will supply a cheaper alternative, forget it. The smallest sliver of promise is that airlines over the next 10 days may offer lower fares on a meager number of seats for Thanksgiving week - fringe-time seats such as the morning bleary-eye flight or the red-eye express.