Written by Susan McQuilkin On a grey rainy afternoon in January the sunny colors of Wegmans’ produce department at the recently opened Columbia store were a welcome relief. SMADC staff along with other industry representatives and producers from around Maryland had...
Those who have read Joel Salatin’s books, especially Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, are well aware that he has a strong aversion to government regulation of food production. However, in his most recent tome, Folks, This Ain’t Normal he reluctantly acknowledged...
This year holds some real opportunities for Maryland farmers who are growing, or thinking of growing, locally-sourced food. A few workshops scheduled in January lay out the path to some of those opportunities. I mentioned in an earlier post, What is the growth...
This Christmas eve, NBC once again showed Frank Capra’s 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life. It blew away the competition with the largest audience in years. For the few who haven’t seen it, the movie setting is the 1920’s through the 1940’s and it is about a fictional...
When I was growing up on our family farm, I marveled at how my father knew when the land was too wet to till, when the crop was ready to be harvested, and what to do when the tractor would not start. “Experience is the best teacher” is a phrase we often hear. We can...
Written by Susan McQuilkin In May 2012, at a meeting of the Southern Maryland Meats (SMM) livestock producers, Dr. Tom Hartsock, retired Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, spoke to the attentive audience of producers who had gathered to discuss...
