Turning Table Scraps Into Topsoil

Last month, I discussed a report that Anne Arundel County was seeking ways to reduce its waste stream. I mentioned the opportunities for recycling and composting, but it wasn't until just today that I realized Anne Arundel County has a large-scale, commercial composting operation right in Crofton.

Chesterfield Farms, at 1230 Cronson Boulevard, accepts all organic material, manure, and food waste (but, no tree stumps), for conversion into high quality compost. They sell the finished material from their Crofton site, along with green roof soil blends and double-shredded bark mulch.

This presents a huge opportunity for the County to reduce its refuse load, as organic materials make up 2/3's of the waste stream in the US. The County already runs an aggressive backyard composting program, but it would be interesting to see it undertake a curbside composting pilot program as well, perhaps in a portion of the County where backyard composting is impractical.

Annapolis Visionaries Take Their Tastes to Charm City

Local entrepreneurs Jody Danek and Gavin Buckley are taking their restaurants Tsunami and Lemongrass to Baltimore. Have no fear, they're keeping their existing restaurants in Annapolis. They will be opening a 250-seat Lemongrass, serving Thai food, and 180-seat Tsunami, serving Japanese, at the Inner Harbor location of the Tack Factory on Bank Street. Good luck in this new endeavor, though I doubt they'll need it.

Some Creative Holiday Gift Ideas

The following is a collection of local/environmental/socially responsible gift ideas for the season of giving:

Tickets to an Event at Maryland Hall - Whether it's the Annapolis Chorale, the Annapolis Opera, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, or Ballet Theatre of Maryland, you can't lose by supporting the arts locally and enjoying an evening out on the town.

A gift certificate to Homestead Gardens or other local nurseries - During December, Homestead Gardens, in Davidsonville, decorates the entire facility in a Christmas theme, and has a great toy train set-up. And remember, it's never too early to stock up on native plants for the spring.

Support Art in Annapolis - From pottery, to paintings, to photographs, and fine wood products the galleries and shops in Annapolis have a selection to please almost any preference.

Make someone a Friend of Jug Bay or a member of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - Any number of local environmental organizations could use your support.

The ECOlogical Calendar - "The first calendar to focus on the natural structure of the year. The ECOlogical Calendar highlights the often-overlooked primary division of the year, the 4 astronomical seasons. Our ECOlogical Calendar is the first calendar to be divided into four seasons, each beginning with either a solstice or equinox. It also illustrates a multitude of other natural annual phenomenon - moon phases, variation between tides, meteor showers, seasonal constellations and much more."

More Market House Mayhem

Today, the Baltimore Sun reported that the City of Annapolis had received 7 bids to redevelop the Market House down by city dock. The bidders are the Site Realty Group, which operates Eastern Market in Washington; the New Market Group, led by Annapolis business partners Gavin Buckley and Jody Danek; H.B. Properties, led by Annapolis restaurateur Harvey Blonder; O'Leary's Seafood in Annapolis; Foundos Realty in Annapolis; Siganos Management of Northfield, N.J.; and Caribee Associates LLC of Ocean City.

In the wake of the Dean & DeLuca debacle, the City (read, the Mayor) is anxious to get this issue dealt with as quickly as possible, though it seems unlikely to be resolved before the November 8th election.

The list of bidders has some interesting prospects. The folks at Eastern Market have done a great job there, and as I've said in the past, would likely turn the Market House into a real asset for the City. The other bidding team that has me intrigued is the New Market Group. Buckley and Danek have done a beautiful job restoring the "West Street Four", now Lemongrass, Metropolitan, a salon, and a couple of boutique shops. They also own the successful Tsunami a bit closer in on West Street. These two are among the leading local entrepeneurs, possessing both a respect for the City's past as well as a constructive vision for its future. My guess is that losing the Dean & DeLuca contract will ending up being better for the City in the long term.

Time to Diversify

In farming, as in so many other endeavors, restricting one's source of financial sustenance to one or two products is a dangerous risk. After all, didn't the warning against "putting all one's eggs in one basket" originate on some bucolic homestead somewhere? Many farmers in Maryland basically monocrop, that is, plant all their fields with one or perhaps two different crops, often soybeans or corn, primarily for chicken feed. According to an article in yesterday's Sun, over 150,000 bushels of soy beans are produced in Anne Arundel County per year.

Soybean crops and the livelihood of these farmers are now threatened by a contagious fungal disease called soybean rust, which is encroaching all the way from Louisiana, where it was discovered about a year ago. The fungus can travel via wind over 1,000 miles per year and has caused yield losses of up to 80 percent in some afflicted areas of the world.

The growing vulnerability of soybeans presents a good opportunity to reflect on the way we farm, and the nature of farming in Anne Arundel County. First, one doesn't need a degree in agronomics to realize that land in the County is too valuable to sustain growing chicken feed for very long. There is far cheaper acreage on the Eastern Shore, and certainly in the midwest, on which to grow corn and soy. If our farmland isn't economically sustainable, the only crop it's going to produce is row after row of McMansions.

Local farmers (and ideally, all farmers) need to diversify their crops, both for their own economic security and for the health of the environment. A monocrop is an ideal breeding ground for pests and disease. I also feel strongly that local farmers should begin to seriously consider using organic methods to grow their crops, it's better for the Bay, and organic produce and grains command a healthy premium at market. Locally, in the DC metro area and around Annapolis, there seems to be a growing awareness among consumers of the advantages of going organic, and local farmers could tap into that with the proper marketing and outreach. Finally, each of us that wants to see farming thrive in Anne Arundel must go out of our way to support local farmers, at markets, grocery stores, and roadside stands.