Regulars (All)

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 10/25/12

300 Ways to Eat Apples

Indulge at Whole Foods Apple Fest Family Fun Day

Before Jobs and Wozniak, apples were known for growing on trees rather than revolutionizing technology. This week we consider the older tradition. This Saturday, October 27, Whole Foods Annapolis celebrates Apple Fest Family Fun Day, a harvest festival with events and food demonstrations for young and old. Visit between 11am and 3pm to meet orchardist Stephen Balderston of Colora Orchards in northern Maryland. His fifth-generation, 100-acre apple farm grows up to 10...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 10/18/12

Vestiges of Halley’s Comet

You won’t have to wait 50 years to see the spawn of this comet

It’s been 26 years since Halley’s comet visited back in 1986, and it won’t come this way again until 2062. But each year at this time we get a postcard of sorts from Halley in the form of the Orionid meteor shower, which peaks in the pre-dawn hours Saturday and Sunday. Halley’s comet travels in a deep, oblong loop through our solar system every 76 years. As it travels, it leaves a wake of countless bits of rock and ice. Annually, Earth plows through...

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 10/18/12

Welcome to the Family

Pork joins the proteins at Noodles

This month, Noodles & Company at the Westfield Mall in Annapolis is launching a new protein: pork. Founded in 1995 and based in Boulder, Colorado, this fast-casual chain features a variety of noodle-style dishes: Mediterranean, American and Asian. You customize your meal, choosing small or large portions, adding a meat or tofu and soup or salad. Each addition adds calories and price. The selections are vast for satisfying different tastes. The new slow-braised, “...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 10/18/12

Filling Up the Larder

It’s easy when white perch practically jump into your cooler

I was going fishing. Not just any fishing mind you, but fishing of the most fundamental kind. No flies, lures, plugs, spinner baits, fancy casting, clever approaches or studied presentations. Just plain old-fashioned worm fishing with one rod, two hooks and a sinker. The past two months I had worn myself ragged with early-morning and late-evening sorties, casting plugs and crankbaits for rockfish in the shallows. Success was slight compared to the effort expended. ...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 10/18/12

House Plants Need Repotting

Just mulching won’t give them what they need to overwinter

The editor of Bay Weekly recently asked if she could simply add potting soil to raise the level of rooting medium in her houseplants or if she had to repot. I advised her to repot. The rooting medium in house plants shrinks with time. As the organic matter in the potting medium decomposes due to high soil temperatures and frequent irrigations, the volume of rooting medium shrinks. If there are drainage holes in the container, most likely some of the finer particles in the...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 10/11/12

Sometimes It’s Fishing

Sometimes it’s catching

It was a few minutes past sundown, but the failing light still burnished the water’s surface, making it glow like molten metal. What little wind there had been had died, leaving the water flat. Conditions were perfect for top-water fishing. But it was late. If the fish were going to show, they had better come soon. I had been missing the surface bite so completely that I felt as if I had become a Jonah. I had stopped partnering lest I subject friends to the same fate....

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 10/11/12

The Moon at Dusk and Dawn

A thin crescent straddles either edge of darkness

The moon wanes in pre-dawn skies through the weekend. Friday and Saturday the last of the crescent moon hovers just a few degrees below brilliant Venus. Even without the moon, you should have no trouble finding this morning star, as it is the brightest light in the sky besides the sun and moon. The next-brightest object is the star Regulus, the heart of Leo the lion, within 10 degrees of Venus, although the two are fast pulling away from one another. With the new week...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 10/11/12

You Can’t Compost in Plastic Bags

Compost needs air and water

I heard a garden advisor on radio tell his listeners to compost their leaves in plastic bags rather than placing them on the curb for pick-up by the municipality. Put the leaves in the plastic bag and dump in a pitcher of warm water with two to three packages of bakers yeast dissolved in the liquid, he advised. I hope no one listened. Composting is an aerobic process. The organisms involved are bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. There are no yeasts in the...

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 10/11/12

The Great Pumpkin

From festivals to pancakes, this squash delivers

The Dish this week features the orange orb belonging to the squash family, not Linus Van Pelt’s mythical creature. Useful both for food and fun, the pumpkin is an icon of fall and a symbol of the end of the harvest. Pick your own at a patch such as Knightongale Farm in Harwood, where owner Joel Greenwell commits 10 percent of his 90 acres to pumpkins. “People don’t realize the amount of work involved in growing pumpkins,” Greenwell...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 10/4/12

Will the Dragon Awaken?

October’s Draconids are typically sleepers, but every now and then …

Sunset reveals Mars low in the southwest. Its ruddy glow is usually quite distinct, but it is only a dozen degrees from its rival, orange Antares, blinking to its upper left. You’ll have a harder time spotting Saturn, so low in the west that it’s almost lost in the glare of the setting sun. Venus rises in the northeast around 4am, and it blazes ever-so bright high in the east before sunrise. Wednesday before dawn, Venus is only a fraction of a degree from Regulus...