Looking Ahead to Sweet Goodness

By Kathy Knotts, CBM Bay Weekly managing editor

My family used to gather every week with my grandparents and aunts and uncles to play cards. Their game of choice was Rook and when the weather turned warm, someone would inevitably show up with a Strawn’s strawberry pie. For us kids, cousins included, it was the highlight of the evening. But at the time, I didn’t really care for the berries. I just wanted the mound of whipped cream and the flaky pie crust. 

As I grew older, my taste buds learned to appreciate the sweet goodness of the strawberry and today I find myself longing for my grandfather’s treat of strawberries and Cool Whip in one of those little angel food shortcake cups.

Marylanders love their strawberries. And since May 20 is National Pick Strawberries Day, we sent writer Chelsea Harrison on the hunt for the best picking spots and to talk to the farmers who grow them. Strawberry season is typically May through June—a brief window to get them at their best. But did this year’s cool wet spring weather ruin the crop? Learn more here.

Perhaps this weekend’s high temps will improve the harvest? One thing the heat will impact will be the number of people out on the water. Checking the tides and putting on a life jacket need to be a part of your boating rituals, just like putting on a seatbelt when you get in your car. Multimedia journalist Cheryl Costello brings us a story from across the Bay on one family’s mission to turn tragedy into a life-saving program.

Boaters of a different stripe will gather in Edgewater later this month to celebrate craftsmanship and creativity at the Big Little Boat Festival, hosted by Chesapeake Light Craft. These boat-building enthusiasts converge to paddle, mingle and show off their skills in creating wooden kayaks, canoes, rowboats and sailboats. It’s mighty impressive and a lot of fun. Writer Steve Adams reports there will be races and even a cardboard boat building challenge. This weekend’s heat may inspire me to even drag my own kayak out of storage for a dip in the Magothy River.

I know exactly where I will be Sunday though—in my camp chair at Sandy Point State Park for the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival. As I reported last week, this is the final year of the festival and the lineup of great musicians is a worthy finale. Congrats to those of you who won tickets in our social media giveaways. Keep an eye out for more giveaways in months to come both in the paper and on our social media channels. Summer is nearly upon us.