This Saturday, May 6th, is Opening Day for the Hereford Farm Market! It’s in a new location this year, the Hereford High School, 17301 York Road, Parkton, Maryland. Same time — 9:00 a.m. to noon, May through November. You can find Craig and me (Windtree Bee) at the “Hats & Honey” table — look for our banner!
Before each market day, I try to post what we’re bringing. For Opening Day, we’ll have honey, honey-sweetened granola, berry jam, loose leaf chai tea blend (which tastes excellent with honey!), bedazzled Windtree Bee merch, and improved seed bombs.
What the heck are Seed Bombs?
Seed bombs are more warm and fuzzy than they sound (some people call them bee bombs or seed balls). They look like little meatballs and they contain tons of seeds. The idea is that you throw them wherever Mother Earth needs a little help with beautification — the neglected road median, a tree well with no tree, a patch of dirt. Originally, guerilla gardeners used them to “throw and grow.” While the idea of tossing these over your shoulder as you hike might be appealing, your best bet is to actually plant them. Choose a spot where the flowers will be welcome and will have a good chance of thriving. The bees will appreciate it!
What’s improved about the seed bombs?
More seeds! I added more “Bee Feed Mix” to them, lessened the amount of water I used, and am using quilt squares for the jar tops instead of canning lids. This should help make them more shelf stable — although I recommend planting ASAP because spring won’t last forever and the bees need food NOW! 🙂
“Happiness? The color of it must be spring green” — Frances Mayes
Craig checking the hivesTugg practicing for No Mow MayOak Spring Farm DucklingsPenn State’s HUB lawnMe, still getting used to my new suitBogart, Marshy Point Nature Center’s box turtle
COME SEE US FOR OPENING DAY!! TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO COME TOO!
Dejon Vineyard
Earth Day Celebration, April 22, noon to 5:00 pm
5300 Hydes Road
Hydes, Maryland
*bring your picnic blankets & camp chairs!
Dejon Vineyards is a family-owned and operated winery in Hydes, Maryland. (It’s near Boordy Vineyards and the Prigel Family Creamery; to the east of Loch Raven Reservoir.) Denise and her husband, John, renovated the original cattle barn and it’s now a “cool country-chic” tasting room.
Their Earth Day Celebration is this Saturday, April 22, from noon to 5:00 p.m. The event’s theme is Make It/Bake It/Grow It/Conserve It, which dovetails nicely with what Windtree Bee is all about. (For anyone new here, we sell home-harvested honey, homemade jams and preserves, and cottage bouquets made from pollinator-friendly blooms.) The folks from Ecotone (ecological restoration), Marshy Point Nature Center, and the Gunpower Conservancy will be there to discuss wetlands preservation and Maryland’s natural wildlife. Other educators, exhibitors, and vendors will also be there to share their skills.
Craig will be there to talk about honeybees and beekeeping. If you’re interested in beekeeping, or you want to learn about local honey, or if you’re an entomologist, biologist, teacher, scout leader, etc. – please come see us!!
There will be wagon rides, kids’ crafts, live music, and LOCAL WINE! 😊
There will also be HONEY — because we have honey to sell at the beginning of the season this year! (How did that happen?! Well, it’s not because we didn’t sell out last season — we did. It’s because we lost hives over the winter. Boo! But the silver lining is we had more honey than our current bees need, so we were able to harvest it.)
Other Things We’ll Have
Breakfast Berry Jam: Our most popular jam. I made three batches!
Honey Almond Granola: Crunchy, homemade, delicious. Sold in canning jars, so you can pour your milk right in there and eat it while you’re off to work or on a hike.
Loose Leaf Chai Tea Blend: New and improved for this season! I’m now using dried and sifted ginger instead of candied ginger; 100% Assam loose leaf tea instead of a miscellaneous blend; and star anise.
Seed Bombs: Originally a guerilla gardening tool, seed bombs are also a super fun, hands on way of spreading the word about the need for pollinator-friendly plants and flowers. (There’s a guy in Dorset who calls them Bee Bombs.) My bombs are a mix of “muck” (a nutrient-dense starter soil); shredded paper (so glad to have found a use for it, since Baltimore County doesn’t recycle shredded paper); a small amount of water; and pollinator-friendly seeds (non-GMO, non-neonic).
Bedazzled t-shirts: These are slightly modified Windtree Bee logo shirts that I’m going to bedazzle myself. (I learned to bedazzle at lightning speed during my younger daughter’s dance years. Every season, I had to gem multiple costumes in less than a week. When she graduated, I swore I wouldn’t miss it – but I kinda do!)
Scenes from my former life as a Dance Mom
These are our awesome designs for the new t-shirts. I’ll post pics of the final bedazzled shirts later…
Where have I been?
For those of you wondering where I was all winter and why I didn’t post anything here… I was working down at Princeton Sports, the ski and bike shop off Falls Road (west of Lake Roland). McCulloughs are a four-season family and I love skiing as much as biking, so helping people get ready for their next outdoor adventure was a great fit for me! Princeton is a third-generation family business and the owners, customers, and my coworkers were super friendly and always fun to talk with. While I didn’t see as many people from the Hereford Zone as I used to see at the library, I enjoyed working down there and hope to return next year for their busy winter season (which conveniently starts just as Windtree Bee’s active season wraps up).
Me in Park City, Utah, earlier this year.Good advice from Princeton Sports!
I’m looking forward to the 2023 farm market and festival season! I have some exciting news about the Hereford Farm Market, which I’ll post about soon … In the meantime, happy spring and hope to see you this Saturday for Earth Day!
Windtree Bee 