Daina Savage

When it comes to the king of quirky, Baltimore’s got the title all wrapped up. Visits to the Charm City never fail to amuse us, from the towering pink fluffy Fifi who reigns over the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race to the somersaulting dolphins at the National Aquarium to the fleet of dragon paddleboats colorfully populating Inner Harbor.

To capitalize on the fun factor, the city is hosting a celebration of smiles this spring with grin-inducing exhibits at several museums and attractions, as well as a classic laugh maker when the circus comes to town.

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Sometimes getting there is half the fun. That’s why, for a recent family vacation to Orlando, we bypassed our usual flight south for a chance to ride Amtrak’s Auto Train.

Friends and family members had extolled the virtues of riding the rails for years, but we never wanted to give up the speed of air travel. Our reluctance rapidly disappeared when we realized the baggage limit could be the size of our car, not our carry-on suitcases. That meant bikes, coolers, media paraphernalia and other creature comforts could all come along for the ride. Read the rest of this entry »

When the weather outside is frightful, cozy breakfasts are so delightful.

Snow days are great excuses for creating menus to keep your family lingering at the table in celebration.

And who better to help create memorable first meals than local innkeepers who have perfected the art?

“We know that when people are making reservations in an area, what tips the scales is if a place has great food,” says Debbie Mosimann, innkeeper of Swiss Woods Bed and Breakfast Inn north of Lititz, who is a contributor to the national bed and breakfast food blog Eight Broads in the Kitchen.

“We tend to get a lot of foodies,” agrees Jan Garrabrandt, innkeeper at the Artist’s Inn and Gallery in Terre Hill. “Part of the charm is being pampered.”

Carl Kosko, chef and innkeeper at the Harvest Moon Bed and Breakfast in New Holland, who is as well known for his cooking classes as his inventive breakfasts, says the entire food experience, from visiting local farms and markets to source ingredients, to coming back and creating a meal, to savoring the finished product, is the chief draw for many of his guests.

“So many wonderful, specialty foods come from Lancaster, so it’s easy to be creative,” he says. “So when I’m going to make something as simple as an omelet, I’ll make it out-of-the-ordinary with smoked ham from Shady Maple and Henry Lapp’s wonderful gruyere cheese, and then after I sauté it, I’ll finish it in the oven to give it more height and density, which creates a richer breakfast.” Read the rest of this entry »

Is there anything more beautiful in winter than snowfall lingering on the branches of an evergreen? It’s a reason to ensure you have at least one species planted in your landscape. For those who want to branch out, try introducing a more unusual variety to the mix. We like wandering the Tanger Arboretum on the grounds of the Lancaster County Historicial Society for inspiration. There, mature specimens allow you to see the eventual size and shape your plantings will take. After this week’s snow, we loved the Blue China-fir, Cunninghamia lanceolata, which is part of the bald-cypress family. Although from a distance it looks like a majestic evergreen, up close, its long blue flattened needle-like leaves and rounded scaly cones give it an exotic look that makes for a conversation piece in your landscape. The shape of this Chinese native is pyramidal with a slight weeping habit and can grow up to 75 feet with a 30 foot spread if given room. We are at the limit to its hardiness zone, so try to plant in a moist, well-drained site protected from wind.

When trees and shrubs lose their leaves, we look to lingering berries to brighten the landscape. Evergreens with berries pack twice the punch, offering a foil to the color. Firethorn or pyracantha serves as outdoor decoration when so much is bare.
Planted in a sunny location away from a walking path to avoid brushing against its thorns, it will make for a cheery display, as well as dense cover and food for birds. It also lends itself to shaping, along a wall or fence, with striking results.
Prune lightly in early spring to remove any winter damaged branches and maintain the desired shape. Too much pruning will result in foliage growth without the benefit of its fragrant flowers and fruit.
Susceptible to fireblight, it’s best to avoid planting near apple trees. Mohave is more disease resistant than older varieties.

When sisters Mara Anderson and Ilze Berzins were growing up in Lancaster, their family’s Christmas tradition raised their neighbors’ eyebrows.

On Christmas Eve, the family would light candles, singing the songs of their homeland as the flickering lights danced among the branches of their fir tree.

“We always celebrated in the traditional ways with real candles on our tree,” says Anderson.

“It was all about the tree, gathering around, singing, saying your pantins (verses or poems memorized for the occasion), and reflecting on the light of the candles,” recalls Berzins.

It was a link to their homeland of Latvia. Their family, like many Latvians escaping their country during World War II, fled first to German displaced persons camps, then found sponsors who offered to help them start a new life in America. A number of Latvians settled in Lancaster; forging a small community that kept customs alive by holding church services in Latvian and offering a Latvian language school.

Keeping to their tradition of a candlelit tree was a way to still feel connected to their homeland as they struggled to adapt in a new country.

A central image of a Latvian Christmas, the candlelit tree evokes the image of the very first decorated Christmas tree, documented in Riga in 1510. A plaque, inscribed in eight languages, marks the site of the first tree.

Decorated by members of a trade guild, this first tree was central to the celebration of Christmas, and then later burned in a fiery display to celebrate the gradual return of the sun, in a mix of pagan and Christian customs. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the first wave of autumn leaves has left behind barren branches, it’s easy to appreciate those that linger, extending the harvest of fall color. Chief among these is the ornamental weeping cut-leaf Japanese maple, Acer palmatum dissectum, which is now a graceful, blazing denouement to the season.  This small, slow growing tree can eventually reach 6-8 feet tall and 8-10 feet wide. Although there are green-leaf varieties, the red-leaf ones like “Crimson Queen,” “Tamukeyama,” “Waterfall,” and “Orangeola” are particularly striking this time of year. For optimal leaf coloration, plant so that the tree receives dappled sunlight or at least some afternoon sun protection to keep the thin leaves from bleaching. More importantly, plant where the tree has room to achieve its optimal weeping habit.

A hot dry summer may have made for browned out lawns and lackluster landscaping. But it was a windfall for wine lovers as grapes spent the sizzling days concentrating their flavor into a taste to be toasted. Small, sweet, and oh so spectacular is the season’s consensus at local vineyards, where sustained sunshine has yielded a harvest for the record books. Read the rest of this entry »

As the landscape is preparing for its annual striptease, we’re struck by the Vegas-worthy displays clamoring for our attention. Chief among them, are the vibrant plumes of yellow panicles bursting from goldenrods (Solidago) like an exploding sun. This much maligned native plant, either dismissed as an unloved roadside weed or falsely blamed for hayfever (the real culprit is ragweed), boasts more than 100 varieties that bring showstopping beauty to your autumn garden and complement the colors of asters, sedum, butterfly bush, and joe-pye weed. Planted as a nectar-source for butterflies and bees, as a historical medicinal plant for herb fanciers, or as a dye-source for fiber artists, the blooms of this carefree perennial also make beautiful dried flower arrangements. To keep the plant from overwhelming your garden, look for smaller, clumping varieties, like the dwarf cultivar “Golden Fleece” which only grows to 18 inches, or the three-foot-tall favorite “Fireworks” with its lacy, radiating bloom spikes. The Chicago Botanic Garden spent five years evaluating the plant and you can read the trial results on its website: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/plantinfo/pp/goldenrod.php

A few days before his produce is showcased in Sotheby’s Manhattan showroom, Silver Spring farmer Tom Culton is surprisingly relaxed. After a barefoot stroll around his 53-acre farm, sampling raw fennel and garlic, pulling monster beets from the soil and visiting his spitting goats and rafter-dwellling turkey, we head to the kitchen to shell beans.

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