The white-coated man behind the seafood case in the grocery store sees me eyeing the round, plastic containers of crab meat set in ice. Traditional one-pound containers.

“Can I help you?”

I squint my eyes a little, making sure I’m reading the prices correctly, my mind running through numbers like an old-fashioned cash register. Jumbo lump crab meat, $63.  Regular lump crab meat, $43.

“The crab meat,” I say.  “Those prices look high.”

His answer comes quickly.  “Not as high as Annapolis. A pound of jumbo lump over there is running about $75.”

There’s no claw meat as there has been sometimes in the past. No special either.

“That lump meat is now what they call special.”

I thank the man for the information, tilt my hat back, scratch my head a little.  Not sure how that helps the thinking process but maybe it does.  Then I turn, walk away, and head for the cashier to pay for the four-gallon plastic trash bags I’ll put in the plastic paint bucket I bought at the hardware store to put beside my sink for food waste.  Keeps it out of the sink and the disposal and the septic system and the waters where the crabs grow.  They have enough to eat without me adding more nutrients to the system.

Looking at the crab meat prices was more of a fact-finding mission than a dinner decision.

Inflation and high prices are on everyone’s mind. Soft crabs have been scarce lately. I saw some in another seafood case the other day – they were good-sized soft crabs, alive  – $7.75 each. More sticker shock.

“Market’s terrible,” a local buyer tells me. “”Used to be crabs were something people ate as a regular part of their diet. Not anymore.  Look at the prices.  Now they’re a delicacy, a luxury item. Soft crabs are scarce because peelers are scarce.  A Delaware Bay crabber said there hasn’t been hardly any peeler run so far this year. But there’s lots of little crabs out there.”

Another chimes in. “This is never usually a strong time for the market.”

And another: “Ocean City was strong over Memorial Day weekend but not what it’s been in the past.”

Prices.  Not just for crabs, for all kinds of food items.

Conversation shifts.  “Did you smell the smoke in the air this morning and see the haze? It’s the wild fires up in Canada, Nova Scotia.  They say half the island’s on fire.”

I did smell the smoke Thursday morning and noticed the haze that softened the edges of the clouds and the trees in the distance. Smelling smoke in the morning strikes me as unusual.

National Weather Service says the smoky smell and haze are a result of the Canadian fires up north, fires scorching parts of New Jersey’s Pione Barrens and fires out west. They expect those conditions, coming at us from sources thousands of miles away, to persist for a while.

More head scratching, wondering, my mind scrolling and scanning, trying to make sense of it all, trying to connect all of the dots. Plastic containers, plastic bags, plastic paint pails. Plastics all made from fossil fuels.  The burning of fossil fuels, we’re told, part of the equation leading to a warming of the climate, changes in weather patterns, “smoke on the water and fire in the sky.” Everything contributes.

Back to crabs.  Watermen are getting $150 per bushel at the moment, fairly typical for this time of the year.  The winter dredge survey, results announced recently, showed significantly higher numbers of crabs in the Chesapeake compared to 2022.

“Lots of little crabs out there now.  Lots of them.”

Prices should moderate as the season progresses into the summer.  Demand will be higher but so too will be supply.  And as the sheds continue with each full moon, crabs are getting bigger too.

“By late summer and fall, there will be plenty of crabs.”

Anecdotal reporting, that’s what I do.  Listening and observing, bits and snatches of information coming from all different directions – just as irregular and numerous as jigsaw puzzle pieces – helping form our ever-changing world view, completing a puzzle that’s really never completed..

If you made it with me this far, thanks for reading.

The estimated harvest of 620,000 bushels of oysters from natural bars in the Maryland portion of Chesapeake Bay during the 2022-2023 season is the highest since the 976,000 bushel harvest recorded in the 1986-’87 season.

Information provided by the Shellfish Division of the state’s Department of Natural Resources indicates that while the oyster population is trending in a positive direction, it’s still a long way from the boom years of more than a century ago when annual harvests counted in the several millions of bushels.

The dockside value of this year’s harvest, based on an average bushel price of $30 over the course of the October through March season, comes in at $18,600,000. That’s a $2,310,00 increase – 14 percent – over the value of the 543,000 bushels harvested during the 2021-’22 season. Excellent working conditions weatherwise and strong sets of baby oysters over the last few years led to daily-limit harvests for the tongers, dredgers and divers who work the Chesapeake and its tributaries.

Dockside chatter indicates that the East Coast market remained relatively strong through the season.  So strong in fact that Virginia extended its season by a month leading to some watermen in Maryland’s portion of the Bay seeking a similar extension here. However, according to Maryland Shellfish Division Director Chris Judy, that wasn’t given serious consideration among Maryland’s resource managers.

“Maryland did not consider extending the oyster season, as did Virginia. We have kept the same harvest rules, such as the daily bushel limit and season length and others, as a conservative approach to managing the population and fishery,” said Judy.

In response to questions about the steady improvement in harvests over the past few years, Judy reiterated that strong spat sets, low prevalence of disease, low mortality rate and a healthy balance between fresh and salty water are the primary reasons for the upward trends.  But he was careful to sound a cautionary note as well: “Spat sets have been good recently, the biomass index – size and numbers of oysters – is trending upwards, and certain areas show an abundance of oysters. However, other areas are not getting good spat sets or showing large numbers of oysters, due to low salinity which impacts the population. Again, even though there are positive trends with oysters they are not yet recovered or restored.”

Recent surveys have found virtually no sets of little oysters in the upper part of Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake. Low salinity in that section of the Bay has long been a perennial problem.

The healthiest spat sets and harvests in recent years have come in the waters in and around Tangier Sound. One area of hope has come in the waters of Eastern Bay and the Miles and Wye Rivers where declining spat set trends have started to turn around.

Another reason why harvests have increased over the past few years is more watermen targeting oysters, which is natural considering stronger markets and growing oyster populations. For example, for the 2021-’22 wild oyster season, 1,228 individuals paid the oyster surcharge for their commercial licenses.  For the 2022-’23 season, that number increased to 1,316 surcharges.

During October and November each fall, state scientists take to the Bay’s waters to dredge approximately 345 samples from 271 bars throughout Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake to monitor the health of the oyster population.  The results of that survey are compiled in an annual report.

Here are some statements made in the conclusion of the most recent full report, compiled in 2021:

“ . . .  the positive trends in population indicators that began 12 years ago and have substantially improved over the past three years offer encouragement that a corner has been turned. Three years is a relatively short period of time for predicting trends, and it remains to be seen whether the oyster population continues to grow. Nevertheless, the past dozen years has seen a net gain for oysters in Maryland, especially when compared with the devastated post-epizootics [disease-ridden] populations of the previous decade. … Whether these trends will continue remains to be seen. But barring the resurgence of disease or some yet unknown threat, there is every reason to believe that oysters can continue to flourish in Maryland. They are a resilient species.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

Data 

The best way to sample the depth of knowledge and spiritual height of Rebecca Hoffberger is to walk the hallways, climb the soaring spiral stairs, and immerse yourself in the exhibit areas of Baltimore’s quirky, unique, inspiring and nationally acclaimed American Visionary Art Museum. There you will find creative vision and revelations in countless works by mostly unknown, self-taught artists.

The best way to sample the depth of knowledge and spiritual height of Rebecca Hoffberger is to walk the hallways, climb the soaring spiral stairs, and immerse yourself in the exhibit areas of Baltimore’s quirky, unique, inspiring and nationally acclaimed American Visionary Art Museum. There you will find creative vision and revelations in countless works by mostly unknown, self-taught artists.

Hoffberger and her late husband LeRoy Hoffberger championed such artistry, along with their many believers, contributors, and dedicated staff, from the day they opened the museum and education center in 1995. Straight out of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, the American Visionary Arts Museum is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’

Should you think this all sounds just a little too lofty, don’t forget to spend time in the museum’s restrooms where all kinds of humor – including the perennial favorite bathroom variety – festoons the walls. ‘Hooker Named Lay Person of the Year,’ reads one of the many framed headlines in one of the restrooms.

Bladders relieved and minds refreshed, visitors find themselves drying their hands a long time as they read the walls before laughing their way back to more of the engaging exhibits.

Hoffberger believes firmly in a quotation by Oscar Wilde: “If you are going to tell people the truth, make them laugh, or else they’ll kill you.” Truth has always been central to Hoffberger’s mantra: focusing on the power of new and fresh thinking from the intuition and imagination of people.

“I’m an addict of fresh thought,” she said in a recent interview.  That addiction has been on display for 27 years in the form of the museum’s permanent exhibits, and 41 different themed exhibits she has envisioned and curated through all those years.  The unique works of the cavalcade of self-taught artists she has gathered for each exhibit have always been the primary medium carrying the various themes.

The title of Hoffberger’s last and most recent themed exhibit – The Art of Healing, Compassion, and the Lack Thereof – provides a sense of the truths explored by her exhibits through the decades.

But let’s move on, because that is exactly what Rebecca Hoffberger is doing. Words, also, can no more adequately describe the American Visionary Art Museum experience than holding a grain of sand can describe a beach.  Just go. Its red brick buildings at the intersection of Key Highway and Covington – now Rebecca Hoffberger Way thanks to Baltimore City Council – are an exhibit unto themselves. The complex is tucked between the foot of historic Federal Hill and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

But don’t expect to find Hoffberger in those hallways where she has spent the greatest majority of her waking hours since 1995. In April this year she announced her pending retirement and has since turned over the museum’s reins to new president and director Jenenne Whitfield.

Hoffberger, however, has no plans to cut her ties to the museum or to her native city.  “After 27 years of rolling strikes, my only failure has been not yet raising the modest – I think – $27 million needed for a sustaining endowment.  We’re debt free, but the endowment is needed to really secure our future. I’m working on that. I’m hardwired to try and I know how to succeed.  That’s why we’re one of the few museums in the region with increasing annual attendance.”

The museum’s approximate  $3.2 million annual budget confirms this enlightened enterprise is no small notion.

Although transitioning, no moss is growing beneath Hoffberger’s feet. As she begins her seventh decade, she wants to finish a play she is writing about the interconnected lives of Mark Twain and inventor Nikola Tesla.  “I want the play to reveal how we’ve come to where we are now.”

She also envisions a West Coast version of the visionary art museum including the world’s largest straw-bale building.

But they will have to wait until Hoffberger finishes what she says may be her last love song for Baltimore.

Government funding, to the tune of $150 million, is on its way for major work at the Baltimore Convention Center. Another $67.5 million for major projects is headed to the Inner Harbor area. “It’s only a five-minute walk from the convention center to the Inner Harbor,” she said. “A safe and beautiful walking path has to be part of that vision. I’m in the process of getting that together right now.  It grieves me that so much money is being spent on things that don’t last.  I want to use the same intuitive thought and imagination on display in the museum to inject fresh thought and inspiration into Baltimore.  I understand what it takes to make things successful.”

Hoffberger points to Tivoli Gardens in Denmark and the city of Medellin in Colombia, South America, as two success stories that can help Baltimore leave behind its poster child image of a city gone wrong.

“Tivoli Gardens are Denmark’s number one tourist attraction. They’re fun, beautiful, family friendly, elegant, whimsical and safe, and they have endured for 130 years.

“Medellin was once the murder capital of Colombia, she says. “Because of the efforts of three enlightened mayors in a row, Medellin has turned around with extensive park and transportation systems and high tech education that benefit all of the people.  It is now one of the most studied and peaceful cities there is. I’ve gone to Medellin and met with the principals there to learn how they have accomplished what they have.”

She also points to the closer Columbia, just 25 minutes away from downtown Baltimore, brought to life several decades ago by social visionary and architect James Rouse. Rouse was also the architect of the Inner Harbor’s Harborplace transformation.

“A recent survey found Columbia to be the safest city and  the second happiest city in America,” said Hoffberger.  “Look at its beautiful Centennial Park.  Rouse said: ‘Cities were meant to be gardens in which to grow beautiful people.’  He also said that cities that aren’t great places for everyone can’t be great cities.

‘I have a vision for what it would take to transform Baltimore.  It’s fleshed out, just as detailed as the vision I had for the visionary art museum when I started working on it in 1984.  I’m presently working with a major public relations firm to make this vision palpable so we can bring Baltimore back in a permanent way.”

The firm, said Hoffberger, is not charging her or the city for the work nor is she charging the city for her plans.

This whirling dervish, feeding on the kind of extra-dimensional intuition and imagination she has experienced and has cultivated in the visionary art museum, fully expects to see her plans realized.  She’s hopeful too that her family history of longevity will give her all the time she needs.

“My father lived to 101,” she said.  “Ramrod straight and in perfect health until he died.  And that despite a heartbeat that sounded like Gene Krupa on acid!”

Hoffberger well remembers the comment from Sister Charlotte Kerr, an acupuncturist well-versed in ancient Chinese wisdom, when she heard about Rebecca’s father’s remarkable heart. The comment resonated within Hoffberger’s innate optimism and wellspring of purposeful energy that drives her continuing quest for truth and fresh, intuitive thought.

“She told me that a heart that dances is stronger than a heart that marches.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

 

Hoffberger and her late husband LeRoy Hoffberger championed such artistry, along with their many believers, contributors, and dedicated staff, from the day they opened the museum and education center in 1995. Straight out of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, the American Visionary Arts Museum is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people.’

Should you think this all sounds just a little too lofty, don’t forget to spend time in the museum’s restrooms where all kinds of humor – including the perennial favorite bathroom variety – festoons the walls. ‘Hooker Named Lay Person of the Year,’ reads one of the many framed headlines in one of the restrooms.

Bladders relieved and minds refreshed, visitors find themselves drying their hands a long time as they read the walls before laughing their way back to more of the engaging exhibits.

Hoffberger believes firmly in a quotation by Oscar Wilde: “If you are going to tell people the truth, make them laugh, or else they’ll kill you.” Truth has always been central to Hoffberger’s mantra: focusing on the power of new and fresh thinking from the intuition and imagination of people.

“I’m an addict of fresh thought,” she said in a recent interview.  That addiction has been on display for 27 years in the form of the museum’s permanent exhibits, and 41 different themed exhibits she has envisioned and curated through all those years.  The unique works of the cavalcade of self-taught artists she has gathered for each exhibit have always been the primary medium carrying the various themes.

The title of Hoffberger’s last and most recent themed exhibit – The Art of Healing, Compassion, and the Lack Thereof – provides a sense of the truths explored by her exhibits through the decades.

But let’s move on, because that is exactly what Rebecca Hoffberger is doing. Words, also, can no more adequately describe the American Visionary Art Museum experience than holding a grain of sand can describe a beach.  Just go. Its red brick buildings at the intersection of Key Highway and Covington – now Rebecca Hoffberger Way thanks to Baltimore City Council – are an exhibit unto themselves. The complex is tucked between the foot of historic Federal Hill and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

But don’t expect to find Hoffberger in those hallways where she has spent the greatest majority of her waking hours since 1995. In April this year she announced her pending retirement and has since turned over the museum’s reins to new president and director Jenenne Whitfield.

Hoffberger, however, has no plans to cut her ties to the museum or to her native city.  “After 27 years of rolling strikes, my only failure has been not yet raising the modest – I think – $27 million needed for a sustaining endowment.  We’re debt free, but the endowment is needed to really secure our future. I’m working on that. I’m hardwired to try and I know how to succeed.  That’s why we’re one of the few museums in the region with increasing annual attendance.”

The museum’s approximate  $3.2 million annual budget confirms this enlightened enterprise is no small notion.

Although transitioning, no moss is growing beneath Hoffberger’s feet. As she begins her seventh decade, she wants to finish a play she is writing about the interconnected lives of Mark Twain and inventor Nikola Tesla.  “I want the play to reveal how we’ve come to where we are now.”

She also envisions a West Coast version of the visionary art museum including the world’s largest straw-bale building.

But they will have to wait until Hoffberger finishes what she says may be her last love song for Baltimore.

Government funding, to the tune of $150 million, is on its way for major work at the Baltimore Convention Center. Another $67.5 million for major projects is headed to the Inner Harbor area. “It’s only a five-minute walk from the convention center to the Inner Harbor,” she said. “A safe and beautiful walking path has to be part of that vision. I’m in the process of getting that together right now.  It grieves me that so much money is being spent on things that don’t last.  I want to use the same intuitive thought and imagination on display in the museum to inject fresh thought and inspiration into Baltimore.  I understand what it takes to make things successful.”

Hoffberger points to Tivoli Gardens in Denmark and the city of Medellin in Colombia, South America, as two success stories that can help Baltimore leave behind its poster child image of a city gone wrong.

“Tivoli Gardens are Denmark’s number one tourist attraction. They’re fun, beautiful, family friendly, elegant, whimsical and safe, and they have endured for 130 years.

“Medellin was once the murder capital of Colombia, she says. “Because of the efforts of three enlightened mayors in a row, Medellin has turned around with extensive park and transportation systems and high tech education that benefit all of the people.  It is now one of the most studied and peaceful cities there is. I’ve gone to Medellin and met with the principals there to learn how they have accomplished what they have.”

She also points to the closer Columbia, just 25 minutes away from downtown Baltimore, brought to life several decades ago by social visionary and architect James Rouse. Rouse was also the architect of the Inner Harbor’s Harborplace transformation.

“A recent survey found Columbia to be the safest city and  the second happiest city in America,” said Hoffberger.  “Look at its beautiful Centennial Park.  Rouse said: ‘Cities were meant to be gardens in which to grow beautiful people.’  He also said that cities that aren’t great places for everyone can’t be great cities.

‘I have a vision for what it would take to transform Baltimore.  It’s fleshed out, just as detailed as the vision I had for the visionary art museum when I started working on it in 1984.  I’m presently working with a major public relations firm to make this vision palpable so we can bring Baltimore back in a permanent way.”

The firm, said Hoffberger, is not charging her or the city for the work nor is she charging the city for her plans.

This whirling dervish, feeding on the kind of extra-dimensional intuition and imagination she has experienced and has cultivated in the visionary art museum, fully expects to see her plans realized.  She’s hopeful too that her family history of longevity will give her all the time she needs.

“My father lived to 101,” she said.  “Ramrod straight and in perfect health until he died.  And that despite a heartbeat that sounded like Gene Krupa on acid!”

Hoffberger well remembers the comment from Sister Charlotte Kerr, an acupuncturist well-versed in ancient Chinese wisdom, when she heard about Rebecca’s father’s remarkable heart. The comment resonated within Hoffberger’s innate optimism and wellspring of purposeful energy that drives her continuing quest for truth and fresh, intuitive thought.

“She told me that a heart that dances is stronger than a heart that marches.”

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.