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January 17, 2021

The Chestertown Spy

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Food and Garden Food-Garden Homepage Food and Garden Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday:

January 4, 2021 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy 2021! We are pleased to kick off 2021 with a Mystery Monday! This tree is known for its unique bark and showy lenticels, which help with gas exchange.
Thanks for following our 2020 mysteries! Last week, we highlighted the buds of the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida. These buds are particularly rounded and tear drop shaped. The flower buds will open before the leaf buds in the spring.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: This Bud’s For You?

December 28, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum 3 Comments

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Many of you guessed last week’s mystery as the Christmas fern (such timing)! Christmas fern is so named because it remains evergreen during the holiday season and the pinnae look like boots or stockings. Both these characteristics make for relatively quick identification. Christmas fern prefers cool, moist, well-drained shady soil. It is often found along shady streams and rocky slopes, making it a good choice in eroding areas.
The final mystery for 2020 is…(drum roll please)…this bud! Any guesses?

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: Green in the Winter

December 21, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum 2 Comments

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Well done! Many of you identified last week’s mystery as Chimaphila maculata! This native herbaceous perennial goes by many common names including spotted wintergreen, pipsissewa, striped wintergreen, and striped prince’s pine. This evergreen plant is found in dry, acidic woods. It produces a delicate nodding bloom in June through August and is attractive to bees.

This week, we are highlighting another unique plant that is still green in the winter! What is it?

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: Distinct Stripes on the Forest Floor

December 14, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum 3 Comments

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Happy Mystery Monday! On this rainy Monday, we ask you, what is this plant? It has distinct stripes and is found on the forest floor.
Last week, we highlighted the grape fern! This unique looking fern has delicately lobed fronds that get a bronze color in the fall and has spore stalks (which look like little bunches of grapes) in the winter. It tends to tolerate deer and heavy shade.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: It’s Delicate and has Fronds

December 7, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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We had some great guesses this past week! We highlighted the bark of the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida. This tree has unique checkered, reddish brown bark. Come springtime, the white bracts surrounding the small flowers are very distinct, but in the meantime, you can identify the dogwood from its low spreading crown in the understory.

This week, we are shifting over to the forest floor. Among the pine needles, we found this delicate plant, which also has fronds in December! What is it?

 

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: It has a Unique Bark and Creamy

November 30, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum 3 Comments

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Happy Mystery Monday! On this rainy day, we thought we’d give you a tricky one! This native understory tree has unique bark and has creamy white flowers in April. It belongs to a genus that has both shrubs and trees. At Adkins Arboretum, you can find these trees growing throughout the woods, especially along Upland Walk. What is it?
Last week we highlighted the Eastern Hemlock. It tolerates shade very well and so can often be found in deep woods. It produces small cones, often used in holiday decorations.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

Adkins Mystery Monday: One Sweet Tree

October 19, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum 2 Comments

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Happy Mystery Monday! We are starting to see lots of mid-October fall color here at Adkins Arboretum, including on today’s mystery! This native tree produces a super sweet fruit in late fall. Do you recognize it?
For those wondering about last week’s mystery, we highlighted two examples of the larval stage of the white-blotched heterocampa (Heterocampa umbrata)! The caterpillars exhibit different colors as they age. The adult moth is mostly black and white with some grey and green. You might see them in the woods next time you visit!

Filed Under: Food and Garden, Food-Garden Portal lead, Garden Notes

Adkins Arboretum’s Mystery Monday: Critter with Color Variations and Short Time

October 12, 2020 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday! Many of you recognized last week’s mystery as the native Euonymus americanus, commonly known as strawberry bush or hearts a burstin. This woodland shrub has airy and delicate branching making it a good companion to other plants. While the flowers are rather inconspicuous, its gorgeous pink and red seed pods appear in mid to late fall bringing pockets of color to the woods. It typically grows about 4 to 6 feet tall.
And for today, we ask you, drumroll please…what are these? This critter displays a few different color variations and can be seen from May to November. They happen to prefer oak trees.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Portal lead, Garden Notes

Shore Food: A Master of Cakes Opens Up in Easton

July 16, 2020 by Val Cavalheri Leave a Comment

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Six years ago, Ruby Vanags knew nothing about making cakes. This month, she opened Ruby’s Cake Shoppe & Pastries at 415 B, East Dover Road, in Easton. If the long lines at her business are any indication, she not only succeeded in learning, she’s mastered the art of baking.

To get to today, you have to go back to six years ago, when Vanags received a special birthday cake her husband bought from Desserts by Rita in Ocean City. It was a mixture of mangos and strawberries, flavors that reminded her of her Philippines heritage. She became obsessed with it, hoping that a bakery closer to the Eastern Shore could replicate it (and preferably make it cheaper as well). Her search was unsuccessful, and Vanags decided to learn how to make it herself. When store-bought cake mixes didn’t give her the results she wanted, she went online and tried variations. Each attempt was a failure.

Fortunately, at the time, Vanags was working for the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge and asked for help from her pastry chef friend. “I want to master chiffon cakes,” she told him. “But my cakes keep overflowing. So, he said to me, ‘honey, you have to find a deeper pan.'” That was the beginning. “I failed nine times,” she said, “but I got it right on the 10th try.”

Vanags suddenly found herself a new hobby. Friends and family began to ask her to bake for special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, and even weddings. And she got really good at it. “Every time I wanted to create something, it just clicked. Every time I wanted to learn something different, I wouldn’t stop until I got it right. Baking is very time consuming, and you need to be patient, and I was patient.”

Even though Vanags was willing to remain patient as she learned all she could about baking, some of her friends urged her to open up a store. One, in particular, asked her to explore how much it would take to start a business. “I can’t afford it,” she told him, and he said, ‘You know what? Get your s— together and come back to me. I will help you out.'” And that’s how Ruby’s Cake Shoppe & Pastries came to be.

In January, Vanags left her job at the Hyatt and began construction on her shop. And then COVID-19 hit, and everything was put on hold. Everything except the rent she had to pay. That was difficult, she admitted. Recently, after she got final approval from the health department, she was able to fulfill a promise she made. “I’m going to bake a lot of cupcakes and bring it to the hospital and the frontline workers. So that’s what I did.”

On July 11th, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held, and as Vanags admits, she’s been slammed ever since. She thinks she knows why. “You cannot find around here, what I’m selling. People haven’t tried the kinds of flavors that I make. Some of them are Asian based flavors, like fruits that you would find in an Asian market.” There is the Purple Yam cake, the Mango Cake, the popular Strawberry Pretzel, the Mocha pie, and a version of the Tiramisu. She says she also makes a great carrot cake. Sure, you can find your yellow cake with buttercream or chocolate frosting, but don’t expect it to be just average.

What she enjoys are the custom orders for items not on her regular menu. “I ask the customer to name me the flavor they want,” Vanags said, “and then I look for ways to make it. It has helped me improve my skills.

One cake she learned to make is the classic Tres Leches, a cake popular in the Mexican community. Vanags first made it for a birthday party. She recalls how a few days later, a new customer came in talking about a cake she had tasted, hoping that Vanags could replicate it. When Vanags realized what she was describing, she showed her a picture of the Tres Leches cake on her cell phone. “Is this the cake that you’re talking about? The customer jumped up, spun around, slapped her forehead. and said, ‘Oh my God, you made that cake!’ I now get slammed with orders for Tres Leches.”

Since all of her cakes are made from scratch, and since she’s had requests, Vanags is working on a dairy-free and gluten-free version of her desserts. “It’s not a big deal for me, and it’s going to happen. I want it to be fair for everyone.”

For now, you will have to stop by the shop to buy a slice or a pie from her display cabinet. There is no written menu. You can also call ((443) 205-3979) and place an order. Ruby’s Cake Shoppe and Pastries has a Facebook page, but no website yet. They’re open Tuesday – Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

COVID Makes New Partners with the Avalon, Tidewater Inn, and Wylder Tilghman Island

July 7, 2020 by The Spy Leave a Comment

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There was a lot in common with the Avalon Foundation, the Tidewater Inn and Wylder Tilghman Island before COVID-19 came knocking on their doors. All three have always been heavily dependent on the summer months for special events, weddings, and seasonal crowds all eager for entertainment and hospitality services. But after the coronavirus crisis hit, most of those long awaited plans were left in the dust in the wind as stay-at-home orders came down from the Governor’s office.

Nonetheless, the desire by all three to partner on a creative way to create new revenue was almost immediate. With the Avalon’s Suzy Moore, using her eighteen years as its artistic director, securing popular local bands, coupled with chef Jordan Lloyd at Wylder and chef Daniel Pochron at the Tidewater on the food front, the team has formed a dinner and music program that has already become a huge success on Tilghman Island and in downtown Easton.

The Spy asked Suzy, Jordan and the Tidewater’s Lauren Catterton to spend a few minutes to talk about this new alliance and how Wednesday and Thursday nights have been turned into the Sunlit Summer Song Series, an al fresco style dinner and some of the region’s best performers.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Wylder Inn concert series please go here.  For the Tidewater Inn’s programming please go here. 

 

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead

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