Ice Cream Trail-Blazing

Have you heard about the Maryland's Best Ice Cream Trail? The Maryland Department of Agriculture has put together a "trail" of seven family-owned, independent creameries where you can buy farm-fresh ice cream and have your "passport" stamped this summer. "Trail blazers" who visit all seven by September 7 will be entered to win a DVD of the documentary The Maryland Harvest as well as the Dishing Up Maryland cookbook (which I've had my eye on for a while--it looks great!). There is a geocaching feature as well but I must admit, I don't quite get the whole geocaching component.

Timmy and I set out on this important mission last Saturday--when, luckily, it finally dipped below 90 degrees--with the Baltimore to Cecil County leg of the journey. Our first stop was the Prigel Family Creamery in Glen Arm, Baltimore County:



According to their website, the Prigel family has been farming in the Long Green Valley portion of Baltimore County for five generations.



Inside, the shop was buzzing with Saturday-afternoon visitors, mostly families and young couples on double dates. They offer blankets for guests to have picnics outside (sadly, we didn't take them up on that this time around) and many families seemed to be enjoying the lovely day.



Timmy was absolutely delighted that they carried Cheerwine, the North Carolinian soda which is surprisingly hard to come by in Baltimore. He ordered a Cheerwine float and could not have been happier!



In an effort to save my ice cream appetite I finished off the bottle instead of ordering my own ice cream treat.



They were hosting a BBQ that evening with food from Clementine. Of course, we would have loved to have stayed but we had more creameries to explore! After leaving the beautiful rolling hills of Glen Arm, we took back roads to Broom's Bloom Dairy, just outside Bel Air in Harford County.



The interior of their shop was bright and cheery.



I was surprised to see a whole bunch of solar panels in their parking lot, on top of the shop, and even in the fields. How cool!



There was ample outdoor seating, either on the big porch or in the cornfields.



I opted for one scoop of Orange Cream, which only came to $2.50! It was so refreshing.



We spotted this lovely blue barn on our way out of Harford County.

Our final creamery of the day was Kilby Cream, which I have been hearing about for a few months. Their farm just outside Rising Sun, in Cecil County, celebrated its seventh anniversary over the weekend.



They use this truck for home deliveries of milk, eggs and butter.



How fun is their ceiling?



Timmy chose the "Independence Explosion" and I had their amazing blueberry cheesecake.



This farm would be a delight to visit both for little kids and their parents. In addition to delicious, fresh ice cream, they also had a petting zoo and a playground!



That pony! So tiny!



I adore how they've painted a giant pink ice cream cone on the silo!

One of my favorite parts of the day was taking the Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway around Susquehanna State Park on the way home. I'll be honest, this portion wasn't necessarily planned--we mostly just found ourselves on it and decided to follow the path. It was amazing.



Views of the river, just north of Havre de Grace, were lovely and the greenery was full.





There were lots of families enjoying the park by fishing, hiking, picnicking and kayaking.



There is so much rich history in this part of the state that I never knew existed! For instance, we stumbled upon the Rock Run Grist Mill--an amazing structure that has been operating in Harford County since 1794! Demonstrations take place between 1-4 PM on weekends from May to September; of course, we got there after 4:00 so we'll have to return another time. The park is also home to a former railroad--you can walk along the tracks, which are now a path--and the Steppingstone Museum. We also enjoyed driving through Darlington, a cute historic community along this route.

Our next leg of the Ice Cream Trail will be in Western Maryland, including our friends at South Mountain Creamery (Timmy worked at their stand at the JFX Sunday Farmer's Market for three years!). I can't wait to sample more of Maryland's Best!

Best Baltimore-area day trips

Lifelong East Coast residents may take it for granted that we can easily travel to a different state and back in a day, but the proximity of so many interesting sites, cities and states on the East Coast still fascinates me. I love the fact that just an hour away from Baltimore you can experience a totally different pace of life—Maryland truly lives up to its moniker of “America in Miniature.” In the past year I’ve tried to take advantage of Baltimore’s location—straddling the North and South, Atlantic coast and Appalachian foothills—by going on many day trips. Of course, there are plenty of adventures to be had further away (i.e. New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, the far western parts of Maryland, lower Eastern Shore, etc.) but today I’ll share some of my favorite destinations within a two-hour drive of Baltimore. Just a warning—if you’re not into history and historic sites, these might not interest you…


Civil War sites
The Civil War Sesquicentennial, which will continue into 2015, is a great time to explore the hallowed battlefields in our midst. Antietam, which lies just south of Hagerstown, is remembered as the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. Significant markers of Lee’s Maryland campaign are still striking to see today, including Dunker Church, the Cornfield, and the Burnside Bridge. I’d recommend capping off your visit to Antietam with ice cream from Nutter’s in the well-preserved town of Sharpsburg, just minutes from the battlefield. This September will be an exciting time in the area, with the “Maryland, My Maryland” commemoration of the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam—complete with reenactments, concerts, lectures and a festival. If you haven’t been to Frederick, stop by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine to complement what you learn at the battlefield—or keep in mind that Frederick is just a wonderful place to visit anytime (walkable downtown, lots of great restaurants, beautiful canal, well-preserved architecture)!  Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle in the entire Civil War, is worth the trip across the Mason-Dixon Line (it’s just a few minutes north of Emmitsburg in Frederick County). A few shots from a trip to Antietam in August:

Downtown Sharpsburg

 If you’re really up for a day packed full of Civil War battlefield tours, head south to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia, referred to as “the bloodiest landscape in North America” on its National Park Service website. There are four battlefields within fifteen miles of each other: The Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Court House. By the end of the day it may seem exhausting and repetitive, but the significance of each is really extraordinary. I would highly recommend taking a ranger-guided tour at Chancellorsville to learn how Stonewall Jackson was wounded, and trips to both the Union and Confederate cemeteries in the area. Our time at Fredericksburg Battlefield was greatly enhanced by using the Civil War Trust’s awesome (and free!) Battle App, which provided multimedia such as video and audio to help illuminate the events that transpired there in December 1862. The town of Fredericksburg is a pleasure to walk around and I would whole-heartedly recommend Sammy T’s restaurant on Caroline Street for a quick bite. Photos from our trip to Fredericksburg in November:

Fredericksburg Battlefield

 Confederate trenches at Spotsylvania Court House

 Chancellorsville

 Wilderness Battlefield

Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House

Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery

Eastern Shore 
There are countless sleepy small towns to explore on the Delmarva peninsula, but my personal favorite is Chestertown. This central Eastern Shore (Kent County) town is amazingly well-preserved and has a definite colonial feel to it. I’m sure it’s lovely year-round, but I would totally recommend going to the Chestertown Tea Party Festival on Memorial Day weekend. Even if you’re not a big fan of colonial reenactments, the Tea Party Festival is a lot of fun for visitors of all ages—especially at the end of the day, when everyone watches the “colonists” dump “tea” into the Chester River with great fervor. A few May 2011 festival photos:

Other memorable festivals on the Eastern Shore are the annual Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Show, held at the Talbot County Fairgrounds outside Easton each July, and the Chesapeake Folk Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in gorgeous St. Michael’s at the end of July. I was almost completely unaware of what was going on at the Tuckahoe Show—vintage steam tractors are not my area of expertise—but loved the opportunity to soak up this authentic Eastern Shore tradition…and to try Maryland beaten biscuits for the first time!

If you have a little extra time for your day trip, get to the Shore via the Bay Bridge but drive back through Cecil County (route 213 and then 95). There are some lovely, historic small towns sprinkled throughout Cecil County, including North East, Elkton and Port Deposit. One fun fact about Elkton is that it was a very popular place for couples to elope until a 1938 law instituted a 48-hour waiting period before marriage.

I love the Live Bait vending machine in North East.

Other Destinations 
If you don’t have the time or energy to make it all the way to the Shore or western Maryland, you can always have a good time in our own backyard. I thought of Howard County as strictly suburban until I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival at the county fairgrounds last May. I don’t knit or own sheep, but I had a delightful time learning about shearing, spinning, and shepherding. There were also really unique and well-priced antique vendors and delicious snack options, which sure make me happy. Of course, Ellicott City is another quintessential historic Maryland town that is sure to please if you enjoy antique shopping, railroad history, and/or fine dining.

These bags are all full of wool!

Annapolis, the state capital, is just an hour south of Baltimore but its nautical, preppy, old-money vibe makes it feel light-years away. It took me four years of living in Maryland to finally make it there, but I think a trip to the State House is something every Marylander should do at least once. Finally, I love the Harford County town of Havre de Grace immensely. It will always hold a special place in my heart as the place where Tim proposed, but even before that I loved strolling its tidy main streets and admiring its beautiful Victorian homes. Its natural setting at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay makes for a striking view, which you can enjoy by walking along the waterfront to the Concord Point Lighthouse. The Havre de Grace Decoy Museum surprised me with its high-quality exhibits and the Maritime Museum is also worth a visit. I totally adored the Candlelight House Tour in December, sponsored by the Lock House Museum. Havre de Grace is also an important War of 1812 site, with plenty of bicentennial happenings coming up in the next two years—check them out here.

 I love the Victorian houses along Union Avenue in Havre de Grace!

 Concord Point Lighthouse

 My day trips lined up for 2012 include Historic St. Mary’s City in Southern Maryland; New Market (antiques), Brunswick (railroad museum) and Harper’s Ferry (Civil War site); and the Halloween Mummer’s parade in Hagerstown in October. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for other local trips!