In 1906, The Frederick News printed a whimsical explanation for the ‘bakers dozen.’ A Dutch baker in the 1600’s bickered with an “ugly hag” over whether a dozen was twelve or thirteen, stingily sending the woman away with only twelve New Year’s cakes. His shop became cursed until the baker conceded that a dozen was…
“Christmas comes but once a year, when eggnog takes the place of beer.” – 1918 These days, Christmastime can feel tainted with greed; shopping and spending, forging memories with limited edition Coke cans, thoughtless gifts and waste. There was a time, over a century ago, when things were more simple and pure. Back in those…
“Every year in the 50s, my mother, my grandmother and I went downtown to do our Christmas shopping,” A. Zoland Leishear fondly recalled in the Baltimore Sun in 1989. The store had been closed all of two months and the nostalgia was stirred. Leishear recalled a picturesque scene of streetcar wire sparks lighting up the…
“If it wasn’t seafood it had to be venison which filled the larders of early settlers of Maryland.” – Geoff Fielding, Maryland magazine 1990 While oysters once captured the imagination and the economy of Maryland, the abundance of game played a vital role in keeping families fed. Deer, in particular, could provide a supply of…
“A century ago in old New England and New York a bowl of piping hot oyster stew formed the traditional Christmas Eve supper, now practiced only by a few families who have preserved the tradition along with grandmother’s Chippendale and pewter… The homemakers of today would do well to revive this custom for the oyster…