Rockville’s Veterans Remembered
Memorial Day, Remembrance Day, Decoration Day. The name has changed over the decades but it still has the same meaning–a day set aside to remember those who died in service to the United States. Rockville has many of those people with us from the days of the American Revolution to the present day and a quiet way to remember them is to visit the many historic cemeteries found throughout the city. The epitaths carved in stone or the flags pushed into the ground mark those who served, and you’ll find streets and bridges named in honor of some of them. Those who know our nation’s history can easily recognize the meaning of a date and place, such as France 1918 or Burma 1945. In others, you are reminded of the complexity of life, with soldiers who fought each other in Civil War now silently sharing the same earth or two brothers who leave to fight in the same war, but only one returns. These places are worth preserving because of the memories and lessons they contain. These pictures from the Rockville Cemetery on Baltimore Road in Twinbrook are just a glimpse of what’s available in these quiet places.
Hometown Holidays 2011
It was a bit warm this weekend, but still a great time to enjoy Rockville’s annual Hometown Holidays. I love seeing lots of people downtown enjoying our fair city, and I also like to see what’s happening with restaurants through the “Taste of Rockville” (you may figured out I’m a bit of a foodie). Lots of restaurants were there and the most exciting was Oro Pomodoro, who was making pizzas with a portable wood-burning oven. Some people may be disappointed in the lack of variety, but participating in a “taste” event is very difficult–restaurants often have to stretch their resources to staff a second location for two days and then guess at how much food to bring. Most do it as a community service and hope it will result in future customers–they rarely make any profit at these events. Alas, the “tastes” were large and typically cost $5 so I only managed to try out three restaurants. I hope next year they’ll include smaller menu items in the $1-3 range to encourage people to take a risk on something new.
There was plenty to do for families (which also meant lots of strollers to navigate) but adults could probably explore it all in a couple hours unless you enjoyed an entire performance. The City did a great job of placing and scheduling bands carefully throughout downtown, but setting up all the stages and chairs also pointed out that we lack obvious community gathering places downtown (hardly any benches and shade trees arranged for a group of a dozen or more people). Let’s hope the new buildings going up soon will solve that.
Produce A Bit Behind Schedule at Farmers Market
While the Farmers Market opened on schedule last weekend in Rockville, the produce is a bit behind schedule due to rain. Kevin Grove at Quarter Branch Farm (near Point of Rocks) has leafy greens and white chard, and expects rainbow chard and assorted radishes next week (including French breakfast varieties). I also discovered that he offers two versions of CSA boxes for the Saturday market: a standard farm share and a new market share. For both shares, the customer prepays for a season’s worth of produce. In the farm share, the farmer assembles an assortment of the best produce for the week and brings it in a box or bag for customer pick-up at the market (it gives the customer the best produce, but no choice). The market share allows the customer to select from the produce available for sale at the market and charges it against the pre-paid account (it gives the customer choice, but not the best produce). Eight Rockvillians are participating and he’s not selling any additional shares this season, but it’s something to consider next year. Tikvat Israel also offers both summer and fall CSA shares with a Monday afternoon pickup.
Although leafy greens and strawberries currently dominate the market, you’ll find a couple vendors with tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini (thanks to greenhouses). New this year is Grandma Vera’s Bakery out of Saverna Park (near Annapolis) with a wide selection of pastries and breads, some of it influenced by Vera’s Brazilian roots. You’ll also find them at Wednesday’s market in Rockville. Otherwise, you’ll find lots of familiar faces selling produce, meat (fresh and cured), eggs, cheese, bread and pastries, flowers, honey, and garden plants.
Other nearby farmers markets are the Farmers and Artists Market in Olney on Sundays and the new one at King Farm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They’re all different so try to explore all of them this summer (although I’m still waiting for a mushroom vendor).
Where to Find Great Food
The May 2011 issue of Washingtonian magazine features, “Where to Find Great Food” in the greater DC region–it’s about sources for ingredients (e.g., butchers, bakeries, spices, cheese), not restaurants–seems to favor Virginia. I’m not sure if that’s because they just don’t know the area north of Chevy Chase or if they’re too afraid of the Rockville Pike. I’m delighted that they found these outstanding places in and around Rockville (many of the places are listed as Rockville but they’re actually Rockville-Adjacent):
- Dutch Country Farmers Market (they listed Laurel, but there’s one much closer in Germantown)
- Firefly Farms (they sell their goat cheeses at the Rockville Farmers Market)
- Cherry Glen (they sell their goat cheeses at the Olney Farmers Market)
- Saint Michel Bakery (they’ve told me that they’ve had to double production in response to the Washingtonian‘s listing)
- Bagel City (in the shopping center with Office Depot and Friday’s on the Rockville Pike)
But there’s a lot that was missed, so using their same categories, here are my recommendations: Continue reading →
Max for Rockville 