{"id":137,"date":"2014-06-14T20:05:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T00:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2014-06-14T20:57:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T00:57:25","slug":"east-to-home-the-eastern-shore-of-marylanddelaware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"East to Home – the Eastern Shore of Maryland\/Delaware"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WP_20140611_024\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge\u00a0is one scary, long, breathtakingly beautiful\u00a0ride (scary, that is, if you’re not so keen about heights or deep water)…but it is the way home for us… The Eastern Shore of Maryland was my husband’s childhood home, and for the past 30 years, it has become another home to me. There’s nowhere else across the USA,\u00a0quite like the Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n

After the up and over bridge experience, we find ourselves cradled on both sides of the road by\u00a0sprawling farms teeming with life.\"Blog<\/a>I always want to stop and have a closer look, but\u00a0our need to push on to get home keeps me in the car,\u00a0pressed against the glass, watching the grain fields look a blur, as we pass quickly by. I wonder, looking out at each passing farm,\u00a0what’s going on in that house; what the farmer is doing right then; what’s ready to be harvested or what crop will be sown next.<\/p>\n

The land is flat, and you can see far and away the various crops planted and growing alongside the Bay and other wetlands. There are also more inland stretches, where the acres of grain, corn, and truck crops are watered, during dry times, by irrigation systems that stand as tall sentinels across the fields.\"WP_20140614_006\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The seasons are marked by what is happening in the field. It’s mid-June now, and “Locally Grown” signs pepper the side of the highway. The strawberry season is over, and pumpkins will be planted in some of those fields soon. Right now, we can look forward to asparagus, sweet peas, early melons and tomatoes…maybe even the first peaches of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Peach\"<\/a>Mine was delicious.<\/p>\n

The pace of life slowed considerably for us, after arriving at Dave’s parents’ home. It seems like all we do, on the Eastern Shore is eat, nap, and catch up on family stories. Yet, it is not so for the farmers in this rural part of the country.<\/p>\n

The fields are always turning over from one crop to the next. I can’t tell the difference, but it’s not all wheat\u00a0growing golden in the fields. Rye, barley, and wheat are all\u00a0sown at various times on the Eastern Shore. Soybeans, too. Then there’s the corn. It is in its own special category of goodness. Right now, the dark-green leafy stalks are only knee- to waist-high, but in a few more weeks of warm summer sun, you can almost hear<\/a> it grow. And I have never eaten sweeter corn than that pulled fresh from the fields of the Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n

My husband’s family, for generations,\u00a0has made their home east of the Chesapeake Bay, either in Maryland or Delaware. Our children have deep and\u00a0enduring memories of vacations there – on the\u00a0fishing docks of\u00a0the Chesapeake or the sands of Ocean City, riding inner tubes on the river behind their uncle’s boat, picking out steamed crabs on newspaper on hot summer nights, playing hard in the winter snow or at games on the\u00a0long dining room\u00a0table, falling asleep on the living room floor at MomMom’s & PopPop’s, with cousins all around.\u00a0 And cooking out altogether, the dads\u00a0tending the grill and the rest of us talking and laughing in the kitchen. If it’s possible to eat our way through the seasons on the Eastern Shore, we have.<\/p>\n

\"WP_20140613_012\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we returned home to Richmond, Virginia, today, I was struck at how much life we experience at home on the Eastern Shore. Family, work, play, stories…life. Farms are never still. There are always different crops to plant and bring in. Animals to feed, and young ones to\u00a0nurture along. Families are also changing with the seasons. Our parents turn into grandparents and great-grands. Our children grow up and don’t get to make the trip as often to the Eastern Shore as they did as youngsters in the backseat of our car. Between schooling, work, and blending families in marriage, it’s hard to get everything in, and I see the\u00a0challenge for\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

My hope is that in the crazy pull of daily life, we never forget our way home…us or our children, whether it’s to their parents’ home in Richmond, to my family’s home in Georgia, or to the Eastern Shore…in time for the summer corn.<\/p>\n

\"2005<\/a><\/p>\n

A Panorama View of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Harvest Time on the Farm – Eastern Shore, MD – Youtube Video<\/a><\/p>\n

Farm Fresh on the Eastern Shore<\/a><\/p>\n

Eastern Shore of Virginia – “If You Throw Seeds on the Ground, They Will Grow”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge\u00a0is one scary, long, breathtakingly beautiful\u00a0ride (scary, that is, if you’re not so keen about heights or deep water)…but it is the way home for us… The Eastern Shore of Maryland was my husband’s childhood home, and for the past 30 years, it has become another home to me. There’s nowhere else … Continue reading East to Home – the Eastern Shore of Maryland\/Delaware<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[109],"tags":[136,130,145,133,140,128,126,131,132,135,137,95,127,138,143,139,142,146,144,129,141,134],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-2","tag-asparagus","tag-chesapeake-bay-bridge","tag-cook-out","tag-corn","tag-cousins","tag-delaware","tag-eastern-shore","tag-geese","tag-goslings","tag-grain","tag-grandparents","tag-home","tag-maryland","tag-mommom","tag-ocean-city","tag-poppop","tag-sand","tag-steamed-crabs","tag-stories","tag-the-way-home","tag-tubing","tag-wheat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-2d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}