10-26-2023 Howard - Flipbook - Page 50
“You’re supporting number
one, local business, but in this
case, local agriculture.”
— Chris Bohrer, owner of Sho Nuf Turkey Farm
Chris Bohrer, above, and his wife Tanya own Sho Nuf Turkey Farm in Demascus.
Thanksgiving. In addition to selling directly
to customers, who can place requests for
different sized birds online, Bohrer also fills
bulk orders and has wholesale partnerships,
including with MOM’s Organic Market.
Bohrer said he and everyone who helps
out at the farm “really put our heart, our
sweat, our energy into making a quality,
quality product.”
Elsewhere in Howard County, farm work
is also a family affair.
Woodbine resident Kelly Hensing moved
to Maryland in 2010 and started Hensing’s
Hilltop Acres with a dairy cow she bought
so that she could make unpasteurized milk.
Now, she, her husband and their youngest
son raise 100% grass-fed beef, lamb, pork
and chicken on their 50-acre farm.
“It’s a fresher kind of meat that’s been
sourced locally. It hasn’t been potentially
trucked across the country,” said Hensing, 48.
In the fall, she had several hundred chickens,
fewer than 10 pigs, around 15 dairy cows and
about 20 beef cows.
Special requests for tenderloin and rib
roast cuts abound approaching the winter
holidays. Each month Hensing takes a small
number of her livestock to a U.S. Department
of Agriculture processor, a requirement in
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| Fall 2023 | howardmagazine.com
the state to sell by the cut, she said.
She sells products from the farm at
farmers markets in Ellicott City and
Clarksville, May through early November.
People can also place orders online and
swing by Hensing’s Hilltop Acres daily, or
pickup locations in Columbia and Ellicott
City two days each week.
“Their money’s staying in the community,”
Hensing said of customers supporting her
farm and others in the area.
In late October and November, Casey
Caulder, who runs Woodbine’s Breezy
Willow Farm with her brother and parents,
fields requests for another popular holiday
menu item: pumpkins.
“There are pumpkins that are specific
for eating … it’s called a hubbard [squash],”
Caulder said of the bluish, gray-hued fruit
that she raises on her farm. “That’s what they
traditionally use for pumpkin pie.”
Caulder was growing the squash variety
in September and said she’d harvest them in
October. Once picked, they can be saved for
months if kept in cool and dry conditions,
she said.
“Knowing where your food comes from
and knowing that it hasn’t been stored
somewhere in a warehouse forever and
picked when it’s not ripe, there’s a huge
difference in flavor,” said Caulder, who shares
recipes with those subscribed to her weekly
newsletter. “You’re eating with the seasons.”
On her farm, she grows tomatoes,
cucumbers, squash, peppers, eggplants, kale
and other crops, available via a Community
Supported Agriculture program and at
Breezy Willow Farm Country Market, where
customers can buy a wide range of locally
sourced food, including made-to-order pies
for the holidays, she said.
For a beverage fit for a feast, look no
farther than Cooksville’s Penn Oaks Winery,
open year-round to visitors on Sundays,
weather permitting, said Maura Cahill.
Cahill, who owns and operates the winery
with her husband, Jan Luigard, started the
vineyard in 1997 after Luigard developed
an interest in winemaking while living
in Germany. “There’s a lot that goes into
growing grapes,” she said.