We arrived in Freeland, Maryland on Tuesday, which is the last of the small rural villages in Northern Baltimore County that flourished along the route of the Northern Central Railroad during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Freeland was primarily a farming community that depended on the railroad for supplies as well as a means of transporting farm products to major cities for sale. It was located just 1-1/2 miles south of the Mason/Dixon Line which was originally the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania and considered in pre civil war times the dividing line between slave states south of it and free soil states north of it.
The area was filled with beautiful heritage style houses many of which looked brand new, as well as several farms situated along narrow lanes surrounded by green fields. The houses resembled perfect little doll houses. We stayed at the 265 acre Merry Meadows Recreation Farm for a few days. The Farm is a great place for families to spend a summer with everything from pickleball courts, pool, mini golf, mini race track, bike park, kids park, catch and release pond etc. The sites were nice, situated in amongst the trees. The property was purchased by the Morris family who emigrated from Wales in the 1950’s and used for grain and cattle farming. It was the converted into a recreation and camping farm in 1970. Clyde Morris the owner who died in 2018, was an collector of antiques and started the Freeland Historical Society and also opened the Morris Museum. There was an interesting collection of these antiques sprinkled about the property.
After a couple of days my back was at last feeling better, so I took Jax down to the enclosed dog park at the RV resort to play with his ball. I had just let him off leash when he saw a deer. He got super excited and jumped over a weak area in the fence and took off. Both Derek and I searched high and low in the dense surrounding forest which stretched for miles, for a couple of hours and then I returned to the RV and started working on posters to hand out to everyone in the park when Jax suddenly appeared at the RV door whining to come in. What a relief! He seemed to be unhurt but was exhausted after his chase. Thank goodness he was safe. I had visions of him either being kicked unconscious by a deer or eaten by a cougar or coyote. The Apple Airtag he had on his collar was absolutely useless. After posting the story on social media we got recommendations for a new GPS tracker which we hurriedly purchased. Definitely don’t want to go through that again.
After getting Jax settled we needed to get out and decompress. We wanted to go for lunch at a Farm Stall but when we got there found it to be a shop attached to a gas station – more like a Seven-11, so we popped over the border to Pennslvania to the Stonebridge Grille restaurant. We have been meaning to try Fried Green Tomatoes and were delighted to find them on the menu. Very tasty, served in a panko batter with cream cheese, bacon and craisons, with chopped strawberries.
On the way home we passed the Pretty Boy market advertising Broasted Chicken. At first we thought perhaps it is a bbq roasted chicken but it isn’t. Broasting is a special cooking process that combines pressure frying and traditional shallow frying to produce juicy chunks of fried chicken with a crispy outer layer. The chicken is first marinated in spices and seasonings before being placed in a sealed pressure cooker containing hot oil. Once cooked, the chicken is removed from the pressure cooker and then finished off with some traditional shallow frying to create a golden brown crust on the outside. Oh yuk you may say. But apparently, it is incredibly moist and crunchy and as this method uses less oil than deep frying, less unwanted fats are absorbed by the food when it cooks. But no, we did not try it.
I also found out that Broaster is actually a company which started back in 1954 in Wisconsin which is considered “Broasted Chicken Land”. Broasting is also used in India and Pakistan which come up with all sorts of interesting flavours.
