Maryland Traditions announces food at the 2nd Annual Folklife Festival!

Maryland Traditions, a program of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), has announced a list of distinctive food offerings at the 2nd Annual Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival.

May 15, 2012—(Baltimore, MD) Maryland Traditions, a program of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), has announced a list of distinctive food offerings at the 2nd Annual Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival. The Festival, an interactive, family-friendly celebration of traditional music, arts and foods from across the state is from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., June 16 at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson—rain or shine.

Variety is a recurrent theme of the Festival, with its musical lineup representing more than a dozen genres and a diverse list of more than 30 traditional artists who will perform and teach free workshops. Food at the Festival ranges from the crab cakes and Smith Island Layer cakes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore to barbeque from Southern Maryland, Indo-Nepali from Baltimore, and more.

FOOD VENDORS AT THE 2ND ANNUAL MARYLAND TRADITIONS FOLKLIFE FEST:

PRIGEL FAMILY CREAMERY:  The Prigel family has been farming on the same Long Green Valley property since 1895. In 2008, the family’s Bellvale Farm was certified organic. The cows raised here are grass-fed and anti-biotic free, and their milk gets churned into a gourmet’s delight of flavors like lemon, caramel pretzel, black cherry, and the provocatively named, Bobby’s Black Mud, named for current owner, Bobby Prigel. http://www.prigelfamilycreamery.com/

HIMALAYAN HOUSE: The Himalyan House is one of several restaurants that have evolved out of Baltimore’s growing Nepalese community, many of them students and professionals. Opened in 2005 by Bijaya Shrestha, Pearl Regimi, and Prem Raja Mahat, the restaurant serves Nepalese specialties like chicken momo and alu tama bodi, as well as more recognizable Indian fare like chicken tikka masala. Prem Raja Mahat also appears at the festival on the music stage with his Himalayan Music Group. http://www.thehimalayanhouse.com/index.php

BEAR CREEK OPEN PIT BAR-B-Q: Bear Creek Open Pit Bar-B-Q owner Curtis Shreve may hail from the Louisiana-Texas border, but his cooking nods to both his birthplace and his adopted homeland of southern Maryland. Along with masterful pit beef and pork, Shreve turns out a mean Maryland stuffed ham as well as the occasional rabbit stew. Freshly shucked oysters are often for sale in season at the restaurant; the dining room’s taxidermied wildlife, much of it shot by Shreve, is not. http://www.bearcreekbarbq.com/ordereze/default.aspx

BALTIMORE’S BEST SNOWBALLS: For many Maryland teenagers, working a snowball stand is a classic summer job, but for Chad, 21, and Devin Wheeler, 19, it’s all business. The New Windsor brothers are the proprietors of Baltimore’s Best Snowballs, a mobile snowball trailer, originally purchased for them by their parents, Cheryl and Kerry Wheeler, in 2007 as a hands-on way to learn the value of hard work and customer service through the tradition of shaved ice and sweet syrup. Featuring thirty syrups, including classics like egg custard and sky blue, and must-have marshmallow topping, Baltimore’s Best Snowballs travels to carnivals and fairs, corporate parties and community picnics. Their set snowball stand at Little George’s Convenience Store in Westminster opened in 2011.

RON’S FAMOUS PIT BEEF: Ron Coyne, proprietor of both Ron’s Famous Pit Beef and R-N-R Brakes in Trappe, Maryland, is a small business owner by profession and a barbecue enthusiast by avocation. He began selling his famous pit beef over ten years ago at charity functions. On weekends, he now takes his barbecue shack on wheels on the road. You can often find him on Route 50, next to the Bay Country Bakery in Cambridge. http://www.ronsmeatcantbebeat.com/default.html

FIESTA MEXICANA:  Federico Guadelupe-Lopez’s Rosedale restaurant has become an open secret among Baltimore foodies looking for authentic Mexican food. Fiesta Mexicana serves homemade salsas, tortillas, enchiladas mole, and sopes, but regulars go for the pambazo, a Mexico City classic sandwich drenched in guajillo sauce and grilled. Federico’s wife, Maria, also appears at the festival as part of the Mexican Folkloric Dance group, Mexico Vivo.

CLASSIC CAKES: 6th generation Smith Islander Janice Marshall will be on hand to talk about how to make a Smith Island layer cake (8-12 pencil-thin layers of cake interspersed with frosting). Though she learned from her grandmother, she will be selling cakes made by Classic Cakes. Started in 2003 by native Smith Islander Dana Evans (who learned as a child alongside her mother and grandmother), Classic Cakes has thrived in its Eastern Shore home of Salisbury. Smith Island Cakes will be available at the Festival by the slice or larger. http://www.classicsmithislandcakes.com/

###

	Photo courtesy of Prigel Family Creamery

 ###

About Maryland Traditions
For more than a decade, Maryland Traditions is a collaborative statewide folklife partnership program of the Maryland State Arts Council with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to create a lasting infrastructure for the documentation, promotion and celebration of traditional culture in Maryland. Maryland Traditions and its partners conduct cultural documentation, produce public programs and publications, and create public resources through archives and grant programs. For information contact Cliff Murphy, 410-767-6450 or cmurphy@msac.org.

About the Maryland State Arts Council
The Maryland State Arts Council, an agency of the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development, Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts, is dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. The mission of the council is to encourage and invest in the advancement of the arts for the people of Maryland. For more information about the Maryland State Arts Council, visit the MSAC web site at www.msac.org or call (410) 767-6555 or TTY 1-800-735-2258.