Hats off, kudos, props — whatever your favorite acclaim — to Glenn May and Jason Hopwood at the Kennedyville Inn for a terrific event.

Thursday night, the restaurant closed for a special "All Local" Event featuring foods and wines from Maryland and our area— the culmination of a lot of homework on the KI's part. Glenn created fab dishes including crab pot pie, gnocchi with veal from St. Brigid's farm (right here in our area), and lamb with chard and fingerling potatoes. The lamb came from Springfield Farm in Sparks, Md., and we had a great talk with the farmer, David Smith.

Jason perfectly paired every course with a Maryland wine (five of them! so things got really chummy by the end of the evening) and then created a blissful trio of desserts with a peach theme. We love you, Jason!

Yours truly got a well-deserved little wake-up call about this website which I'll be addressing as soon as possible, but the fine wine and dinner eased the sting somewhat. More on that later. Photos of the evening, full menu and hopefully a recipe or two coming soon, check back! And make a date for Kennedyville Inn. It's in...um...Kennedyville. (That's just north of Chestertown.)

Whew, our first trip to the Maryland Wine Festival. And we were not alone. Officials estimated that at least 15,000 people were there that afternoon. And it felt every bit of it; they were not to be denied their free tastings. Our hats are off to all the wineries that braved the masses yesterday and today. Special thanks to Mike Fiore of Fiore Wineries, the folks at Little Ashby for some amazing reds and perseverance against the tide ("Ew. Don't you have something sweeter?!"), the great people at Chapel's Country Creamery and Firefly Farms for their local artisan cheeses, and to all the others who must have poured their cases and hearts into the effort.  

If you can get your hands on it, this falls into the "gotta try" category. I picked up a bunch of edamame  from Joseph Towner at the Chestertown Farmer's Market this weekend — you might be able to find at your own market. Edamame means "beans on branch" and they're pods of young immature green soybeans. I've had them at Japanese restaurants, thought "yum" and finally on Saturday, decided to try them at home. What do you do? Clip the pods off the branches, and steam over very salty water for 15 minutes. I added a little more kosher salt on the pods after cooking. Serve and pop the beans from the pod. Way yum, we had to stop ourselves from eating all of them. And here's the best part. A half-cup of shelled beans gives you 9 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein for about 120 calories. Plus, as someone pointed out, they're not gassy. Good. Try it.