the cake and the paw paw

for years i have wondered what would become of my family’s almost-18 acres in southern anne arundle county. too little land to subdivide. to much land to take care of in the case of keeping it as a weekend retreat from the suburbs. who’s got time for going on vacation a couple times a month. 
we certainly don’t i thought, early one afternoon as we leisurely made our way home from a quick camping trip to jane’s island state park in crisfield, md. we didn’t have any of the kids, so we had all of the time. 
we ended up at the smith island baking company. where they, apparently, make the smith island cake now. in crisfield, md. somehow it lost a little authenticity. while we waited for our order, we read about xxxxxxx, who bought the bakery, and tried hard to keep it viable on the island, but ultimately moved it to crisfield, with an endearing quote “it’s as close to smith island as you can get without getting wet.”
as we drove home, denise and i dove deeper into the smith island cake story. the history and the new chapter. it’s rise like a phoenix from the ashes of obscurity to the brilliant flames of official maryland state dessert. it was with this fabled lore, and, and against-the-odds success, that my thoughts began to obsess over… 


paw paws.

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