Roadside fare a must en route to the beach

The Baltimore Sun

LINKWOOD -- Paula Gargano has this stop all mapped out in her mind even before she starts cramming the family van with a week's worth of summer necessities - coolers, beach chairs, umbrellas, oversized towels - along with her husband, Bill, and their two college kids, Joanie and Nick.

There's no chance of bypassing the nondescript, one-story Linkwood-Salem Volunteer Fire Company along U.S. 50, not after 30 years of driving to Ocean City. Everybody keeps an eye out for a cloud of smoke billowing from two barbecue pits about five miles south of Cambridge.

About eight hours into the nine-hour drive from their home in Farrell, Pa., north of Pittsburgh, everybody's looking to chow down on a hefty lunch of barbecued chicken and corn on the cob. Half a chicken, cooked slowly in a secret sauce, goes for $8.

"This is the must stop on our way down to the ocean," Gargano says. "It's officially summer the minute we pull over for chicken. And I swear, stopping here brings us good weather for the whole week."

Whether it's good karma and even better chicken for the Gargano clan or just-picked sweet corn and honest-to-goodness local tomatoes and fruit for thousands upon thousands of other families, stopping for a fresh and fleeting piece of summer is often part of the annual trip to the beach.

In any given year, two dozen or so produce stands - everything from sleek metal buildings to rough farm wagons and shady lean-tos - line the flat, straight highway for 100 miles through the heart of rural Maryland.

Sally and Kent Anderson of Chillicothe, Ohio, are conspicuous as they pull into a parking spot at Nanny's Produce near Salisbury. Their daughter, Emily, 13, has written a message in soap on the back window of their SUV: "OC & DC or Bust. The Drivers Are on Their 20th Anniversary, Honk for Them."

Clutching an armful of cantaloupes, Sally says the family is headed to Ocean City for what is "at least" the 40th summer holiday her family has spent there. "We're meeting maybe 25 people in the family," she said. "There're people staying in places all over town. We'll have to compare notes and see if this is the 40th."

Bowie residents Karen and Avis Bell like to come to the Shore for a drive in the country once in a while. The sisters, owners of a computer security company, also are fans of barbecued chicken.

In Trappe, they spotted church-goers cooking chicken to raise money for Union Chapel AME Church near Cambridge. Once a month through the summer, various churches use this well-situated vacant lot to set up a roadside barbecue stand. Cook James Brown says the secret is in fact secret, a vinegar-and-oil-based sauce he won't reveal.

"It's that sauce and about 2 1/2 hours of slow cooking," Brown said.

The Bell sisters didn't need to hear more.

"I'm not sure where, but we smelled barbecue twice as we were driving," said Karen Bell. "We decided on a 'sisters day trip' and this is a perfect lunch. We weren't going to miss it."

Tony Evans, former chief of the state Agriculture Department farmers' markets, says U.S. 50, despite the griping about traffic jams, is a full-blown expressway to the beach. Some folks aren't willing to slow down and smell the produce, at least not while they're on their way to their vacation.

That's one reason why there are perhaps four or five roadside stops on the eastbound side - but four or five times that many on the westbound side.

Some people "just aren't planning on cooking," said Evans. "On the way back, they want to stop and stock up on the good stuff."

Russell Palmer, a heating and air conditioning contractor from Annapolis, stopped in at K&R; Produce near Salisbury to pick up some corn on his way to the beach condominium he has owned for four years.

Palmer doesn't have a favorite stand. All he requires is that it have good fruit and vegetables and be on the right side of the road.

"My wife usually gets the produce, but she's already there ahead of me," Palmer said. "I stopped here because I wasn't sure if there are more farther down, at least on my side of the road. I'm not making a U-turn on this highway."

Tom McAtee couldn't agree more. A serious amateur crabber, he heads down from his home in Landenberg, Pa., to Easton almost every weekend to catch crabs in the Tred Avon River.

McAtee gets his produce on the way out of town - usually corn to compliment his haul of crabs. He's been a regular at Audrey Callahan's stand just north of Easton and sees no reason to change.

"I've tried them all over the years, and this is the best," McAtee said. "Good corn and good people."

chris.guy@baltsun.com

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