Willow Oak Herb Farm
42.9 Acres - Severn Run

Interview with Maria Price (MP)and Aphrodite Poulos

SRLT:

What are your first recollections of the Willow Oak Farm property?

AP:

I can remember back in 1940 riding past it on the school bus on the way to Glen Burnie High School from my father's farm at Fort Meade. I still recall anticipating every day seeing the beautiful land we now call Willow Oak Herb Farm. At that time there was an old dilapidated farm house on it.

SRLT:

How did it first come into your family?

 

 

AP:

My family had moved to New York City for several years. When we returned to Maryland, my father started looking for land to farm. I showed him the beautiful tract that I had remembered from the past. He purchased 45 acres on the east side of Telegraph Road and 65 acres on the west side of the Watt's Forest. The old homestead was renovated and our family moved in.

SRLT:

How did it come into your hands?

AP:

My father died only a year after moving to the farm. Our family continued to live there. I married and moved away. Afer the death of my mother, I returned with my daughter Maria, to live on the land of my childhood dreams.

SRLT:

How did you come to start an herb farm?

AP:

Maria and I started Willow Oak Herb Farm in 1979. We just love it. We are very interested in seeing that our children and grandchildren grow up learning to work the land and knowing the joys of eating fresh food from the garden.

SRLT:

What kind of wildlife do you have on your tract?

MP:

Oh, lots! We have beaver, fox, deer, woodchucks, skunk, owls, hawks, and herons, just to name a few.

SRLT:

Is that important to you?

 

 

MP:

Very much so. That was a major element in our establishing the conservation easement. We wanted to protect and perpetuate the wildlife living on our property.

SRLT:

Why did you grant a conservation easement on your property?

MP:

Affie and I consider ourselves environmentalists. We were saddened about what was happening in Anne Arundel County with all the agricultural land disappearing. In New England where I lived when I was first married, people revered the land, valued old things and maintained a quality of life.

SRLT:

You didn't find that same ethic here?

MP:

No, not at all. We felt that we were modeling responsibility for the land and its conservation. We had hoped that Anne Arundel County would be similarly interested in preserving the land, but found that was not true...So we're doing it ourselves!

SRLT:

What about your children/

MP:

We cherish the land and have wanted to continue the healthy balance and integrity of nature in our own lives, as well as those of our children and grandchildren.

 

 

SRLT:

How did you come to grant a conservation easement?

MP:

We were approached by Jan Hollmann from the Severn River Land Trust and Pam Bush of Maryland Environmental Trust, and realized that through this we could slow development, conserve land, and bring to fruition our dream of keeping the balance.

SRLT:

Were there any financial considerations?

MP:

We realized then that the only way we could afford to keep the land in its natural state for both current and future generations was to grant a conservation easement.

AP:

Yes, the way I see it, we are living in a paradise compared to what it could have been! [both nodding in agreement]