Ode To McCormick

Ode to Old Bay, the Great American Condiment

Marylanders put it on everything; everybody should.

By Casey Cep, The New Yorker

Illustration by Hayley Powers Thornton-Kennedy

Like most estuaries, the Chesapeake Bay varies greatly in salinity levels from season to season and year to year. Rainstorms and snowmelt in the spring can make the water fresher or, as locals sometimes say, sweeter; droughts and hot spells in the summer can make the water saltier. A dry year can cause slower river flows and more sea nettles during your afternoon swim; heavier rains in other years might lead to an oyster die-off and push crabs farther south. The technical word for this kind of water—saltier than fresh, fresher than salt—is brackish. And FINISH READING HERE

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