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Pennsylvania Farm Show visitors can learn how to create culinary masterpieces using local ingredients during live cooking demonstrations and contests featuring popular chefs, Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding said. “The farm show offers visitors the unique opportunity to go straight from the farm to the table,” Redding said. “The Pa. Preferred Culinary Connection is a popular attraction that brings together talented chefs to share their knowledge and imaginative recipes that can be prepared at home using local products.

A free concert will be held Saturday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 750 Norland Avenue, Chambersburg. The concert will be presented by Freedom Valley Chorus, a 25-member women's a capella chorus, singing four-part barbershop harmony. The group is a chapter of Sweet Adelines, International. The first part of the concert will be a musical skit titled “Chicks Gone A-Fowl,” and the second part titled “Indomitable Spirit” will feature patriotic and inspirational songs.

The Nasar Abadey Trio will be performing Thursday night for the third of five Center City Jazz Nights, according to the city of Hagerstown's website . Center City Jazz Nights is a free music series in downtown Hagerstown. Each Thursday, a different jazz artist performs. The first Center City Jazz Night on June 9 featured Project Natale. Johnny Artis performed June 16. On June 30, Marshall Keys is scheduled to perform, and the last performance will be July 7 by Phillip "Doc" Martin, according to the website.

Marvin Winters picked up his first win in nearly two years Saturday night in front of a full house at Hagerstown Speedway as he took the checkered flag during the 41st annual Johnny Roberts Memorial Late Model feature event. Winters, of McConnellsburg, Pa., started first, but was quickly passed on the low side in Turns 1 and 2 by Alan Sagi on Lap 2. Sagi ran away from the pack and looked as if he was going to cruise to Victory Lane until he lost his drive shaft on Lap 19 and was forced to leave the race.

CLEAR SPRING - St. Paul's Lutheran and Reformed churches, on U.S. 40, three miles east of Clear Spring, will hold a peach festival Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. The festival will feature peach pies, sliced peaches and a variety of other foods, sandwiches, soups and baked goods for sale. Proceeds will benefit the Vacation Bible School. The event will be held rain or shine.

Hagerstown Community College's Student Government Association is hosting a free family film double feature Friday through Sunday. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will be shown, followed by "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. " All shows will be held in the Classroom Building auditorium, CLR-111. Show times are 2 p.m. Friday; noon Saturday; and 1 p.m. Sunday. Light snacks will be provided. For more information, contact Student Activities Coordinator Heather Barnhart at 301-790-2800, ext. 225, or send e-mail to barnharth@hagerstowncc.

New acoustic and roots music will be presented tonight in a concert that will benefit The Maryland Theatre. "Celebrate the Season" begins at 7:30 at the theater at 21 S. Potomac St. Tickets are $20, $15 and $10, plus a $1 processing fee per ticket, and they are available at the door. For information, call the theater box office at 301-790-2000.

The Community Foundation of Washington County has been chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring a third Big Read to Washington County. In April 2010, the county will host a month-long celebration of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, whose ties to Maryland made his writings a natural choice. In previous Big Reads, the event has featured "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby. " Preliminary program planning is under way. For more information, contact Kristy Smith, program manager, Community Foundation of Washington County, at 301-745-5210.

Tuesday, Jan. 25 8 p.m. on PBS "Nova ScienceNow" This occasional spinoff series hosted by correspondent Robert Krulwich will focus on "cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation," such as research into the "mirror neuron phenomenon. " (That's a process that may cause sports fans to think as though they were on the field with their heroes.) 10 p.m. on HBO "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel" A new edition features an interview with Joe Buck, the Fox sportscaster who will be doing the play-by-play for the Super Bowl.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Franklin County Cooperative Extension Association will hold its 90th annual meeting Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Kauffman Community Center. The featured speaker will be Pat Leimbach, a farm wife from Vermilion, Ohio. She has been called the "Erma Bombeck of the Farm Belt" by the Wall Street Journal. She will entertain the audience with her humorous program on farm life. The Extension Association directors will have tickets for sale or you can purchase tickets at the office.

Automobiles manufactured in Hagerstown between the turn of the century and the Great Depression have made their way to the new Rural Heritage Transportation Museum at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center. The museum, which features buggies, carriages and automobiles that were used in Washington County mostly from the late 19th century up to World War II, has two Pope Tribunes, produced in 1903 and 1904; two Dagmar automobiles, manufactured in 1922 and 1925; and an Astor taxicab.

Michael “Mike” Gouker of Hagerstown has known since his early years that art would be a part of his life. “Art was the thing growing up that I could do the best. It was my interest. I told my sixth-grade teacher I wanted to teach art,” Gouker said. The retired art teacher and professional artist has been honing his craft since childhood and keeps looking for new venues for exposure. About three years ago, Gouker submitted a drawing of a sunburst to CBS “Sunday Morning” hosted by Charles Osgood.

Potomac Computers, owned by Ken Jordan and Cesar Hernandez, is open at 21 N. Conococheague St. In addition to computer sales and service, it offers free computer diagnostics, laptop screen and jack repair, cell phone repair, and recycling of electronics (such as televisions, computers, etc.). It also buys, sells and trades laptops. The office manager said the store is featuring daily specials for April. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and closed on Sunday.

Local author Mary Rubin of Hagerstown had two bags full of books and had her mom fill up two more bags so she could take home as many books as possible from the American Association of University Women book sale Thursday. “I like history, travel, biography, mystery,” Rubin, 45, said. “I really go through all the tables.” She said she was looking to add to her 6,000-book collection. Her mom, Kay, 84, said that they have been going to the sale for more than 25 years.

Mike Spinnler, director of the JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon, will be the guest speaker for the annual True Grit Awards Ceremony that will be held Tuesday, May 14, starting at 6 p.m. at Fountain Head Country Club. Tickets cost $25 and are available by calling the Hagerstown YMCA at 301-739-3990. The event is sponsored by the Hagerstown YMCA, Washington County Public Schools, The Herald-Mail Co., Cumberland Valley Athletic Club and the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Washington County will play host to a professional barbecue competition Saturday, May 25, and Sunday, May 26, at Fort Ritchie in Cascade.  Dubbed “The Memorial Day Pignic,” the competition will feature 45 to 60 professional barbecue teams from the East Coast competing for more than $7,500 in cash prizes and awards.  Many of the teams competing have been featured on the TV show “BBQ Pitmasters” and include the KCBS National Team of...

Organizers of the second annual Maryland International Film Festival in Hagerstown announced plans Tuesday for the April 11-13 event, which will feature a Washington County man who was at the center of the Academy Award-winning movie “Argo.” Tony Mendez, who lives in Pleasant Valley in the southern part of the county, is expected to play a part in the festival, which will have an emphasis on student-produced movies. On the festival's second day, four movies produced by Washington County students will be shown at Bridge of Life Center on South Potomac Street, where high school students are expected to be bused to see the films, Thomas B. Riford, president of the film festival's board of directors, said Tuesday during a news conference in Hagerstown City Council chambers.

Name of business: Signature Deli & Event Caterers Owner: Cynthia Gruber Address: 109 N. Queen St., Martinsburg, W.Va. Opening date: Jan. 28, 2013 Products and services: We are a New York-style deli, a full-service bakery and an event caterer. Our breakfast menu includes homemade muffins, scones, cinnamon rolls, egg and sausage sandwiches, and omelets. Our lunch and dinner menu includes homemade soups, salads and deli sandwiches. We make our deli meat in-house.

The excitement of four young vocalists was injected into a Sunday performance of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra as the group performed works from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and others. The vocalists were from the Curtis Opera Theatre, which is the performing entity of the Curtis Institute of Music's Vocal Studies Department. Sarah Shafer and Sean Michael Plumb got things started as the orchestra performed works from Mozart's “The Marriage of Figaro.” MSO Music Director Elizabeth Schulze said “The Marriage of Figaro” is about a count who decides to impose a feudal lord's right to check out a fiancée before her marriage.

National Rifle Association President David Keene is slated to speak about gun rights during a Franklin County (Pa.) Republican Committee dinner scheduled for April 3. Committee Chairman Dwight Weidman on Wednesday announced Keene will be the keynote speaker during the organization's annual Lincoln Day Dinner. Held at Green Grove Gardens, the event also will feature candidates for local, county and state offices. “It's basically to get our base out and get them psyched up,” Weidman said of the event's purpose.