Living on the Eastern Shore is usually a culinary delight. When crab cakes, corn on the cob, Smith Island Cake, watermelon, and Evo beer is a routine meal, who needs the Inner Harbor’s restaurant row?

But we are deprived of a few things. With the exception of the Bay Country Bakery in Cambridge, there is no real, independent, step-inside-sniff-and-savor bakery on the Shore. You’ll find real whitefish salad only at Bagels and Buns in O.C.

And there are no Berger’s Cookies. Or so I thought.

If you aren’t from Baltimore, you’re probably not familiar with these decadent delights. Even many lifelong Bawlmoreans aren’t familiar with them. I’m not sure of the distribution now; when I lived on the Western Shore, they were found in High’s and not many other places.

What are they? Oh, my. A nice chunk of shortbread-style cookie topped with a mound of fudge. Oh. My. Just sniffing one of them puts you over your carb count for a week. Half of one is enough richness to more than satisfy. But then you have to deal with that other half that looks so abandoned that you take pity and finish it. Cold milk or a subtle dunk in coffee is a good accompaniment, and since you are taking in calcium from the milk or cream and the cookies have eggs and unsaturated fats from the real butter and the fudge has endorphins, it’s an experience in healthy eating.

When I moved to The Shore, I kind of forgot about Berger’s Cookies until I was getting gas at the Royal Farms on Snow Hill Rd. one afternoon. There were boxes of Berger’s on the counter. Not only the regular box with about a dozen cookies inside, but also a two-cookie snack pack. Whoa! The cashier allowed as how the Wine Rack in Fruitland carried them, too. The cookies are in the cheese cooler there. The staff wasn’t sure of the details; just that there was some arrangement for cookies to be delivered periodically. The Wine Rack in West O.C. also gets a supply, they said. They thought that the Giant in Salisbury carries them, too. (True.) There wasn’t any real delivery schedule that they knew of. ‘The guy’ just drops them off when he shows up.

I had visions of a deliberately nondescript car pulling into the parking lot with crates of cookies stashed in the trunk, a clandestine underground operation supplying Berger’s junkies with their fix. Devotees know to check in frequently and carry off enough of a supply to last until the next delivery. Cookie rationing sets in when the supply runs low and there’s no word of when the next ‘drop’ will be made. Most of the lifetime Eastern Shore folks have no idea of what they are. Someone definitely realized there was a niche market supplying the ex-pats moving in with one of the lost delicacies of their former lives

This morning, I was behind a small delivery van on Rt. 50 with the Berger’s logo across the back. Aha! The mysterious ‘guy’ was in town! Oh joy! With luck, I’ll get to the Wine Rack before word gets out that the cookies are back! And I can add the Berger’s cookies to the crab cake, corn-on-the-cob, Smith Island Cake, Watermelon, and Evo beer feast!

(Berger’s sells on-line as well as retail. www.BergerCookies.com. You can thank me later.)

August 23

Movie Night at the Beach, Dewey Beach. “Cars” Movie starts at 8:30 on the big screen at Dagsworthy Street and the beach, over the dunes from the life saving station. Free parking after 5 p.m. www.beach-fun.com.

August 26

Stargazers Astronomy Workshop, Wallops Island, VA. Hands-on activities and guided observation, learn star patterns and the legends and lore of the stars. Finish with a twilight cruise to see the stars and spot constellations. (Maybe a few shooting stars, too.) Presented by the Marine Science Consortium. Starts at 5:30 p.m. $10 adults, $7 kids. Limited registration. www.msconsortium.org

Doo-Wop Celebration with The Bronx Wanderers. From Dion to The Four Seasons, familiar tunes and one-hit wonders. The Freeman Stage at Bayside (4 miles w of Fenwick on Rt. 54). 7 p.m. FREE

August 27

Lantern Tour of Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery, Dover (S. State & Water St.) Guided tour of part of the 1st State Heritage Park. Learn the meanings of the figures adorning and symbols carved into tombstones in one of the oldest cemeteries in Delaware. Hear the stories about the notables and notorious in the graveyard. Tour starts at 8:30 p.m. FREE

Traditional Irish Music Session, The Riverside Country Inn, Greensboro, MD. Enjoy a traditional Irish jam session the 4th Friday of every month. BYOG (Bring your own Guinness). 7-9 p.m. FREE

4th Friday in Crisfield. Shops open later, entertainment, vendors. Watch the sun set from the town dock. 5-8 p.m. www.crisfieldevents.com

Neil Simon’s “The Star Spangled Girl,” Mar-Va Theater, Pocomoke, MD. Dinner Theater production of the comedy. Cocktails at 6; dinner 6:30; show 8 p.m. $15. www.mar-vatheater.org.

August 28

Country Church Breakfast, Trappe United Methodist Church, Trappe, MD. Down-home, all-you-can-eat breakfast of eggs, pancakes, scrapple, grits, home fries, sausage (nitrate-free & freshly ground by Simmons Market in Cambridge), French toast and warm syrup, coffee, strawberry preserves, juice. 7-10 a.m.

Family Iron Chef Competition, Hyatt Regency Resort, Cambridge. And the secret ingredient is … blue crab. (Surprise, surprise!) Teams of 4 compete to create the best crab dish(es) in one hour. $25 per team. Cooking starts at 2 p.m. 410-901-1234 and ask for the concierge desk to sign up. Guests staying at the Hyatt that night can also participate in a tour of J. M. Clayton Company, the world’s oldest crab processing plant starting at 6 p.m. The tour includes some hands-on activities (how fast can you pick a crab) and a traditional family-style crab feast: fried chicken, coconut slaw, corn on the cob, and crabs (of course). $30 for adults, Children 4-12 $15.

Public sail on the Sultana. Two hour cruise along the Chester River on Chestertown’s traditional tall ship, the schooner Sultana. Raise the sails, man the helm, and explore the authentic quarters below decks. Cruises are from 11-1 and 2-4. $30 adults, $15 children under 12. No children under 5. Reservations recommended. 410-778-5954.

Fun and Folk Concert, Fountain Park, Chestertown. Chris Cerino and Bob & Pam Ortiz perform from 7-8:30 p.m. in the park in Chestertown. Bring your own blanket or lawn chair. 7-8:30 p.m. FREE www.chestertown.com/events/musicpark

Tubing on the Choptank, Denton, MD Annual float or paddle from Crouse Park in Denton to Martinak State Park. $30 donation includes the tube and a cookout picnic at the end of the float. Kayakers and canoeists are also welcome. Proceeds benefit mental health services in Caroline County. Tickets and tube reservation at 410-479-3663, 410-479-3644, 410-479-2000

Neil Simon’s “The Star Spangled Girl,” Dinner theater at the Mar-Va Theater, Pocomoke, MD. Cocktails at 6; dinner 6:30; show at 8. $15 www.mar-vatheater.org

“Wood Shavings to Hot Sparks,” Milford, DE. A film documentary on Milford’s often overlooked or forgotten shipbuilding industry. At the Riverfront Theater. Two showings: 7p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 per couple; $10 per individual.

August 29

Right Foot Red, Rehoboth Beach Bandstand. “The Ultimate Party Band,” the group has brought cheer and grins to audiences since 2002, playing oldies, R&B, funk & disco (we’ll forgive them that), pop and rock – sometimes served straight up, other times with ‘period’ costumes. 8 p.m. FREE www.rehobothbandstand.com

August isn’t an “R” month, but oyster-lovers aren’t seasonal in their fondness for the bivalve. While the commercial oyster beds are closed during the summer, oyster farms are busy meeting the demand by consumers and restaurants.

Tangier Sound Oyster Company is one of them. It’s a modest affair in Ernie Nichol’s backyard in Marion Station, near Crisfield. A handful of floats near his dock, a stack of wooden frames, and a sorting table. His ‘field’ is a 2 ½ acre underwater plot.

Creating the Ponderosa of bivalves wasn’t the plan when Ernie and his wife brought their waterfront retreat in 1999. Intrigued by ‘backyard’ oyster-growing projects by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and feasibility studies of near-shore aquaculture by the DNR and Department of Environment, he did some research. One thing led to another and three years ago, his retirement became a new career.

Starting with 2-liter bags of spat (AKA baby oysters) – each one of which holds 7,000 infant oysters – he fills mesh-lined frames with the little critters, which look a lot like uncooked Quaker Oats. He sinks the frames to the bottom of the water off his dock and lets the tidal ebb and flow through the salt marshes nourish the nautical livestock. Every few months, he pulls up the frames and culls the crop, moving them to other frames as they grow, and starting a new ‘crop.’ It takes 18 months to 2 years for his oysters to be ready for harvesting. The rotation and constant restarting delivers a steady supply of mature, marketable oysters.

Marketed as “Uncle Ernie’s Tangier Sound Oysters,” he sells between one and two thousand a week to restaurants. There’s the Waterman’s in Crisfield, Woodbury Kitchen, Ryleigh’s, and Gertrude’s in Baltimore, The Wild Orchid in Annapolis, and the Henlopen City Oyster Bar in Rehoboth Beach. He says chefs like his oysters because of their nice pear shape with a deep dish and their saltiness. Not as salty as Chincoteagues, but with a good brine-y quality with organic elements from the salt marsh.

Much is made of the sorry state of the Chesapeake’s oyster population and health. Ernie is optimistic. His thousands of oysters constantly filtering the Bay water in such a confined space has created a mini-ecosystem that shows what it was like years ago, before overharvesting, pollution, and disease decimated the species. Along the shore, the water is clearer. You can see the desired grasses and marine life thriving. He points out some oysters growing on the rocks. Those are wild spat breeding with some of his hatchery-bred infants which spilled out from the frames. He’s proud and happy that he’s able to contribute to the restoration of the Chesapeake – while having fun with his second career.