Fresh fruit and fresh vegetables — along with live Jazz, a kid's story hour and plant workshops — return to Druid Hill Park this afternoon and evening with opening day of the park's farmers market.

The market, running through Sept. 25, will be held every Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Howard P. Rawlings Conservatory.

The farmer's market is a partnership between The Friends of Druid Hill Park, the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and the Howard P. Rawlings Conservatory.

This year's vendors include: Hillside Meadow Farm, Audia's Farms North, Dively's Fruit Farm, Stokes Creek Farm, Stoecker Farms, Turner Crossing Farm, Little Peeps Emporium, Natural Feelings, Zakiyyahs, Everything Turkey, Thyme for Green, Ola's Healthy Food, Rising Up Granola, Marie Antoinette and Tahira's Treats.

More information can be found at the Druid Hill Farmers Market Facebook page.

Nike announced Tuesday that the company will stop production of its Livestrong line of exercise apparel and gear at the end of this year, terminating a licensing agreement that helped raise $100 million for the cancer foundation, according to Reuters and numerous media outlets. It's the latest hit for Livestrong in the wake of founder Lance Armstrong's admitted blood doping and use of illegal substances on his way to seven (since stripped) Tour de France titles.

"We expected changes like this," Katherine McLane, a Livestrong spokeswoman, said in a conference call with reporters. "Could there be fallout? Of course," she said. "We remain enormously confident...We are in strong fiscal shape."

Baltimore magazine profiled Livestrong Foundation CEO Doug Ulman, a Howard County native and three-time cancer survivor, this month in a story titled, "Surviving Lance."

Nike dropped Armstrong last October when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's 1,000-page report said he had organized a sophisticated doping scheme while competing. Nike said at that time it would still support the charity, but no longer sponsor Armstrong.

Armstrong stepped down from the Livestrong board last year after meeting with Ulman.

In his interview with Baltimore, Ulman said he understood that the organization will suffer in terms of its fundraising this year, adding it has reduced its internal budget for 2013 by 11 percent, but he added that major grant funders like Nike and Oakley remained on board.

With Nike gone, the path forward for Livestrong just got a whole lot steeper.

“It’s ironic,” Ulman told Baltimore. “We are in the business of survivorship. And all of the tools that we use to help people navigate cancer — now we have to apply those same principles to the organization.”

Local green energy provider Clean Currents is raising awareness about air pollution by offering people who pledge to "energize responsibly" and choose wind power at home the chance to win a new Specialized bike.

Coal power is a major source of air pollution and, according to the American Lung Association, 42 percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Over the past three years, Baltimore has averaged 25 days a year where ozone concentrations exceeded healthy standards. 

But Baltimore-area residents do have the option to ditch coal-powered electricity and switch their home to wind power.

Clean Currents, founded in 2005, serves businesses and residents in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, and enables electicity users to choose the source of their power — wind from turbines in PA or around the country, for example — by filling out a quick BGE form. The distribution of the power as well as the bill still comes from BGE. There's nothing to install and customers still receive one electric bill.

According to Clean Currents, homeowners who make the switch to wind power, on average, have the impact of removing two cars from the road annually — and, of course, help build demand for wind power.

You can pledge to "energize responsibly" here through June. Those taking the pledge are entered to win a Specialized bicycle, ChicoBag DayPacker of goodies and a $50 Charm City Run gift card.

For the fourth year, local runners can compete on the dirt track where Secretariat and Seabiscuit once raced.

The "Down the Stretch for Susan G. Komen" Preakness 5k takes place this Saturday, May 11, at Pimlico on the historic venue's dirt track.

Last year, nearly 650 runners participated, including Doug O’Neill, trainer of Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another, according to a press release from Corrigan Sports Enterprises.

“We get a tremendous amount of positive feedback on this event,” said Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas in a statement. “It has to be a thrill to be able to run on the track where the Preakness takes place and to possibly hear track announcer Dave Rodman call your name as you pass the finish line."

Three-quarters of the funds raised from the race will go to the Komen Maryland Affiliate for community outreach programs in the state and 25 percent will be directed to the national Komen organization to help support breast cancer research, according to the press release.