Author: JenniferHetrick

Jennifer Hetrick is a freelance writer and editor as well as the author of a three-year poetry project through the memories of seniors in her region—"the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county." She is also an avid appreciator of the Schuylkill River's history and the habitats within it and along it for local wildlife.

Bottomless Corn Pie – Another Way to Love Sweet Corn
By Categories: Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal Tags: , ,

I finally began to appreciate some of my Pennsylvania Dutch (technically German) heritage a few years ago through some culinary exploring. My favorite dive into this subculture of food quickly resulted in corn pie made with in-season, locally grown sweet corn, like the ears brought in to Wolff’s Apple House in August and September from nearby…

Beautifying Gardens in Winter & Prepping Ahead for Spring
By Categories: Gardening Advice: Flowers, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Seasonal

Even though winter is just around the corner, that doesn’t mean gardens can’t have value during the cold season. In fact, several Wolff’s Apple House employees attended the Independent Garden Center Show East in Baltimore, Md., last year and heard Martha Stewart speak about this exact point and how a lot of people just don’t realize…

Making a Moon Garden
By Categories: Gardening Advice: Flowers, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Photos, Seasonal

When the night sky shines bright light down into your backyard, it’s a wordless hint that a moon garden just might be a good fit for the space. Holly Cusumano of Phoenixville is the chairman of the Philadelphia Unit of the Herb Society of America and has designed moon gardens at both her old home in Coventryville and where…

Cultivating Greens and Making An Easy Arugula Salad
By Categories: Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Leafy Greens, Locally Grown, Recipes, Salads, Seasonal, Summer Produce

Despite chilly, rainy days in the recent weeks of early spring, May will soon be showing us the brighter and warmer days which are perfect for planting garden greens. When it comes to cultivating different kinds of leafy greens to join into your meals, Robyn Jasko of Kutztown has the perfect background to give great…

Must-Have Party Recipes: Foods That Go Quickly at Parties
By Categories: Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipes Tags: , , , , ,

With Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities just around the corner, here are some recipes for party foods that are known to be devoured in no time. An empty dish versus food that sits around and gets cold is a good sign! (Remember to check our winter and holiday hours before you head out to…

Watering Smarts: Proper Plant Watering
By Categories: Featured, Gardening Advice: Flowers, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

While watering plants may seem basic enough as a task in spring, summer and autumn months, it’s often the case that people mean well but don’t know they’re watering incorrectly. As the farm femme behind B & H Organic Produce in Caernarvon Township, Erica Lavdanski does her best to educate her customers and anyone she…

Early Summer Crop Rotation Smarts in Your Backyard Garden
By Categories: Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Hardy Vegetables, Root Vegetables, Summer Produce Tags: , , , , , ,

This week in June is a good time to think about what plants to add to backyard gardens after you’re ready to take out what you might have planted at the end of April or the beginning of May—likely radishes, turnips, lettuce, other cool season greens and maybe spinach. Erica Lavdanski of B & H…

Edible Landscapes: Planting for the Palate
By Categories: Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

Adding plants with beautiful colors, textures and shapes to flowerbeds and garden space always makes sense, but joining permanent edible landscape plants to your yard is another bright idea that can benefit your family at the kitchen table. Anne-Marie McMahon, founder and owner of Sugarbush Nursery in Robeson Township, Berks County, gladly advocates installing edible landscape…

Gabbing in Garden-Speak
By Categories: Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal

Nan Reinert of Chubby Pickle Farm in Robeson Township, Berks County, is always happy to help others learn about smarter and more efficient ways to garden, knowing quite well just how stressful this therapeutic effort can become if you take on too much. “I am passionate about growing and getting people to grow,” she says…

Farm Film of Media Premieres January 16 and 17—Watermelon Magic
By Categories: Apples, Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Locally Grown, Seasonal

With much respect given to what farms are to us, director and producer Richard Power Hoffmann is proud to bring the premiere of his film Watermelon Magic to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J. this week. The Hoffmann Family resides in Media, Delaware County and is known to frequent Wolff’s Apple House for…

New Year’s Eve Recipes: Roasted Red Pepper Dip & Two Herb-Infused Cocktails
By Categories: Beverages, Featured, Holiday, Recipes Tags:

Spicy appetizers and herb-savvy drinks for jazzing your way into the New Year are right at your fingertips with a few of Phoebe Canakis’ New Year’s Eve recipes. Canakis is the name behind Phoebe’s Pure Food, where she celebrates local and healthy eats through her blog, magazine, and online pantry as well as new blogging…

Deck Those Halls: The Charm of Great Local Décor
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Holiday, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal

Greenery known so well in December is ready to become cozily arranged local decor in your home. Wolff’s Apple House can help with that, especially if you’re looking for Christmas trees with the best quality and Pennsylvania-growing in the history of their trunks and needles. Christmas trees at Wolff’s are sourced from Hill Farms in…

Soups and Prepared Foods: Go-To Grabs that Go Great around the Holidays
By Categories: Featured, Locally Grown, Prepared Foods, Seasonal

Soups and other prepared foods are something you can easily pick up at Wolff’s Apple House to suit colder-season temperatures as they make their way into chillier months. And these are also great around holidays, thankfully. Wolff’s own chef, Chuck Smith, reflects thoughtfully on the value of soups before and into winter. “Soups in general…

Repurposing Pumpkins and Delighting in Slices of Pumpkin Roll
By Categories: Crafts, Featured, Holiday, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Winter Squash

Pumpkins are wonderfully alluring in autumn, but repurposing makes them interesting on a whole other level aside from how we often look at them as Jack-O-Lantern-bound or warmly baked into pie, bread or pumpkin roll (but we’ll let the anticipation of palate-worthy bites of pumpkin roll simmer for a little while.) For those who have…

Unique Ideas for Carving and Decorating Pumpkins
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Crafts, Featured, Holiday, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal

The pumpkin supply is bursting from all corners of Wolff’s Apple House. Roswell Henderson, the assistant manager for Frecon Farms in Boyertown, Berks County, has a great affinity for turning pumpkins into the unexpected and amusingly surprising outside of homes. “Pretty much every other customer is coming in to buy pumpkins or ask questions about…
roasted broccoli

Revving Up with Roasted Broccoli in Autumn
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Recipes

Broccoli has a lot of possibilities per bite, and Phoebe Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food in Lancaster County has a simple, palate-rich recipe of Roasted Broccoli that works great with broccoli available at Wolff’s Apple House in autumn. The pairing of cauliflower is always another add-on option, too. For many years, Canakis published an online…

Stayman-Winesap Apples in Apple Crisp
By Categories: Apples, Cooking Methods, Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal

Stayman-Winesap apples are now ready for the charming delight of chomping at Wolff’s Apple House. In its historical context, the Stayman-Winesap apple is usually deemed a seedling of the heirloom Winesap apple, taking its introduction from Dr. Joseph Stayman in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1866. Dr. Stayman grew up in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and practiced medicine…

Neck Pumpkins and Their Persuasion
By Categories: Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Winter Squash Tags: , , ,

The great lure of neck pumpkins is under way at Wolff’s Apple House. Their curiously elongated shapes and lighter hues compared to traditional pumpkins make them an easy game of I Spy for the eyes. Neck pumpkins are an ancestor of butternut squash, which is known for so many cooking and baking recipes today. When…

Getting into Fall Gardening and Decorating
By Categories: Apples, Beverages, Featured, Gardening Advice: Flowers, Locally Grown, Prepared Foods, Seasonal

The possibilities of fall gardening and decorating are now under way; the colors of autumn so iconic to the outside of homes as the weather cools down after summer beckon easily for the eyes at Wolff’s Apple House. Bloom-boasting hardy mums, asters, Montauk daisies, brightly cheerful pansies, cabbage, kale, hay bales, decorative corn stalks, gourds…

Fresh Indian Summer Salsa is Savvy in September
By Categories: Appetizers, Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Holiday, Locally Grown, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

As a fitting segue in saying adieu to the heat of August while saying hello to September, a Fresh Indian Summer Salsa crafted from ingredients at Wolff’s Apple House is a great food-geared introduction to this autumn. The recipe, put together by Wolff’s marketing consultant, Rachel VanDuzer, incorporates not only tomatoes but peaches, corn and…

Labor Day Picnic Possibilities and Some Feisty Guacamole
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Holiday, Locally Grown, Peaches, Prepared Foods, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes, Vendors

While Fran, Pete and Ashley Wolff work every Labor Day, they’re grateful for the opportunity to help people appreciate their goodbye to summer with great foods and ideas for good spots for picnics. And they like that they close at 4 p.m., too, so they can get together with the rest of their family as…

Peach Smarts and a Cobbler, Too
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Vendors

Wolff’s Apple House sells some of its selection of peaches from Weaver’s Orchard in Morgantown, Berks County. And its owner, Ed Weaver, has plenty of peach smarts regularly on the mind from growing them each year. He raises 15 acres of peach trees, primarily freestone varieties. Weaver notes that one unique attribute of peaches is…

Rosie VS. the Jalapeño in Spicy Fresh Corn Soup
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Soup, Summer Produce

Wolff’s Apple House’s marketing consultant, Rachel VanDuzer, recently shared a Spicy Fresh Corn Soup recipe with her family and had the new puppy in her parents’ home revved up vocally for it as well, with a humorous story tied into the comical kitchen moments. Her corn soup involves a fiery jalapeño pepper. “I dropped the…

Testing Out Tantalizing Tomato Pie
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

Since August is known as the time for local produce, especially tomatoes, a homemade tomato pie recipe from Phoebe Canakis pleases the palate and complements plentiful tomatoes perfectly. Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food lives in Lancaster County and spends much of her time focusing on bringing a strong reverence and flair into the avenue of…

Mingling Meat and Melons
By Categories: Featured, Locally Grown, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Vendors

The marriage of melons and deli-ready meats is a great August meal add-on, especially with Wolff’s Apple House offering plenty of honeydew, canary cantaloupe, sugar baby watermelon, seedless watermelon and yellow watermelon right now. Di Bruno Bros., a vendor of freshly made cheeses available at Wolff’s, also sells a lineup of Italian deli meats that…

The Zeal of Zesty Watermelon Gazpacho
By Categories: Appetizers, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

As the face behind Global Vertical Farms based in Glenmoore, Chester County, Janice Kelsey and her whole food nutrition approaches keep summer recipes easily in the future: think Zesty Watermelon Gazpacho. “I prefer to use a smaller seedless watermelon,” Kelsey says about this recipe. “They’re easier to handle and a lot less waste.” And Wolff’s…

The Perfect Summer Palate Perk: Peach Oat Crisp
By Categories: Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce

Wolff’s Apple House Chef Chuck Smith crafts a Peach Oat Crisp recipe that brings one of summer’s most notable local fruits into the picture with an easily enticing want-worthy factor. “You could use any peach (white or yellow) and range in sweetness,” Smith offers. “Currently, Wolff‘s has great tasting Garnet Beauty variety.” Peaches are packed…

Heirloom Tomatoes Make for Great Salsa
By Categories: Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

  Jillian Prout of Prout’s Jollyview Farm in the Oley Valley of Berks County enjoys the heirloom tomatoes she grows, but it might be fair to say she enjoys a good salsa from them even more. Heirloom tomatoes, known as heritage tomatoes in the U.K., are the ancient tomatoes of those who came decades and…

Southwest Corn Fritters with Chipotle Honey Makes it Easy to Love Corn
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Sides, Summer Produce

As the dairy manager of Wholesome Dairy Farms in Yellow House, Berks County, Rebecca Seidel handles most of the food production at the raw milk operation, and having grown up on a farm, knows how to appreciate sweet corn in summery sweeps of gratitude. “Corn goes with everything,” Seidel admits with enthusiasm. She discourages overpowering…

Berry-Topped Pavlova
By Categories: Berries, Cooking Methods, Desserts, Featured, Holiday, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce

Phoebe Canakis’ Berry Topped-Pavlova is a perfectly red, white and blue dessert to suit July 4th celebrations. Canakis lives in Lancaster County and is the food-mind behind inspiring seasonally chic, seductively wholesome, garden-to-plate eats through her blogs, magazine, catering and pure food pantry efforts. Her recently released online-based Phoebe’s Pure Food Magazine is what she…

The Cunning Way of Caprese
By Categories: Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Salads, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes, Vendors

Caprese is an Italian-inspired summer dish that riles mouth-watering factors with ease. It has a lot of possibilities in variation but usually involves slices of freshly picked tomatoes, basil leaves from the garden, cuts of mozzarella cheese and either drizzles of olive oil or balsamic vinaigrette. Sprinkles of ground pepper complement this flavorful and especially…

Crazy about Canning
By Categories: Berries, Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Prepared Foods, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce

The kitchen smarts and culinary lure of canning have seen quite a comeback in recent years—and with good reason. Not only is canning useful and resourceful, but it’s a rewarding opportunity to support your own chomp factor from home. And canning-dates with friends and family are just plain fun, too. Think berries: Wolff’s Apple House…

The Glory of Greens
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Leafy Greens, Locally Grown, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal, Summer Produce

Greens deserve a lot more credit in our dietary lineup than they often receive. Not only do they go swimmingly with many summer meals, but they are some the most nutrition-savvy add-ons we can join into our munching minutes. With a European origin, Swiss Chard is in the family of beets. Red, green, and the…

Natural Fertilizers at Home: Feed Those Tomato Plants
By Categories: Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

With so many chemical fertilizers on the market today, it’s nice to know that there are plenty of natural versions of fertilizers and soil amendment possibilities right at home when you’re ready to feed the tomato plants you’ve purchased from Wolff’s Apple House. Eggshells Save your eggshells after breakfast or baking. Eggshells are rich in…

The Lesser-Known Uses and Benefits of Herbs
By Categories: Cooking Methods, Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Locally Grown, Seasonal

Rosemary is known for bringing out the impeccable flavors in Mediterranean cuisine, but it’s also quite a perk to skin. Not only does it help to shrink the appearance of capillaries, but it also acts as a natural anti-inflammatory, so it reduces redness and irritation of skin, which can be helpful with acne or a suddenly…