Winter Life-Preservers: Preserving Fall Produce

By rebeccatalbotOctober 15, 2015March 15, 2016 Featured, Leafy Greens

It’s only mid-October. Deep breath. It’s not winter yet. But the other night while some friends and I were enjoying the first pumpkin pie of the season, we reminisced about freak October storms. In Chicago last year, October 31 decided to dress up as January 31, wrapping itself in a ghoulish costume of sleet and…

KITCHEN COPY: SWEET SAUSAGE

By chucksmithOctober 7, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes local ingredients, recipes, sausage

If I didn’t have other cookbooks to keep it pinned between, my Fanny Farmer cookbook would completely fall to pieces. It’s true. Just about every page within its sad, decrepit cover has become unglued. And the spine has given up entirely. On a few occasions I’ve almost thrown it into the recycling. But every time I voice these intentions, my wife pleads…

Our Five Easiest Fall Meals

By rebeccatalbotOctober 1, 2015December 26, 2017 Featured, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes

The honey-locust trees on my street have gone from brilliant green to gold, showering confetti on the sidewalks as surely as if a parade had passed through. Autumn happens all of a sudden. I look up at 7 p.m., and the lacy honey-locust leaves are filtering soft orange twilight instead of bright summer daylight. I look up,…

KITCHEN COPY:A PRETTY PUMPKIN

By chucksmithSeptember 24, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal local ingredients, locally grown produce, pumpkins, recipes

Right about now the Mums begin rolling into Wolff’s and taking over the place like some kind of bizarre alien invasion. It seems like every day more cloudbursts of color are added to the expanding floral grid. Their arrival coincides with the onset of chilly mornings, corn shocks, and overwhelming swells of heirloom pumpkins. The pumpkin’s…

Broccoli Sauce Recipe

By recipesSeptember 23, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes

You know how we all grew up and stopped overcooking our broccoli? Well, don’t you miss it just a little bit? This sauce takes our fresh, locally grown broccoli and cooks the living daylights out of it! But don’t worry- you’ll use the cooking water, too, so you won’t lose all those good nutrients. It’s…

Wolff’s vs. Grocery Store: How Do The Products Compare?

By rebeccatalbotSeptember 17, 2015September 18, 2015 Featured, Prepared Foods, Vendors

When I moved from Chicago to rural Pennsylvania, shopping in a traditional grocery store became my most depressing and frustrating errand. So many options surrounded me, all of them choices between lesser evils. Organic and local products eluded me. And ethnic or specialty food? I have cried over the lack of hummus. I will admit it. Today, when I…

KITCHEN COPY: HONEYCRISP APPLE LIME GRANITA

By chucksmithSeptember 9, 2015October 18, 2016 Apples, Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal apples, honeycrisp, local ingredients, locally grown fruit, recipes

Some things take a long time to learn about oneself, while other things take none at all. After scaling, gutting, and prepping fish for a brief stint at a small Greek restaurant in Federal Hill, Baltimore, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do in the kitchen. And it wasn’t cleaning fish. It only took a…

Apple Pancakes

By recipesSeptember 8, 2015April 21, 2023 Apples, Breakfast, Featured, Recipes

Try this at your next leisurely brunch! Pick your favorite local apple, and enjoy!

Baker and Fruit Spread Maker Karsten Haigis Invites You to His Table

By rebeccatalbotSeptember 3, 2015September 23, 2015 Featured

“You are a guest at my table.” This is how Karsten Haigis, the West Chester-based baker and fruit spread maker behind Haigis Fine Foods, envisions each of his customers. Like the best dinner party host’s menu, his product line takes shape based on what he loves and values. Like a host planning the meal of a…

Seriously Guilt-free Veggie Dip

By recipesAugust 27, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Recipes

For anyone who loves a creamy veggie dip, here’s an honest-to-goodness, protein-packed, healthy version of it. Even your kids will like it! Perfect with every in-season veggie right now, like green and colored peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, and carrots! Guilt-free, and easy too! Use a blender for that perfect silky-smooth consistency.

KITCHEN COPY: WATERMELON-TINI

By chucksmithAugust 26, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, recipes, summer produce, watermelon

The single memory from my childhood of eating watermelon centers more upon the large, black, unpleasant, inedible seeds than it does the deliciously sweet and totally consumable flesh. It is a memory which speaks volumes about the kind of person I am. It’s no secret how I would answer the proverbial glass-half-full or glass-half-empty question. As far as I’m concerned, the glass…

Garden-Fresh Veggies for Fall

By rebeccatalbotAugust 18, 2015November 24, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

If you are contemplating planting a fall vegetable crop but find yourself hesitating because you’ve already done so much work in the garden already, let Amy Bullock Loving of the Wolff’s Plant and Garden Center encourage you to keep on gardening until the first harsh frost. Amy cites one major reasoning to keep on planting…

Eggplant with Capers and Parsley

By recipesAugust 13, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes

A great little Italian side dish. This works great with grilled eggplant, too! Serves 4 as a side dish.

KITCHEN COPY:NOTEWORTHY NECTARINES

By chucksmithAugust 12, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce local ingredients, locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, nectarines, peaches, recipes, summer produce

I’m fully allowed to taste the produce at Wolff’s Apple House. As their resident chef, it’s part of my job. Nevertheless, there is always a moment (right about the time I lift the fruit from the display) when it feels criminal. Like I’m getting away with something. Like I’m stealing something precious from others. Which leads me to a confession. Earlier today,…

Our Customers’ Favorite Recipes for “The Big Three”

By rebeccatalbotAugust 6, 2015November 2, 2017 Featured, Leafy Greens, Peaches, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes, Tomatoes

If you had to grab a piece of scrap paper right now and make a list of the most popular local summer produce, I’ll bet you wouldn’t have any trouble at all coming up with the top three. They’re the fruits and vegetables we all wait for all throughout the rest of the year because we…

Easy Cheesy Vegetable Casserole

By recipesAugust 5, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Summer Produce

The name says it all! For this Easy Cheesy Vegetable Casserole, prep the veggies ahead of time for a quick, pop-in-the-oven dinner.

KITCHEN COPY: HEAVENLY HEIRLOOMS

By chucksmithJuly 29, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes local ingredients, locally grown produce, locally grown tomatoes, recipes, tomatoes, vegetables, vegetarian

Some heirloom tomato varieties hardly resemble tomatoes at all. That’s what one might think, anyway. The truth is that only in the last hundred years did tomatoes become so uniformly round, and red, and (Let’s admit it!) often flavorless. That’s all changed, of course. Americans have rediscovered (thanks to hard-working small farmers) how to embrace seasonality, and a desire to experience the…

Peach or Mango Avocado Black Bean Salad

By recipesJuly 28, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Peaches, Recipes, Salads

This bean salad recipe was originally done with mango instead of peaches, but in the spirit of the season we tweaked it, and the result is delicious!

Watermelon Green Smoothie

By recipesJuly 28, 2015April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Leafy Greens, Peaches, Recipes, Summer Produce

Green smoothies have been gaining popularity for the past few years. Throw in some fresh spinach or kale with your fruit smoothie, and: POW! Your pink, red, or peachy smoothie is now a brilliant shade of green, but still tastes the same! And, you’ve snuck in some great healthy bits. What’s not to like? Using juicy…

In Late July, Wolff’s Is Tomato City!

By recipesJuly 24, 2015June 24, 2016 Featured, Locally Grown, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

Perhaps you marveled at our huge selection of tomato plants when the weather was just warming up and local produce season had barely started. Now, in the heart of tomato season, you can feast your eyes on the magical, beautiful bounty of tomato fruits—all picked vine-ripe by local farmers! The quality and selection at this…