Mixed Green Salad with Apples and Candied Hazelnuts

By rebeccatalbotOctober 9, 2014April 21, 2023 Apples, Featured, Recipes, Salads

This past weekend, my husband and I had a few friends over for a couple hours in the evening, so, naturally, I made dessert. I even planned ahead and made this dessert, some toffee bars, the day before and stuck them in the fridge. The only problem? I forgot to cut them them before refrigerating…

Food or Decoration? Here’s Our Heirloom Pumpkin Advice

By recipesOctober 6, 2014November 2, 2017 Featured, Pumpkin, Seasonal, Winter Squash

Heirloom pumpkins are each varieties of squash, but they tend to be larger than “winter squash” and more unique and elegant than traditional orange pumpkins. Most heirlooms are great for cooking and make great pies, soups and more. A few, however, are not recommended for cooking and we hope to help you sort that out…

Canter Hill Farm: Starting a ‘Beyond Organic’ Farm from Scratch

By rebeccatalbotOctober 2, 2014May 12, 2016 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Vendors

Some farmers have farming in their blood. Knowledge of agriculture and of the joys, hardships and value of farming have been passed down through generations, and the family tradition continues. Increasingly, however, people who have not grown up on farms are learning to homestead, raise livestock and grow produce for their communities. They want to…

Celebrating Apple Season (Part 2)

By rebeccatalbotSeptember 25, 2014September 26, 2014 Apples, Cooking Methods, Featured, Gifts from the Kitchen, Holiday, Seasonal, Vendors

Apple season means apple cider season, apple fritter season, and of course apple pie season. For aspiring bakers, apple pie season can be a frustrating time indeed. I’ve been known to put my hands on my hips and glare at a pie crust that just won’t stop sticking to the counter and ripping. And I…

Celebrating Apple Season with Apple Sampling & a Cooking Demo (Part 1)

By rebeccatalbotSeptember 18, 2014April 21, 2023 Apples, Farm History, Featured, Recipes, Vendors

The Wolff family loves produce of all flavors, shapes and stripes. They not only know the farmers who grew the produce, they also know all you would ever want to know about the local produce itself: how it grows, the varieties you can find it in and when they ripen, how this year’s crop differs…

Smokey Eggplant Vinete & Lessons from the Garden

By rachelvanduzerSeptember 11, 2014April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Recipes, Summer Produce

I like to think that I am a great cook and a good gardener, but there is much more to these two tasks than meets the eye. This week I will be harvesting the last of the squash, tomatoes, peppers and herbs from my first-ever solo garden. I will miss harvesting armloads of tomatoes, handfuls…

Make It A (Superfood) Mocha

By rachelvanduzerSeptember 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Recipes, Seasonal

A few summers ago, my cravings for iced coffee got the best of me. I knew that the best way to make iced coffee was to cold brew a serving of it specifically for that purpose, but it was so much easier to just refrigerate a mug of the morning’s leftover coffee. That usually worked…

15 Easy In-Season Recipes for Labor Day

By rebeccatalbotAugust 27, 2014November 2, 2017 Berries, Beverages, Featured, Peaches, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

How wonderful are Labor Day vacations? They snag the last bits of summer, salvaging time with family and friends before the rush of fall schedules pulls us in different directions. They celebrate cooler weather and golden sunlit evenings. They offer rest. When I was growing up, Labor Day was our favorite family vacation time. We…

Grilled Spanish Corn from Wolff’s Own Chef

By rebeccatalbotAugust 21, 2014April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Farm-to-Table, Featured, Recipes, Summer Produce

If you’ve visited the prepared foods section at Wolff’s Apple House and seen delicacies like Apple BBQ Pulled Pork, Roasted Chicken Romaine Salad, Best Broccoli Salad and hummus in all kinds of flavors, then you know that we have an innovative, committed chef. Chuck Smith, the chef at Wolff’s, has developed our mouth-watering, nutritious prepared…

Amazing Empanadas with Local Onions and Peppers

By rebeccatalbotAugust 14, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Root Vegetables

I might as well mark my calendar. Every three to six months, the urge to make empanadas hits me. Usually some excuse or inspiration materializes: a friend is visiting from out of town, we’re about to watch a Spanish film or I’ve just been to Zumba and I’m still feeling the Latin rhythms. Once the…

Chicken Cacciatore: The “Hunter’s Meal”

By rebeccatalbotAugust 6, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Summer Produce bell peppers, bruschetta, free-range chicken

When my sister mentioned earlier this week that chicken cacciatore means “The Hunter’s Meal,” I knew I had to try making it again. I’d first tried my hand at it when I was 22, a grad student freshly uprooted from family, cooking my way through the one cookbook I trusted. Sometimes good things in life…

Ginger-Watermelon Salad & A Brief History of Ginger

By rebeccatalbotAugust 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Salads, Summer Produce ginger, herbs, spices, watermelon

Knowing that I wanted to make a ginger-watermelon salad later today, I woke up with questions about ginger dancing in my head: When did people first try using ginger as a spice? When did they figure out the knobby root was edible? When did gingerbread become a thing? When and why did the baby…

Dessert for Dinner: Brie Quesadillas with Peach Compote and Basil

By rebeccatalbotJuly 23, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Peaches, Recipes brie, compote, quesadillas

In elementary school, I had a friend whose mom would make waffles for lunch. Ricotta-cheese-stuffed waffles, topped with strawberries and maple syrup. I loved going to this friend’s house. It was a magical world. Outside, in the corner of their yard, you ducked under some wild rosebushes to reach a trail that led over a…

Getting Creative with Local Produce: In the Kitchen with Marie Connell of MyHouse Cookies

By rebeccatalbotJuly 17, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Peaches, Recipes, Vendors cooking classes, grilled peaches, MyHouse Cookies, peach salsa

This morning, Marie Connell of MyHouse Cookies stood in her kitchen surrounded by tomatoes as she prepared to make quiches. “I know the farmer,” she told me about the tomatoes, “I know she picked them this morning. I know they haven’t been sitting in a truck or a railway car for a week.” If Marie…

Homemade Sodas with Fruit and Herbs

By rebeccatalbotJuly 9, 2014April 21, 2023 Berries, Beverages, Featured, Recipes fruit drinks, herb-infused drinks, homemade soda

During the summer, refreshing beverages call to us. Whether it’s during a picnic, after yard work or at a sporting event, eventually we start to crave a cold, flavorful beverage. Preferably a fizzy one. But we know how bad sugary sodas are for us. They’ve been linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease…

Healing Ourselves with Food: Making a Comeback through a Healthy Diet (Part 2)

By Sorina HigginsJuly 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Breakfast, Featured, Recipes gluten-free, granola

Last week, Sørina Higgins shared her story of her husband’s illness. She wrote: “My husband struggled to go to work every day and came home completely wiped out. Construction on our handmade house ceased. Travel plans were canceled.” Even when a specialist finally got to the root of the problem, Sørina’s husband still had weakened immune…

Healing Ourselves with Food: Making a Comeback through a Healthy Diet (Part 1)

By Sorina HigginsJune 26, 2014June 27, 2014 Featured changing your diet, gluten-free, healthy diet, nutrition, sugar free

I wonder when Hippocrates—or whoever it really was—said “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food,” whether he meant it literally. Perhaps he meant something more fuzzy, like “eat good food for better health.” Or maybe he did mean it in the plainest possible sense: “When you are sick, use food to cure…

Easy Bruschetta Meals

By rachelvanduzerJune 19, 2014June 19, 2014 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Recipes, Tomatoes

The seasoned gardener knows that tomato plants yield a lot of tomatoes. However, when planting a garden with some friends who have a large plot of land, we thought, “why not plant 48 tomato plants?” Needless to say, by the end of the summer we had already canned all of the marinara sauce and salsa…

Making All-Natural Choices: Lone Star Farm Beef

By rebeccatalbotJune 12, 2014June 12, 2014 Featured, Vendors all-natural beef, burgers, father's day, free-range beef

With Father’s Day just around the corner, many people start to think about treating their dads to meat cooked on the grill. This time of year, the weather is just right for gathering the family for a picnic and grilling tender, flavorful burgers, with the smell of a barbeque wafting on the breeze. Just over…

Rice Pudding & Ripe Rhubarb

By rebeccatalbotJune 5, 2014April 21, 2023 Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes budget meals, desserts, gluten-free

I am pretty sure the first time I ever ate rice pudding was at camp, as a counselor, at around age 17. That the adults in charge let 17-year-olds be camp counselors is one of the mysteries of my adult life. Adult life, though, has solved one other mystery. I now know why a magical…