A Glimpse into the Glory of Your Gardens

By rebeccatalbotMay 28, 2014April 24, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

Back in April, Linda Johnson, Wolff’s Garden Center Manager, told me that even before she began working at Wolff’s, she came here to pick out her herbs. “You could have a field day going through here and thinking about your herb garden,” says Johnson. A few weeks ago, we asked YOU what you planted after…

Top 10 Reasons to Bring Leek Dishes to a Memorial Day Picnic

By rebeccatalbotMay 22, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Recipes, Root Vegetables easy salad, healthy recipes, leek tart, leeks

10. Leeks are versatile and can easily swap with onions in any recipe, but their flavor is mild, earthy and unique. Leeks are in the same family as garlic and onions (and, for that matter, lilies!), so they have a bulb shape that might look familiar, even if you’ve never prepared leeks before. 9. Leeks…

Set the Table for Spring with Cucumber Dill Salad & Black Bean Wraps

By rebeccatalbotMay 15, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal cucumbers, dill, herbs, tomatoes, vegetarian

Whenever I have a chance to teach English courses, I like to talk about cliches. “What are some of your favorite cliches?” I ask. “Or some of the most bewildering?” We write them down. “Now, how can we freshen them up? Make them more unexpected?” Cliches got their start because someone came up with a…

Savory Crepes for Mother’s Day Brunch

By rebeccatalbotMay 8, 2014April 21, 2023 Apples, Breakfast, Featured, Recipes apples, breakfast, brunch, cheddar cheese, crepes, ham, mother's day

I have a lot of memories of bringing my mom breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day. Those childhood memories tell me that my siblings and I must have accomplished this every single year, arranging a tray with an orange juice glass, a mug of coffee, a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, and a bowl…

Frittata Time

By rebeccatalbotMay 1, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal bell pepper, eggs, paleo, vegetarian, vidalia onion, zucchini

I first discovered frittatas a few years ago when I needed to use up some fresh sage. Sage, with its leaves like Lamb’s-Ear, seemed fancy enough for Martha Stewart, so I turned to Martha Stewart’s Healthy Quick Cook, a treasure my aunt had given me for Christmas years earlier, and discovered a lovely sage-mushroom frittata. …

Celebrate Local Tomatoes with Open-Face Tomato Sandwiches

By rebeccatalbotApril 24, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Sandwiches, Tomatoes

When I moved to Chicago in 2005, long-time Chicagoans warned me that during the winter, gray clouds take over the sky and remain there basically until April, as if a giant lid covers the city. There are a few day-to-day exceptions, but on the whole, this means that from December to the end of March,…

A Simplified Cauliflower Side Dish

By rebeccatalbotApril 18, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Sides

Preparing a holiday meal is joyous and generous. With good music playing, spicy aromas filling the room, and friends or family members playing sous-chef and line cooks, the preparations are often as much fun as the meal itself. That fun can be even more relaxing with some prep done beforehand, so here’s a cauliflower side…

Putting a Full Herb Garden to Full Use

By rebeccatalbotApril 10, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Recipes basil, gardening, herbs, medicinal, mint

Some people grow up surrounded by fresh herbs. They watch, or help, as their parents grow herbs, chop herbs and garnish dishes with soft handfuls of basil, oregano, parsley or sage. Other people discover the magic of fresh herbs later in life, and meals are never the same afterward. Discovering fresh herbs marks a turning…

Gabbing in Garden-Speak

By JenniferHetrickApril 3, 2014April 24, 2015 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…

Salads for Springtime

By rebeccatalbotMarch 27, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Leafy Greens, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal

It looks like March will be going out like a lamb after all, although I can’t help but think most of the lambs in the Delaware Valley will be huddled under shelters away from the rain instead of chowing down in the pasture. Sigh. It’s not too hard to sympathize with a sheep who’s been…

Stirring Up the Routine with Rosemary Lattes

By rebeccatalbotMarch 20, 2014April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Recipes

It can be easy to go along in life expecting each day to be similar to the one before. The alarm goes off at the same time each morning, I brew coffee in the French press, simmer some oatmeal, read for a bit and then get to work. I expect the coffee and oatmeal to…

Minty Green St. Patrick’s Day Smoothie

By rebeccatalbotMarch 13, 2014April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipes

For much of my adult life, I have lived in Chicago, where St. Patrick’s Day lasts basically all March long and we’re so excited about the holiday that we dye the Chicago River green. There’s plenty to get excited about with this holiday, and Americans have celebrated it heartily since Colonial Days: since 1737 to…

Pansies Pave the Path to Spring

By rebeccatalbotMarch 5, 2014March 6, 2014 Featured, Gardening Advice: Flowers flowers, gardening, pansies, spring

Wolff’s is starting to blossom, and pansies are always the first flower we feature. Soon we will plant a row of these flowers along the roadside leading up to Wolff’s, and Linda Johnson, our plant and nursery manager, is planning to plant pansies at her home this weekend. Linda explains why pansies make her happy…

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

By rebeccatalbotFebruary 27, 2014April 21, 2023 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Root Vegetables

What is it that makes comfort food so comforting? Is it indulging in food that tastes so good it must be bad for you? Is it the warmth of the food itself? (Clearly not, or a bowl of fudge brownie ice cream would not be quite so comforting!) Is it the memories associated with the…

Tomato Spinach Pasta: Making it On My Own

By rebeccatalbotFebruary 20, 2014April 21, 2023 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipes, Tomatoes pasta, recipes, spinach, tomato

Meals that I made when I moved into my first apartment stay in my memory and remain my favorites. Frying up an omelet and adding anything I had on hand– caramelized onions, tomatoes, sometimes even corn or black beans– was a sign not just of creativity but of independence. Being resourceful meant that I was…

Comforting Winter Breakfasts

By rebeccatalbotFebruary 13, 2014April 21, 2023 Breakfast, Featured, Recipes, Seasonal breakfast, compote, oatmeal, pancakes

My house feels chilly when I wake up on winter mornings. The radiators huff and grumble and squeal, but they can’t quite keep up with the frigid temperatures outside. This calls for a good cup of coffee and a hearty, comforting breakfast. I want something warm and soothing but healthy. Oatmeal answers to this description,…

Dilly Bean Soup

By rebeccatalbotFebruary 5, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Soup beans, potatoes, recipes, soups, winter

In the winter, I make soup. When the winter as is long and relentless as it has been this year, I find comfort wherever I can. In many mugs of peppermint tea or cinnamon tea. In cozying up under a warm blanket and reading a good novel. In watching an exciting TV series straight through,…

Make Room for Mushrooms: Mushroom-Swiss Sandwich

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 30, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Leafy Greens, Locally Grown, Recipes, Sandwiches kennett square, local ingredients, mushrooms, swiss

I have to admit, it’s been a long while since I’ve felt like sunbathing, and I feel like I’m running low on Vitamin D, that vitamin so renowned for strengthening bones as it helps the body absorb calcium. If you haven’t felt much like picnicking in the snow and soaking up sunshine, there’s good news…

Olympic Food

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 23, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Soup

Dinnertime and the Olympics were the two main events I looked forward to as a kid. The time between Olympics seemed interminable. Four years?! I’d hardly even lived that long. When the winter Olympics came on TV, my siblings and I skated around our living room in our sneakers and did pirouettes, arabesques and flying…

Farm Film of Media Premieres January 16 and 17—Watermelon Magic

By JenniferHetrickJanuary 13, 2014December 3, 2015 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…