KITCHEN COPY: POMEGRANATE

Although most pomegranates are and have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent for centuries, today the fruit can be found growing in California and Arizona. Besides being a wellspring of minerals, raw pomegranate seeds provide a whopping 12 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, and are an excellent…

KITCHEN COPY: AMAZING ALMONDS

In my last post, I mentioned that I suffer from lactose intolerance. And when I write suffer, I mean suffer. Giving up ice cream has been one of the most difficult and challenging things I’ve ever had to do. But as delicious as ice cream may be, the onslaught of abdominal pain and discomfort which resulted from…

KITCHEN COPY: RAMBUTAN!

It’s difficult to describe the rambutan…It helps to be familiar with the texture and flavor of Lychee fruit, and the strange, otherworldliness of sea urchins. According to Wikipedia, the rambutan (a name which refers to the tree and the fruit) is native to tropical regions of Southeast Asia and is related to the lychee, longan, and mamoncillo. The fruit is…

KITCHEN COPY:FRESH CRANBERRIES

I’ve been told that men tend to gain a lot of weight in their thirties. I keep hoping that will happen to me. I could stand to gain a pound or two. But all I’ve gotten so far is lactose intolerance, and a gluten allergy. I reluctantly confess this. It was only recently that I was a…

KITCHEN COPY:SWISS CHARD

Has it ever happened to you that two things enter your life at the same time, and forever after it’s nearly impossible to think of one without also thinking of the other? It happened to me about twelve years ago. It happened to me with Swiss chard, and my wife. I can’t cook Swiss chard without also…

KITCHEN COPY: SWEET 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…

KITCHEN COPY:A PRETTY PUMPKIN

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…

KITCHEN COPY: HONEYCRISP APPLE LIME GRANITA

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…

KITCHEN COPY: WATERMELON-TINI

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…

KITCHEN COPY:FLAVORFUL FINOCCHIONA

On any given day Wolff’s buyer, Lisa McWaters, is in the process of introducing a new product onto the shelves. The process can take anywhere from a day, to several weeks. There is usually a trial period where Wolff’s employees get a chance to preview an item, or help determine whether it should be carried…

KITCHEN COPY:A HANDSOME PEAR

If you met me ten years ago and we struck up a conversation about favorite foods, I would have proudly admitted that I preferred sandwiches over all else. Especially grilled sandwiches. The same holds true today… I love grilled sandwiches. A grilled cheese sandwich was the first thing I ever cooked. Or rather, it was the first thing I enjoyed cooking. When I…

KITCHEN COPY: SCANDALOUS STRING BEANS

Whether whores first invented puttanesca is no concern of mine. The sauce is bright, flavorful, pungent, and goes with just about anything you can scrounge together. Including the ubiquitous green bean. Literally translated, alla puttanesca means “in the style of a prostitute.” It is a culinary legend whose origins (like so many inventions) are clouded with speculation. There are various…

KITCHEN COPY: A RHUBARB TO REMEMBER

The poisonous leaves of the rhubarb plant can cause a variety of symptoms including stomach pain, nausea, and breathing difficulty. The bright red stalk of the rhubarb plant, on the other hand, is totally edible and can cause delight, a sense of wellness, and sometimes (in extreme cases) euphoria. When I was about seven years old, my…

KITCHEN COPY: THE WHOLE EGG

For someone who grew up eating uniformly bleach-white supermarket eggs, all natural, free range eggs were a revelation. My wife used to run a farm, and it was there that I first encountered them. It was on that farm where I witnessed firsthand the obvious benefits of allowing laying hens the opportunity to range freely. And it was also on that farm where I first tasted…

KITCHEN COPY: CONTEMPTIBLE KIWI

At the risk of sounding totally counterculture, I would like to confess that I love tropical fruit. That is, I thoroughly enjoy consuming fruits that have been harvested in tropical regions, packaged, and shipped across the globe. I enjoy these things even while I acknowledge the impact that common farming/distributing practices have on the environment and…

Behind the Scenes of Wolff’s Chef-Made Prepared Foods

Since the summer of 2010, our chef Chuck Smith has been creating delectable new recipes for Wolff’s Apple House. He studied at Baltimore International College and apprenticed at Jeannier’s, a classic French restaurant in Baltimore. No stranger to the benefits of local and in-season produce, he has volunteered at an East Coast organic farm and…