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…

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…

Warm Up with Spicy Salsa Soup

By rachelvanduzerJanuary 10, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Soup, Tomatoes

With temperatures hovering in the single digits and teens for several days the past week, I started to crave warm foods like lots and lots of tea and hot soup. One of my favorite soups is both temperature-hot and just a little bit spicy-hot. This Mexican dish goes by many names: Spicy Salsa Soup, Tortilla…

A 20-Minute Budget Vegan Recipe to Start the New Year Right

By rachelvanduzerJanuary 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Tomatoes

Every New Year, I spend some time reviewing my budget from the previous year and generally making some resolutions about food: cook at home more so that I can eat out less, waste less food with better meal planning and consume more vegetable and whole-grain rich foods. The problem is that without a good plan…

New Year’s Eve Recipes: Roasted Red Pepper Dip & Two Herb-Infused Cocktails

By JenniferHetrickDecember 26, 2013April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Holiday, Recipes cocktails

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…

Lingering over Christmas Appetizers

By rebeccatalbotDecember 19, 2013April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Holiday, Recipes

During the Christmas season, we enjoy the presence of people we love. Talking, laughing, listening, enjoying comfortable silences–all of this is what it means to enjoy each others’ presence at Christmastime. It is a time to rest, relax, and linger over laughter, conversation, and appetizers. That means, of course, that for some of the people…

Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen

By rebeccatalbotDecember 12, 2013November 2, 2017 Featured, Gifts from the Kitchen, Holiday, Recipes

One of the best Christmas presents I have ever received was a cardboard box full of food: maple cured bacon and three different kinds of jam made from apples and berries grown in a backyard garden. My husband and I were away from our families for the holiday, and waking up and frying that bacon—the…

Deck Those Halls: The Charm of Great Local Décor

By JenniferHetrickDecember 5, 2013April 21, 2023 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…

Wolff Family Apple Sage Stuffing

By recipesNovember 27, 2013April 21, 2023 Apples, Featured, Holiday, Recipes

The Wolff family has many favorite recipes and most of them they have graciously shared right here on their website. When I began searching for a stuffing recipe for this Thanksgiving, Wolff’s trusted recipe collection was the first place I looked. And since I’m going to be spending a good amount of time in the…

Splendid Thanksgiving Sides: New Twists and Old Traditions

By rebeccatalbotNovember 21, 2013December 28, 2019 Featured, Holiday, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal herbs, potatoes, side dish, sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a day when many pots are bubbling on the stove, cutting boards are strewn across counter tops, the fragrance of herbs lingers on the cook’s hands, and a tasting spoon always produces delicious samples. This creative chaos itself is an occasion for gratitude. As we boil, chop, grate, and mash, we partake in…

Sweet Potato Casserole as a Favorite Thanksgiving Side

By Nancy TirrellNovember 14, 2013April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal

One year my family went out for Thanksgiving dinner. Never again! The stuffing tasted funny, they ran out of pumpkin pie, and worst of all, there were NO leftovers to break out the next day! It felt like Thanksgiving never happened! That year, I realized there are certain flavors our family expects at Thanksgiving. It’s…

Repurposing Pumpkins and Delighting in Slices of Pumpkin Roll

By JenniferHetrickOctober 31, 2013April 21, 2023 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…