Sweet Pickles
A friend recently gifted me a bag of homegrown cucumbers. It was more fresh veggies than my husband and I would be able to eat in a week, so I started brainstorming ways to preserve them. I needed a quick,…
Category Seasonal
Vegan Mushroom Walnut Pâté
I’m already planning ahead for January. The tough thing about January when the holidays are over, is that we don’t leave the house much. Why, though? Yes, it’s cold, that’s one reason. Yes, the snow, that’s another reason. But the…
Grilled Ham Sandwich with Pickled Vidalia Onion Cabbage with Homemade Honey Mustard Sauce
A truly fantastic sandwich is a work of art in my book. The space between two slices fo great bread is, in my mind anyway, a canvas on which textures, flavors, and experimentation can all coexist together. It was a…
Balsamic Chicken with Asparagus and Spring Veggies
My mother’s recipe for this dish calls it “balsamic chicken”, a title that hides what I love most about it. It’s all about the veggies. Asparagus. Red bell peppers. Carrots. Mushrooms. Onions. The wealth of veggies makes the meal a…
Escape the Land of Bland with Garlic Scapes
Hardneck garlic sends up a graceful, often curling, flower stem called a garlic scape. This is often harvested before it blooms to encourage the plant to put more energy into growing a large (and delicious) bulb. But like all things…
Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
Have you ever had this problem? You make a pumpkin pie, but the recipe calls for more filling than will fit inside the pie crust. If only all of life’s problems were so delicious. I decided to freeze the leftover…
Super Citrus Salad with Chicken
I visited Wolff’s Apple House on New Year’s Eve and came home with four different kinds of citrus. The weather outside was frigid. The ground was covered with layer of snow. But once I had cut open the grapefruit, Cara…
Christmas Window Boxes
DIY Winter Window Boxes A few years ago, we found ourselves window shopping in a quaint town around Christmastime and came across the most beautiful Christmas Window Boxes. We just loved them and have made a tradition to make these…
How We Select the Best Fall Decor
This time of year, Wolff’s carries over 2,000 mums and a host of classic orange pumpkins from three pounds up to 40 pounds—not to mention heirloom pumpkins in all kinds of unexpected shapes and colors, and a few prizewinner pumpkins…
Perfecting Your Autumn Display
A well-crafted autumn display gives you something beautiful to come home to after a long day at work, says Amy Lang, plant manager at Wolff’s Apple House. It brings “solace at the end of your day,” she says. Adding a…
Bottomless Corn Pie – Another Way to Love Sweet Corn
I finally began to appreciate some of my Pennsylvania Dutch (technically German) heritage a few years ago through some culinary exploring. My favorite dive into this subculture of food quickly resulted in corn pie made with in-season, locally grown sweet…
Spring Garlic Pizza
Spring Garlic, also called “green garlic,” is a culinary treat that does not receive as much fanfare as it deserves. This mild stage of garlic may be hard to find unless you grow your own or have access to a farmers market that…
Spicy Chicken with Cucumber-Rhubarb Salsa
This recipe is a fun, savory, spicy way to use fresh local rhubarb! Pair it with local asparagus on the side for a delicious springtime meal!
Beautifying Gardens in Winter & Prepping Ahead for Spring
Even though winter is just around the corner, that doesn’t mean gardens can’t have value during the cold season. In fact, several Wolff’s Apple House employees attended the Independent Garden Center Show East in Baltimore, Md., last year and heard Martha…
Making a Moon Garden
When the night sky shines bright light down into your backyard, it’s a wordless hint that a moon garden just might be a good fit for the space. Holly Cusumano of Phoenixville is the chairman of the Philadelphia Unit of the Herb Society of…
Cultivating Greens and Making An Easy Arugula Salad
Despite chilly, rainy days in the recent weeks of early spring, May will soon be showing us the brighter and warmer days which are perfect for planting garden greens. When it comes to cultivating different kinds of leafy greens to…
Baked Tofu with Creamy Asparagus Sauce
This is a great way to prepare asparagus, and it’s vegan to boot!
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…
Chicken Escarole Soup
Warm up with this great version of escarole soup! Excellent with our organic, local, free-range chicken from Canter Hill Farm! SaveSave
Sage, Sausage & Apple Cornbread Stuffing
A fancy twist on traditional stuffing, this Thanksgiving recipe blends favorite flavors of the season.
Cooking a Fresh Turkey
Never cooked a fresh turkey before? Never fear! Here’s our advice.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
KITCHEN COPY:NOTEWORTHY NECTARINES
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.…
KITCHEN COPY: HEAVENLY HEIRLOOMS
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.…
Peach Flatbread Pizza with Prosciutto, Mascarpone and Thyme
Some things make going to the gym totally worth it. This peach flatbread pizza is one of them. Last night, I returned to Women’s Workout World after a long hiatus. It was high time to return because over the course…
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…
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…
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…
KITCHEN COPY: EASILY ELEGANT LEEKS
Leeks have come a long way in my life since 2001. It’s been an uphill battle for this once neglected ingredient. Unlike onions and garlic, the leek is more intimidating. It seems almost alien when pulled from a grocery bag…
Rutabaga Carrot Ginger Soup
The rutabaga is new to me. It’s one of those vegetables I walk on past when I’m shopping at the market. Maybe it’s the funny looks. Maybe it’s the silly name. I don’t know. The closest I ever came is…
Another Kind of Art – Winter Flower Arrangements
A few weeks ago while outside with my dog as he enjoyed a piddle break, I found myself standing close to my garden, suddenly compelled to cut off pieces of my Trumpet Vine plant’s branches. It was the dried, broken…
Pumpkin Pasta with Sausage and Sage
Autumn collects synonyms. It’s already the only season with two interchangeable names, and from there, its monikers multiply. It’s also known as pumpkin season, apple season, cider season and more. But how long has autumn been known as the season…
Food or Decoration? Here’s Our Heirloom Pumpkin Advice
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,…
Celebrating Apple Season (Part 2)
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…
Make It A (Superfood) Mocha
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…
15 Easy In-Season Recipes for Labor Day
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…
Set the Table for Spring with Cucumber Dill Salad & Black Bean Wraps
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…
Frittata Time
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…
Gabbing in Garden-Speak
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…
Salads for Springtime
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…
Comforting Winter Breakfasts
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,…
Farm Film of Media Premieres January 16 and 17—Watermelon Magic
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…
Deck Those Halls: The Charm of Great Local Décor
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…
Soups and Prepared Foods: Go-To Grabs that Go Great around the Holidays
Soups and other prepared foods are something you can easily pick up at Wolff’s Apple House to suit colder-season temperatures as they make their way into chillier months. And these are also great around holidays, thankfully. Wolff’s own chef, Chuck…
Splendid Thanksgiving Sides: New Twists and Old Traditions
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…
Sweet Potato Casserole as a Favorite Thanksgiving Side
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…
Repurposing Pumpkins and Delighting in Slices of Pumpkin Roll
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…
The Wonders of Winter Squash and Baba Ghanouj
As the farm femme behind B & H Organic Produce in Caernarvon Township in Lancaster County, Erica Bowers Lavdanski has a great admiration for every last winter squash she grows. “I love lots of things about winter squash. I love…
Unique Ideas for Carving and Decorating Pumpkins
The pumpkin supply is bursting from all corners of Wolff’s Apple House. Roswell Henderson, the assistant manager for Frecon Farms in Boyertown, Berks County, has a great affinity for turning pumpkins into the unexpected and amusingly surprising outside of homes.…
Stayman-Winesap Apples in Apple Crisp
Stayman-Winesap apples are now ready for the charming delight of chomping at Wolff’s Apple House. In its historical context, the Stayman-Winesap apple is usually deemed a seedling of the heirloom Winesap apple, taking its introduction from Dr. Joseph Stayman in…
Neck Pumpkins and Their Persuasion
The great lure of neck pumpkins is under way at Wolff’s Apple House. Their curiously elongated shapes and lighter hues compared to traditional pumpkins make them an easy game of I Spy for the eyes. Neck pumpkins are an ancestor…
Sip-Worthy Cider is in Season
Reminders of autumn are rich in the air when jug after jug of apple cider spans the storefront of Wolff’s Apple House. The seasonal lure with this sipping factor stems from the efforts of Weaver’s Orchard in Morgantown, Berks County,…
Getting into Fall Gardening and Decorating
The possibilities of fall gardening and decorating are now under way; the colors of autumn so iconic to the outside of homes as the weather cools down after summer beckon easily for the eyes at Wolff’s Apple House. Bloom-boasting hardy…
Fresh Indian Summer Salsa is Savvy in September
As a fitting segue in saying adieu to the heat of August while saying hello to September, a Fresh Indian Summer Salsa crafted from ingredients at Wolff’s Apple House is a great food-geared introduction to this autumn. The recipe, put…
Labor Day Picnic Possibilities and Some Feisty Guacamole
While Fran, Pete and Ashley Wolff work every Labor Day, they’re grateful for the opportunity to help people appreciate their goodbye to summer with great foods and ideas for good spots for picnics. And they like that they close at…
Peach Smarts and a Cobbler, Too
Wolff’s Apple House sells some of its selection of peaches from Weaver’s Orchard in Morgantown, Berks County. And its owner, Ed Weaver, has plenty of peach smarts regularly on the mind from growing them each year. He raises 15 acres…
Rosie VS. the Jalapeño in Spicy Fresh Corn Soup
Wolff’s Apple House’s marketing consultant, Rachel VanDuzer, recently shared a Spicy Fresh Corn Soup recipe with her family and had the new puppy in her parents’ home revved up vocally for it as well, with a humorous story tied into…
Testing Out Tantalizing Tomato Pie
Since August is known as the time for local produce, especially tomatoes, a homemade tomato pie recipe from Phoebe Canakis pleases the palate and complements plentiful tomatoes perfectly. Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food lives in Lancaster County and spends much…
Mingling Meat and Melons
The marriage of melons and deli-ready meats is a great August meal add-on, especially with Wolff’s Apple House offering plenty of honeydew, canary cantaloupe, sugar baby watermelon, seedless watermelon and yellow watermelon right now. Di Bruno Bros., a vendor of…
The Zeal of Zesty Watermelon Gazpacho
As the face behind Global Vertical Farms based in Glenmoore, Chester County, Janice Kelsey and her whole food nutrition approaches keep summer recipes easily in the future: think Zesty Watermelon Gazpacho. “I prefer to use a smaller seedless watermelon,” Kelsey…
The Perfect Summer Palate Perk: Peach Oat Crisp
Wolff’s Apple House Chef Chuck Smith crafts a Peach Oat Crisp recipe that brings one of summer’s most notable local fruits into the picture with an easily enticing want-worthy factor. “You could use any peach (white or yellow) and range…
Heirloom Tomatoes Make for Great Salsa
Jillian Prout of Prout’s Jollyview Farm in the Oley Valley of Berks County enjoys the heirloom tomatoes she grows, but it might be fair to say she enjoys a good salsa from them even more. Heirloom tomatoes, known as…
Southwest Corn Fritters with Chipotle Honey Makes it Easy to Love Corn
As the dairy manager of Wholesome Dairy Farms in Yellow House, Berks County, Rebecca Seidel handles most of the food production at the raw milk operation, and having grown up on a farm, knows how to appreciate sweet corn in…
Berry-Topped Pavlova
Phoebe Canakis’ Berry Topped-Pavlova is a perfectly red, white and blue dessert to suit July 4th celebrations. Canakis lives in Lancaster County and is the food-mind behind inspiring seasonally chic, seductively wholesome, garden-to-plate eats through her blogs, magazine, catering and…
The Cunning Way of Caprese
Caprese is an Italian-inspired summer dish that riles mouth-watering factors with ease. It has a lot of possibilities in variation but usually involves slices of freshly picked tomatoes, basil leaves from the garden, cuts of mozzarella cheese and either drizzles…
Crazy about Canning
The kitchen smarts and culinary lure of canning have seen quite a comeback in recent years—and with good reason. Not only is canning useful and resourceful, but it’s a rewarding opportunity to support your own chomp factor from home. And…
The Glory of Greens
Greens deserve a lot more credit in our dietary lineup than they often receive. Not only do they go swimmingly with many summer meals, but they are some the most nutrition-savvy add-ons we can join into our munching minutes. With…
Natural Fertilizers at Home: Feed Those Tomato Plants
With so many chemical fertilizers on the market today, it’s nice to know that there are plenty of natural versions of fertilizers and soil amendment possibilities right at home when you’re ready to feed the tomato plants you’ve purchased from…
The Lesser-Known Uses and Benefits of Herbs
Rosemary is known for bringing out the impeccable flavors in Mediterranean cuisine, but it’s also quite a perk to skin. Not only does it help to shrink the appearance of capillaries, but it also acts as a natural anti-inflammatory, so it…
Keep Your Christmas Tree Looking Good ALL Season Long
Caring for Your FRESH Tree YOUR TREE HAS RECEIVED A FRESH CUT, unless you requested otherwise. (If you are making your own fresh cut: Use a saw to cut through the base of the trunk, an inch or so from…
Mums in All Shapes, Colors and Sizes
If you’ve spent much time with the Wolff family, one thing is pretty clear: they intimately know the products they sell, and they put a lot of effort into making sure their customers know as much about their products as…
Fall Is on the Tip of My Tongue
I remember heading to class one crisp September day. The sky was a deep shade of blue with puffs of big white clouds passing overhead. As I breathed in that clear autumn air, I realized one thing: I wouldn’t make…
What Exactly Is a Seckel Pear?
Never heard of Seckel Pears? Well, you’re not alone. The Seckel Pear is relatively unknown across the country, but it’s one of the Delaware Valley’s hidden treasures. It was developed here in the Southeastern Pennsylvania in the early 1800’s by a farmer named Mr.…
This is The Month for Pennsylvania Produce!
Mid-August is a magical time: a twilight season. Just like twilight is the hour to enjoy the beauty of the day before nightfall, August is the month to enjoy the best of both summer and early fall. In August, all…
Now That’s a Good Sign
Look for this sign around Wolff’s Apple House to see the many varieties of heirloom tomatoes we have during the season! Heirloom tomatoes are a sign of the season here at Wolff’s. We’re well-known for them! Yellow, green, red, purple,…
Cool as a Cucumber and Peach Salad
A few summers ago, someone sent me a recipe for a simple cucumber and peach salad. This was a recipe that combined two ingredients I never thought would like each other. Didn’t one belong atop lettuce, and the other beneath…
Local Produce Makes a Big Difference with the “Big Three”!
Fran Wolff calls corn, peaches and tomatoes “the Big Three,” because when it comes to local produce, these are the fruits and vegetables that everyone around loves and looks forward to. And there is just no denying it: local varieties…
Wolff’s Winter Colors
Winter came early to the east coast this year, painting over October’s vibrant palette and turning everything white. That’s the thing about winter that can really start to get to me: the way that color drains out of the landscape…
Please Pass the Cranberry Sauce
I sat across from my cousin’s nine-year-old son this Thanksgiving. A big platter of cranberry sauce gleamed on the table between us. Greedily, we both stared at it. “Well, my friend,” I said. “Looks like there’s half for you and…
Season’s Sweetness
Did you ever visit a museum gift shop as a kid? Did you ever beg to have an adult buy you a geode: one of those round sandpapery rocks that look homely on the outside, but reveal crystals inside when…
Corn on the Cob, Fresh off the Grill
Fireflies. Volleyball. Sandy toes. Lemonade. Grass poking through a picnic blanket. Campfires. Corn on the cob. All of these bring summer vividly to mind, and fresh, locally-grown corn on the cob, with its buttery-sweet crisp crunch, is one of the…
Celebrate Pennsylvania Produce with Us
Did you know Pennsylvania produce has its own month? At Wolff’s Apple House every month is a month to celebrate produce, but in August it’s official! This year is the sixth year running that the Commonwealth has designated August as…
Hot Summer, Frozen Fruit
In one attempt to remove refined sugar from my family’s diet, I decided to make my own frozen desserts instead of purchasing pre-made ice pops. Many frozen ice pops in the supermarket include corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup in…
Welcome to Wolff’s Apple House’s New Website!
If you’ve visited wolfsapplehouse.com in the past, no doubt you’ve noticed our new look! On July 15, 2011 we launched our new website, which reflects the authentic beauty of our century old store, makes it easy to find quality information…