KITCHEN COPY: WATERMELON-TINI

By chucksmithAugust 26, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, recipes, summer produce, watermelon

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:NOTEWORTHY NECTARINES

By chucksmithAugust 12, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce local ingredients, locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, nectarines, peaches, recipes, summer produce

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. Like I’m stealing something precious from others. Which leads me to a confession. Earlier today,…

Easy Cheesy Vegetable Casserole

By recipesAugust 5, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Summer Produce

The name says it all! For this Easy Cheesy Vegetable Casserole, prep the veggies ahead of time for a quick, pop-in-the-oven dinner.

KITCHEN COPY: HEAVENLY HEIRLOOMS

By chucksmithJuly 29, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes local ingredients, locally grown produce, locally grown tomatoes, recipes, tomatoes, vegetables, vegetarian

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. Americans have rediscovered (thanks to hard-working small farmers) how to embrace seasonality, and a desire to experience the…

Watermelon Green Smoothie

By recipesJuly 28, 2015April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Leafy Greens, Peaches, Recipes, Summer Produce

Green smoothies have been gaining popularity for the past few years. Throw in some fresh spinach or kale with your fruit smoothie, and: POW! Your pink, red, or peachy smoothie is now a brilliant shade of green, but still tastes the same! And, you’ve snuck in some great healthy bits. What’s not to like? Using juicy…

In Late July, Wolff’s Is Tomato City!

By recipesJuly 24, 2015June 24, 2016 Featured, Locally Grown, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

Perhaps you marveled at our huge selection of tomato plants when the weather was just warming up and local produce season had barely started. Now, in the heart of tomato season, you can feast your eyes on the magical, beautiful bounty of tomato fruits—all picked vine-ripe by local farmers! The quality and selection at this…

Peach Flatbread Pizza with Prosciutto, Mascarpone and Thyme

By rebeccatalbotJuly 16, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce

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 of summer vacation, I’d gotten into the habit of eating homemade ice cream and crepes…

Early Summer Crop Rotation Smarts in Your Backyard Garden

By JenniferHetrickJune 24, 2015June 25, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Hardy Vegetables, Root Vegetables, Summer Produce backyard, fertilizer, garden, hardy vegetables, soil, summer, vegetables

This week in June is a good time to think about what plants to add to backyard gardens after you’re ready to take out what you might have planted at the end of April or the beginning of May—likely radishes, turnips, lettuce, other cool season greens and maybe spinach. Erica Lavdanski of B & H…

Zucchini Pesto

By recipesJune 18, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Summer Produce

This is a great way to add a bit more body (and vegetables!) to your usual pesto. It is very creamy, and has less of a bite due to the garlic being cooked first.

Cucumber Watermelon Salsa

By recipesJune 3, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Recipes, Summer Produce

Crunchy cucumbers—especially when you can get them locally-grown and fresh-picked!—make a great base for a salsa. Here, they are paired with ripe, sweet watermelon for a unique cucumber watermelon salsa that tastes great with grilled seafood!

KITCHEN COPY: SCANDALOUS STRING BEANS

By chucksmithJune 3, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Photos, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce basil, green beans, local ingredients, locally grown produce, recipes, vegetarian

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…

Roasted Veggies & Quinoa

By recipesMay 7, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Sides, Summer Produce

This is a very versatile recipe. The veggies and the herbs can be changed to suit your taste, but after a lot of trial and error I find this exact combination to be outstanding! You can use any color quinoa, but I prefer red mainly for the color. This is a great side dish for…

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…

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…

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…

Fresh Indian Summer Salsa is Savvy in September

By JenniferHetrickSeptember 4, 2013April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Holiday, Locally Grown, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

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 together by Wolff’s marketing consultant, Rachel VanDuzer, incorporates not only tomatoes but peaches, corn and…

Labor Day Picnic Possibilities and Some Feisty Guacamole

By JenniferHetrickAugust 28, 2013April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Holiday, Locally Grown, Peaches, Prepared Foods, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes, Vendors

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 4 p.m., too, so they can get together with the rest of their family as…

Peach Smarts and a Cobbler, Too

By JenniferHetrickAugust 22, 2013April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Vendors

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 of peach trees, primarily freestone varieties. Weaver notes that one unique attribute of peaches is…