KITCHEN COPY: THE WHOLE EGG

By chucksmithMay 6, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes, Vendors eggs, local ingredients, recipes

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…

Edible Landscapes: Planting for the Palate

By JenniferHetrickApril 30, 2015May 4, 2016 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

Adding plants with beautiful colors, textures and shapes to flowerbeds and garden space always makes sense, but joining permanent edible landscape plants to your yard is another bright idea that can benefit your family at the kitchen table. Anne-Marie McMahon, founder and owner of Sugarbush Nursery in Robeson Township, Berks County, gladly advocates installing edible landscape…

Cooking Fresh Greens

By recipesApril 22, 2015November 2, 2017 Cooking Methods, Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipes

Cooking Fresh Greens Fresh hearty greens are an excellent (and delicious!) source of vitamins. Maybe you’ve considered preparing them at home but don’t quite know how best to do that. Here is a SUPER SIMPLE preparation for greens, which can be used for many kinds such as swiss chard, collards, kale, beet greens, mustard greens,…

KITCHEN COPY: CONTEMPTIBLE KIWI

By chucksmithApril 21, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes, Seasonal, Winter Squash acorn squash, gluten-free, kiwi, recipes

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…

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

By recipesApril 16, 2015April 21, 2023 Breakfast, Featured, Recipes

Rhubarb is a unique, flavorful (and on its own fairly tart) fruit (or technically speaking, vegetable.) It can be such a delicious treat if prepared properly…and it’s so easy! This is a recipe for compote, which is basically a stew of fresh fruit with sugar. This particular compote is wonderful over ice cream, biscuits, shortcake,…

Harvest Fresh Strawberries from Your Backyard

By rebeccatalbotApril 16, 2015April 9, 2018 Berries, Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

Every year, the garden center at Wolff’s Apple House features an abundance of strawberry plants for home gardens, and every year that I hear about this it still sounds magical. Really? You can harvest strawberries from your backyard? And not just those tiny, gritty wild strawberries, but lush, flavorful homegrown strawberries? I shouldn’t be too…

KITCHEN COPY: C IS FOR CONFIT

By chucksmithApril 8, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes confit, recipes, red cabbage

It could have been the alcohol. But more likely it was just foolish pride… Having paid good money for my culinary education, I wasn’t about to let myself be upstaged by some amateur food enthusiast. Especially not in front of others. Small matter that one of those “others” was my new love interest, and Mr. food…

Designing Early Spring Flower Boxes

By rebeccatalbotApril 2, 2015April 24, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Flowers

This week, I caught up with Wolff’s Plant Manager Laura Dusenshine to learn more about designing early spring flower boxes to take full advantage of early spring flowers as we add splashes of color to our homes and gardens. Here is her vibrant, plentiful bouquet of advice. As people design flower boxes, what kinds of…

KITCHEN COPY: EASILY ELEGANT LEEKS

By chucksmithMarch 25, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Holiday, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal beets, Easter, leek recipe, winter produce

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 and placed on a cutting-board at home. I remember a cashier quizzically examining a bunch of…

Welcome Springtime with a Terrarium

By AlessandraSimmonsMarch 17, 2015March 17, 2015 Crafts, Featured DIY, succulents, terrariums

Terrariums are beautiful, tangible odes to spring. They are also easy to make. There are two kinds of terrariums: open and closed. Closed terrariums, that is, terrariums with lids, are perfect for plants that thrive in high-humidity, such as plants in the fern family. From asparagus to maidenhair, there is a great diversity of green and leaf…

Pavlova with Strawberries & Mint for St. Patrick’s Day

By rebeccatalbotMarch 12, 2015April 21, 2023 Berries, Desserts, Featured, Recipes dessert, gluten-free

In 2007, my husband and I found ourselves wandering through Boston. We were honeymooning there, and although we had each visited the city before, separately, we didn’t know it well. We wandered between the wharf and Newbury Comics, visited Paul Revere’s Old North Church and hopped the train to Cambridge, and every suppertime we found our way back to…

Our Best Spring Recipes

By rebeccatalbotMarch 5, 2015November 2, 2017 Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes

It is snowing in southeastern Pennsylvania as I write this, with three to five inches predicted to fall by evening. But at Wolff’s, tulips, crocuses, pansies, narcissus and daisies brighten the garden center, holding out hope for spring. I don’t know about you, but I sure need that hope. I need to start noticing that…

Rutabaga Carrot Ginger Soup

By SusanEdelmanFebruary 25, 2015April 21, 2023 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal, 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 turnips, the rutabaga’s smaller, more attractive relative. My grandmother served mashed turnips as a holiday…

Another Kind of Art – Winter Flower Arrangements

By JenniferHetrickFebruary 18, 2015February 19, 2015 Crafts, Featured, Seasonal

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 open seedpods on them which had my brain stirring. I quickly understood that an art…

A Simple Valentine’s Meal: Making Your Own Picnic at Home

By rebeccatalbotFebruary 12, 2015November 2, 2017 Featured, Holiday, Recipes

It’s a Valentine’s Day dilemma: restaurants are packed to the max, and yet not going out for a meal means that somebody is going to have to do a lot of work in the kitchen to prepare a special meal. As city dwellers, my husband and I have learned to avoid restaurants on Valentine’s Day, but we’ve solved…

Talking in the Language of Flowers

By JenniferHetrickFebruary 5, 2015February 5, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Flowers, Holiday

Speaking is often something done without words, though we sometimes don’t realize it. The same can be said for the Victorian language of flowers, which lets us communicate to those in our lives through something as simple as flowers we hand to someone we care about. Symbolic meanings of flowers are said to date back…

Bevan’s Own Make Candies Keeps Traditions Alive

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 29, 2015 Featured, Vendors

If you ask Randy Bevan what processes and traditions have stayed the same in the 56 years Bevan’s Own Make has been delighting the Delaware Valley with handmade candies, he will tell you, “Everything.” In a time when the new, shiny next big thing lures many businesses, Randy Bevan is a small business owner who believes…

Creamy Cabbage and Fresh Apples for the Winter

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 21, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Locally Grown, Recipes, Sides

As a child of the 1980’s, I have been familiar with cabbage from a young age. After all, as a three-year-old, what did I want more than a Cabbage Patch Kid? My great-aunt Lynne, a professional ballet dancer who wore sequined jackets and kept an eye out for trends, tracked down this hot item…

Savoring Southern Collard Greens

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 14, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Leafy Greens, Recipes, Sides

I keep a mental map with pins that mark favorite restaurants. The Collegeville, PA deli where I first introduced my husband to Philly-style hoagies. The ice cream stand by Lake Wallenpaupack that churns the creamiest ice cream this side of heaven. The tiny Filipino restaurant in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood that bakes soft, savory-sweet empanadas….

Start the Year off Right with Fresh Juice

By rebeccatalbotJanuary 7, 2015April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Recipes

After my parents came for Christmas, they left half a cheesecake in our fridge. This cheesecake was not only delicious, it was made from scratch. Since this is not the sort of thing to waste, my husband and I have been eating it, usually in moderately sized pieces, ever since the day after Christmas. For…