These vegetarian crabcakes have the yummy flavor and texture of crabcakes… with none of the crab! Serve on a bun with tartar sauce and your favorite toppings—we recommend lettuce, tomato, and pickles! Makes about 8 patties.  

  I heard the expression “salad days” before. I had a vague sense of its meaning. I thought if somebody said, “These are my salad days,” it meant, these were the days of abundance and youth, almost like the word heyday, the peak of experience. That understanding catches most of the meaning, but there’s a little more detail to it. In fact, “salad days” is from Shakespeare. (Of course it...

Shopping at a local farm market like Wolff's makes it easy to become attuned to what's in season when. This makes it an exciting challenge to find recipes to match the produce you discover from local farms. Here's a handy guide to what's in season when.... and the recipes you can make each season! Of course, this is just a rough overview of what's available in each season. Be sure...

It's strawberry season, so that means my go-to dessert is strawberry shortcake. My 4-year-old LOVES to help bake. He also loves to eat whatever we bake, so the faster it's done, the better. Enter: microwavable mug cakes. I'll admit, I was skeptical that these recipes circulating on Pinterest would be any good. But they really are delicious and are SO easy! All you have to do is melt the butter...

The following definitions may be helpful: Macaroon: A coconut-based cookie Macaron: A meringue-based cookie available in many colors and flavors Macron: The president of France Today, I'll be talking about the meringue-based macaron cookies (pronounced mack-ah-ROHN). These were some of our favorite cookies when we lived in France. They could be found in nearly every bakery, but most city centers also had a specialty macaron shop. My favorite flavors were...

Photos by Abbi Bull   While this spring has looked nothing like any of us planned on, it's always helpful to look for the silver lining. College student Abbi Bull was enjoying her semester at Cairn University when the pandemic hit. She had to move back home and continue studies online. While she had been looking forward to another semester of living on campus after commuting for a year, she...

Smoothies are a perfect filling side for any time of day, but in my family they are especially great as an afternoon snack.  My kids will pretty much always eat fruit, which is great!  Sometimes though I want them to get some extra calories beyond just fruit, so a yogurt smoothie is a good compromise of fruit + calories. Pequea Valley Farm Yogurt is made from golden, rich & creamy...

I was recently reminded that while we are all in the same boat with the current quarantine measures, we are not all in the same storm. Some of us find ourselves working longer hours on the front lines while others are unable to work. Some of us are sheltering at home and missing our loved ones. Some of us are caring for children who would otherwise be in daycare or...

Wild-growing and locally foraged, fiddleheads are the tightly coiled tops of young ferns as they emerge from the ground in the spring. Their season is VERY short, so get them while you can! Best enjoyed as a small side dish, fiddleheads have a flavor that is reminiscent of asparagus and slightly nutty. This recipe is for one half pint container and serves approximately two people.  

Customers have asked many questions about the availability and accessibility of our plants during these trying times, so we wanted to address your FAQ’s: 1.) Am I able to buy plants at Wolff’s right now? Yes! We are open for business selling many essentials like Dairy, Bakery, Meat, Produce, Canned/Jarred/Boxed foods, etc. Our plants are also ALL available for purchase too! 2.) Am I still able to come in and...

During times of stress, it is especially crucial to pay attention to the things that sustain us. We renew our appreciation for our daily bread. And while we are socially distancing, we especially appreciate food that is both nutritious and an exciting treat. The Media Bakers Guild is continuing to supply this. Baked goods from the Media Bakers Guild will be at Wolff's tomorrow (March 21), but the members of...

Ooey-gooey, yummy-in-the-tummy! This is a recipe from Andi Wolff, Ashley’s mom. Serve it with your favorite veggie on the side and you’ve got an easy, delicious meal!  

Hello readers. My name is Heather and I am originally from Pennsylvania, but moved to Canada after marrying my Canadian husband. We have three children, a boy and two girls, ages sixteen, twelve and ten and I enjoy cooking and baking for everyone. Moving to Ontario years ago brought me into contact with many Dutch women who bake delicious treats often featuring the flavor of almond. My favorite recipe so...

Something got into me recently, and I’ve been all about turning milk into dairy products lately. Perhaps it’s this gray winter weather that has me longing for summer and all the locally grown food that comes along with it. I’ve made my own ricotta cheese, yogurt, clotted cream and more recently - fresh mozzarella.  Making fresh mozzarella is incredibly easy in terms of cheese-making, because there’s no aging of the...

Ricotta cheese is probably the easiest cheese to make, especially when making ricotta in an InstantPot. I’ve made ricotta over the stove top a few times before, but the stove top recipes require constant stirring, otherwise you’ll burn the milk to the bottom of the pan. However, the InstantPot has a perfect setting for making ricotta! Just place the milk in the InstantPot, hit the yogurt setting until it reads...

Somewhere along the line, my family decided that dinner was optional on a Sunday night. It may have been because we'd often eat a late lunch or visit relatives, but whatever the reason, cereal was usually what was offered for Sunday night dinner. I do like cereal, but when it comes to a meal I prefer something a little more substantial. So, we started a tradition of Breakfast for Dinner...

An “intoxicating” way to enjoy our local apples! Try Wolff’s employee Kathy Fantau’s Apple Bourbon Cake recipe… she brought some in for us to try last week, and we LOVED it!  

Many people say they just don't have a green thumb when it comes to houseplants, but Liz Magnuson, the Wolff’s Apple House annuals manager, believes otherwise. She says it's just a matter of finding the right houseplant for their personality and environment. She and everyone else at the Wolff's Garden Center will be happy to match you up with the plants that are right for you. And when it comes to...

This dip uses fresh spinach, tofu, and Greek yogurt-- in place of mayonnaise, sour cream, and/or cream cheese-- for a healthy, high-protein twist on a classic! (Don’t worry, it’s still amazingly creamy and delicious)    

With the holiday season well underway, it’s good to have some easy breakfast recipes handy that feed a crowd. On Black Friday, my sister-in-law made a delicious baked oatmeal recipe that instantly became my favorite breakfast! It reminds me of a favorite “Vermont-style granola” recipe I’ve made many times. In fact, I used to make this so often that I always had a batch on hand. You can find the...

Holiday cookie season is upon us, so it’s always nice to have some new cookie recipes in one’s repertoire.  For me and my family, cookie is usually synonymous with oatmeal chocolate chip cranberry cookies. But I tend to branch out a little bit during the holidays. A few years ago I tried a recipe for soft and chewy gingersnap cookies. They were a hit! This year I decided to try...

Sweet breads are a satisfying accompaniment to any holiday meal. My mother-in-law knows this well. In addition to the usual dinner rolls that are always a must at a big feast, she serves several kinds of sweet bread. Usually that includes pumpkin, zucchini and banana bread. This year at Thanksgiving, I was in charge of bringing the banana bread. It was kind of my mother-in-law to give me this assignment...

Homemade ice cream in an ice cream maker is just about one of the easiest and most delicious things you can make in a snap. It requires a few steps, but comes together in a matter of minutes. It’s a great way to save money on ice cream, and if you have kids in the house, it’s fun and easy for them to help! This ice cream makes an excellent...

A guest blog article from Pat Nogar, host of the talk show Living Well with Pat Nogar.   I never liked apple pie. There, I said it. Well, at least I thought I didn’t like it until I understood it. Let me start at the beginning. Everyone that I knew loved apple pie. It’s as American as well, “Apple Pie.” When I was growing up, diners specialized in it, it...

As Pennsylvania's color palette shifts from bright summer greens and pastels to the rich reds, oranges, browns and yellows of fall, many gardeners take time to intentionally bring fall colors into their home gardens. When it comes to fall gardens, mums bring an instant pop of fall color. They also bring a few questions about the right way to care for them. Because of that, we asked Liz Magnuson, the Wolff's...

You might think I’m crazy, but apples are my favorite fruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love peaches, strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, plums, oranges, and, well, almost all fruit (it’s a very long list.) But I love apples the most for a few reasons. For starters, apples signify the beginning of autumn, the time of year when the crisp air riles my inspiration and motivation after the long, hot days of...

It is important to pay attention to goodness. Whenever I step into a bakery, I think of this, because a bakery always calls to mind Raymond Carver's short story "A Small, Good Thing." In the midst of an unbelievable tragedy, a family also starts receiving harassing anonymous phone calls. Finally, the mother realizes who has been calling them. It's the local baker. In the chaos of their loss, the family...

This week, I had a small culinary challenge I needed to figure out. I needed to serve food to group of somewhere between seven and fifteen people, and it needed to be not at all messy. I was gathering with a group of friends to watch a film in a fancy theater space that were were borrowing. My usual "food for a crowd" meals of chili, soup, or pizza were...

A few years ago, I worked at a university writing center, and one of the back-to-school team-building moments for the returning writing tutors was always churning homemade custard. Cranking the handle of an old-fashioned ice cream maker was a good bonding activity. Conversation flows easily when you're engaged in culinary activities that require you to stay put but don't require too much concentration otherwise. Churning ice cream the old-fashioned way...

Like the familiar Caprese Salad, but with peaches instead of tomatoes! An excellent side dish for the middle of summer when peaches are in season, this salad is a delicious combination of sweet and tangy flavors with a pop of spicy basil!  

A few years ago, I would spend summer mornings at a garden in a suburb outside of Chicago. Some city-dwelling friends of mine had leased a suburban plot of land, less than an acre, and grew so much food that they were able to start a CSA. So I would spend some Saturdays there, in a bliss of gardening and friendship. After we harvested what we needed for the CSA,...

You know a recipe is great when it’s been in your repertoire for more than a decade. This particular fresh tomato and feta pizza recipe was one I saved in college, when I was obsessed with the Mediterranean salad bar at the grocery store. I also tended to find my recipes on the back of a box or free recipe magazines I got in the mail. It was before the...

Burritos are a weekly meal in our house. Mainly because I can make them with only about ten minutes of prep work and still serve a healthy meal. Sometimes when I have more time, I simmer a pot of beans instead of buying them canned, or I make the salsa or guacamole from scratch. But on most weeknights, roasting a pan of peppers and onions is as fancy as I...

July is peak season for peaches, tomatoes, and corn. This time of year, the corn is fresh picked and brought to Wolff's daily so it's sweeter. Sweet corn is best right after it’s harvested. Within three days, its sugar/starch ratio can change from 80:20 to 20:80 as the sugar converts into starch. That’s what makes it turn tough and bland as it ages. So that is why Wolff's makes sure to get...

Italy is heaven. At least, it is in Elizabeth von Arnim's novel The Enchanted April, which I'm reading for a book club this week. The premise is that four women, who are all processing the ways that life has disappointed them, escape their dreary English lives to vacation in an Italian castle. There, beauty heals them. Disappointments fade. They learn to love again. Though I do know that the country has...

These sweet and salty tasty treats are a really special way to prepare our local Canter Hill bacon! Perfect bite-sized appetizers for your next get-together!  

Juneteenth is named for June 19, 1865, the date when enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas learned that they were free. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been enacted, and over two months after the Civil War ended. “The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation,” says the Juneteenth World Wide Celebration website. Juneteenth, the oldest celebration of the end of slavery in the...

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 vibrant one, pleasing to look at as well as to eat. Appealing to senses besides taste and smell is an important feature for a meal. (Though I continue to make...

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 in nature, nothing goes to waste. These young stems are a gift in the kitchen. With a slightly sweeter and milder flavor than raw garlic, there are a number of...

Native plants — plants that grew here before European colonization — are a must-have for every gardener concerned with preserving biodiversity, beauty, and their own backs and pocketbooks. How is it that one group of plants can achieve so many worthy goals? Native plants want to grow here — so it’s less work to keep them alive Unlike most imported annual flowers, perennial herbaceous native plants can thrive in less...

This spicy, creamy sauce is made with freshly grated horseradish root. Be prepared: grating the horseradish is the hardest part! After that, it’s easy-peasy and super delicious. Perfect for burgers, roast beef sandwiches, egg sandwiches, grilled cheese…. Or spread it on some crackers for a quick snack!  

Jerome Sheehan of Chester County had spent over twenty years in accounting and finance when he decided that he was ready for something different. “I wanted to work with my hands," says Jerome, "and produce something tangible that I could be proud of.” His travels abroad reinforced this longing to be part of an artisan tradition. Many cultures place a high value on craftsmanship and traditional trades, and Jerome was struck...

This versatile and flavorful salad is unique and refreshing. You can easily substitute ingredients based on your taste and the seasonal availability of fresh produce.  

This crust boasts the nutty goodness and nutritional punch of quinoa—with no processed flour and no gluten! Use the filling below or easily substitute a personal favorite. Give yourself at least a couple of hours, because in a few spots you have to wait for things to cool before you can proceed.  

Having been raised on the East Coast, maple syrup is a taste I grew up loving. I didn’t realize until I was older that for some it’s an acquired taste. Even a Canadian friend from the West Coast didn’t indulge in maple products too often because as a non-local product it tended to be expensive, and thus she didn't acquire the taste or craving for it. Pennsylvania is one of...

The family who operated a nearby apple orchard had bought a piper cub in the mid 1950’s.  On one occasion in about March 1957, Don Linvill invited my Dad, Kenneth Wolff, to come along for a plane ride. Ken Wolff took several 35mm photos of Wolff’s Sunny Brae Orchards from the air that day.  Because of the airplane vibrations most photos are quite blurry.  Here is one of the best...

This dish is amazingly creamy and full of flavor! Make sure you remember to save the pasta cooking water. The “sauce” is really more of a paste, and adding the cooking water at the end is what makes it come together as a silky, delicious coating.  

Salads are the healthiest of foods, right? Well, maybe. I'll tell you one thing, though. When I eat a salad every day, I feel really good. Dark leafy greens like spinach are packed with fiber and even contain a decent amount of protein. I know I feel more energized after eating a salad. But sometimes it's easy to overdo the salad dressing and end up consuming way more fat than...

It's a problem. I see a package of gnocchi in a store, and I must buy it. My hand reaches for it and it's in my shopping basket before I even know what's happening. I immediately envision a dinner that is everything a weeknight meal should be: easy, delicious, filling, and at least moderately healthy.  Technically, gnocchi are potato dumplings, but I usually treat them just like pasta, except that...

I acquired my first camera when I was 10 years old and began taking black & white photographs of my Family and Friends. I have many pictures of my Dad [Mr. Wolff] from over the years, but one of my favorites is of him out in the orchard getting his morning exercise. Dad would gather up all of us kids and take us outside with him into the adjoining world...

Even when it's no longer time for apple picking, winter is the prime time to enjoy local apples by eating them... and drinking them. From September to May, Weaver's Orchard in Morgantown, PA presses the apple cider that you enjoy at Wolff's. Then from late spring to early fall, they freeze their preservative-free cider so that they can offer it outside of the cider-pressing season. Weaver's Orchard, established in 1932,...

It's a classic group project in business school: to create a new hypothetical business from the ground up. When Erin Hagarty was in an MBA program at Georgetown, she told her team about the business she had grown up in: a bake-at-home pizza business. The team decided to capitalize on her first-hand knowledge. They named their hypothetical business A Casa Pizza, using an Italian phrase that means "at home." Erin's...

Nothing against salad. It's just that when thinking of a veggie side, it's often the first thing that comes to mind, and sometimes breaking out of the routine is just what you need to get inspired to eat more veggies. So try these three easy veggie sides to freshen up your dinner table, and maybe serve them alongside that awesome Cobb salad or Greek salad so you can add even...

Have you ever been invited to look through somebody else's recipe collection? Maybe your grandparents'? Or your mom or dad's, or your mother-in-laws'? At times like that, the wrinkled, stained and water-spotted ones always catch my eye, because those are the ones that have been made time and time again. As we reach the end of the year, I wanted to take a look through a different sort of recipe...

There's nothing quite like pancakes on a snow day or a lazy Saturday morning. But quite often the thought of whipping up pancakes from scratch first thing in the morning isn't feasible, so I'll stick with an easier breakfast option. However, I decided to overcome this by making my own ready-to-use pancake mix with ingredients I felt good about using. For my own use, I pulse the butter into the...

This popular, easy-to-make recipe is a great nibble for parties! It uses our recipe for Mrs. Wolff’s Cranberry Sauce, but whole berry cranberry sauce in a can will do in a pinch. Mrs. Wolff’s cranberry sauce recipe makes 3 cups, so you’ll have some left over after you make the cups!  

Use fresh-picked, locally grown spinach for this classic Greek dish!  

"What can you do with the carrot tops?" I asked a farmer who was standing behind her farm's table at a farmers market. I held up a bouquet of carrots with lacy greens attached. This was about nine years ago, when I had just made a commitment to buy my food from local farmers whenever possible. I quickly realized that buying local produce often meant that I got a little...

Unless you're feeling like a superhero, or getting a little antsy with some extra time off of work, the time for major Thanksgiving DIY projects and menu overhauls has probably passed. But here are three easy upgrades to make your guests feel extra special. Upgrade Your Decor with Potato Stamp Cards This is a fun project that takes about 45 minutes, start to finish, and if you have kids, they...