Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper
By Cate Hennessey
Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper, by C. Marina Marchese. Black Dog and Leventhal: 2009. 256 pages.
My first memory of honey comes from my father. Saturday mornings, he liked to spoon the golden sweet onto buttered toast and then fold the toast in half. Before bringing it to his mouth, he murmured, “The food of the gods!”
I agreed with him and ate my toast exactly the same way. I still do.
The other constant about honey in my life has been that it comes from the grocery store in a squeezable plastic container – sometimes bear-shaped, sometimes vase-shaped. It’s found in the aisle with the peanut butter and jelly, and then, once purchased, sits in the pantry with baking supplies.
C. Marina Marchese’s Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper has made me whisk that honey from the pantry and examine it – as well as the honeybees that produced it — in a whole new light.
At first blush, the book may seem like it belongs on the city-person-turned-agricultural-pioneer bookshelf. Certainly, Marchese chronicles the first year of her journey from bee neophyte to beekeeper extraordinaire. (She eventually leaves her “real world” job as a designer to begin her own bee business, Red Bee.)
But the book’s center is not Marchese at all. Rather, it focuses on the creatures that provide her livelihood. As a result, the pages delve into the intricacies of the honeybee — its anatomy, sociology, lifecycle, and vital role in agriculture. In short, the honeybees make fruit and vegetable production possible; without the honeybee, our food supply would collapse.
If the importance of the honeybee to agriculture isn’t impressive enough, Marchese details the role of honey, beeswax, and the honeybee in history, covering countries as (more…)
Brandywine Book of Food: Culinary Terroir
Once in-awhile something so delicious comes your way you just have to share it with everyone you know. That’s how we feel about the just-published cookbook featuring regional fare made by area chefs using local ingredients.
In the Brandywine Book of Food, Chester County writers Roger Morris and Cathleen Ryan, along with photographer Ella Morris, put together recipes, stories and mouth-watering images that taste so good you’ll want to devour them.
Which is exactly what we suggest you do.
Thanks to guest writer Roger Morris for sharing the back-story of Brandywine Book of Food.
By Roger Morris
About two years ago, Cathleen Ryan and I started down a path that proved to be as windy and full of surprises as a trek along the Brandywine.
Our goal was to produce a book that would reflect the culinary terroir of the Brandywine region of Chester County and neighboring Delaware – how the land, its waves of immigrants, the twists of history, social culture, and the current breed of farmers, winemakers, chefs and food artists all came together.
Last week, we reached that destination: The publication of The Brandywine Book of Food, which we believe is a pioneering work of considerable interest. Its birth statistics: 168 pages containing 75 recipes from the Brandywine’s best-known chefs, more than 180 full-color photographs, as well as the personal stories of many of these chefs, vintners and food purveyors.
There will be many book-signing events, and the books will be on sale throughout the region.
To start at the beginning: Anthony Vietri, the owner and winegrower at Va La Vineyards, told me one day about Cathleen, a pastry chef trained in France and America who was at that time just closing down Whitewing Farm B&B where she had been manager. Cathleen had been working on a regional cookbook, Tony said, but the project had fallen through. A shame, we agreed. So I called her.
We met in the main room of the deserted lodging and discussed how we would both like to do a book about food terroir in the same manner that one would write about wine terroir. Cathleen and I decided to give a go, wrote the first of many outlines, and set out to find an agent and a publisher.
We were soon joined by my wife Ella, a painter, photographer, and gallery manager, who would serve as tireless photographer and photo director for the book. I would manage the project and do the text. Cathleen would work with restaurant and manage the recipes. (more…)
Vegetable Soup’s On
By Leslie Kedash
I think soup weather is defined by rainy days and chilly evenings, and we’ve recently had our fair share of that. A good soup is one you can make on a moment’s notice, (or a few moments, anyway)…and this one is quick and tasty.
I tried this recipe this week and liked it enough to share. It contains plenty of good winter vegetables.
Two steps (two recipes combined, actually) and it’s on the table, served with salad and bread.
The recipes come from The Barefoot Contessa Family Style.
Roasted Winter Vegetables
The high temperature carmelizes the outside and leaves the inside tender and moist. This is a very flexible recipe; you can add any root vegetable you have in the house to this mélange.
1 pound carrots, peeled
1 pound parsnips, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 small butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and seeded
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
Cut the carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash in 1 to 1 and a quarter inch cubes. They’ll shrink while baking, so don’t cut them too small.
Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on two sheet pans. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 25 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.
Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste, and serve hot. (or in this case, use them in the following recipe)
Roasted Vegetable Soup
This is very versatile—you can also throw in last night’s mashed potatoes and even the tossed green salad from lunch. It adds wonderful flavor and goodness. A great way to get vegetables into your kids without their knowing it.
6 to 8 cups chicken stock
1 recipe Roasted Winter Vegetables
Kosher salt and pepper
For Serving: Croutons and quality olive oil
In a large saucepan, heat 6 cups of the chicken stock. In two batches, coarsely puree the roasted vegetables and the chicken stock in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pour the soup back into the pot and season to taste. Thin with more chicken stock and reheat. The soup should be thick but not like a vegetable puree, so add more chicken stock and/or water until it is the consistencey you like.
Serve with the croutons and a drizzle of olive oil.
Taste Buds Get Ready: 1st Annual Fermentation Fest
By Margaret Gilmour
Sweet. Salty. Sour. Bitter.
Ready for some fresh, local and lively (pun-intended) fare?
Because there will be a bountiful supply available for tasting at Friday’s Fermentation Festival at the Kennett Square Farmers’ Market.
You’ll want to attend a little bit hungry and ready to quench your thirst as the featured chefs, artisans and producers all interested in quality over quantity, are preparing a delicious spread just for you. And the farmers, of course, are selling their autumn harvest.
In addition to your favorite seasonal micro-brews and crisp wines, plan on dipping in and sipping on a variety of new-to-you flavors, like some of the featured fermented veggies and non-alcoholic beverages.
Sniff. Swirl. Sip. Repeat.
Then there’s Root, a novel root-beer liqueur, which is also ready for you to sample.
Just out this summer, Root’s successful debut comes from a Philadelphia company uniting slow design and all things handmade: Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction. The potent spirit is 100% organic, made from an 18th-century Pennsylvania folk recipe which eventually became birch or root beer. (more…)
Fermented Fare: Deliciously Prepared For You By Science and Nature
By Margaret Gilmour
Do you like sauerkraut? Pickles? Yogurt? Micro-Brews? Wine?
With an emphasis on healthy and a dose of fresh-flavor, a connection between all of these distinctive, lively foods and drink is fermentation: an age-old, natural process that has been around for thousands of years.
Here’s proof: a seven-thousand-year-old jar containing the remains of wine was on display at the University of Pennsylvania last year. And food fermentation is an ancient tradition our ancestors practiced annually to preserve their bounty from one season to the next.
Most of us eat fermented foods every day: chocolate, cheese, bread. Still, many of us associate fermentation with beer, wine and cider—where sugar is converted into ethyl alcohol.
Who knows if way back when the health benefits of fermentation were known? It is said, though, that Julius Caesar fed pickles to his troops to help them stay strong.
Will fermented food make you strong? Maybe not, but research shows that the process helps fight infection and increase absorption of nutrients.
Scott Grzybek, CEO and Founder of ZUKAY Live Foods, a probiotic food company in Elverson, PA (a stone’s throw from Chester County), started eating fermented foods years ago simply to maintain his well-being.
“I was sick of eating processed foods,” he says. “If it didn’t make me sick that week, I knew eventually it would.”
With that thought in mind, in 2004 he and his wife decided to try living off the land and “get back to traditional ways of cooking and preserving foods.”
That’s when Grzybek discovered fermentation and began studying the science behind the process.
“I came up with the idea that we could do this with everyday foods, and at the same time get the benefits out to everyone,” Grzybek says. A little over a year ago, he did just that by starting ZUKAY Live Foods.
To celebrate fermented fare, the Kennett Square Farmers Market is partnering with Harvest Market Natural Foods to throw a Fermentation Festival on Friday, October 9th, from 2 – 6:00 p.m.
And you are invited.
Alongside the farm stands selling fresh, local harvest, there will be specialty beer (from Victory Brewing Company and Twin Lakes Brewery) and wine tastings (from Stargazers Vineyard).
(more…)
Time to Harvest Your Basil
By Margaret Gilmour
I still want to make more pesto this season, and I never tire of tomato, basil and cheese sandwiches (tossing in avocado, sprouts or cucumber when within reach).
Yet, according to my well-read, slightly tattered book, Tips for the Lazy Gardener, by Linda Tilgner, we need to harvest our sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) before evening temperatures get much below 50 degrees because the flavor of its leaves taste better if they are dried or frozen before the cool weather hits.
So this week I’ll head out just after the morning dew, the best time to harvest basil—when the essential oils are said to be at their peak. Then I’ll pluck my three healthy plants from by herb garden and give the other herbs some room to grow.
In Tilgner’s book she suggests using any basil blossoms that escaped cutting for vinegar. She writes: “In fact, herb vinegars are a convenient way to use herbs you’re too lazy to dry or freeze, and make wonderful gifts.”
Tilgner dries her basil by spreading out washed and pat-dry leaves on a screen or paper and placing in a cool, dark, room.
Then there’s Paul Feenan, a farmer from out West who shared his method on a food blog: (I like this idea because it seems quick and easy and won’t take up counter space.)
“At Barnyard Gardens we have had good luck drying our extra basil by simply putting it in a large paper shopping bag in a dry but not too hot of a spot (not too much in a bag at once). We fold the top of the bag shut, and once a day (or so) we open it up and give the bag a shake and rustle the basil about. The dried basil has an intense fresh flavor for our pasta dishes in the winter.”
Whether or not you freeze or dry basil, there’s still debate over which method retains the herb’s flavor best. I may try both.
To freeze, wash the leaves, blot them dry and set them into a freezer bag or small plastic container before committing the basil to the freezer.
Then there’s the ice-cube tray method, where the other half of my harvest will end up: In a food processor blend basil leaves with just enough olive oil so that it covers the leaves (adding more oil for thinner consistency), and place the mixture in an ice cube tray and freeze. This is a great way to prepare pesto or other pastes during the winter months.
Or, (I may even try this) apparently you can freeze a whole basil leaf in water in an ice-cube tray, then pop it out when you’re ready to use it–the water will melt and leave you with an aromatic, bright green leaf ideal for sauces (and reminiscent of summertime).
Nice. (more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Inverbrook Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
In celebration of Chester County’s agricultural bounty, we’re rounding out our farmer profiles with Inverbrook Farm, a 10-year-old sustainable family farm run by Claire Murray who grew up in Chester County, went away to college and came home ready to spread her appreciation for locally grown, organic food.
Again, the images are all shot by photographer Carlos Alejandro, whose stunning photographs brought all the stories in our series to life.
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As a child, Claire Murray spent most Sunday dinners in West Grove at Inverbrook, her grandparent’s 100-acre property bought and named—Inverbrook means near a brook—by her great-grandfather in the 1930s.
By the time she was about 15-years-old, Murray and her family moved onto the idyllic tract of land with her grandparents, and Murray’s appetite for the outdoors continued to flourish.
This country girl savored the fresh air, sprawling grassland and garden-fresh vegetables her grandmother grew, and headed to Penn State a few years later where she majored in Environmental Resource Management.
It was at Penn State that Murray was first introduced to the CSA concept.
Immediately intrigued, she immersed herself in environmentalism, activism and nutrition, devouring new concepts along the way and eventually adding a minor in International Agriculture and then another in Science-Technology and Society.
“I felt like I’d found my community,” Murray says.
(more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Pete’s Produce Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
Second in our series on local farmers is Pete’s Produce Farm, overseen by Pete Flynn who has farmed Chester County fields for over 23-years. This consummate farmer, who has locals anticipating his nectarous corn each summer, has just taken on milling his own flour and corn meal, which makes buying locally sweeter than ever.
After Pete Flynn graduated with a degree in dairy science from Michigan State University, he naturally followed a path into the dairy industry and set out to launch his own dairy farm.
Flynn began his career as a dairy farmer in 1986, working in West Chester on the Jones’ farm, a 160-acre property which is now home to Rustin High School. He was three years into processing milk and caring for his cows when he discovered that he preferred growing corn.
In fact, he started growing the sweetest corn around and sold it at the end of his driveway to eager customers.
Flynn sold his cows in 1992, barely four months before the barn burned down after being struck by lightning. With good luck and agricultural sagacity in alignment, Flynn had already exchanged his livestock for a tractor, and established fields of delicious produce.
The same year he opened his first farm market where his cows once grazed, and sold the ripe-and-ready veggies to a growing crowd of grateful followers.
Flynn’s reputation for sweet corn grew like his harvest. So, when the Jones property sold to make way for the high school, Flynn approached Westtown school—just a mile down the road—about moving his produce stand to their site. (more…)
A Portrait of our Farmers: Sunnygirl Farm
By Margaret Gilmour
In 2007 there were over 1,733 farms in Chester County with an average size of just under 100 acres. Although a handful of these farms sell directly to consumers, their number has increased about 25 percent since 2002.
This is good news for locals interested in the food-to-land connection and supporting the Buy Fresh Buy Local movement.
We think knowing your local farmer is just as important as knowing where your ingredients come from. So, in the spirit of seasonally inspired cuisine, we spent some time talking to three local farmers about the current state of small farms, what they think the future holds for the industry and, just as important, what they do for fun. (The Proust Questionnaire and James Lipton, the host of the TV program Inside the Actors Studio, inspired many of our questions.)
The farmers we interviewed are a varied group of individuals: Mary Ann Petrillo and Jennifer Cully from Sunnygirl Farm in Kennett Square, Claire Murray from Inverbook Farm in West Grove, and Pete Flynn of Pete’s Produce in West Chester.
The first farm we profile in our series is Sunnygirl, the young–but wise–team of two (along with a couple of much-appreciated volunteers) harvesting their bounty in smallest fields of the bunch.
A special thanks to photographer Carlos Alejandro, who generously volunteered his time and talent to shoot the gorgeous photographs for the series.
Source: Buy Fresh Buy Local and Chris Fullerton, Director of Consumer Outreach at PASA.
Sunnygirl Farm
Mary Ann Petrillo, a native Delawarean, spent three-and-a-half years journeying all over the country for the right spot to start Sunnygirl Farm before snatching up 14-acres in Kennett Square. It was the pull of the land that kept her coming back for over a year before she decided to stay close to her roots and plant herself here. (more…)
Essential Eating Sprouted Baking
By Margaret Gilmour
Unlike Leslie, I am not much of a baker.
And, honestly, in my house I prep, clean up and take over only when the menu is comprised of all things green.
So when a friend of mine, knowing I require cookbooks with inviting photographs to trigger any desire for meal preparation, left Janie Quinn’s Essential Eating, Sprouted Baking at my house, I opened the pages just to admire its pictures.
But I ended up reading the entire introduction.
The author, Janie Quinn, explains how she discovered the health benefits of eating sprouted wheat years ago. Interested in creating high-quality sprouted flours with only the finest grains, she teamed up with a manufacturer and a milling engineer, to produce Essential Eating Spouted Whole Grain Flours.
This endeavor spiraled into a successful family of green companies, including Essential Eating Lifestyle and Cooking School, Essential Eating Sprouted Foods and Essential Environments. (more…)
OLS | From The Garden
By Leslie Kedash
This past weekend was unusually busy for our family and, late Sunday afternoon, I checked the vegetable garden to see what dinner options were available.
I picked a few zucchini, pinched off some basil leaves and gathered a few eggs from the hens, all just enough to make this simple pasta dish.
Perfect for a stormy summer night, this stove-top recipe is convenient to have when the power goes out…. which it did this past Sunday evening. Photo by candlelight.
What’s in Season (Veggies)
By Margaret Gilmour
So what’s a cool and damp, cloud-covered start to summer mean for Chester County’s crops?
For status on the fields, I called H.G. Haskell, owner of SIW Vegetables (a.k.a. Stepped in What) on Rt. 100 in Chadds Ford.
It has been over 24 years that Haskell has been tending his crops and selling produce at his farm stand, where his harvest is spread out over wagons sheltered by shade trees.
“Boo-hoo, Boo-hoo,” is Haskell’s official report, adding “everything has been delayed by two weeks.”
Usually by this time of year SIW is producing a wide selection of farm-fresh vegetables, their specialty being heirloom tomatoes. In fact, last year they grew over 100 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and 20 different types of cherry tomatoes.
With little sun, anyone ready to gather ripening tomatoes, or corn, for that matter, will need to remain patient. I know, I’ve been looming over my own tomatoes, and wondering when the little green sprouts will fatten up and get juicy. (more…)
OLS | Lemon Cucumbers
By Leslie Kedash
I’m just slightly addicted to cookbooks and cooking blogs. I recently came across a recipe that called for lemon cucumbers and the quest was on.
I must say that the lemon cucumber has quite a bit going for it: a pretty yellow color, shape (round, the size of a baseball) and taste (sweet and mild). It lacks much of the chemical that makes other cucumbers bitter and hard to digest.
I found them this past Friday at the Kennett Farmers’ Market. I came, I saw, I cooked.
Food Festivities Celebrating Buy Fresh Buy Local
By Margaret Gilmour
Along with the new Chester County Buy Fresh Buy Local “food-ability” guide, comes a string of events that’ll help you carry on an endless summer while celebrating our local food system.
July’s happenings include a feast of live music, cooking demos and recipes, and tips for preserving and freezing the season’s bounty. There are also discussions on the new movie, Food, Inc., and games for kids of all sizes, including a community game of chess.
See you there.
OLS | Ice Cream
By Leslie Kedash
Summer and ice cream go together like a wink and a smile. My daughter and I picked raspberries last week at Highland Farms and as we walked by the refrigerated cases, I spotted real, whole milk from Natural By Nature in a glass bottle, heavy cream on the top, just like when I was a kid. I could just taste homemade vanilla ice cream.
In the past few years I have made everything from cheesecake ice cream (a frequent request at our house) to black pepper ice cream (not so well received). Good vanilla ice cream is always a welcome, and short lived addition to our freezer. Ice cream and raspberries…life is sweet.
Thomas Keller has a wonderful recipe for vanilla ice cream in his cookbook Bouchon.
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split
10 large egg yolks
Combine the cream, milk, and 7 tablespoons of sugar in a larger nonreactive saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the pan, along with the pod. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let the flavors infuse for 30 minutes.
Place a metal bowl that will hold the finished mixture over an ice bath. Reheat the cream mixture until warm.
Meanwhile, whisk the yolks with the remaining 7 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl until the mixture thickens and lightens in color. Whisking constantly, gradually pour about one-third of the hot cream mixture into the yolks to temper them. return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 10 minutes, or until the custard has thickened and coats the back of the spoon. (Run your finger through the custard on the spoon: The line you make should remain.)
Pour the custard into the metal bowl and stir occasionally until it has cooled.
Strain the cooled custard into a bowl or other container and refrigerate, covered, for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Overnight chilling results in the best flavor and creamiest texture.
Transfer the custard to an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Remove the ice cream while its texture is “soft serve”; transfer to a chilled container and place in the freezer to harden.
Just Out: Chester County Buy Fresh, Buy Local Food Guide
By Margaret Gilmour
FACT (Taken from the guide)
Did You Know?
If You Spend $10 a Week on Local Foods You Can Build Your Local Economy
If each household in Chester County spent $10 per week on local food and farm-based Chester County products, it would mean over $91 million dollars a year would be generated and available for local reinvestment in businesses and communities.
Ironically, just as I was searching for local farm stands near my home, I came across the new Buy Fresh, Buy Local Chester County food guide, just published and ready to help all of us find local food close by.
There, on page five, over 28 farm stands are listed, along with six farm stores, which are shops (usually in barns, or barn-like structures) where the goods are usually produced on the farm where they’re sold.
Of course Chester County farmers’ markets are listed too, along with area CSAs.
There is even a list of retail outlets that sell locally made items, and a few spotlights on regional farmers, growers and farm-to-table restaurants.
The local food guide points to many reasons we should buy local, seasonal fare that is not only healthier for us, but is also environmentally responsible, reducing the energy required for transporting food from its origin to where it is consumed. And, as we know, buying from Chester County businesses, or those nearby, strengthens our local economy.
Replacing an older 2002 version, the “feed-ability” guide is a collaboration of partnerships with FoodRoutes Network, which is the national, nonprofit organization that launched Buy Fresh Buy Local (BFBL), and other BFBL chapters including Chester County BFBL. Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) coordinates the ten Pennsylvania chapters.
I picked my copy up at the BVA, and there are plenty more available at libraries, county parks and the Government Services Center in West Goshen. Or, download this printable PDF:
OLS | On The Grill
By Leslie Kedash
This week at the Kennett Farmers Market, I was in search of lamb chops from Country Meadows which had been consumed with great alacrity a few weeks ago. Alas, they were not available, but I did find some nice looking pork sausage, which would make for a great al fresco holiday breakfast. While living in New England, my family had often gathered with friends for an “Ethan Allen” breakfast, cooked entirely on the outdoor grill.
After our move to Chester County, the meal was renamed a “Valley Forge” breakfast (whatever works). The kids would play out back while our parents cooked and consumed Bloody Marys which, on reflection, were most likely an attempt to counter the effects of their antics the night before.
With that package of sausage bringing back so many childhood memories, I decided to revive the tradition (sans hangover) and a sumptuous Sunday breakfast was conjured up on the grill with sausage from Country Meadows, scrambled eggs from the hens, toasted french bread from Big Sky, roasted new potatoes from the garden and strawberries from Highland Orchards.
On a whim, I had picked up a bag of fava beans (Vicia fava) from Inverbrook Farm and while rather tedious to shell (twice…), I thought they were great, although the family was more circumspect. Inverbrook has instructions for preparation on their blog. Also steamed these beautiful variegated beans, look pretty, taste great.
Local food, childhood memories- a perfect meal to close a holiday weekend.
OLS | Rhubarb
By Leslie Kedash
For this weekend’s OLS, we visited Highland Orchards in West Chester. In observance of our goal of food shopping without an agenda, we arrived to find it was the final weekend of “pick your own” rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum).
I first encountered rhubarb in a pie (as you might expect) on a visit to New England as a child. Since then, I had essentially ignored the crimson stalks in the supermarket. But now, here it was, the whole plant–with giant, mildly poisonous leaves and tart, tender, screaming red stalks. (more…)
OLS | New Jersey Blueberries
By Leslie Kedash
Around 50 million pounds of blueberries are produced by New Jersey farmers every year. On a recent road trip back from the shore, we stopped at two farm stands. Seems it’s blueberry time in New Jersey right now. We also learned that the blueberry is the State fruit of New Jersey and Hammonton the self proclaimed “Blueberry Capital of the World.”
It seems the sandy soil of the pine barrens of NJ is perfect for producing copious amounts of fat, juicy fruit, and is now doing so with a vengeance. We picked up 5 pints, 3 for a Father’s Day pie and two for general purposes. (And the fact that the price was right.)
Now, making a blueberry pie is a bit of an art. You’d better know your fruit- how sweet it is and especially, how much liquid you need to “jell.” This being my maiden voyage on the blue fruit pie sea, we’ll just say that the crust was great, the taste sublime and leave it at that (think blueberry soup). A perfect excuse to try another one! Here’s one recipe.
One Local Summer | Pot Luck
By Leslie Kedash
This week I went to the market with no recipe in mind. A longtime fan of Patricia Wells, I’ve enjoyed her stories about shopping for food, (in France, of course…) and planning her evening meal around what was available then and there, fresh and local, real raw materials. Friday afternoon, after a(nother) long week, I hit the Kennett farmers market and looked for something simple, easy, and fast.
What I got was ingredients for roasted new potatoes, sliced tomato, garlic scapes (the aboveground part of the plant), salad with pea shoots, and hamburgers. Garlic scapes were an unknown to me and I put them in with the roasting potatoes for the last ten minutes. Nice mild garlic flavor with great texture, crusty baby potatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. Good and simple.
The hamburger came from Country Meadows, purveyor of grass fed beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, and fresh eggs. The Quarryville farm raises naturally, without all that questionable “stuff.” The livestock is routinely rotated to fresh pasture. The garlic scapes and pea shoots were grown at Inverbrook Farm, - as always, fresh and interesting.
I picked up 3 smoked, unadulterated beef marrow bones from K-9 Kraving. They went over rather well, as illustrated here… I’ve been subtly urged to fetch more.
R-P Nurseries Opens Willowdale Farmers’ Market
By Margaret Gilmour
On June 3rd the Willowdale Farmers’ Market wrapped-up it’s first day with seasonal bounty and hand-made wares available from a few nearby farmers and artisans.
“We’re starting small,” says R-P Nursery co-owner Kathy Pratt, who organized the farmers’ market with husband Richard. The nursery, in business since 1866, has been owned and operated by the same family for over 145 years.
The two travel each summer to Maine where they enjoy a farmers’ market in the center of town that sells local goods twice during the week. They wanted to bring the same experience close to home.
“We’ve been talking about opening a farmers’ market at the nursery for a long time,” Kathy Pratt says. “And Willowdale is a great location, in the hub between Unionville and Kennett.”
The market, open Wednesday and Sundays, is the latest addition to Chester County Farmers’ Markets. Now farm-fresh goods are available to us everyday of the week from markets spread throughout our region.
On its first day, four tents shaded the sellers, who were happily awaiting customers in a garden setting filled with plants and creative architectural structures, all for sale.
Featured goods included home-made jams and jellies, honey and soap. There was also home-spun, hand-dyed yarn.
Of course there was also plenty of fresh strawberries (I bought a pound), rhubarb and asparagus. One farmer had eggs on hand, along with a freezer full of free-range poultry.
Within the next couple of weeks Talula’s Table will add their gourmet foods to the mix of delicious eatables available for purchase.
Also included will be Northbrook Market selling their famed apple cider donuts, and there will be a table for Shellbark Hollow Farm’s tasty goat cheese (my first sample was from the Phoenixville Winter Market—and I can’t wait to go back for more.)
For now, small is just fine. I made my purchases while my son visited the nursery’s resident chickens and rooster who runs around managing his brood.
And of course there’s “Turkey Boy,” a colorful wild gobbler who, if you ask him nicely, will puff up his body and spread his tail feathers.
Actually, it sort of feels like being on a farm.
Willowdale Farmers’ Market
R-P Nurseries, 649 Unionville Rd
Wednesdays, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.
12 of Our Favorite Eat In-Season Cookbooks
We love the just-opened farmers’ markets that give us local food in abundance.
So we’re celebrating the bounty with our favorite eat-local cookbooks.
Some of these books are filled with gorgeous images that’ll trigger your senses with spreads of seasonal fare you just can’t resist.
Then there are the cookbooks stuffed with great recipes and thoughts on cooking simply, but without the photoplay.
Take the One Local Summer Challenge
The One Local Summer Challenge started with the intent to encourage buying fresh, local ingredients, and it turned into a healthy, fun experiment for hundreds of participants across the nation.
According to Nicole Wolverton, Farm to Philly founder and this year’s Challenge coordinator, there are currently about 75 people signed on for 2009, with one person joining in from the U.K.
“Last year there were about half a dozen people from outside the U.S.,” Wolverton says. “That included entries from Canada, England, France and Scotland.”
The event (June 1 through August 30, 2009) is open to anyone willing to take on eating local. (more…)
Chester County Farmers’ Markets: When & Where
By Margaret Gilmour
By the end of this week, almost all of Pennsylvania farmers’ markets are officially open.
Now we can finally celebrate the arrival of local, farm-fresh produce, eggs and meat, along with artisanal goods (Chocolate! Cheese! Honey!), and hand-made or just-picked luxuries (Soap! Flowers! Herbs!).
There is even an ample selection of thirst-quenchers available at the markets too (Wine! Coffee! Juice!), and baked goods that you can nibble on as you browse or carry home for later.
I love shopping outdoors, bumping into a neighbor or two, and meeting the farmers, growers and craftspeople to learn about the food or product I am about to enjoy.
In fact, there’s nothing better than fresh fare sold by the hands that made it.
With that in mind, here are the farmers’ markets we’re lucky to have close-by, open to us on varied days and times. (more…)
