Category Archives: farmers markets

exploring and antiquing

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Today my friend Karen came over and we went exploring. I had wanted to take her to the Smithfield Barn but they weren’t open. So we headed to Spring City and Kimberton instead.

First stop was Samuel G. Hultz Antiques at 820 Pughtown Road in Spring City. They are the big old place on the corner of Route 100 and Pughtown Road. Their phone number is 610-469-9491 and they are open most Saturdays and Sundays noon to 4 p.m.

Like most of the old school country dealers I have come across since moving here, they were friendly and hospitable people. And their pricing was reasonable and fair.

Like my friend Dave told me it would be, their barn was loaded with kind of things I love to go through. They have some beautiful vintage and antique quilts, different odd lots of depression glass and china and furniture and all sorts of things. Old tools, linens, vintage kitchen items, candles, and Christmas ornaments too. Blue glass, milk glass, clear, ruby red, you name it.

Flow through blue plates and teapots and fabulous antique wash stands and an amazing black walnut farm table I wish I had the room for.

They had some neat old advertising pieces, and sort of a bargain basement downstairs where I found the most awesome hand quilted pillows to use on my bed as throw pillows as well as vintage heavy duty aluminum loaf pans to bake with. I also found the cutest handcarved folk art Santa to decorate with for Christmas.

And I also noted that this was a place where I could get antique lamp parts! As in oil lamp parts. Shades, globes, all sorts of things and complete lamps. I have a lot of converted oil lamps which are now electric as well as others which can burn lamp oil that I love the look of, and I never know where I can get parts. I am so happy to have discovered that I can get them here! You see, the only other place I knew to get so many parts before this was in Adamstown, PA.

Where the Hultz Barn is located is so beautiful and picturesque. We took a right out of their driveway, drove past the Agway and headed down Pughtown Road into Kimberton village. This weekend is also the Kimberton Antiques Show at the firehouse/fairgrounds. (The show runs tomorrow, Sunday, November 17 as well from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is $5.00. Don’t eat lunch at the antique show, go right up the road to the Station Bistro. It’s a fabulous little BYOB with a roaring fire in the fireplace and amazing food.)

The Kimberton Antiques Show is still one of my most favorite things to go to in the fall. I have been going for years. It is a show where I find a lot of my favorite antiques and collectible dealers who only do shows.

I bought some more vintage Christmas ornaments from a pair of cute little old ladies who were tough as nails and sharks in cardigans in the bargaining department! Sadly that was pretty much all I purchased, because the show prices this year were higher than ever.

Don’t misunderstand me, I love that show and have been going for years. But the problem is the prices of gotten high enough now that I just don’t really buy there anymore. I mainly look. This used to be a show you could actually buy at . But my late father always said that antique shows existed to educate your eye more than buy.

There was a dealer who had very reasonably priced vintage garden ornaments that I forgot to go back to, and that’s a real shame. His stuff was cool.

The Kimberton show is a great place to wander around for a few hours. It is two buildings on the firehouse/fairgrounds property loaded with dealers of antiques, vintage items, and collectibles. Some of the dealers had some truly amazing vintage and antique Christmas ornaments. I also love tole trays, and there were a lot of dealers with some gorgeous trays.

The lunch didn’t look outstanding one way or the other, so we opted to get lunch after we left the Kimberton Antiques Show. Boy am I glad we did!

We wandered into the center of the village of Kimberton and decided to try the Station Bistro. It is a cute little BYOB that is much larger inside than it looks on the outside.

You walk into Station Bistro and you’re greeted by a large country fireplace with two comfortable when chairs on either side. The dining room is not huge, but the tables are spaced nicely apart and the place is clean and bright and cheerful. As opposed to some places there is a feeling of space. Artwork of local artists adorn the walls. I saw a watercolor landscape of Chester County that I thought was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen.

The prices were moderate, the service exceptional, and the food delicious. Their address is 1300 Hares Hill Rd. Their phone number is 610.933.1147 and they do breakfast Saturday and Sunday too. The rest of the time I think they’re open Monday through Saturday for BYOB bistro dining between 11 AM and 9 PM.

Station Bistro was a completely serendipitous find and I look forward to going back.

Was such a beautiful day to go antiquing through Chester County. We had a great time. Of course it is one of those days I could’ve kicked myself for leaving my camera at home, because the scenery was spectacular.

We also did learn of a business closing today. Friends near Pottstown told us that the place that was the old tea room, and had been known in recent months are about a year or so as Tacie’s Café and Bakery had closed. It was located up on Ridge Road in Pottstown. The business was owned by soon to be former West Vincent Supervisor Clare Quinn.

We had a great time at the Kimberton Antique Show and found out that a lot of the same dealers will be at the Leesport Holiday Antiques Show in Berks County Saturday, December 7th.

We ran out of time and day so we couldn’t check out some of the other antiques stores in the area. Also on my list to check out are the Olde Knitting Mill in Spring City, and Inslee Antiques in Guthriesville.

I also want to get over to Conebella Farm on Chestnut Tree Road in Elverson. They are a fifth generation dairy farm that have over 15 varieties of cheddar and Colby-based cheeses and also sell milk yogurt and free range eggs.

I had so much fun today and part of it is because this is another one of my friends who also shares my passion for similar things as far as antiques and collectibles go.

My final note is I did feel like I was cheating on the Smithfield Barn today. And thanks to the Smiths who run the barn I actually recognize what a lot of country antiques actually are now!

Thanks for listening to my recounting of my rambling through Chester County today! If you have free time tomorrow, go check out the Kimberton Antiques Show. And definitely stop at Station Bistro in Kimberton!

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put a monogrammed grosgrain ribboned sock in it, martha.

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The faux W.A.S.P. from Nutley, NJ has gone too far this time.

Martha Stewart in an interview this week with Bloomberg news says (and I quote):

“Who are these bloggers? They are not trained editors at Vogue Magazine. I mean there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good, or are copies of everything really good editors have created and done.

Sooo, bloggers, create kind of…ummmm popularity but they are not experts and we have to understand that.”

Martha, you lost me a long time ago and it did not even have to do with your jail stint.  Many moons ago when Martha Stewart Living first came out I was a devotee.  But then I discovered that everything you liked as a collectible so went up in price mere mortals couldn’t collect those items any longer.  An example? Antique oil lamps. When you plunked them in a magazine, and possibly on the cover many years ago the prices went up exponentially.  I stopped collecting them.  Same with every time you mentioned anything from transferware to pressed glass. Even vintage linens and quilts were untouchable for a while.

So you created an empire. As a woman I am cool with that. But you certainly are not without fault, and as a matter of fact I remember writing an email to your company years ago, because I, a mere mortal noted a glaring mistake in some recipe of yours I tried.  It was for the garden and roses, not the kitchen.  A spray with baking soda and what not in it.  Your proportions were incorrect. Naturally I never received a reply, because after all, you also invented the word “perfect”.

But Martha Stewart, you did not invent blogging.  And I am not even sure you really write your own blog all of the time because if you read it the writing voices often sound different and if you are a blogger like myself, you know that bloggers have individual voices and writing styles.

And you certainly did not invent the “whole category of lifestyle”.  There is no doubt you contributed to it, but lady, you did not invent it.  It existed before you, it will exist after you.

So why take pot shots at bloggers?  Afraid of a little competition? Afraid we are coming up with ideas and recipes that are better than what you have to offer and we can do it without attitude?

I take an exception to what you said to Bloomberg and am amused at the same time.  The Vogue reference, for example.  When were you an editor at Vogue?  Martha Helen Kostyra Stewart you have done well for yourself, but wow, Queen Elizabeth the first you are not.

I get that you are a long way now from your humble roots in Jersey City, NJ and Nutley, NJ and one of the things I used to like about you was your mother.  Now she was cool and fun to learn from when you had her on your TV show and weren’t afraid of an old Polish woman stealing your spotlight. You married well and became an instant W.A.S.P. just add water.  In my neck of the woods women like you used to be referred to as social-climbing gold diggers, but I won’t be rude and I digress.

But when it comes to bloggers aren’t experts, who said we all were?  I am only an expert in my own world. I am not Martha Stewart or the Pope, after all.  But I will put my gardening prowess and kitchen skills up against you any day.

To say home cooks who blog do not test their recipes and they are copies of I assume YOUR recipes and aren’t very good, well who died and made you Julia Child, my dear?  I can’t speak for all bloggers, but I can tell you MY recipes are tested in MY kitchen before I share any of them and they are MY own recipes.  Most of the time I don’t even write them down. And I know my recipes work because too many people have tried them and oh yeah, I am even in the Epicurious Cookbook.

I sat and listened to you pimp for several retailers in your Bloomberg interview and as I listened to you trash talk everyone who did not kiss the hem of your royal garment I realized what a lot of this is about: you are getting OLD Martha.  “Work”, dermatological fillers, and a clever but classic wardrobe can’t cover the fact that you are a long time from your salad days, aren’t you?

Poor, poor Martha.  Like an aging cat with clumps of fur coming out here and there, you claw at the world desperately trying to keep the throne you seem to have become accustomed to.  The only thing is, you are a legend mostly in your own mind at this point.  I mean I knew you were desperate when you did Match.com on the Today Show. 

Here is a hint Martha: apologize and don’t wear so many Hillary Clinton-esque pant suits. Or put a grosgrain monogrammed sock in that big mouth of yours.

And you can kiss my blogging behind.  As opposed to you I am not running for some popularity contest, I write about what I want, when I want….for me.  I love a lot of the old-fashioned house wifely things you used to extol. I love hunting for cool things like vintage linens and I like to cook, garden, and keep house.  And I am very good at it.  But why I do it is a little different from you.  I do these things because they bring me and those I love pleasure.

You see Martha, it is the simple pleasures in life that you cannot take for granted.  We will all age, you apparently are having issues doing it gracefully.

So Martha, just shut up.

For more on Martha Invents the blogosphere read:

Babble: Oh, Martha Stewart. Why Did You Go and Get the Bloggers Mad?

By SunnyChanel |  October 16th, 2013 at 2:00 pm

 

Mail Online: ‘I started this whole category of lifestyle’: Martha Stewart dismisses  homemaking rival Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP

By  Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 15:06 EST, 15  October 2013 |  UPDATED: 15:34 EST, 15 October 2013

Bloomberg TV:   Martha Stewart Speaks Out: Bloggers Are Not Experts

Martha Stewart declares that she ‘started this whole category of lifestyle’

Babble: Here’s Why Martha Stewart Is Trash Talking Bloggers    By cecilyk |  October 16th, 2013 at 4:47 pm

fall in the garden

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Fall has arrived in my garden. I am now in the home stretch of planting for the year.

My garden has come a long way in the past year. It is now more than a garden with good bones.

Now my garden is only half feral.

This garden was overgrown for years before I began to make it my own. It has been a lot of brutally hard work at times to get it even this far. But it is a true labor of love, because I just love to garden that much.

I inherited the garden from a prior property owner who was quite elderly, hence the huge amount of work necessary. And this is a process that will take years, because every good garden is an evolution in and of itself. It doesn’t just happen overnight. It is about time, work, love, and patience.

The more layers I peel back in the garden, the more I find to do . And lots and lots of pachysandra.

I have now unearthed all garden paths that I know exist, and had no idea my front walkway was so wide. The pachysandra had just crept and overgrown everything for years.

My garden is predominantly being re-planted with things sourced locally. Chester County has amazing plant nurseries.

There is one nursery I do not patronize, however. Main Line Gardens on Paoli Pike. They are hideously overpriced, and they are short on customer service. I tried going in there a couple of different times when I first moved to Chester County and I just didn’t like the way I was treated, nor did I care for the price points on basic items. They don’t seem to get that only Waterloo could be Waterloo.

With the exception of some heavy work I could not do myself, which was performed by Woodlawn Nursery in Malvern, DelVacchio in East Goshen, and a couple of tree guys, I have planted my own garden.

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A lot of people don’t take the time to plant their own garden any longer and I think that’s a shame because they are missing out. This trend is clearly seen in our everyday life if you have HGTV in your cable or FiOS lineup. There are no longer any true gardening shows, it’s all about instant fix landscapes and hardscaping. Done by other people. I call it the “you’ve been shrubbed mentality.”

Gardening is a very basic thing. Some people believe it is very primal. It is terrific stress relief, and it connects you to the earth. I also consider it an artistic and creative outlet, and there’s nothing better than seeing the fruits of your labor bloom. It is very satisfying.

Gardening is a trial and error process. It has taken me years and years to get to the point where I can accept that occasionally something I plant isn’t going to take where I planted it. I try not to have to transplant things once I have planted them, but sometimes you can’t help it. Sometimes stuff just dies inexplicably, and well, you can’t escape the basic responsibility of having to divide your perennials every couple of years.

So now I am about halfway through my fall planting, and I am thinking about the plants that are arriving over the next few weeks that will go into the garden this fall for next year. A lot of those are things like bulbs, which come from various sources, and also perennials from Applied Climatology.

Applied Climatology are the plant people from the West Chester Growers Market, and you can find them in Facebook. If you get on their mailing list, you find out about their amazing specials. And they have a variety of cultivars you just don’t see any place else.

I made my final list of plants that are coming, along with bulbs, tubers, and roots. I think I know where everything is going, but I think I might have to dig out more pachysandra.

How I plant, in case anyone is interested, is I try to plant with a four-season interest in mind. That way my garden seems to have a different outfit for every season of the year for lack of a better description. I also don’t plant many annuals.

Okay, time for me to go digging the dirt. There aren’t very many of those days left in the year! Happy gardening all!

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now that’s italian

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So I got my weekly email from the East Goshen Farmers Market and they said they had this chef/author coming. So I checked her out at the market, and maybe it is just an Italian thing, but so fun!!!

The book is called Gravy Wars and it is by Lorraine Ranalli. Part cookbook, part memoir, and all fun! If you know anyone who is Italian, especially Philadelphia Italian, they will love it! Even if you are not Italian….you will love it!

If you belong to a book or cooking club, I would ask her to come- she is that fun! And besides, a few recipes better than mama makes ? Nothing wrong with that either!

http://www.gravywars.com

Ciao!

baking day: banana bread

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It really felt like fall this morning when I woke up, so I decided today would be a baking day.

I like making quick breads, and here’s a banana bread that’s easy to make and fun to share. It makes one loaf.

Banana Bread
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons buttermilk powder
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped pecans or hazelnuts
1 cup raisins
1/2 c unprocessed wheat bran (Millers Bran)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
Additional sugar for dusting

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Oven pre-heated to 350 degrees

Cream butter, sugar, molasses

Add spices

Add eggs and mashed bananas and vanilla

Add salt, buttermilk powder, baking soda

Add flour and bran

Add nuts and raisins

Pour this mixture into a loaf pan that you have greased. My loaf pan is 9 x 5″

After you have poured the batter into the pan and it’s even, dust the top with plain white table sugar or turbinado sugar. It gives this bread and a little sweet crust on top

20130923-132118.jpgBake at 350° for 55 to 60 minutes. When a wooden skewer comes out of the middle pretty much clean your bread is done

This recipe is one I have been making an tweaking for years. The proportions seem to work, although I will tell you this is the first time I’ve written this recipe down. Which is the case for a lot of my recipes- I did not write them down until people asked me to share some of them.

Enjoy!

hello my little dumpling!

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dumpling2I hear people want me to get back to recipes.  It is not like I haven’t been cooking, just haven’t been sharing….ooops. (Sorry about that!)

So anyway, I am getting into fall food mood.  Been making peach crisps and cobblers and pies, apple next.  Last night I did a roasted chicken that was mostly Julia Child but a little bit me – plain roasted chicken loaded with herbs from the garden.

Also yesterday I started my first soup of the season:  chicken soup.  I had the neck and gizzards from the chicken I roasted plus a bag of necks and gizzards in the freezer, so why not soup?  In total it was like six necks, six sets of gizzards and stuff.

Making soup isn’t rocket science, it is basically a ginormous pot with meat or bones and water and seasoning and vegetables and herbs, and stir and cook away.

dumpling 3I prefer my own stock and when I am making soup it is a two-day process.  Day one is throw it all into the pot and cook for a few  hours on super low temperature after first bringing it to a boil.  When it cools, pick out the (in this case) chicken necks and gizzards and discard.  Then I put the whole thing in the refrigerator in the pot to chill down overnight. That was on the second day they said let their be soup I can take the fat which has risen to the surface and congealed OFF the top of my broth/stock and I am ready to proceed.

So I have done all that and tossed in some more vegetables and chopped up leftover chicken from last night’s roast and what I decided to do was MAKE DUMPLINGS!

Dumplings are EASY. And when added to my soup and accompanied by a nice green salad, voila! An easy mid week dinner that even the teenager appreciates!

Buttermilk-powderI make  herb dumplings.  I learned from my grandmother, mother, and via trial and error. And yes, every culture has a dumpling.  I use buttermilk powder in mine.  Buttermilk powder goes into a lot of my baked goods – even my pie crusts.  Fun little thing to keep in your kitchen but it MUST be refrigerated after you open the package. The photo I am showing you is actually my buttermilk powder. And I get it at the grocery store.

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Herb Dumplings:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 to 2  tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 2 eggs (beaten in a cup first)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
  • as much fresh herbs as you want to mince up – I use tarragon, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, flat leaf parsley – just grab a bunch and chop.
  • a dash of fresh cracked pepper
  • 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (nothing fancy – Kraft or whatever)

Cut the butter into ALL dry ingredients with pastry cutter or dough blender.  You can also use two forks if you don’t have one of those handy tools.

Mix in the minced fresh herbs

In a measuring cup large enough to hold both, combine milk and eggs.  Start with 3/4 cup of milk, you can always add another 1/4 cup to dough if too dry.

Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients SLOWLY and mix until sticky soft dough comes together.  Do not overwork the dough.

I cover that with a linen towel until I am ready to cook and set aside.

Bring your soup to a boil.  Drop dumpling dough by rounded spoonfuls into soup.  Cover pot, reduce heat to simmer and cook 10 to 15 minutes. They will puff up and bob in the pot. They should be firm and puffy. Warning – be careful not to burn your fingers if you test the consistency of dumplings.

Ladle up and serve.

Could that be any more easy? And it is so old-fashioned and simply delicious.

mmmmm coffee

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DSC_0008I love good coffee.  Good coffee to me is not Starbucks which always tastes bitter and burnt.  Folgers simply never passes my lips and Keurig machines are o.k.

But if you are really interested, what I prefer is a French Press, an old school stove top espresso machine, and a Nespresso machine.  Truthfully I am so picky about my coffee I only order it out at certain places, because the brown water so many people pass off as coffee is just gross.

I have a Nespresso Pixie- my sister gave it to me as a Christmas present and we (the Nespresso machine and I) have been inseparable ever since.

Now the thing about Nespresso is it is controlled by Nestlé and you can only buy their coffee capsules which are do not misunderstand me, excellent.  But they are going up in price and I would like to be able to get capsules that are sometimes a little less expensive and a different brand of coffee – preferably small batch hand roasted kinds. Not flavored. Flavored coffee is simply gagalicious and I don’t mean that as a compliment – it is right up there with flavored or any kind of non-dairy creamer.

Well I was cruising around on Amazon.com looking and came across this company in NYC that was new called HiLine Coffee Company. So I went to their website to read about them

HiLine Coffee Company:

Our mission is to sell high quality coffee in Nespresso compatible capsules while offering great value and more choice to our customers. We believe Nespresso manufactures the best single-serve coffee machines and we like their espresso too; however, we feel it’s time to offer consumers a new choice of capsules to use with their Nespresso machines…We’re Gene and Ted, the founders of HiLine Coffee. We share a love of coffee going back more than a decade, when as undergraduates and best friends at Penn we stumbled upon La Colombe, a café near Rittenhouse Square. Just like many remember their first great wine, we remember our first great coffee.

 

So I figured how bad could coffee be from a couple of guys from Wharton? After all, a few years ago there was a coffee company I was crazy about that was also created by a guy from Wharton whose coffee I missed as the stores went away – New World Coffee.

I ordered a few sleeves and oh my I tried it today.  

One word: fabulous.

The flavor was bold and rich and not the least burnt.  It had that great espresso taste I love.  You see that is what hooks people on Nespresso machines: they can actually produce consistently good cups of coffee and espresso.

So look if you are a coffee junky like me and you own a Nespresso machine for $5 a sleeve for coffee produced in small batches, why not try it?  The coffee is good, and trust me I am picky about my coffee.

Read about the HiLine Coffee team by CLICKING HERE. They are on Twitter @hilinecoffee and on Facebook too.

Seriously? If they keep producing a product this good they will be the next hot thing sooner rather than later and you read it here first.HandsomeRoasters9photo-sa-fig-12-caffe-reggio-1

If  you do not own a Nespresso machine but want amazing coffee for your French Press or stove top espresso pot or whatever I buy from a place called Handsome Coffee Roasters from Los Angeles – like HiLine their coffee is super fresh and flavorful and roasted in small batches – all of their coffees are good but I recommend trying their “Roaster’s Choice”. I was introduced to   Handsome by a friend who designed their webpage whose girlfriend is a barista.  

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And if you want to check out one of the best coffee houses anywhere which is also steeped in tradition, check out Cafe Reggio in New York City in the Village around the corner from The Blue Note at 119 MacDougal Street.  They are the first place to ever make a cappuccino in the US and have been doing it right since 1927.

 

farmers’ market couscous

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Market inspired summer salad- my own recipe (but I am digging the 3 cookbooks I picked up on the cookbook swap at East Goshen Farmers’ Market last week)
Anyway farmers market summer couscous salad:I cooked 1 cup of plain couscous according to directions with sea salt, garlic powder and olive oil to taste.

When cooled and fluffed I added two diced medium tomatoes from Thornbury Farm, I diced red/purple lollipop onion from Sunny Slope, minced herbs from plants I bought and planted in my garden from the East Goshen Farmers’ Market (mostly from Brogue Hydroponics) – 1/3 cup chopped mint, 1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley.  Then I added 1/3 cup chopped cilantro, zest of one lemon, juice of one lemon, a little more olive oil, wine vinegar to taste, adjusted salt and added fresh cracked pepper.

Toss in refrigerator covered and serve cold

YUM!

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additional fun for july 4th: east goshen farmers market is OPEN! (and there is a cookbook swap too!)

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How totally fun!  The East Goshen Farmers Market is OPEN this coming THURSDAY JULY 4th from 3 pm to 7 pm!!! 

cookbooksThey will feature BBQ recipe handouts, special surprises, fabulous food and produce and a COOKBOOK SWAP!  (Sorry but I am madly excited to go to a cookbook swap!)

The deal with the cookbook swap is bring cookbooks that are gently used but in good enough condition to go to a new home. Bring any  food-related books that you’re ready to trade –  cookbooks, foodie memoirs ,cooking reference books.  Add them to the table.  In return, take your pick from books others have brought. Each home chef is welcome to take as many books as they bring is the unwritten rule of cookbook swaps.

Cookbooks are EXPENSIVE and a lot of the cool ones are out of print, so I hope this becomes a regular market feature here.

4th of July is not just about celebrating America’s birthday and our freedoms, it is also a time of family, fun, friendship, and community. So why NOT head out to the East Goshen Farmers’ Market?  If you are usually working it is a great way to check it out, if you are feeling like you want someone else to bring that little something something to a BBQ or picnic or cook out, why not either check out the amazing produce or maybe find something already prepared to contribute?  Or just come to hang out at a community activity at probably the best municipal parks in multiple counties?

PLEASE NOTE THE MOST UP TO THE MINUTE UPDATES FROM THE EAST GOSHEN FARMERS’ MARKET ARE ALWAYS FOUND ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE!  LIKE THEM TODAY!

East Goshen's Market Manager HeidiAnd I have to say a shout out is in order to Heidi, East Goshen’s market manager and her crew of volunteers.  They have done an amazing job fixing a market that some might say was deliberately left in a shambles following the purple huff departure of the former market managers.  And they are all so pleasant, welcoming, and helpful. They want you to have a good market experience.
The layout of the East Goshen market is fabulous and welcoming – you can stroll along as if you are in a more European style market and every week it gets better and better.  I am also discovering a lot of my favorite  vendors from West Chester Growers Market and the West Chester Artisans Market are calling East Goshen home on Thursdays.  As a matter of fact, check out West Chester Patch this morning for a great article about one of the shared producers, Sunny Slope Farms:

Buy Fresh, Buy Local Means Sunny Slope Farms at 2 Local Farmers Markets

These farmers don’t bring food to market the way big stores and growers do.

Posted by Bob Byrne (Editor), July 1, 2013 at 09:50 pm

This is the peak time of year for buying fresh and local summer produce. One Lancaster County farm has a unique “community” business model that puts some of the freshest fruit and veggies on West Chester and other area tables every week.

Sunny Slope Farms of Christiana, PA in Lancaster County is a regular vendor at Thursday’s East Goshen Farmer’s Market and the West Chester Artisan Farmers Market on Saturdays.

The friendly folks from Thornbury Farms

 

growing roots like a weed?

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DSC_0355So I was looking for information on a farm I like at East Goshen Farmers’ Market this morning and put “East Goshen Farmers Market” into Google and hit enter.  What came up somewhat surprised and shocked me for the petty of it all.  The OLD East Goshen Farmers Market page that was from when the “ladies’ of Growing Roots Partners was running it. The http://www.eastgoshenfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/ .

O.k. so I could get it when it was earlier in the season and everyone is running around pre-markets to set up that this should stay up, but now?  Now it is just sour grapes on the part of Growing Roots Partners. I think (and it is o.k. for me to have this opinion) that they are just being petty at this point.  They leave the OLD site up just to confuse and make people think that East Goshen no longer has a farmers market.  Talk about PMS (Post Market Syndrome).

Growing Roots Partners should exhibit some style and take what they want off their OLD east Goshen site and then take the blogspot down – it is the right thing to do.

I will note that I checked out the market last weekend in Malvern.  I found it cramped and constipated and it sort of had an “urban” feel.  And it also wasn’t very crowded and last Satuday was a beautiful morning. Yes there were farmers I had missed but the layout of the Malvern market is such that I will still go find those farmers elsewhere (if they are allowed to be elsewhere).

I like to support all markets, but on Saturday mornings my preference is still the West Chester Growers Market for a weekend market.  It is not a huge market, but it is well laid out and flows.

When Malvern Farmers Market’s owners Growing Roots Partners grows up I will be happy to check out that market again.  Their market layout seems to reflect the market managers’ personalities.  Sorry I don’t like petty and leaving an old website up to deliberately confuse the public is wrong.  And I don’t want to hear they don’t know how to take it down because that is why they call it “push button publishing” – it is so simple a five year old can take it down.

The REAL East Goshen Farmers Market can be found  at www.eastgoshenfarmersmarket.org/ and on Facebook