Preserves at Fairmount

It's been a while since I visited my neighborhood farmers' market in Fairmount, so it was nice to see a new vendor, even though it's for a product I buy infrequently: jams and jellies.

The vendor is Fifth of a Farm Creations, which uses the community kitchen sponsored by Greensgrow to produce fruit-in-a-jar named after Philadelphia neighborhoods. Some examples: Strawberry Mansion Jam, Parkside Prickly Pear Jelly, Fairmount Cherry Jam, etc. The stall also had some citrus marmalades. It doesn't exactly replace Noelle Margerum and her preserves, who used to frequent Fairmount, but it's a welcome addition.

Among the regulars at Fairmount yesterday was Earl Livengood, who had the largest paw paws I've ever seen. They all come from a huge tree in his front yard just outside Lancaster. I picked up a field tomato and small basket of orange pear tomatos from Earl, then stopped by Beechwood Orchards' stall for Jonathan apples, a Bartlett pear and a Crenshaw melon, another cultivar of the huge muskmelon family (honeydews, cantalopes, persian, etc.).