Back for Summer's Bounty

With trips to St. Louis and Maine over the past month, I've been necessarily neglectful in updating this blog, and more importantly of indulging in the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables now before us.

 This week I aim to remedy the situation.

Maybe by this weekend (or even this afternoon, when I intend to hit the Fairmount farmers' market) I'll be impressed with local tomatoes. So far, I have not. The Lancaster County beefsteak tomato I picked up yesterday at Ben Kauffman's RTM stall was quite disappointing. Clearly, this wasn't a winter tomato: it was red all the way through with plenty of meat. But the taste failed to live up to its promise. Although I didn't buy them, the heirlooms at both Ben's and Fair Food looked lackluster.

Could it have been July's excessive heat that accounted for the wan flavor? I know extreme and prolonged heat can toughen the skin, among other problems, but does it impact flavor?

The nectarines purchased at Fair Food yesterday, however, were wonderful. These beauties, from Beechwood Orchards (which also sells at Headhouse, Rittenhouse, South & Passyunk and other farmers' markets) featured chin-bathing juiciness and full flavor. I've yet to bite into the peach sitting on the kitchen counter.

Local musk melons, a.k.a. cantelopes, are also in season. The one I picked up a couple weeks ago from Bill Weller's Orchard Hill stand at the Fairmount market was decent enough. Perhaps by now the lopes have developed more sweetness and flavor.

Blueberries have pretty much disappeared (though I did buy some wild lowbush berries in Maine a week ago that were superb) but we've got blackberries galore, which I also adore; those I've had have been delicious. Red raspberries are also plentiful and big, if pricey.

The corn I've sampled so far has also been disappointing, but maybe that's because I've not tried enough. The Silver King from Ben Kaufman yesterday had nice kernels, but it should have been sweeter and cornier. Again, could excessive heat been a culprit? We'll keep trying.

Here's the price rundown on what I spied yesterday at the RTM:

At Kauffman's corn was 50 cents an ear for Silver King, with a slight discount for larger quantities. Bi-color was half the price. Beefstake tomatoes $2.49/pound, heirlooms $4.99. Yellow peaches $1.99, whites $2.99. Blackberries $3 a half-pint, red raspberries $5.95.

Fair Food was selling Beechwood's tree fruit: nectarines $2, donut peaches $3.50, plums $3.50, yellow cling and white peaches $2. Fair Food's organic tomatoes were $4, heirlooms $5.  I bought a couple of poblano peppers at a pricey $7.50/pound. Green bell peppers were  thrift 90 cents. New to me in the refrigerator case were sausages from Southwark restaurant, but I wouldn't try one priced at about $37 a pound!

Iovine Brothers Produce, of course, offers the cheapest quality produce at the market, though O.K. Lee can sometimes given them a run for their money. Pennsylvania-grown (Bloomsburg) tomatoes at Iovine's were $1.49. Jersey white peaches $1.49, California donuts 79 cents. Bloomsburg cantalopes were $1 apiece. Among the peppers, local green bells were 99 cents, while commercial peppers were $1.49 for yellows and reds. Banana peppers were 99 cents, fryers $1.49. Although not as tasty as the locals were a month ago, the West Coast sweet red cherries were worth it at $2.99.

L. Halteman also has relative bargains in summer produce. Corn was 55 cents an ear (3 for $1.19, six for $2.85, a dozen for $5.29). Heirloom tomatoes $2.99, slicers $2.29. Nectarines and peaches (yellow and white) $1.99. Huge cantelopes were $2.99 apiece.

Since it's grilling season now may be the time to make some ribs.

Over at Martin's Quality Meats, spare ribs sere $2.69, baby backs $4.89, beef back $2.39 and lamb $4.29. Giunta's Prime Shop had short ribs for $4.99, lamb for $3.89, baby backs for $4.59. L. Halteman's spare ribs were $2.99.

Short ribs are demanding to cook directly on the grill, but if you're willing to braise them first and finish them out-of-doors you're in for a treat. I made them a couple weeks ago using superb beef from Charlie Giunta. I asked for long cut rather than cross-cut, then braised two or three pounds' worth for about three hours in a slow oven after browning. The braise was simple, with some gently sautéd onions, salt and pepper, whole garlic cloves added to the dutch oven with plain old tap water. After cooking I let them cool in the pot, then before serving charred them over a very hot fire on the gas grill. They were tender and flavorful, among the best short ribs I've had either made at home or ordered in a restaurant. I give most of the credit to the quality of the beef.

 Beechwood Orchards at Headhouse

Berries and  Cherries

Summer's bounty of  berries and cherries could be found at most markets this weekend.

Over at Beechwood Orchards at Headhouse I purchased $5/quart pie cherries, which I'll transfom into sherbet and/or cobbler. Beechwood also had them at Rittenhouse yesterday. Another stone fruit also made a Beechwood appearance, apricots, at $3.75/pint. Dave Garretson didn't have many, but expects more in coming weeks.

Beechwood's sweet cherries (red or the yellow-pink Rainiers) were $7/quart, compared to Three Springs Fruit Farm's $8 (two pint price) for reds. Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce sold reds Saturday for $6.99/pound, which translate to about $9/quart. His Queen Annes were pricier, at $7.99/pound.

(Garretson said he sells Rainiers rather than Queen Anne's because the latter are easy to "fingerprint," i.e., they bruise as soon as you pick them with your fingers.)

Blueberries from local growers are also in season, whether they come from the commercial (but nonetheless quite tasty) South Jersey growers ($3.75/pint, iirc) or farmers market vendors (about $5/pint).

Raspberries, both red and black, could also be purchased. Beechwood's cost $5 for a half-pint box. Some vendors still feature strawberries for $6-$7/quart.

Asparagus has disappeared for all practical puposes, but there are lots of other veggies to replace them. Summer squashes are abundant, and eggplant is now available, too -- $1 apiece for Sicilian or regular at A.T. Buzby's Headhouse stall today. Green and yellow string beans, sugar snap peas, sweet or English peas (shelled or still in the pod), garlic scapes, cucumbers (regular "garden" cukes, kirby cukes for pickling and "seedless" varieties. The last type makes fantastic "quick" Scandinavian style pickles to serve alongside cold salmon. Boiled new potatoes (also abundant at local markets) makes another excellent accompaniment to that salmon. And you've got lots of choice in greens for both cooking and salads. Beets and turnips are also widely available.

Leafy herbs -- parsley and cilantro among them -- are also easy to find now, as are spring onions.

If you can't wait another month, corn is available but you'll pay dearly. Buzby had white ears today priced at 75-cents apiece. I'll wait for peak season when even Tom Culton will occasionally sell his (including the mirai variety) at less than half that price.

Sweet and Queen Anne cherries at
Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce

Cherries Arrive, Priced Dearly

As Benuel Kauffman told me a couple days ago, he did, indeed, have cherries at his Reading Terminal stall today. But they didn't come cheaply.

In previous seasons, Ben priced his berries by the pint or quart. At least for the start of the season, he's pricing them per pound. The red cherries today were $5.99, the Queen Anne variety $6.99. Since a pint weighs out at about three-quarters of a pound, the pint price for the reds works out to about $4.50, a buck more than last year's $3.50. Since this year's crop is expected to be decent, figure the price should come down as more vendors offer the first of the season's stone fruits. Last year, West Coast cherries sold for as little as 59-cents a pound at Iovine Brothers.

Earlier this week I reported that Iovine's red bell peppers were unexpectedly cheaper than the frying peppers, $1.99 a pound vs. $2.49. Today the price of the latter came down $1.99. Meanwhile Vinnie Iovine was touting his Georgia peaches (he joked is staff mis-spelled the price card, as "Spothern" rather than "Southern" peaches. He says although rock hard, they are considerably sweeter than the California's he sent back to his wholesaler.

Back at Ben Kauffman's he had a full complement of spring veggies today, including a number of different onions. Here are the photos:

Local lettuces

Asparagus, snow peas, new red potatoes and what may be the last of the strawberries

White and red scallions, string beans, two colors of new potatoes and red onions

Green and yellow squash, more spring onions, sweet peas in the pod, cucumbers

Getting My RTM Fix

I visited the Reading Terminal Market today for the first time in more than a month, arriving just after they opened the doors so I could avoid the crush later for the Ultimate Ice Cream Festival.

My first stop (photo at left) was to check out the status of summer produce at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, where proprietor Benuel complained about how hot it's been. (Why should he be different than anyone else?)

The mid-summer stone fruits were greatly in evidence: sugar and yellow plums for $2/pint, yellow peaches for $2.49/pound, pinks for $2.99, apricots $2.95/pint. Despite reading elsewhere the the blueberry season would be abbreviated this year, Ben had plenty, though pricey at $4.95/pint. Silver King corn was 50 cents an ear. Tomatos: beefstakes $3.49/pound, cherries $4.95/pint, Sun Golds $3/pint, heirlooms $4.99/pound

Sweet white corn picked yesterday was also 50-cents an ear (6/$2.59) at the Fair Food Farmstand. Organic purple eggplant $3.50/pound, Fairytale $4.50. Heirloom tomatoes here were $5.75/pound, organic fields $4, Sun Golds $5/pint. Stone fruits: nectaries and white and yellow peaches $2.50/pound; apricots $3.50/pint, all varieties of plums (Shiro, sugar, Early Gold) $3.50/pint. Lemon cucumbers $3/pound, baby white cukes $3.75. Musk melons (cantelopes) from A.T. Buzby were $4.50 each.

L. Halteman (photo at right) ususally has some of the best deals in local produce and today was no exception with peaches going for $1.99/pound, apricots $2.59/pint, sugar plums $2.89/pint. The musk melons were $1.29 each, or two for $2. Whole round yellow watermelons were $5.19 apiece. Blueberries $3.29/pint, $5.49/quart. Corn was 3/$1, field tomatoes $2.99, Brandywines $4.19 a quart (3 large tomatoes).

Over at Iovine Brothers Produce the corn was also three for a buck. Limes were 10 for a buck, Hass avocados $1.49. Jersey field tomatos 99-cents, Jersey green peppers $1.49/pound, red long hots and frying peps the same price. String beans $1.99. Jersey blueberries $1.99/pint. California black figs were $1.99 a pack (eight ounces). White and red seedless grapes were $1.49/pound, blacks $1.99.

Since I'm just back from Norway I had to check the fish at John Hi, where dry scallops were quite high at $18.99/pound. Among the salmons, farm-raised Norwegian was about $10/pound while wild Alaskan King and Sockeye were $17.99 and $14.99, respectively. There was also New Zealand "wild" king, $15.99, but it's undoubtedly farm-raised despite the sign.

 

Hothouse tomatoes, cherries, strawberries at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce

Berries to Cherries

Summer is drawing nigh. Just look at the produce at the Reading Terminal Market. At Iovine Brothers' the peaches have crept up from Georgia to South Carolina (and one local farmer said his early varieties will be ready in just a couple of weeks). Strawberries are starting to get soft with a little more mold and will soon disappear, but the first cherries have appeared.

The cherries could be found today at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce where proprietor Ben was selling pints for $3.95. His English peas, in the hull and snow peas were $3.90/pound, red new potatoes $2.95/pint. Over at the Fair Food Farmstand, snow peas, sugar snaps and English peas were $3.50/pint. You could save considerably on sugar snaps by walking over to Iovine's where they were $1.99/pound; although their provenance was not marked, the one I sampled tasted as about as fresh as what I've found in farmers' markets.

Grilling Season!

Martin's Quality Meats at the Reading Terminal Market has got you covered for grilling season, now that recent temperatures have hit the high 80s (though today it's a tad nippier and wetter).

Featured on a low key sign were lamb ribs, $3.29, and beef back ribs, $2.99, in addition to Martin's usual highly varied assortment of sausages.

I took to the grill a couple of days ago with some loin lamb chops I purchased back in early January from Harry Ochs. These two beauties held up well in the freezer. After defrosting I lightly salted them and placed them in a bag for another hour in the fridge, then immediately before grilling applied a dry rub of pepper, rosemary, thyme and garlic powder. Cooked to just half a step beyond rare to an even rose they were incredibly deep in flavor.

A better seafood buy at John Yi's than the New Zealand salmon I disparaged in the previous post is the Boston mackerel. The very fresh looking dressed fish sold for $2.99/pound. Had I not consumed a smoked, peppered filet from Duck Trap for dinner last night I might have indulged.

One of the pricier fruits at Iovine Brothers today were the black figs at $3.99 apiece! They were next to similarly priced rambutan, a "hairy" relative of the lychee.

Over at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, Benuel Kauffman was selling strawberries at $6.95/quart, about the same as the A.T. Buzby IPM quarts over at the Fair Food Farmstand. (You can buy the same Buzby berries Sunday at Headhouse for $5.50/quart). Ben's asparagus was $2.95/bunch.

Strawberries Push the Envelope

Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce offered local strawberries at the Reading Terminal Market today. But only technically. These berries, priced at $5.95/pint (two for $10) were raised indoors, according to Benuel Kauffman. Don't expect to see outdoor grown local strawberries for at least another two weeks, more likely three.

Ben also had some gorgeous looking indoor-grown seedless cukes, at least a foot long each.

Both Iovine Brothers Produce and the Fair Food Farmstand are selling veggies from New Jersey's Flaim Farm. Both, for example, had Flaim's leeks ($1.75/pound at FF, $1.95/pound for smaller examples at Iovine's).

As I wrote last year when Iovine's began carrying Flaim's produce (sometimes marketed under the name Panther), the Vineland farm produces romaine, kohlrabi, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard (green, red), rainbow kale, turnips, napa cabbage, squash, eggplant (four varieties), peppers, escarole, endive. tomatillos and scallions on 450 acres. The farm was established in 1934 and is now operated by brothers Kevin and Bob Flaim. They also sell at the Collingswood Farmers’ Market.

Iovine's is also handling another producer's output in common with Fair Food: eggs from Natural Meadow Farms, Lancaster County.

Fair Foods still had fiddleheads today, $16/pound. No sign of ramps anywhere at the market, but FF had some rather pungent fresh spring garlic. IPM asparagus was $3.30/bunch, chemical-free stalks $3.50.

Most of the halibut I see at the Reading Terminal hails from Alaska, usually frozen. Today, at a savings of $7/pound vs. the $18.99 for the Alaskan version, John Yi had firm white filets from Canada. I bought some to try tomorrow. One of the fishmongers said it's slightly "fishier" than the Alaskan version, which is no sin in my book so long as it's fresh. Boston mackerel also made a reappearance at Yi's, $2.99/pound for whole fish.

Jim Iovine was touting tomatoes and corn this week. I tried the former, and they weren't bad: $1.49 pints of cherry tomatoes that, if they didn't quite taste like summer, came close. 

Benuel Kauffman

Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce has been a fixture at the Reading Terminal Market for 20 years. Benuel is among the handful of greengrocers who work directly with area farmers to bring their fruits and vegetables to the Reading Terminal Market. (The others are Iovine Brother's Produce and O.K. Lee, who have contracts with farmers to provide certain produce, Fair Food Farmstand and, to a lesser extent, L. Halteman.)

Ben says his customers have been asking when they'll start to see green things at his stall, which is now stocked with beans, canned goods, preserves and other packaged foods. If the weather cooperates he expects asparagus to show up in about three or four weeks.

Don't curse all that snow we had this winter. Ben says the thick layer of white stuff melted slowly, which was very good in prepping the soil for planting and for those crops already in the ground waiting to spring up with longer days and moderate weather.

Ben's been working in the market since the early 1980s when he helped out a fellow Amishman who operated a produce stand at the market, originally located where the Down Home Diner rules today. With the improvement of the market during convention center construction his predecessor moved to the seating area closest to Arch Street. A few years later he left the market, so Ben established his stall where Moyer's Pork Products of Blooming Glen was ensconced for a few decades. (You can still see the lettering for Moyer's stall at Ben's; we both lament the loss of Moyers and his superior hams, the best either of us have ever tasted.)

Although Ben obtains most of his produce from neighbors, he outs in a few crops himself, including green beans, peas and a few other vegetables.