Hard Cider On Tap for Three Springs Fruit Farm

Sweet cider now, hard cider next month

By the time the Headhouse Farmers' Market closes for the season Dec. 18 Ben Wenk plans on selling hard cider made on his family's Three Springs Fruit Farm in Adams County.

He's been thinking about making hard cider ever since he and his father, Dave, first sold their produce at Headhouse when the Food Trust's big market opened in 2007.

"After our first day at Headhouse my dad and I decided to have a celebratory drink at what is now Cavanaughs," explained Wenk. "I got whatever tap handle I didn’t recognize and I ordered Strongbow, thinking it was a beer and not realizing it was a cider."

Ben had tried hard ciders before, like Woodchuck, but found them too sweet for his taste. But he and his dad both enjoyed the drier example. "Dad turns to me and said, like, we can make this sometime. So later that year bought used bourbon barrels and started experimenting."

Since then Wenk has taken cider much more seriously, and three years ago began planning his own commercial cidery, with help and support from some of his neighbors, including Big Hill Cidery up the road. For pressing his apples into juice, Wenk brings his bins over to Lem Christophel who runs Eden Garden Farm in nearby Dillsburg (and sells his crop at the Clark Park Farmers Market, also, like Headhouse, operated by the Food Trust).

Cider can be made from "dessert" apples, those meant for fresh eating, and it will be good. But Ben's long-term plan is to take advantage of classic cider varieties, most of which are too bitter or astringent to be appealing in a lunchbox. 

So in 2013, after considerable research, Ben ordered a variety of cider apple trees to plant. They arrived and were planted last year, and may produce a few useable apples next season, but Ben isn't figuring on a significant yield until three or four years from now. A good cider, like a good wine, takes time.

Wenk explained there are four basic classifications used by the British (his inspiration in cider-making): sweets, sharps, bittersweets and bittersharps. Among the varities he's planted, some British in heritage, others American, are Dabinett, Stoke Red, Somerset Redstreak, Chisel Jersey, Harry Masters Jersey, Frequin Rouge (a traditional French variety), Brown’s Apples, Granny Winkle (an American apple, advertised as early as 1803 by a Burlington, New Jersey, nursery), Roxbury Russet and Wickson's crab. Among the more common sweet varieties Wenk plans on using are  Golden Russet and Albemarle Pippin (also known as Newtown pippin).

This season's hard cider will get much of its oomph from two dessert apples, one which has been a standard for the past few years, Gold Rush, and another which Wenk planted a few years ago and is just now bearing fruit in sufficient numbers, the Esopus Spitzenburg. The former is an extraordinary juicy sweet apple developed in the 1990s in a joint program by the Indiana, Illinois and New Jersey experimental agricultural stations, the latter, one of the oldest North American apples, another good juice producer with a complex flavor.

"Both Gold Rush and Spitzenburg are high in acid and brix [a measure of sugar in liquids), so they're good apples to blend," said Wenk. The sugar content is important, not so much as to add sweetness to the final product but to provide food for the yeasts that turn apple juice into hard cider.

By itself acidity doesn't make a good cider; but acids with a tannic quality do. Tannins add dryness, astringency and texture to the final product, and that's a quality many traditional cider varieties have in abundance. While his cider trees grow toward production levels, Wenk is experimenting by adding other fruits and botanicals with tannins to his mix: dry hops, chokeberries, "and similar substances to get that really bitter characteristic into our blends."

Although Wenk regards cider both in its production methods and taste qualities as closer to wine than beer, he buys into the experimentation American craft brewers are noted for and applies it to his cider.

"We take English cider makers as our inspiration," he said. Indeed, English farm tradition provides the name for his cider: "Ploughman", as in "Ploughman's Lunch," the traditional midday meal of pickle, bread and cheese.

"Like most American craft producers we use traditional methods but like the opportunity to experiment". Not orange creamsicle, he's quick to add, but he will "take the best of what’s on the farm and put it it in the bottle. If blackberries are good one year, we’ll add those. We're taking  a winemaker's approach in creating a cider that a craft beer drinker would like." He hopes to add "terroir appeal" by experimenting with natural yeasts, "an expression of the soil the apples grown in," although right now commercial yeasts provide the consistency he needs.

Wenk plans to sell the cider at the farmer's markets he frequents, including Headhouse here in Philadelphia, other markets in Pennsylvania close to his Adams County base, and to taverns in Washington, D.C. He also plans to sell to kegs to Philadelphia restaurants where he currently supplies fruit.

Wenk sees cider as one more attraction to lure visitors to Adams County, beyond the battlefield at Gettysburg. 

"I think hard cider in the U.S., especially east coast, has really grown up.  We want to make Adams county a destination to visit and drink cider in," said Wenk.

Apples to keep

The Esopus Spitzenberg apple

Ben Wenk and I spend nearly five minutes at this morning's Headhouse Square Farmers Market discussing apples and cider, and one variety in particular that he is selling for the first time this year, the Espopus Spitzenberg.

Ben, who brings his family's Three Springs Fruit Farm output in the Adams County, Pennsylvania, fruit belt, to markets here, in Maryland and the District of Columbus, was quick to note the apple was Thomas Jefferson's favorite.

It's one of mine, too, and not only because of its flavor and storage qualities. As I noted in a post five years ago, when I purchased the variety from North Star Orchards, the apple is named after the Esopus Creek in Ulster County, New York. I took many a dip in this icy-cold, rocky waterway in the northern Catskills during family vacations in the 1950s. The Espopus is a favored trout stream and also feeds into the New York City water supply through the nearby Ashokan Reservoir.

The apple offers great balance between sweet and tart, with a honey-colored, crisp and spicy flesh and a orange-dappled skin. The Espopus Spitzenberg's complex flavor is matched by its pleasant aromatic qualities, making it an excellent "dessert" apple, one that's meant to be eaten as is (though it's a good cooking apple, too). It's not an easy apple to grow, however, and prone to just about any disease that strikes other apples.

Like many late season apples, it 's a "keeper" which, like a fine wine, improves with age; the apple you put in the crisper today will be even deeper in favor come late January and February.

Ben had a full bin of another "keeper" today at Headhouse: the Arkansas Black. perhaps the hardest, crispest apple I've ever tasted. It might lose a bit of that crispness after a few months of storage, but it will still be suitably crunchy. As it stores it will even become darker in color, as well as develop a waxy finish. Unlike the Esopus, however, it's a rather one-dimensional apple in flavor: all sweetness, with little apparent tartness. Still, it's a tasty apple with admirable qualities. Although it's parentage is a mystery, the Arkansas Black is probably descended from the Winesap.

If Ben still has them next week I'll buy a big bag of Esopus Spitzenbergs for my crisper. But the "keeper" I'm waiting for is the Newtown Pippin, another variety that improves immeasurably after a few months in storage. North Star Orchards usually has them in November. As a rule, the later in the season an apple matures, the better it is as a storage apple. The Newtown Pippin will soften just a tad in storage and it's skin may wrinkle a bit, but it's fine eating.

Headhouse Returns for 10th Season

Barry Savoie of his eponymous organic farm helps customer on opening day at Headhouse

Radishes at Blooming Glen Farm

The Food Trust's Yael Lehmann snipped the ribbon to open the 10th season of the organization's farmers' market under the shambles at Headhouse Square.

A healthy contingent of 24 vendors -- including six that were actually selling fresh produce you could actually bring home and eat -- showed up under the constant rain. Additional vendors are expected next week. Crowds were sparse (at least during the market's first half-hour when I visited) but eager to take advantage of the offerings.

Asparagus, one of the quintessential vegetables of spring, could be found at two stalls, A.T. Buzby and Three Springs. Buzby also offered hoop house tomatos, while Ben Wenk of Three Springs mostly featured storage apples and prepared items, including ketchup as well as canned fruit, jams and preserves.

Blooming Glen was back with two kinds of ravishing radishes (traditional red globe and French breakfast), along with arugala, leaf spinach, green garlic and a few other items. Queen Farm had its usual assortment of oyster mushrooms and at least six varieties of greens.

Weaver's Way, the northwest Philadelphia food coop which operates two small-scale farms, was big on greens, too. Like Queen Farm they also offered colorful lilac flowers. Savoie Organic Farm had some cabbage, but otherwise only offered seedlings of tomato and vegetable plants for sale, as did Happy Cat Farm.

One new merchant this year: High Street, offering bread products from it esteemed bakery. Wild Flour Bakery was back in its usual spot. (Ric's baked goods are expected back next week.)

Sue Miller of Birch Run Hills Farm with her cheeses (and veal and pork products) returned, as did Hillacres Pride, offering cheese and other dairy products as well as meats. And Shellbark Hollow returned with its capric dairy offerings.

Other vendors at  the season's first market: Bennett Compost, Good Spoon (soups), Griggstown Farm (poultry, pies), Green Aisle Grocery (jarred foods), John + Kira Chocolates, LaDivisa (charuterie), Longview Floweres, Market Day Canele (sweet and savory baked goods), Paradox Vineyard (wine), Philly Fair Trade Coffee Roasters, Shore Catch (fish), and Spring Hill Farm (maple syrup).

Thin Crowds for Peak Produce

Beets from North Star

When is the summer produce peak? Right now. Mid-August is when tomatos and corn are at their best, peaches are bountiful and beautiful, summer squash vines droop under the weight of fruit, and farmers harvest peppers by the truckload. Plus, we've still got some blueberries, blackberries are in full flavor, and late summer apples are ready for picking.

The irony is that on a mid-August Sunday, fewer people are in town to take advantage of the bonanza at farmers market like the one today at Headhouse Square. Certainly the market wasn't empty, but the crowds are thinner than in June or even early July. Everyone's at the shore or the Poconos or standing on line waiting to get into the Louvre.

But that's okay. That means there's more for you and me to gather on our weekly trip to the farmers' market.

Making its seasonal debut today at Headhouse was North Star Orchards, which specializes in apples and pears, but had plenty of vegetables, too, including gargantuan red and orange beets. Plus three varieties of apples.

Here are some more photos of finds at today's Headhouse Farmers' Market:

Ripe bell peppers from A.T. Buzby

Also from Buzby, Sicilia and common eggplants

Melon man from Tom Culton

Cherry tomatoes from Savoie Farm

Tomatillos from Blooming Glen Farm

Summer Bounty

If tomatoes are abundant, it must be summer. Here's a basket of beauties from Blooming Glen at Sunday's Headhouse Square Farmers' Market.

Saturn Peaches

 Saturn peaches, a.k.a. donut peaches, area in season along with the standard varieties. These were being sold Sunday for $5/quart by Three Springs Fruit Farm at the Headhouse Farmers' Market.

Peppers Galore

Sweet frying peppers from Blooming Glen

Jalapenos from Blooming Glen

Peppers in all their tasty and colorful variety are flooding farmers markets. Whether sweet bells or frying, long hots, cubanelles, poblanos or jalapenos, there's a lot of ways to use them in the kitchen.

Sweet frying peppers from Savoie Farms

Poblanos are the go-to pepper for chile relleños, even if you bake the cheese-stuffed peppers rather than batter and deep-fry, a messy (though worthwhile) proposition.

For scallop or any other ceviche, dice a jalapeño or two as a garnish. I served it yesterday accopanied by slices of avocado and dusted with cilantro.

Sweet bell peppers of any color take well to roasting or grilling. And they're great in gazpacho.

Got a steak on the grill? Fry up some sweet frying peppers with garlic and/or onion to go on top.

Bell Peppers from Tom Culton

Summer Profusion Commences

Melons, peaches, eggplan, tomatoes and corn are about the only summer produce not available in profusion at Headhouse Square Farmers' Market toda.  A.T. Buzby did have an early crop of corn available for the second week in a row. A number of farmers have started to sell tomatos, but only in limited quantity; Queens Farm's have been tasty.

Buzby's colored carrots were enticing (top) as well as the overflowing baskets of summer squashes paired with summer red new potatoes (left) at Blooming Glen's welcoming stall.

Blooming Glen also featured kirby cucumbers (below), ideal for pickling but perfectly fine used in salads or just about any cucumber application you can imagine.

Cherries, Blueberries, Raspberries Arrive

Beechwood Orchards

On the first Headhouse Farmers Market after summer solstice produce stalls were full with cherries, blueberries and even a few raspberries.

The sweet cherries were a bit of a surprise, given that this year's crop will be lean. Prices hovered around $8.50 a quart (at the Reading Terminal Market, Ben Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce was asking $9.99).

Although the red cherries tasted bright, sweet and fresh, they weren't 60 percent better than the $2.99/pound commercial Washington State Bings purchased later in the week at the Cherry Hill Wegman's. While the store-bought fruit wasn't quite as intense in flavor, it was close enough and just as sweet; the individual fruits were also larger, though that's a tertiary consideration as far as I'm concerned. The sweet cherry, it appears, is one of those fruits that can be shipped cross-country, when properly packaged, successfully.

The local orchardists say the sour cherry crop is also slim and hence will be pricey, too, when it shows up in another week or so. Dave Garretson of Beechwood Orchards said he has a too few early variety sour cherries to make harvesting worthwhile, but expects to bring in mid-season Montmorency pie cherries when they're ripe. Beechwood also offered Rainier sweet cherries last Sunday, priced slightly higher than the sweet reds.

Queens Farm tomatos

Wanna buy some superfruit? Well, blueberries are back, $4.75/pint at Beechwood. Three Springs Fruit Farm had them, too, along with the season's first red raspberries. I've been enjoying the blues in yogurt for breakfast this week. Ben Wenk of Three Springs expects good crop of raspberries this year, especially the black variety. He cultivates both but said the wild raspberry patches he's seen are full of fruit.

The early tomato crop from Queens Farm remains tasty. Although pricey at $3.60/pound for its mixed heirloom varieties, they are a pure taste of summer.

Just in time for gin and tonic season, limes continue their downward price trend. Over at the Reading Terminal Market this week Iovine Brothers Produce has been selling nice-sized and heavy fruits at 20 cents a piece, a far cry from the buck (or more) apiece limes commanded in early spring.

Another crop making its seasonal debut at Headhouse Sunday: sweet corn. South Jersey farmer A.T. Buzby was selling its at 75 cents an ear.

Last Sunday may have been the last we'll see of English peas and strawberries, but there's a chance some farmers in cooler climes may have them. I took the $5 pint of sweet and fresh shelled peas purchased from Tom Culton and turned them (after the briefest boiling and then shocking in ice water) into a salad with some diced and well-fried Irish bacon, thinly sliced shallot rings, shredded gruyere cheese and homemade ranch dressing.

Here's a quick tour of some of the more photogenic produce seen at Headhouse last Sunday:

Summer yellow cukes from Savoie Organic Farm

Radishes in two colors from, iirc, Weaver's Way

Chard from Blooming Glen Farm

Red onions from Tom Culton

I Love June

Three Springs Fruit Farm at Headhouse

In April we see small, nearly-hidden harbingers of what's to come: fiddleheads, ramps, perhaps morels if we're lucky. Then in May the bounty starts with cool-weather crops like lettuces, greens, and, late in the month, our first fruit: strawberries.

Now that it's June the welcome crush of produce has commenced.

The strawberries are peaking and will remain in their full glory for at least another three or four weeks, getting us through the Independence Day weekend with cakes, ice cream, tarts and just mixed with yogurt or eaten plain. The quality has been excellent once we got beyond the early crop. The berries I picked up the last two weeks from Beechwood Orchards, both at the Headhouse and Fairmount farmers markets, have been excellent: red to the core, sweet, flavorful, juicy. Prices, however, have held steady at $7/quart from most vendors, with an occasional offer of $5.50. I have no doubt pints and quarts from vendors other than Beechwood are just as good. The Wenk family's Three Springs Fruit Farm, like Beechwood located in Pennsylvania's Fruit Belt in Adams County, north and west of Gettysburg, also was selling good-looking berries today at Headhouse. So was A.T. Buzby from South Jersey's Salem County, as well as smaller farmers. But as is almost always the case, the best deal on local berries is at the Reading Terminal Market, where L. Halteman Family Country Foods sells them for more than two bucks less a quart.

Chinese lettuce

Cool-weather lettuces are also plentiful. One of the most unusual is the Chinese lettuce sold by Queens Farm at Fairmount and Headhouse. The dense firm stalk can be stir-fried or added to soups, though I'm not a fan. What has been delicious from Queens Farm is its tomatoes. We're still a month away, at least, from the real tomato crop, but Ed Yin has brought in a taste of late summer before the solstice arrives. He starts out his heirloom varieties under plastic but in the ground, rather than a hothouse. Queens Farms is also the place to buy oyster mushrooms and Asian greens.

The prior Sunday I went mad buying sugar snaps and snow peas. I passed by one stall and grabbed a pint of sugar snaps and brought them back to the car. Then I headed back under the Headhouse shambles and found snow peas, forgetting all about the sugar snaps I just purchased, and bought a pint of those, too. I never bothered to cook any of them. Some were consumed out-of-hand, others dressed with either a vinaigrette or mayo-based dressing. I'm thankful our houseguests during the week helped me go through them. That allowed me to pick up a pint of yellow string beans from Tom Culton at today's Headhouse market, along with Chiogga beets.

Another late spring treat from a number of vendors: red new potatoes. I turned a pint from Culton to a simple potato salad, but they'd be great boiled or steamed to accompany a slab of salmon.

Culton's cornichons

Cucumbers have been showing up with some regularity, both the traditional "garden" variety and kirby cukes, ideal for pickling. Last week I bought a pound and a half of Culton's "cornichons", though they looked like kirbies to me. After three days in a simple salt brine (with fresh dill, lots of garlic and some coriander seeds) they were ready.

She Who Must Be Obeyed loves red radishes, and there were plenty to choose from today at Headhouse. I picked up a bright red, white and green bunch of French breakfast radishes from Savoie Farm today.

Hull peas, a.k.a. English peas, have also been available since last week, both in the hull and shelled. Culton was selling the latter like hotcakes today at Headhouse, and other vendors offered them, too. They'd be a great veg (and a New England classic) to go along with that salmon and potatoes, especially if you use lots of butter. For those who really enjoy shelling legumes, Culton and Queens farm are selling Fava beans.

Speaking of legumes, Iovine Brothers Produce at the Reading Terminal Market has had fresh chick peas (garbanzos) for a few weeks, $3.99/pound. Shell them and briefly boil them as you would English peas. I passed them by only because I had just defrosted a container of cooked dried chick peas I made a couple months ago. Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce also offers shelled peas.

Headhouse: We've Got Green Stuff

Lettuce, bok choy and fennel bulbs from Blooming Glen

Crops that do best before summer's heat waves wilt them and us were the most attractive produce items during my visit to the Headhouse Farmers Market this morning.

Though the cheeses, meats and prepared foods always have their allure, when an item of produce is at peak, that's exciting. At least to me.

When you enter the Shambles from the Lombard Street entrance, you're greeted by the always-attractive displays put together by farmer Tom Murtha of Blooming Glen Farm. His lettuce, bok choy and small, young fennel bulbs, pictured above, were just some of his offerings, which also included spring onions, fresh green garlic and cooking greens.

Queens Farm was chock-a-block with spring produce too, from mustard to fresh bamboo shoots to a Chinese style lettuce whose stalk can be cooked. And, of course, their pristine cultivated oyster mushrooms. Other vendors with plenty of cooler weather items included Weaver's Way, Savoie Farms, Root Mass Farm and Beechwood Orchards which over the last year or so has expanded beyond tree fruit.

 

Culton's new signage

Another late spring crop that likes cool weather made its first appearance of the season: snow peas. Tom Culton was selling half-pints for $3, full pints for $5, as indicated by his chalk board, a new addition to the stall this year. Tom wasn't around this morning, so I couldn't ask about the provenance of the signage, but a Google search suggests "Red Rose Farm Feeds" is/was in Whiting, Vermont. Culton still had plenty of colorful rhubarb, asparagus, dress, and cucumbers among other items.

Strawberries were still in limited and pricey supply, with A.T. Buzby having the most stock at $7/quart. Savoie Farms had a few pints at $4.50 each. Maybe next week.

One of my purchases last Sunday was a couple of veal chops -- one rib, one loin- from Birchrun Hills Farm, the cheese producer. Of course, if you've got dairy cows you're going to have calves and, as I'm always told by some women friends, the males are mostly useless. In the case of male bovines, that means veal. Since Birchrun proprietor Sue Miller runs a caring operation, these are not penned up calves that provide most of the veal available in supermarkets. As a result, her veal is rosy rather than a ghostly white, but it's got more flavor and remains tender. Veal, no matter the source, is not for the parsimonious; as I recall the price was somewhere around $16/pound. But grilled to medium with just a hint of pink the center (you don't want to eat veal rare or medium rare), after a rub of cut garlic, a light application of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt, pepper and crushed rosemary, these chops were an incredible treat.

Headhouse Opens With 30 Vendors

Green, purple asparagus from Three Springs

If there was any doubt Headhouse is the city's premier farmers' market, it would be dispelled simply by walking through the shambles today. I counted 30 vendors, with nearly one third selling their own produce, dairy or meat products.

There are also now two seafood vendors. In addition to Otolith, which sells high quality, individually quick frozen salmon and other Alaskan seafood, Shore Catch has joined the Headhouse roster. Shore Catch, which also sells at the Rittenhouse Saturday market and about half a dozen farmers markets in New Jersey, gathers finfish and shellfish (scallops and clams) landed by family-owned boarts at the Barnegat docks on Long Beach Island.

Blooming Glen garlic

The first asparagus of the season remains pricey, about $6/pound from most vendors. The one exception at Headhouse was A.T. Buzby, the South Jersey farmer who was selling one-pound bunches for $3.50. The higher-priced asparagus could be found at stalls from Tom Culton, Three Springs Fruit Farm and Beechwood Orchards.

Other produce offerings were largely limited to early greens, ranging rrom broccoli rabe and tatsoi at Blooming Glen and radishes at Weaver's Way to black salsify at Culton Organics and pea shoots at Root Mass Farm. Among Culton's other offerings were fresh eggs from two different breeds or heritage chickens.

Flowers were also in abundance, as shown in the two photos below.

Tulips and lilacs at Weaver's Way

Gerbers adorned wagon at Culton Organics

Won't You Be My Melon-craving Baby?

Local muskmelons -- usually called cantaloupes because marketers consider "musk" off-putting -- can be found at local farmers' markets, like Headhouse Square where A.T. Buzby, the South Jesey grower, displayed these giants at $4 apiece.

The same variety of local melon has been available on and off for the last week or so at Iovine's Urban Produce at the Reading Terminal market at half the price for a similar-sized melon. I purchased one of Iovine's a few days ago: good flavor, moderate sweetness with a sea-salt tang, all-in-all, an enjoyable melon to eat.

Although I'm not a stickler for washing produce, I always scrub melons in the sink: they're more apt than most other fruits to pick up pathogens in the soil. A quick, warm, slightly soapy scrub to the exterior before cutting does wonders. If you don't wash melons, any baddies on the surface will work their way inside when you slice it open.

Peachy-Keen

Peaches and pineapples at Iovine's: only one is local.

Ben Wenk restocks peaches

Time to shift to peach pie from cherry.

With the sour cherry season essentially over (you might find a few quarts this weekend if you're lucky) peaches have taken over the fresh produce stalls at area farmers markets. Local peaches can even be found at Iovine's Urban Produce at the Reading Terminal Market, where Jersey peaches were selling for 99 cents a pound recently.

Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm had them at his family's stall last Sunday at Headhouse Square, and all the other orchardists are likely to show off their whites and yellows this weekend. Nectarines won't be far behind, and apricots have already made their appearance. Plums of various persuasions (and perhaps even early apples, like Lodi) will show up in the stalls over the next few weeks.

More Fruit and Veg Photos

From the last two Sundays at Headhouse:

Rainbow Chard from Blooming Glen

Red and Green Kohlrabi, grate and it makes a nice slaw

Or make potato salad from these Savoie Farms gems

Or these Happy Cat 'taters

On to the fruit. Beechwood had the season's first apricots Sunday

Red raspberries and cherries at Beechwood

Culton's $5 beans

Tom Culton obscured by his produce

Culton has also featured celery the last two weeks

A.T. Buzy was first to market with local corn a few weeks
ago, but I think I'll wait until later in July

Strawberries and Snap Peas

Lettuce deal at Iovine Brothers, Reading Terminal

For the past two Sundays there have been strawberries at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market, courtesy of South Jersey grower A.T. Buzby. They've been deep red, inside and out, with decent but not knock-your-socks-off flavor. I've had some leftover in the 'fridge for nearly a week, without too much deterioration.

The relative refrigerator longevity derives from the design of the berry, introduced about a dozen years ago in Florida for its commercial industry. It was created for its ability to withstand the rigors of long-distance shipping and still retain good color, shape and flavor.

In coming weeks we'll see plenty of other stawberries with deeper flavor, if sometimes less perfect shape and a more diminutive size. But as a harbinger of things to come, Buzby's product was much welcomed, and delicious atop fresh-baked Bisquik short cakes with fresh whipped cream.

Asparagus has come into its own, and what I've had has been good. Two weeks ago Tom Culton had both cultivated and wild asparagus. Tender spring greens are easy to find, too, including dandelion greens suitable for adding raw to salads or cooking.

Another welcome returnee at last Sunday's Headhouse market was a snow pea variety of sugar snap peas at Culton's stall. The regular sugar snaps should be appearing soon, too.

Farmers' markets don't have a monopoly on local produce. At the Reading Terminal Market Iovine Brothers Produce has been featuring local lettuces. Earlier this week there were gorgeous heads of Boston lettuce for 89 cents a pound. Today I spied baby romaine heads at 99 cents. Both come from Flaim Farm, a large grower in South Jersey. In addition, the Fair Food Farmstand at the RTM offers plenty of local produce, including those strawberries from A.T.Buzby.

Headhouse Opens, Shy Some Delayed Vendors

Opening day shoppers at Headhouse Square

Culton's black salsify

Five vendors didn't make the opening bell for the first 2013 session of the Headhouse Square Farmers Market, including Happy Cat Farm and Queens Farm.

The culprit was traffic. If the morning closure of the Broad Street exits of the Schuykill Expressway and I-95 because of the Broad Street run wasn't enough, a tractor-trailer crash on the northbound interstate made sure the five vendors -- and thousands of other travelers -- didn't reach their destinations on time. Shortly after the opening Katy Wich, manager of the market for the sponsoring Food Trust, said all were expected to show up, just later in the day.

There were some produce gems to be had from the growers who made it on time.

Tom Culton featured scorzonera, also known as black salsify, and some over-wintered parsnips with gorgeous celery-like tops, as well as some early aliums.

Blooming Glen's radishes

Blooming Glen Farm had a nice variety of greens, including Russian red kale and broccoli rabe, along with a huge mound of pristine French breakfast radishes.

Other produce vendors included A.T. Buzby, with plenty of Jersey asparagus as well as hothouse tomatoes; Three Springs Fruit Farm with plenty of storage apples; Weaver's Way; and Root Mass Farm.

Among other vendors at today's market were Frecon Farms, selling hard cider and apple vinegar; Porc Salt, with Matt Ridgway's charcuterie; Sue Miller's Birchrun Hills with her cheese, veal and pork; Griggstown Qual Farm; Hillacres Pride, cheese, poultry, eggs and beef; Otolith Sustainable Seafood; and Weaver's Way. Market Day Canele and Wildflour were the two bakers who showed up on time (Ric's was delayed by the traffic).

Headhouse wasn't the first of the seasonal markets to open in May. On Thursday the Fairmount Market, also sponsored by the Food Trust, opened for the season. New to that market this year is Queen's Farm, replacing Earl Livengood.