This past June, I had the chance to explore a very old Pennsylvania cookbook. It wasn’t a mass-produced volume, but, rather a personal one, assembled recipe by recipe over a lifetime, starting during the harvest season of 1887. The pages…
Hot cider, slippers, fire crackling in the fireplace, a blanket, and a good book. When you look up “cozy” in the dictionary, this really should be the definition. Hot cider is a Christmastime essential. Whenever I visit my parents for…
Snickerdoodles are simple classics–so simple I learned to make them in Home Economics class, way back in Junior High. I know Home Economics classes bit the dust around the time Junior High changed its name to Middle School–but the tangy…
Sometimes when we are having some friends over and they have kids in tow, I will slice up an apple while they wait for me to get dinner ready. I am usually astonished at how quickly the apple vanishes, and…
Apple season at Weaver’s Orchard means the cider press is in full swing! In fact, since apples store so well during the winter months in our cold storage, we have a fresh supply of apples to keep the cider press…
As of early November 2018, quince is available in our market! The arrival of quince fruit here in the orchard can easily be missed in the frenzy of the fall season with things like school tours, festivals and apples galore…
Now that I am back to my teaching job at Twin Valley High School, I am only at Weaver’s Orchard in pick-your-own on Saturdays. While I love teaching, I will admit it is hard to trade in the crisp autumn…
Having access to farm fresh apple cider is something I took for granted growing up around the corner from Weaver’s Orchard. As soon as the first cool snap of fall air would arrive, my mom would pick up some fresh…
Toward the end of 1911, a group of “public spirited women” were anticipating the “gloomy prospect of an expensive winter.” They were managing The Home for Widows and Single Women at the northwest corner of 16th and Haak Streets in…
At a cooking class in June 2014, I heard Phoebe Canakis of Phoebe’s Pure Food describe fillo shells as “a nice cheat.” This kind of shortcut is a sanity saver when it comes to entertaining. When you’re throwing a big…