It has often amazed me that Daniel Weaver started Weaver’s Orchard in 1932, during a worldwide economic depression. It seems like an incredibly plucky thing to do. But then again, the more I get to know farmers, the more I…
Some of my favorite Christmas parties have involved white elephant gift exchanges. I have usually come back with gifts I love, but perhaps this only shows my capacity to be charmed by strange, low-budget gifts. At one white elephant party…
In 1932, Daniel Weaver started Weaver’s Orchard on the same site where I now love to shop and pick fruit. But what was this part of Pennsylvania like before 1932? What is its agricultural history? Early History through 19th Century…
In high school, some friends and I volunteered at the Hay Creek Valley Fall Festival at Joanna Furnace, around the corner from Weaver’s Orchard. The Hay Creek festival recreates early American arts, like blowing glass, pressing cider, and cooking over…
I love pancakes. Unfortunately, making them from scratch takes time. Since I stick to a pretty strict morning routine to get some things done before work, I don’t usually have time to make pancakes for breakfast. Oatmeal or peanut butter…
People have loved to cook with pumpkins for millennia. In fact, archeological sites in North America and Central America have unearthed evidence of pumpkin seeds from thousands of years ago. With such a long history of cooking with pumpkins, it’s…
Many of us know about apple cider in autumn. But pear has its own cider, too, at Weaver’s Orchard. Batches of this pear cider first joined the market’s lineup in 2002. As interest with old-fashioned, mainstay and healthy foods is…
I make pizza every Friday night. It’s become so much of a tradition for us that the employees of the shop where we buy our dough recognize us when we come in on a Friday afternoon. “Four pizza doughs, right?”…
Not that long ago, the temperatures were in the 90s, and all I wanted to do was eat or drink things that were FREEZING COLD. However, as I now look out my window at the dreary day and torrential rainfall,…
This morning as I thought about last night’s dinner, I got curious. “When did peaches start to be used in savory dishes and not just in sweet baked goods?” I wondered. “Is this a passing food trend? Or a tradition?”…