rlibkind

I don't think you're being ripped off, Katie. Weigh a quart of those donuts on a kitchen scale, they'll be over two pounds, I bet. So FF's edge in price isn't quite as much as it seems. Sometimes FF charges a tad less than the original farmer; but since FF has to add a markup, even if it does buy wholesale and is a not-for-profit, they usually price about what you'd pay at the farmers' market. That said, Dave at Beechwood does sometimes have a loosey-goosey approach to pricing; when I asked him how much the melons were Tuesday at South & Passyunk, the answer was basically, $1, $4, depends on the size, melon and how he felt at that moment. De gustibus non est disputandum. I actually avoided these things yesterday. Every year I try them, and every year I'm disappointed. But I might be in the minority. I know Bluehensfan and family loves them (at least the pink frosted ones regularly available at Beiler's Bakery, which is the Pennsylvania Dutch vendor that does the donuts for the festival). The main problem I have is that they don't come close to the donuts of my childhood (what does?). Of course, no donut I've tasted since then does. That's because they were fried in lard. Dark, crispy exterior, hot, cakey interior. You simply can't find donuts like that today. It's a shame, and I have always hoped that someone from Lancaster or Berks County would offer lard-fried donuts; after all, they do it for potato chips!

Visited the Reading Terminal Market twice this week, Wednesday and today (Saturday). Here’s what I found: John Yi added wild coho to its salmon selection, oddly priced a bit more expensively than the sockeye ($16.99 vs. $13.99). Copper River (presumably sockeye, since the king [chinook] CRS haul is down to mostly single digits on days when it’s open; lesser number of coho are being fished, in the hundreds, vs. thousands of sockeye) is $19.99. Halibut filets were $13.99. Over at Golden Fish Market, cooked crawfish were $11.99/pound. At first glance that seems almost reasonable. Unless you visit Ikea where 2 kg boxes (4.4 pounds) of frozen cooked Chinese crawfish (undoubtedly Golden’s is also Chinese) are on sale for $5.99, or $1.36/pound. So, if you’re yearning for a crawfish fest, make your way to Ikea. L. Halteman Country Store, in addition to dealing in meats and some Pennsylvania Dutch cold cuts, sells produce from Lancaster County, usually less expensively than other market farmstands and vendors, though sometimes Ben Kauffman’s Lancaster County produce wins on the price score. Today I spied yellow transparent apples, $1.59/pound; limas in the pod, $2.49, cherry tomatoes at $2.29/pint, and salad cucumbers at 3/$1. Peaches and nectarines are $2.19/pound ($1.99 if you buy five pounds or more), blueberries $3.19/pint, $5.29/quart. They’ve also got Bartlett-style pears which have just made their appearance at farm stands. Over at Iovine Brothers Produce, local peaches (Jersey and Maryland) are 99-cents, as are NJ green bell peppers. Red peppers from “away” are $1.99/pound, orange and yellow $2.99, frying $1.49. Jersey tomatoes are 50-cents a pound, plum tomatoes (provenance unknown) are 99-cents. Iovine’s local corn, from Shady Brook in Bucks County, is the least expensive in the market at three ears for a buck. Iovine’s fruit selection also included limes, now back to their bargain price of 10/$1, lemons still 3/$1. Red and white seedless grapes, presumably from California, were $1.99/pound. While everyone else is selling local blueberries, Iovine’s has Florida clamshells for $1.50/pint. Also not local, but well-priced, are cantalopes at a buck apiece, though today they also had local lopes (musk melons, actually, like every other local melon called a cantalope) for $1.99 each. The fig season has started, at least in California. Iovine offered half pints of black figs (containing about 9-11 fruits) and pints of green figs (6-8) for $4.99. (I’ll wait until a neighbor’s tree bears fruit in about three weeks.) Cactus pears (they make great margaritas) are $1.99 a pound (roughly two fruits), which is about twice the price as OK Lee (two fruits for a buck) which carries them more frequently. OKL also had five-pound boxes of Peruvian clementines for $2.99; I didn’t buy them given how much great local fruit is available, but at that price it might be worth a try. What we won’t be seeing at the market this year is Mirai corn. Fair Food Farmstand manager Sarah Cain says the lone known grower in the region, Pete’s Produce Farm in Westttown, is no longer selling wholesale, so it’s only available at the farm near West Chester. It’s in season now, and a sweeter, more tender corn than this Japanese hybrid is hard to find. Still, there’s plenty of good produce to choose from at Fair Food, including corn. FF also has early apples, Ginger Golds at $1.50/pound. Exceedingly ripe apricots were $3.95/pound. Great selection of plums at $2.75/pound, including shiros, Cardinals, Satsuma and Italians. White nectarines $2, yellows $2.75, white or yellow peaches $1.75. Large purple eggplants were $1.70/pound, fairttales $3. Cubanelle peppers $4, red bells $6, jalapenos $5.95, purple bells $4.95, green bells $3.50. Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce had the next best price on local corn, after Iovine’s, at 50-cents an ear. Beefsteak tomatoes were $2.99, cherry tomatoes $4.95/pint, twofer $9. Large white and purple eggplants were $1.99, bell peppers in various hues (photo at top) $1.99. Yellow peaches were $1.99, donuts $2.99.

After a week in Maine we got back to Philadelphia last Sunday afternoon, too late for Headhouse, which I intend to hit tomorrow. But by Tuesday the laundry was done, the cats retrieved, the mail sorted and dealt with . . . so it was time for a trip to South & Passyunk. The usual assortment of vendors were there, though I made all of my purchases from Beechwood Orchards: a crenshaw melon, a half-pint of blackberries, three heirloom tomatoes, and about a half-dozen small donut (Saturn) peaches. All were quite tasty, though the peaches were hard and needed a couple of days to ripen; when they did, they were juicy and sweet. Prices at Beechwood: $3.50 would buy you a pint ($6.50 a quart) of apricots, donut peaches, blueberries, or numerous varieties of plums. Heirloom cherry tomatoes were $2 for a half-pint, but the larger heirlooms were $3.50/pound. Among the heirloom tomato varieties: Nyagous (a Russian black variety), Silver Fir Tree (another Russian variety), Juan Flamme, German Orange-Strawberry, Stupice (Central European in origin), Red Zebra and Amish paste. Raspberries were $2.50 a half-pint, blackberries $4. Melons, depending on size, were priced from $1 to $4 and included cantelopes as well as the crenshaws. Expect similar variety and pricing from Beechwood tomorrow at Headhouse. Over at Rineer’s pricing was similar: Beefstake tomatoes $2.99, heirloom tomatoes $3.50/pound, blackberries $3.75 half-pint (twofer $7), blues $2.75 (twofer $5). Rineer’s offerings extend beyond vines and berry fruit. Traditional large eggplant were $1.50 apiece, quart boxes of fairtales $3. Green Bell peppers sold at 3/$2.50 or a buck apiece and kirby cucumbers at $2.50/pint or $3.50/quart. Among the melons, watermelon was 50-cents a pound, lopes $3.75 apiece or twofer $7. Whole corn was 65-cents an ear, six for $3.50. Earl Livengood’s conventional blackberries were $3.95/pint, heirloom tomatoes $4.25, string beans $3.95 for either a quart or a pound. Okra and beets were among other offerings; not much in the way of lettuce on Tuesday.

Barb & Suzy’s Kitchen is aiming for an Aug. 26 opening at the Reading Terminal Market, along with its companion butcher shop, S&B Meats. But that didn’t stop Barb & Suzy from trying out an item at today’s Pennsylvania Dutch Festival that doesn’t appear on the menu boards: roast pig sandwiches. In this case it was another name for pulled pork, and the sample offered me was delectable, served in a vinegary clear juice. As for the menu, breakfast will concentrate on egg sandwiches with or without cheese, bacon, sausage or ham with the usual beverage options. At lunch it will be sausage sandwiches ($6.50 with peppers, onions and sauce, cheese extra) and hot dogs ($1.75, kraut extra). What looks most promising on the menu is the friture: deep-fried veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, $3.75/$4.75, dip extra), french fries ($2.25/$3.50, cheese extra) and, most promising of all, “Delux Bacon Fries” ($3.50/$4.75). Don’t know exactly what they will be, but I’m assuming they are french fries and bacon served together. Or maybe it’s battered, deep-fried bacon? On the S&B Meats side, new refrigerated cases are in place. In addition to fresh meats, they plan on handling a line of German cold cuts and cured meats. Fair Food Advances The new aggregate floor has been installed at Fair Food’s new location along 12th street. Shelving installation looks like it should begin soon. Work is just underway at Beck’s Cajun Cafe, but not much visible progress.

I visited Mount Desert Island in Maine last week, and since we had a flat with a kitchen I stopped by the Eden Farmers’ Market, ‘Eden’ being the original name of Bar Harbor. The market is held Sunday mornings, in season, in the YMCA parking lot. I restrained myself since we also planned to eat in some of the excellent local restaurants (excellent meals at Havana in Bar Harbor, Red Sky in Southwest Habor and XYZ in Manset), but could not resist a pint of blueberries (the “wild” variety, which are considerably smaller but more intensely flavored than the commercial highbush berries favored in Michigan, NC, South Jersey and PA). Also bought a half pound of crabmeat (made excellent crab rolls on the New England hot dog buns I bought at the superkmarket). Also picked up some home-cured Canadian bacon from Smith’s Log Smokehouse; the salami I bought from them last year was excellent, the back bacon this year even better. I did not buy (because we simply had too much fruit in the flat already) absolutely gorgeous, huge red raspberries, each the size of my thumb. I regret passing them by. Later in the week I went off-island to Trenton, visiting Pectic Seafood where I picked up a little bit of haddock. With some a half-and-half/milk mix, fresh chives and parsley from the garden, a bit of potato, onion softened in butter with a bit of that back bacon, I enjoyed an excellent fish chowder.

Very keen and thoughtful analysis, Sam. A two-pronged query: (1) where do the average spending figures come from, and (2) when you cite figures for New Yorkers, do you mean aggregate averages for residents of all the boroughs, or just Manhattan?

If they're going today, parking and traffic will be extra difficult, because of the RTM's Pennsylvania Dutch Festival. One lane of traffic is blocked off all around the market for the carriage rides (Arch, 12th, Filbert, 11th), so that will cause additional vehicle congestion. In addition, the market will be extra crowded both because a lot of folks come to the festival and because the Pennsylvania Dutch festival's special stands take up the entire center court, causing serious disruption to interior pedestrian flows.

I made my second visit to Havana last night (the first was about four years ago) and found it improved . . . no small matter, since I found it pretty good last time out. My primary criticism four years ago was that a couple of dishes seemed over the top, i.e., too many flavors, too many ingredients occasionally at odds with one another. Maybe it was my menu selections, then or now, but last night I found the dishes I sampled just as full of flavor, but better balanced. A most enjoyable meaa. For an amuse bouche, we were presented with two spoons of chicken salad with chipotle. The pepper was in the background, allowing the chicken flavor to shine, adding just enough piquancy to lift the dish. I started with the cod fritters, three delectable, perfectly round balls of salt cod mash (I would imagine with potato) fried greaselessly and to perfection. It was served with a lime-yogurt dipping sauce and a smear of chili pepper jam. Great starter. My main was the special, braised short ribs. On the side was a mix of onions, potatoes and unidentifiable but tasty veggies, some garlicky pan-fried greens, and Venezulean guacamole (what made it Venezulean I'm at a loss to say, but it was a nice, refreshing and chunky version of the taco house staple). At first taste I thought the beef not as intensely beefy as I'd like. But then in put a little guacamole on a fork full, and the flavor deepened immediatley. A curious phenomena, but welcome. The guacamole brought out the beefy-ness immediately. She Who Must Be Obeyed decided to make a meal of salad and appetizers. Her strawberry vinagrette-dressed summer salad (it's still strawberry season in parts of Maine) included ripe pear slices and a creamy, mild chevre. SWMBO enjoyed it immensely. Her two appetizers -- Fried sweet potatoes and plantains served with a pimento mojo and a smoked paprika mayonnaise, and fried garlic bread and chorizo served with an eggplant / bell pepper dip -- were placed on a single plate, and together they made a hefty main course. The chorizo was cut too thick for SWMBO's taste, and she thought the sweet potatoes came off second best vs. the plantains, but she enjoyed the combination and made a serious dent in the mounds of carbohydrates on the plate. We saved room for dessert, of course. She went for a chocolate and orange ice cream from Mount Desert Ice Cream up the street from Havana. The server said it was chocolate ice cream with an old candy orange flavor. He was right. The ice cream was flaked with candied orange rind. I ordered the Lecha Frita, a nutmeg & cinnamon custard fried and served with a mango rum sauce. Crunchy on the outside, milky rich on the inside and subtly sauced. A perfect ending. SWMBO ordered the Champagne-Chambord cocktail, while I went with the Albarino from Galicia to accompany the cod balls. Our server had described it as similar to a Pinot Grigio, but fruitier. I didn't think it resembled Pinot Grigio, but it went well with the appetizer. For the beef I chose another Spanish wine, Monastrell, described as 100 percent mourverde. It was a delightful, medium-bodied red that still managed to hold up to the beef. We both left Havana happy and sated. The portion sizes were perfect, neither too large nor too small, and the service staff was on their toes and succeeded in pleasing. The decor is relaxing and does an admirable job of keeping the main room cozy and interesting. Havana is well worth a stop when visiting Mount Desert Island. The tab for all this, exclusive of gratuity, was just under $110.

John, I feel your pain. But this is not a case of government intrusion. A private party is bringing suit as a private action, albeit with decided public effects should it succeed. But it's not a case of government intrusion. It's a case of do-gooder intrusion . . . and that's worse than the government!

Fair Food, which began its farmstand at the Reading Terminal Market in 2003 as an arm of the White Dog Cafe Foundation, will be off on its own within a few weeks. Ann Karlen, executive director, said the final paperwork for the planned spinoff will be signed today and sent to Harrisburg. The farm stand, the most visible aspect of Fair Food’s activities, will also get a general manager, who will work with farmstand manager Sarah Cain, paid staff and volunteers as the stand moves to its new digs at the market later this summer. Seth Kalkstein, currently cheese manager at DiBruno’s Center City outpost, will begin his new job as general manager in two weeks. Until its own paperwork as a 501-c 3 non-profit organization comes through, Fair Food will operate under White Dog's authority. I spoke with Ann today as she was checking with contractors at the new farmstand location along the 12th Street side of the market, trying to figure out how to entice pedestrians walking by to see in through the large glass windows while still keeping the heat from the afternoon sun’s rays from wilting the produce. Ann said a new eight-member board for Fair Food (currently governed by the board of White Dog’s Community Enterprises, the Cafe foundation’s successor) is in place. An ancillary goal will be to create a separate identify for Fair Food from White Dog, now that it will be an independent entity. A fund-raising consultant has been retained to assist the new board in getting up to speed, and a new logo and website will soon be unveiled. Ann said there’s no overlap with the existing White Dog Community Enterprises board. Although new volunteers are always welcome, Ann said that, contrary to reports on another blog, there’s no need to expand the volunteer staff with the move to a larger space. Right now the Farmstand has 35 volunteers, whose scheduling and management is a big time-eater for Sarah. The Farmstand is hoping to acquire a volunteer from the VISTA program specifically to manage this task. In addition to the volunteers, the Farmstand has three full-time and three three-quarter time employees. Because the new location has existing gas, electrical and ventilation connections from the previous tenant (Rick’s Steaks, in case you need reminding) Ann is considering adding a line of prepared foods for takeaway. Nothing formal has been proposed to market management which must approve a line extension beyond current Fair Food offerings, although they are aware of the possibility. And Ann want to maked sure any such expansion fits in with Fair Food’s mission. In any event, the farm stand will settle into its new space before considering ny big leaps. Although the farm stand is the most evident public face of the Fair Food Project, it’s other activities include a restaurant progrm connecting area chefs with local farmers, participation in the Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign, a Farmer Outreach Project to assist limited-resource farmers access wholesale markets, and Farm-To-Institution, aimed at connecting hospital, school and other institutional kitchens with local farms.

The local corn crop is in at Iovine Brothers Produce. The Reading Terminal Market vendor, which has ongoing relationships with local farms on both sides of the Delaware River, is featuring corn from Shady Brook Farm, Bucks County. The price is 3 ears for a buck. Also local (South Jersey) at Iovine’s this week: blueberries, $2.99 pint, and peaches, 99-cents/pound. Watermelon (unsure of provenance) is $2.99 apiece for the big, oblong, melons with seeds, $3.99 for the smaller, round sugar babies. L. Halteman’s also prices competitively for “homegrown” produce. Today I spied yellow and white peaches, $2.19; blueberries, $3.18 pint/$5.29 quart; sugar plums, $3.29/$5.29; cherry tomatoes, $1.99/pint; and 10-inch round watermelons, $4.99 each. Benuel Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce’s peaches, yellow or white, were $2.69, though smaller-sized peaches were $1.99. Also at Ben’s: blueberries $4.95/pint, two for $9; cherry tomatoes, $3.50/pint, two for $6; heirloom tomaotes (they looked like Brandywines), $3.69/pound. Fair Food Farmstand’s heiroloom tomatoes were no bargain at $7.50/pound. Although I’m no okra fan, the red and green varieties ($5/pound) looked good. Also intriguing, large shallots, $7.50/pound, and Purple Verde tomatillos, $5/pound.

Holly, the Wegman's version (which, iirc, are labeled "New England", not top split) have toastable/grillable sides. The best I've found yet in the area of this style.

Steve Raichlen in today's Wall Street Journal had an excellent suggestion when grilling grass fed steaks. Since it tends to be leaner with considerably less marbling, he says take some fat trimmings, make an aluminum foil cup, place the fat trimmings in it on a cooler section of the grill to melt. then top your steak with that instead of butter for a beefier taste.

Since it's Bastille Day, we became Francophiles and visited Parc for the first time today. We got there at the stroke of noon before crowds descended on this gorgeous day and got a table in the shade on the 18th Street side. She Who Must Be Obeyed went for the hanger steak. She likes her meat medium (I've tried to convert her to at least medium rare, but she's from Wisconsin). The steak was nicely sized but inedibly tough; she attributed it to the quality of meat, I to the degree of doneness. But maybe it was just a lousy muscle. We told our server and she quickly offered and took it away; it took awhile for the replacement to get back to the table, but it was much better. (And cooked medium rare, btw; SWMBO ate most of it and left the rarer bits in the center for me. Chewy, as I would expect, but tasty. The replacement properly came with a fresh haystack of frites. She loved her glass of rosé (sorry, I don't know which one it was). I went for the charcuterie plate as a starter. All I left on the plate was a couple of slices of the boar sausage; it tasted fine, I just don't like this style of dried salami so much. Everything else was perfect, including the fat-topped chicken liver mousse. For a main I went for moules frite, and they were perfect. They were small mussels, which I prefer to the larger ones (in my experience, the Belgians and Dutch prefer the biggies, the French the smaller ones). The butter enriched sauce was good, if over salted. Nonetheless, I asked for more baguette to sop up what I could; only my lack of dexterity stopped me from lifting the bowl and slurping it to my lips. The frites were good, and what most people want, including SWMBO: shoestring cut. I'm still waiting for a thicker cut frite akin to the Brussels style. My $4 Kronenbourg special hit the spot. Desserts. SWMBO was going to resist, until she saw profiteroles on the menu. She thoroughly enjoyed them. I went for the ice cream, mixing a scoop each of caramel and pistachio/currant ice creams, and dark chocolate sorbet. A fitting finish. And we walked away with a freebie baguette and two-piece box of truffles in celebration of Bastille Day. All it all, a delightful way to leisurely enjoy a 100 minute lunch. Service was excellent, the food exactly what I expect for simple brasserie fare, the setting, apart from one truck spewing fumes, perfect. Parc is, as others have noted, a stage. I liked the show. Though I think Brasserie Jo in Chicago does it better. A question for discussion: why is it called a bistro-brasserie? Seemed more like the latter than the former, to me. And I've never before seen a place billed as both. To me, a bistro is usually a smaller, family O&O establishment; brasseries a bit more beer-centric and larger operations. Parc certainly has aspects of both (bistro is more wine-centered, as is Parc), but its menu and ambience more brasserie-like.

DiCosmo's Italian ices, Elizabeth NJ. Far better than anything I've found in Philadelphia, where, quite redundantly, it's called "water ice".

I've never heard for any "rules" for the addition of sesame oil at the end of a stir fry. IMHO, it's strictly a matter of taste. My own personal preference (and it's just that, a preference) is to use it with chicken and pork, but not duck, lamb or beef. I also might (but not always) omit it if I'm going with hot oil. I also might avoid it with more delicate veggies, but probably not with "meatier" ones, like eggplant, though with a light touch. I might also use it with some fish and shellfish dishes, depending on my mood and the fish. Yes with batter-fried fish/seafood stir fry, no with any scallop or clam dish. But again, it's just a matter of taste, i.e., personal preference. The rules are what you make them.

After visiting the Headhouse Square Farmer’s Market this morning, photos say it better than mere words, though I’ve added a few here and there . . . $5/pound tomatoes at Blooming Glen Potatoes, Blooming Glen Torpedo onions, Blooming Glen On top shelf, heirloom strawberries, blueberries and gooseberries, bottom shelf, cauliflower, from Culton Organics Eggplants, artichokes, Culton Organics Round cukes, Jamaican "gherkins" (not a true cuke), from Yoder Heirlooms Cukes, Culton Organics Sour and sweet cherries, Three Springs Fruit Farm

I’ve yet to taste a tomato from a local farmer’s markets or the Reading Terminal Market that truly taste of summer, but we’re getting close. Benuel Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce featured these cherry tomatoes at the RTM today. Nonetheless, I’ve been enjoying BLTs this week, including one using the last of my unfrozen lamb bacon (the other side resides in the freezer). The best of what I’ve had so far has come from Livengood’s, though it was from a neighbor’s crop: they sold out by 10:30 a.m. of their own tomatoes. Kauffman’s cherry tomatoes were selling for $3.50 a half-pint, $6 a pint. Also featured were red raspberries, $4/pint; apricots, $2; peaches, $1.99/pound, green peppers, $1.99/pound;, and corn, 50-cents/ear. The green peppers were even less expensive at Fair Food, $1.25. A.T. Buzby’s cantaloupes were $3.75 apiece, heirloom tomatoes $750, cherry tomatoes $5.50/pint. Three varieties of string beans could be had: green at $3/pound, wax at $4, and burgundy at $5.75. Livengood’s organic stringbeans were $3.95/pound. Iovine Brothers priced California peaches at the same price as Ben Kauffman’s locals, $1.99/pound. Pacific Northwest cherries (the local season is, for all practicsal purposes, over) were $2.99 for a two-pound bag and $3.99 for a three-pound clamshell. Limes remain a value at a dime apiece. Bell pepper survey: green 99-cents, red $1.99, yellow $3.49, orange $3.99. Frying peppers were $1.49, long hots 99-cents. Jersey blueberries, $1.99/pint. L. Halteman’s field tomatoes were $3.19/pound, two pounds for $5.59. Corn 60-cents an ear, or $1.49 for three or $2.89 a half dozen. Small cantaloupes were 99 cents apiece. Ice Cream Festival Iovine’s and Bassett’s are combining forces for a new ice cream flavor in conjunction with the RTM’s July 18 Ice Cream Festival. It will be a berry-flavored ice cream using fruit from Iovine’s contract grower, Bucks County’s Shady Brook Farm Market Twitters . . . Me, Too The Reading Terminal Market is now on Twitter. Find them at RdgTerminalMarket (case required). If the RTM can do, so can I. I’m at http://twitter.com/robertsmarket Market Shutterbug Larry Laszlo, the Denver-based photographer whose shoots of public markets around the world adorn the RTM’s wall along 8th Avenue near Avenue D, was snapping at the market again today. He delivered some photos of additional markets he’s visited; they should be on display sometime next week. Larry’s website can be found http://www.photolaszlo.com. Market Streets All of the street signs for market intersections are up, save one. Letter avenues run A to D between Arch and Filbert, numbered avenues 2 to 12 east-west from 12th to the loading alley.

Adam Richman, of Travel Channel’s “Man Vs. Food” and production crew visited DiNic’s at the Reading Terminal Market this morning as part of a program tenatively scheduled for mid-September. Pictured above are ace prep man Jun, Joe Nicolosi, and Adam. But Richman wasn’t there to see how many roast pork sandwiches he could down. He’s probably still recovering from the challenge taped yesterday at Tony Luke’s where the glutton star consumed a five-pound cheesesteak. DiNic’s will be among the Philadelphia foodie landmarks featured in the pre-challenge part of the program. Richman and crew also stopped by Miller’s Twists for pretzels. The RTM and DiNic’s were also in media focus Wednesday when DJ Helen Leicht broadcast her midday WXPN shift live from the Market while local singer-songwriter Andrew Lipke performed in Center Court. It was the first of three “Local Music Wednesdays” to be broadcast from the market this summer (the others are scheduled for Aug. 5 and 19). Helen interviewed Tommy Nicolosi, proprietor of DiNic’s, which was immediatley followed by a cover of a song from The Who’s rock opera Tommy.

The Fair Food Farmstand has given up the ghost on its meat freezer. Over the last year or so, it’s broken down three times, with some or all of the meat lost. When it was found by staffers at a “balmy 60 degrees” last Tuesday morning, with all the meat lost, Fair Food management pulled the plug. So, at least for a few weeks, there won’t be any meat products for sale. There are no plans to put in a new case at the current location: that will wait until the Farmstand moves to its new digs later this summer along Avenue A. Sarah Cain, Farmstand manager, says they might use the planned backup chest freezer at the current stand, but that’s at least a couple weeks away. In the meantime, the concrete has got about another week to “cure” before more on-site construction can be undertaken at the new stand, though off-site work is progressing on shelving and other appurtenances. S&B Meats/Barb & Suzy’s Kitchen is making progress on their future stall on Avenue B and 8th Avenue. It’s been painted and much of the shelving is up. Construction will start soon on the twin renovations of Lancaster County Dairy and Old City Coffee’s stall along 12th Avenue between Avenues B and C. The work will make Old City’s “temporary” second stand permanent.

A new addition to some local farrmer’s markets is Country Meadows Farm Meats of Quarryville. They’re at Clark Park and Fairmount on Thursdays, featuring beef, pork, lamb and poultry.

Beechwood Orchards featured three varieties of plums today at the South & Passyunk Farmer’s Market. Dave was kind enough, since it was slow, to mix them and a couple apricots in the same pint for me. Price for all is $3.50/pint. Sam Consylman brought his copy of Lost Crops of the Incas from National Academies Press to Earl Livengood’s stand today. That was so he could show his regular customers the section and photos of Oca, a crop he’s growing this fall. This tuber-like root veggie is slow to grow and won’t be ready for harvest until November. They can be treated like potatoes or, when particularly sweet (which can be enhanced by sun-drying) like a fruit. Although Andean in origin, it’s grown commercially in New Zealand. Hurry up to get those sour cherries. Only Beechwood had them today, as the season draws near to its close. There might be some this weekend at farmers’ markets. No sweet cherries today at South Street. Is this the end of that season? It’s not a good idea to go food shopping when you’re hungry. So for the second time in abut a month, I dined al fresco at S&B Kabob House, right across from Rineer’s stand at the market. Had a plain but refreshing “Turnksh” salad, your basic tomato, sweet pepper, cucumber, onion salad topped with feta shreds. Immediately afterward I ran into Il Professore Andrew Fenton at the market, where he had me salivating with tales of all the fresh shrimp he cooked during a recent visit to his in-laws on Tybee Island on the Georgia coast. He found a small carton of zucchini blossoms with his name on it at Rineer’s.

Tomato Pie, centered in Trenton NJ. Thin, crisp, charred crust, cheese on bottom, sauce on top. While various toppings can be had, unadorned is the gold standard. A tomato pie with no cheese (perhaps a dusting of parmesan at most) is also found in the Trenton-Philadelphia corridor, both on thin crust round pies and thick crust Sicilians (the pies, not persons of that ethnic/culltural heritage).

The pace of activity is up a couple of notches as work begins on two new stalls. A third vendor, new to the market, and RTM management have made their deal official. The third vendor will be Beck's Cajun Cafe, which will occupy the space formerly held down by Everyday Gourmet and, before that, Andros, across from Tootsie's Salad Express (Avenue C between 8th and 9th streets on the market PDF map). It will be operated by the former owner of the Pompano Grill. I can't wait for the beignets. Nowhere at the RTM can you find fresh, hot donuts, except during during Pennslvania Dutch Festival. Consstruction has yet to start, but Michael Klein reports owner Bill Beck is aiming to open by Labor Day. Initial construction started a few weeks ago on gthe combined Amish butcher/hot sausage stand (S&B Meats, Barb & Suzy's Kitchen) next to the Cajun Cafe, formerly occupied by Dutch Country Meats. (Find it on the market PDF map at Avenue B between 9th and 10th streets.) The tempo of construction seems to have slowed at the moment. The Fair Food Farmstand is going full speed head on its relocated space on the 12th Street aisle (Avenue A between 8th and 10th). Photos of the cement laying today below, as well as supervision by sidewalk superintendents:

What’s a summer grilled meal without corn. At the Reading Terminal Market Friday both Earl Livengood and Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce featured ears for Independence Day celebrations, 4/$2.50 at the former, 4/$2 at the latter. Benuel labelled his corn as Honey Pearl, a bi-color early hybrid. Ben also had quart boxes of those wonderful cylindrical beets, which are among the sweetest I’ve ever tasted. And he still had small kirbies, maybe three inches long, which make perfect pickles; without slicing it only took two days to turn these beauties into classic Jewish sour pickles, using only salt, water, coriander seeds and garlic. Ben priced them at $3.99/pound. The steaks were flying from the meat cases as grillers selected their favored beef cuts at the market today. I went for a well-marbled strip steak from Giunta’s Prime Shop, $9.99/pound, for a chance of pace from my normal rib steak. For She Who Must Be Obeyed there’s a filet mignon in the fridge. In New England salmon is a Fourth of July tradition, especially when served with small red new potatoes. John Yi’s still hs Copper River salmon currently priced at $20.00/pound; one of the fishmongers there claims it’s king (chinook), but since a total of only 8,500 Copper River kings were harvested this season and the harvest was 98 percent complete by June 26 (only 108 were landed during the June 25 fishing hours), I still find it difficult to believe the fish are anything other than the much more common sockeye, whicy is also a tasty fish. Yi also had Alaskan sockeye of unknown provenance selling for $13.99. Organic king salmon (which means it’s farm raised, probably in British Columbia) was $15.99. Also in the fish case was black cod (sablefish) at $12.99. Sour cherries for pies and other baked goods are still available, but dear as always. At Halteman’s they were $5.75/quart, which was considerably more than the $9 I paid for two quarts the previous Sunday at Headhouse (Beechwood Orchards). Livengood’s was selling their sweet reds for $3.50 pint/$6 quarts. The cheapest sweet cherries I found Friday were West Coast Bings from Iovine Brothers, 59-cents a pound -- but the price went up by today, when bagged cherries for $2.99 weighed out to about 2.5 pounds, or about $1.20/pound. Halteman's sweet reds ere $2.99/$4.99. Halteman's blueberries were $3.39/$5.39 today. You can make a lot of gin and tonics based on Iovine’s price for limes: a dime apiece. Lemons, however, are still 3/$1, and are showing green on the ends. Frying peppers, a bargain a few weeks ago, are back to their normal 99-cents; red and green peppers are the same price. Pineapples had been featured last week at $1 for either a whole pineapple or an alread-trimmed one; today whole pineapples were $1.99 apiece; I didn't see cored fruit. Peaches made an early apperance at Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce last week. This early variety, pictured here with hothouse tomatoes, apricots, blueberries and some sour cherries, seemed a bit too hard, but maybe a day or two in a paper bag will ripen them up, though they certainly looked good. Still, I’ll wait a few weeks more before indulging in peaches. Here’s a photo: