Sue's produce

[mrbigjas]

Here's the deal: Sue's on 18th & Sansom is on my way home. I've been going there for years, sometimes four or five times a week for this and that. Their produce is good: Since they moved across the street, they've expanded their selection to include a lot more local and organic stuff (including good tofu, milk, eggs, Peaquea Valley yogurt and more recently the jersey gold butter, and you know how I feel about that stuff). The owners are nice, and really know their stuff.

It's great to know that on my way home from work, I can stop in and, for instance buy herbs without having to go to the incredibly overpriced whitebread Rittenhouse Market. Or that on my way in to work if I don't have a lunch I can get a packed clamshell of washed spring mix, baby spinach, or baby arugula for $1, with a small loaf of Sarcones for another $1 or so. Or that sometimes they'll have those red bananas. Or that despite being a block off Rittenhouse Square, the place just isn't very expensive. Sure, they don't have the variety that Iovine's does, and they're nothing like Italian Market cheap. But the store is just right for what it is, and I love it. Props to Sue's for rewling the Rittenhouse Square produce scene. Please never close.

That is all.

[arice]

agreed! i often stop in during lunch to grab a late afternoon work snack. they have a nice variety of nuts and wasabi peas and such. i usually end up buying something nice to bring home for dinner as well... go sue's!

allison

[Lisa1349]

I agree! The young organic baby lettuces, specialty greens, pea shoots, corn shoots- it's fabulous. The owner has said moving has increased his profits significantly. Huzzah!

[Carlson1105]

Sue's is the best in my opinion. I live in NJ but stop at Sue's on my way home instead of paying too much for inferior stuff at the supermarket. Great fresh herbs at fair prices and friendly staff. John always has a good joke. Ask him if something is 3 for a dollar, can you buy less? He'll tell you sure, 1 is 98 cents, 2 are 99 cents, and 3 are a dollar.

[mrbigjas]

here is what i learned today at sue's: the kauffman's that they get their apples, peaches, and plums from? not the same kauffman's as in the terminal, even though they have a lot of the same varieties of everything. also he said he gets his cheese, milk, and yogurt from three different people named stoltzfus, none of whom are related to each other.

p.s. for anyone who hasn't been in a while, they're now carrying fresh mozzarella and other products from claudio's.

[rlibkind]

here is what i learned today at sue's: the kauffman's that they get their apples, peaches, and plums from?  not the same kauffman's as in the terminal, even though they have a lot of the same varieties of everything.  also he said he gets his cheese, milk, and yogurt from three different people named stoltzfus, none of whom are related to each other.

←

Here's what Fredric Klees wrote in The Pennsylvania Dutch (New York: Macmillan, 1961):

Almost all of the Amish today are direct descendants of the Amish immigrants of the eighteenth century, probably only five hundred in number. As marriage outside the church is forbidden, the Amish have intermarried to an amazing degree, until today there are only about thirty surnames among them. Indeed, most of them have one of a dozen surnames. There is a school in Lancaster County in which for the last ten years 95 to 100 per cent of the children, and the teacher as well, have been named Stoltzfus.

Hence the occasional confusion about Amish surnames.

[mrbigjas]

how about that.

here's what else i learned at sue's today: the two big boxes of shiro plums they have are the last of the season. and they're INSANELY DELICIOUS. they smell like japanese plum candy they're so sweet. lordy be. i bought about a dozen this morning and shared them with people from work and i'ma buy a bunch more on my way home tonight.

i think you were right about this being a great stone fruit season.

[Capaneus]

how about that.

here's what else i learned at sue's today: the two big boxes of shiro plums they have are the last of the season.  and they're INSANELY DELICIOUS.  they smell like japanese plum candy they're so sweet.  lordy be.  i bought about a dozen this morning and shared them with people from work and i'ma buy a bunch more on my way home tonight.

i think you were right about this being a great stone fruit season.

←

I got some of these a couple of days ago, and I'm pretty sure they were the first plums I've eaten on this continent that actually tasted like plums, what with hybridization, and picking green fruit, and breeding for firmness. I can accept that these would be a problem to ship: they felt like water balloons, and essentially dissolved into sweet tangy juice when you put them in your mouth. But there must be a way to get firmness *and* flavor.

Thank you for pointing me to these, James.

[rlibkind]

I got some of these [shiro plumbs] a couple of days ago, and I'm pretty sure they were the first plums I've eaten on this continent that actually tasted like plums, what with hybridization, and picking green fruit, and breeding for firmness.

←

Stop by Halteman's Country Foods at the Reading Terminal Market and check out their fresh produce. I got shiro plums there a week or so ago, and they've got others than are just as good, i.e., not hybridized, picked green, etc.

[mrbigjas]

dragging up yet another ancient thread: mangosteens are now available at sue's. $17/lb, which averages out to about $3 each.