SIW Vegetables

Well, another busy weekend for the Philly Food Feed has passed. National Farmers’ Market week was a success as far as we at the Feed are concerned. We visited 4 different markets last week, one of which we have never been to before and the bounty from these visits is still being enjoyed. This past Saturday, Sarah was taking Ethan and I on a scenic tour of the Brandywine Valley where, as their website states, Southern Chester Pennsylvania meets Northern Delaware. This area is full of natural and historical landmarks which alone are worth the trip. However, what most impressed me (the burgeoning locavore that I am) was a detour that Sarah took that found us at a roadside farm stand – SIW Vegetables.

Now I have been to some roadside markets before, but this one is special. Heirloom tomatoes, various melons - more than I could count, squash, okra, Lima beans…the selection was amazing and everything looked as fresh as if it was still in the ground. This is not to mention the baked goods that I saw, or the Canadian Strawberries that looked like they belonged in a commercial. This was beyond any roadside stand I have ever seen, and after a conversation with the owner Mr. HG Haskell, it was obvious why. SIW uses organic and pest management techniques on most of their produce. Furthermore, SIW also participates in Community Supported Agriculture. Moreover, their pickers bring food to the stand right from the fields. You can’t get any fresher than that! These are people that obviously care about the soil, the produce, and the people who buy and eat their goods!

SIW is open from early June until October 31st, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. They are located on 4317 S. Creek Rd. Chadds Ford, PA 19317. If you are in the area or just want to take a beautiful scenic drive, I implore you to stop here. We bought some Okra for Sarah’s dad which he devoured and Sarah and I are still chomping on the Sugar Baby Watermelon we purchased. That melon, what a thirst quencher!

Happy Father's Day Locavores!

Today was my first Father's Day! I called my own father last week and asked if he wanted to have a BBQ at his house and he obliged. My contribution to today's fatherly festivities was some local, pastured, ground beef burgers. My father has read this blog and for some reason refers to me as "The Green Grocer" so I wanted to school him a bit on buying local and there was no better way to start than with the taste buds. I stopped over at the Headhouse Farmers' Market to pick-up the meat, as well as the upcoming week's fruit and vegetable haul for my family. While there are more than a couple vendors at the market that have pastured ground beef, I knew where I was going - Natural Meadows Farm. I have purchased pastured ground beef from Natural Meadows before and made some juicy delicious cheeseburgers with so I knew if I wanted to impress my family, I wasn't going to buck the system.
I made 12 burgers with a mixture of three pounds of the meat with added salt, cracked pepper, a couple of pastured brown eggs (also from Natural Meadows), a couple of good squirts of Worcester sauce, and some chopped red onion (also locally grown and purchased at Headhouse). My father and I barbequed them together (a couple of fathers sharing a Father's Day moment) and shared one before we brought them in for the rest of the family to enjoy. He was impressed and my father doesn't easily impress. I'm the liberal of the family so sometimes I am the butt of some good-natured ribbing about my local eating habits but he could only compliment the food. In fact, EVERYBODY at the barbeque was impressed and it gave me the opportunity to explain the benefits of pastured animals over the usual corn-fed-crap. And there it was. My family and I on my first Father's Day digging in and enjoying some local food and discussing it along with the environment and omega-3s I couldn't have asked for a better Father's Day gift!