Gardening 2013: May Update

Nearly to the roof this year!

This spring has been a little hard on the garden. It was very hot early, then got wet, and now we're on a period with more seasonal daytime temperatures but night time lows in the low 40's.

That hasn't bothered the cippolini onions or the cima di rapa in the front bed. They're watered using 1/4" drip line every 2nd row.

Just about ready

We'll probably harvest the cima di rapa in another couple days and make pizza with it. Valley Shepard Creamery in Reading Terminal Market makes mozarella daily on-site so I'll probably pick up half a pound on the way home from work Tuesday. (Which in turn means making a batch of dough Monday evening.)

San Marzano Tomatoes

As you can see, we're using red plastic "mulch" again this year and each plant has it's own drip line with a 1 gallon per hour emitter. There are a couple rows of peas on the right - they get plenty of eater from the gutter garden just visible at the top right.

Unfortunately, the eggplant and peppers I started are way behind. I may visit some garden stores next week and buy larger plants. It's annoying, but these things happen now and then. And I still have to pop some zucchini seeds under the black plastic in the front "bamboo bed".

Reading Terminal Market

It seems like half the bloggers I follow have been doing posts on their local markets. Although it's been done a zillion times before, here's my happy place: Reading Terminal Market!

I tend to enter the market on the south side, from the SEPTA Market East Station. That means my first stop is Iovine Brothers Produce.  Price and selection are always excellent and many items, particularly things like scallions, parsley, and so forth are often half what they cost in my suburban supermarket.

Sweet Corn, Apples, and More

What kind of potatoes did you want?

Featured Produce

Assorted Fruit

Just to the west of Iovine Brothers is the deservedly famous pastry shop of Termini Brothers. There is nearly always a line down the front of these counters so this picture is a small miracle!

Cake!

Opposite Termini Brothers is the chocolate wonderland of Chocolate by Mueller. If you watch Bizarre Foods, this is where Andrew Zimmern tasted the chocolate covered onion.

Chocolate!

Just around the corner to the left is Downtown Cheese. And yes, Andrew Zimmern stopped here too. Between Downtown Cheese and DiBruno Brothers you could probably source just about any cheese on the planet.

Cheese and Salumi at Downtown Cheese

There are three fish dealers in Reading Terminal Market. John Yi Seafood is generally my "go to" for most things like diver scallops and other shellfish. Wan's Seafood is pretty comparable and if I don't see what I want at John Yi's Wan's will probably have it. Finally, there's Golden Fish Market, today's destination.

Whole fish at Golden Fish Market

Golden Fish Market had one huge advantage for me today - they tend to leave things like tuna in big pieces instead of slicing them into steaks. Like this:

Come to me my pretty...

That smaller piece of Ahi on the right weighs a bit over two pounds and is in my refrigerator right now waiting to become tonno sott' olio.

Of course those are just the places I tend to always check out. There still all the Pennsylvania Dutch vendors (who are closed on Sundays), Bassett's Ice Cream, a couple bakeries, the coffee roaster, the cookie place, about 20 restaurants, at least four butchers, the flower shop... Oh yea, there's the Italian Market too, just about 11 blocks south.

Cheese!

Buttercup Brie & Brie Nangis

After discovering the Fair Food Farmstand @RdgTerminalMkt during the Greater Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge I had to go back and start tasting some of the local cheeses on offer. Tonight I picked up a couple of rather wonderful products: Cherry Grove Farm's Buttercup Brie and Linden Dale Farm's Dalencay.

The Buttercup Brie is the perfect cheese to serve folks who claim they don't like "stinky cheese". It's soft and lactic and has only a hint of the classical "brie mushroom" flavor. Rather surprisingly, it stood up well against the Brie Nangis (from Downtown Cheese) with it's own sweet personality - a sort of charming cousin to it's more aggressive French relative.

Dalencay Goat Cheese

The Delancy ash rind goat cheese is another creature altogether. The slightly scary ash rind conceals an wonderfully melting core of mild goat cheese that overwhelms any bitterness from the ash - just dig in.

Both are available in limited quantities so swing by after work and grab some.