Saturday, April 25, 2015
Mushrooms and ramps purchased on April 25, 2015, at the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market on Germantown, Ave., in Philadelphia, photographed in Wissahickon Park
It was slim pickin’s at the Saturday morning Chestnut Hill Farmers Market in front of the Mermaid Inn, on April 25, a brisk, sunny Saturday. A sparse selection of produce this early in the spring is usually a good sign for a farmers market, indicating that it’s the real deal, an outlet for produce that is truly locally grown. When a wider selection of produce starts to appear as the prime growing season progresses, you’ll know it’s from nearby farms. For now, spring-planted crops are a few weeks away from starting to yield a harvest. Just four producers had a few things each to offer at the market on this day.
The Rineer Family Farm had a selection of canned pickles and preserves as well as some overwintered root crops. Taproot Farm brought some overwintered greens, including Russian kale and a frilly bibb lettuce. Valley Milkhouse, which offered an array of cheeses, shared a table with Primordia Mushroom Farm, which carried not only a colorful array of fungi but also ramps that were foraged from the wild somewhere in Bucks County and fiddlehead ferns from Oregon.
The Chestnut Hill Farmers Market shares a patch of cobblestones in front of the famous Mermaid Inn on Winston Road at Germantown Ave., every Saturday of the year from 10 a.m. until early afternoon, or “whenever the producers sell out,” as the market’s web site puts it. This market is one of more than a dozen around the city that are affiliated with a business called Farm to City.
The ramps were $20 per pound. I bought a quarter pound, which amounted to an ample bundle for $5. Some dirt still clung to the roots of these very fresh ramps, which I was tempted to plant, instead of eat, to start a ramp patch of my very own. I bought a pre-packaged selection of six different mushrooms from Primordia Mushroom Farm for $7.
Rhubarb preserves and storage potatoes from Rineer Family Farm
Overwintered bibb lettuce and Russian Kale from Taproot Farm
– Mark Thompson
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