Palmyra Real Food Emporium

Posted By Doug Bedell on August 31, 2010

Last week’s salmon catch at the Emporium was a big success. Tom is set up to have salmon delivered by Jenn and Steve Kurlan, of Bloomsburg, every five weeks. But because of your response last Friday and Saturday, he’s already getting another delivery tomorrow (Wednesday)! So there will be more of all five types of salmon – fillets, fillet portions, Nova Style smoked, natural smoked and salmon burgers – this weekend.

Here at the end of the summer growing season, it’s a little hard to say what the Emporium’s suppliers will have on Tom’s rounds this week. But the important thing is, the produce will be field- or orchard- fresh and local. It’s a little early for pumpkins, but late season apples, maybe some squashes and possibly long-necked pumpkins will be on hand this week. Peaches might be available for another week.

Tom’s been drying mushrooms and has them for sale, along with freshly canned asparagus, beets and onions. This week he’s been preparing tomatoes as tomato sauce (with onions) and tomato water (this last a base for soups). He’ll have his unseasoned “limited edition” tomato sauce in pints and tomato water in quarts. Fresh tomato concentrate is run through a linen filter to produce the two consistencies.

So it will be a Labor Day weekend of freshness and preserves at the Emporium, looking toward fall. Dairy products and meats as usual, in addition to the Alaskan sockeye salmon.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 24, 2010

At 3:40 this afternoon, Tom Maurer’s shipment of wild caught salmon from Alaska arrived. It was as though Jenn Kurian, of Bloomsburg, was driving an old-fashioned Good Humor truck, a bit larger perhaps, and this one was labeled “Wild for Salmon.” That’s the name of the fishery company Jenn operates with her husband, Steve. They’ve been delivering 45,000 pounds of this year’s 190,000-pound catch to outlets, like the Emporium, in Pennsylvania. During June and July, their cast their nets off Alaska and harvested the salmon. Then, by barge to Seattle and refrigerated trailer to Pennsylvania, the fish arrived at Bloomsburg.

When the door to Jenn’s truck was opened, frost clouds gushed out, just like in Good Humor times. Tom didn’t have much patience for the enthusiastic photographer on hand: “Let’s go!” he advised, to get the door closed and keep the salmon inside impeccably frozen. But it made a great picture – fresh Alaskan salmon arriving in Palmyra!

When it opens at 8 Friday morning, the Emporium will have five varieties of salmon: fillets, fillet portions, Nova Style smoked, natural smoked and salmon burgers. Fans of the fish (and who isn’t?) should be in heaven!

Steve and Jenn have their own website at www.wildforsalmon.com. Read their story, get caught up with the blog of their catch and anticipate how succulent it will be when you have your own portions of their labors available in your kitchen. You won’t have to be humored any longer!

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 18, 2010

It’s apple season at the Emporium! The warm weather recently has made apples ready for picking from the trees a couple of weeks earlier than perhaps normal. But Tom Maurer will have Red Delicious and McIntosh apples this week. The apples are from the Eli and Gingrich orchard on the Palmyra-Bellegrove road. There will also be peaches, and the usual array of fresh vegetables and meats at the Emporium this Friday and Saturday.

A bit more detail on the fresh-caught Alaska sockeye salmon that will be available at the Emporium on Friday, August 27: It will be in individual portions, two servings per package (about a pound total). There will be whole fillets, cold- and hot-smoked salmon in six-ounce servings, and salmon burgers, also two to a package. The salmon, again, is from Steve and Jan Kurian, of Bloomsburg, who have been up in Alaska on their commercial fishing boat during the prime harvest months.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 17, 2010

As we move through this growing season, it’s not too early to start thinking about next year. One of the key parts of the Emporium’s mission is to sell foods with high nutritional value. These nutrients come from the soil. If they are not in the soil they will not be in the plant unless “band-aids” are used to correct the deficiencies. But there’s more to the story. Weed, disease and insect pressure are also related to soil conditions. In fact, the weeds that are present tell an observer what the nutrient excesses and/or deficiencies are. Feed the soil, not the plant, and the nutrient levels in the crop will increase and the weed, disease and insect problems will diminish.

How do we address this soil issue? This year it was done by visiting the growers and observing their production practices. However, starting this fall we plan the start a program where our producers can begin improving their soil using the soil program developed by Dr. William Albrecht. It was further refined by Neal Kinsey, one of Dr. Albrecht’s last students and an internationally recognized soils consultant. Both Tom Maurer, manager of the Emporium, and Alan Perry, his “silent” partner from Presque Isle, Maine, have studied with Neal Kinsey since the 1990s.

The plan is to take and analyze soil from each producer’s farm or market garden. The number of samples will vary from producer to producer based on a number of factors. We will make recommendations for soil amendments based on the test results. Only growers whose soils meet a minimum standard will be invited to be a supplier. However, the minimum is not the goal. The goal is the have soil that is in optimum condition. Soils do not get out of balance overnight and will take time to improve. To encourage farmers to strive for optimum soil conditions, each farm will receive a rating of, say, 1 to 5. A rating of 1 will be the minimum to be a supplier. Each year, we will test the soils and make recommendations as to what amendments are needed and what the rating for that season should be.

The ultimate goal is the benefit both the farmer and the eater by providing higher quality food for the eater and fewer problems and better marketability for the farmer. To Tom Maurer, healthy soil is the foundation of everything – good food and healthy eating alike. And that’s what he’s offering at the Emporium.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 11, 2010

August is the time for peak crops, and the Emporium is taking full advantage of the supply of fresh, locally grown produce. This is the time of year when people stock up on produce for canning. The Emporium encourages canning – Tom Maurer has been doing some asparagus and beets himself. (For sale shortly.)

“Now is when you get ready for January,” Tom says. “It’s the canning season. That’s how to enjoy fresh, locally grown crops year round.” The Emporium plans to be open in January – all year, in fact. There will be produce then from greenhouses and other sources. But canning is the way to lay away some of today’s crops for winter meals. Locally grown food preserved at the height of its freshness and flavor – that’s something our grandparents enjoyed too!

And here’s an update on when wild-caught sockeye salmon will be arriving from Alaska – Friday, August 27. Five different portions will be available, all from Steve and Jenn Kurian, of Bloomsburg, who have been up in Alaska on their commercial fishing boat during the prime harvest months. More on this in a new post soon.

Tom keeps stressing that everyone’s welcome at the Emporium. Investors receive a 10 percent discount on their purchases, but the market is open to all. You don’t have to be an investor to enjoy freshly harvested local produce. Just someone who enjoys real food!

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 4, 2010

The apple season may open in full force this week. Tom Maurer isn’t quite sure, but be looking for more fresh-picked apples at the Emporium. And there will be the usual array of tomatoes, greens, berries and other farm products.

As August advances, it’s becoming time to envision what the Emporium will be like in the fall. (We’ll be open year-round, after all.) Tom has already canned asparagus and beets for fall, and he’s been introducing a growing array of shelf goods, including spicy sauce mixes. He’s been freezing raspberries and blackberries to offer later. And he’ll be picking up lettuces and other produce at Sam Stoltzfus’ hydroponics greenhouse in Gap. Anticipate making some fall discoveries at the Emporium!

Tom’s Maywood Farm flock of chickens has been enhanced by newly-hatched arrivals. If he can get the hens “back to business,” there should be steadily more eggs – brown and green as well as white – on hand at the Emporium on Friday mornings. As it’s been, Tom’s farm-fresh eggs have been selling out early.

It’s also worth anticipating a soon-to-arrive shipment of wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon. Steve and Jenn Kurian, of Bloomsburg, have been up in Alaska in their commercial fishing boat for the prime months of June and July, and will be sending salmon to the Emporium shortly. Also, Tom advises that his meat sales last week were the strongest yet. That’s probably because of the Emporium’s new display cold case, which displays meats to their best advantage. Look for pork chops, sausage, ham, beef roasts, steaks, poultry and “some wonderful dried beef,” Tom advises.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on August 2, 2010

Know about Mrs. Wages sauces? The Emporium has added Mrs. Wages Tomato Sauce mixes to its shelf goods selections. The pasta sauce makes for great spaghetti! Watch, though, because a single envelope (and the accompanying tomatoes) yields five pints of sauce. You might want to use an envelope, say, a third or half at a time. But the results are spicy-great over your favorite pasta! We loved it with the Emporium’s corn spaghetti.

The Emporium has a new cold cabinet for displaying its meats, from sausage to steaks. The new cabinet makes it easier for shoppers to see what’s available in farm fresh meats, and Tom is pleased have it installed.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on July 29, 2010

I’ve been reintroduced to raw milk at The Emporium. “Real milk” is probably a better, more descriptive term. It’s milk directly from cows at permitted dairy farms that hasn’t been pasteurized. Hadn’t drunk it for years until Tom Maurer gave me a sample at the Emporium. It’s been three weeks now since we switched to raw milk, and it’s sweet, full-bodied and delicious. It’s also completely safe to drink from farms like the two that Tom uses. We’ve been conditioned to think of raw milk as not being safe, but it is. (Be mindful that any food not handled properly can cause problems.)

Pasteurization – named for the French biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur, and not to be confused with “pasturing” (where cows graze) – was widely adopted in the 1920s and 1930s as a response to unhealthy conditions at dairies that existed alongside breweries in inner cities. While Pasteurization assures healthy milk, it’s a heating process that affects milk’s nutritional value. As Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon write in their book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat, “By the late 1940s, increased knowledge about how to produce healthy milk and advances in technology made pasteurization completely unnecessary, but it was just then that lobbying for mandatory pasteurization began in earnest. Why? Because investors and businessmen realized that mandatory pasteurization was the easiest way to consolidate the industry…”

The Emporium’s raw milk is delivered Friday mornings from the Green Acres farm (Jersey cows) and the Country Sunrise Creamery (Holstein cows), both outside Myerstown, Lebanon County. Try some and you’ll likely be as pleased as I’ve been to discover (or rediscover) the flavorful appeal of real milk. – Doug Bedell

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Posted By Doug Bedell on July 22, 2010

Visit the Farm Markets booth – the Emporium, Palmyra and Hershey Farmers Markets – at the Lebanon Area Fair. Just inside the Exhibit Hall, July 24 – July 31!

Tom Maurer fears that a misconception has sprung up about the Emporium – that because it has an “investor” level, it’s a “members only” market. That’s definitely not so. The Emporium welcomes all shoppers, investors or not. Investors receive a 10 percent discount on their purchases and some other benefits, and the Emporium encourages investing. But it welcomes all shoppers. Without them, “investments” would wither.

The Emporium is devoted to providing everyone who knows about it – and their numbers are growing – with foods grown locally year-round (whether in the fields or greenhouses). We’ll be open in the winter, and looking forward to spring, and hosting all our shoppers every Friday and Saturday. The Emporium is devoted to a principle that’s actually bigger than attracting investors, welcome as they are. That principle is developing a local food supply and encouraging the farmers who provide it. To accomplish that, we need everyone to spread the word about the Emporium, investors or not. All are welcome, definitely so!

To call attention to the Emporium from everyone passing by, Tom has installed a large lighted keystone sign of the Emporium’s logo its front wall. Created by Michael Blose Signs in Campbelltown, the new sign will be lighted day and night and should help establish the Emporium as a Palmyra presence.

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Posted By Doug Bedell on July 15, 2010

A visit to the Emporium today (Thursday) produced a special surprise. There, in his white cap and jacket, was a baker, busily preparing mixes for the new European-style bakery that, it turns out, will open tomorrow! Tom Maurer has been talking about maybe adding a baker, but here he is – Aubrey Hanford, of Annville. The rest of the week he helps run Samantha’s Heirlooms and Exotics farm on Louser Road with his wife…Samantha, of course.

Aubrey is opening a bakery at the Emporium to augment the Hanford’s farming income. And he’s got a special vision for it. “I don’t want it to become a coffee shop,” he says, “but more like a boulanger” – a French bakery. At 6 A.M. he started toward that goal, having already mixed a sourdough “starter” solution overnight – yeast, flour and water. Now the loaves were slowly rising before going into the Emporium’s two ovens. It was 10 A.M. “I’ve been here since 6 A.M. and haven’t baked anything yet,” Aubrey said, a little ruefully.

The bread, including Italian focaccia, would start going into the two Garland ovens at 11:30. There would be country white loaves; white boules, a round loaf seven inches in diameter and baguettes and zucchini bread, with zucchini from Samantha’s. Aubrey would finish the day with a brioche, a flaky French bread with a rich flavor. He expected to wind up at 6 P.M. – 12 hours to launch a new Lebanon County French bakery! We could imagine what the lovely smells would be like when the Emporium opens for the weekend. Aubrey will be baking at the Emporium on Thursdays and Fridays, just before it opens for the weekend and on its first of two business days. Aubrey said he’s looking forward to baking some pumpkin pies, “but that won’t be for a couple of months yet” – when fresh pumpkins are available.

In addition to Aubrey Hanford’s continental breads, Tom Maurer will still be offering Anna Mary Martin’s country-baked breads, pies and buns, including shoofly pies, that she delivers on Friday mornings. So the Emporium will be offering a range of fresh-baked goods unsurpassed anywhere around! “And I also hope to have some blackberries this week,” Tom said, ever-mindful of his fresh produce stocks as he started on his Thursday pickup rounds.

Come enjoy a special weekend at the Emporium, sort of like Paris in Palmyra!

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