Despite Chill Weather, Spring Crops Survived
The Emporium has all the makings of a great salad this week. Spring greens – including bibb and romaine lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, onions and cucumbers – are all on hand, as well as a variety of vinegars.
Maybe there have been colder snaps in May, but this past week’s frigid weather was plenty troubling for our area’s farmers, with those in the northern reaches dealing with actual freezes. Weather, though, typifies the kind of crop-threatening problem farmers deal with every day. A serious cold snap can kill a season’s worth of crop, and hot, dry weather can do the same.
It took sprinklers on strawberries and “low tunnels” (those white tubes you see in some fields) for other crops, but it looks as though the Emporium’s suppliers are okay. For the most part, spring crops are spring crops because they like cool weather. So we expect strawberries and tomatoes and cucumbers from John and Lizzie Glick’s farm in Manheim and Sam Stoltzfus in Gap. Spring onions and radishes should be available from Aubrey Hanford in Annville and asparagus from Barbara and Gideon Fisher and David Esh in Leola. There will also be kale and Swiss chard from the Glicks’ farm.
Tom Maurer’s eggs come from chickens on his own Maywood Farm in Annville. Among the brown eggs (signaling they’re from grass-fed chickens) you might find a light green or bluish one. Those are from araucanian hens, a breed that originated in Chile. In addition, the Emporium (being not just a produce market) has raw milk, cheeses, spices, dried fruits and nuts, beans, sweeteners teas and coffee, vinegars, flours and an ever-expanding line of gluten-free products. There are also canned Adams County peaches.
Tom’s wife, Sue, will be opening Palmyra’s Producers Only Farmers Market again on Friday and Saturday, at 325 S. Railroad St., behind the municipal building. There will be six farm-fresh food vendors.
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