Local Tomatoes & Green Apple Wine!

Wouldn't you brake for this sign???  LFLF visited Soergel Orchards today to pick up apples & baked goods, but we came away with some other local goodies!   The tomatoes were really nice looking so we added them to our basket.  They're grown in Indiana County at Yarnick's - we'd taken you there last year on a fall road trip.  We did pick up some Cameo apples after a friendly employee offered us a sample ... they happen to be one of our favorites anyway. 

An unexpected item - see the Soergel web-site for more info - was the limited edition St. Patrick's Day Green Apple Wine!   This may make it worth the trip if you're into wines.  
More local items found at Soergel Orchards Country Store on our next post .........

Herbs & Hydroponics

LFLF promised this "next day post" 3 days ago, so what happened?  Some PC troubles ..... isn't it always something?  Anyway, during our visit to the market at Yarnick's Farm, we checked out  the small attached greenhouse at the back of the market.   Here they grow fresh herbs in a  vertical "clip your own" type of arrangement.  This is a neat way to provide herbs outside of the traditional growing season.  There are specific varieties & quite a bit of science behind what grows well under these conditions!   A customer just ahead of us was clipping her own bunch of parsley.  Have any of the blog readers seen this type of set up at that big theme park in Orlando, FL?
On the other side of the greenhouse were rows of hydroponic lettuce.  We're not sure of what the cutting or picking rules were for the lettuce, but they looked like they'd be ready soon.   Here's a local grower who's made a season extending high value use of their greenhouses with hydroponic vegetables.



Yarnick's Hydroponic Lettuce

Check out this article from 2007 in the American Vegetable Grower magazine & plan to stop in if you're in the area! 
Check out this Penn State horticulture web-site for info & vegetable crop growing tips & news.

Yarnick's Farm Visit

Monday's mission for LFLF included a drive to Indiana County to pick up B&B Serbian Spruce trees at Musser Forests , a large regional grower.  We have been buying trees & shrubs at Musser for years, but usually they're seedlings purchased in lots of 50 - 100 & shipped in the spring for planting.  After we picked out a couple of trees and had them loaded up, we headed for home.  It was a beautiful warm October day, perfect for leaf peeping, and LFLF had one more stop in mind!  

Yes, Yarnick's Farm still has sweet corn!  We picked up half a dozen ears of corn and a quart of tomatoes.  We also grabbed some other veggies .......... everything looked really great and fresh in the market.  The half bushel specials were nice looking for anyone interested in canning or baking pies!

 Unfortunately,we had to pass on the meats and cheeses since we didin't bring our cooler.  We'll know better next time.   Just as we were leaving the market, a local chef stopped in and began his shopping with a selection of tomatoes ..... that's a testimony to the quality & variety available, wouldn't you say?  Tomorrow we'll show you what was going on in the greenhouse behind the market.  For now, here is a parting shot of the fields near the market in their fall glory!