Wow, some terrific tomatoes now in lower Chestnut Hill
The Chestnut Hill Outdoor Market is now open on Tuesdays from 3 to 7 p.m. as well as on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The market is located on Winston Road at Germantown Avenue. Here we see farmer Daryl Rineer and Gloria Rineer, Daryl’s grandmother.
by PAT STOKES
It’s Saturday morning, and we’re in a locale of current interest and maybe a little controversy. You might guess where: the intersection of Winston Road and Mermaid Lane. On this particular day, Winston Road has indeed been closed off, not just for traffic improvement or whatever, but to allow space for some Lancaster County farmers to set up their stands for one day in order to offer some mighty fine home-grown vegetables for sale. It may be stretching a point, perhaps, but I find it interesting that since part of the produce on sale here is organic in nature, we have on this spot another subject of debate, the relative value of organic food, and we’ll make some points about that further along.
As a longtime health nut myself, I find it a delight to see the farm trucks lined up on the intersection, the simple utilitarian card tables holding baskets of brightly colored veggies, and the big white umbrellas bravely keeping off the sun, if not the heat.
The first tables, at left, are owned by Daryl Rineer, who explains that all of the produce at his stand comes from family farms in and around Marticville, Lancaster County. Daryl is assisted today by his grandmother, Gloria, and sometimes by his wife, Kate. The vegetables are not organic, but are grown without pesticides. The basket of peppers should really be captured in oil by a local artist. Their colors are not only red and green, but yellow, orange and even purple, looking very natural, each with an individual appearance and personality. There is also sweet corn, watermelon, zucchini, string beans, tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. The farmers who produce them are part of an organization called the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Market Natural Produce.
Daryl says the stand has been very well received by Chestnut Hill customers since its arrival in June.
A few steps away are vegetables grown by Dan Landis of Landisdale Farm in Jonestown, Pa. He has lived there since childhood, and now he is in charge of farming the vegetables, although the farm also raises grass-fed cattle, fed without antibiotics, as well as apples and peaches labeled IPM (Integrated Pest Management), meaning that insects are controlled without chemicals. They also offer for sale organic eggs and cheese provided by Jonestown farmers. Dan is assisted by Ricardo Aulestia, a young man from Ecuador who is here for a six-week training program at Landisdale Farm. He plans to start his own farm some day in Ecuador.
On the table just in front of me are some of the most interesting tomatoes I’d ever seen. Talk about personality; each one is highly individual. They are Heirloom tomatoes, meaning that they have, you might say, pedigrees, or at the very least family trees. Seriously, certain strains of these tomatoes can be traced back to the 1800s, representing over a century of carefully preserved seeds, saved and planted from crop to crop. They’re not your laboratory hybrids, as are many tomatoes we buy today.
Dan and Ricardo know these tomatoes by name. You pick up any tomato, and they will tell you its name. My favorite, a big round gorgeous specimen, is named Boxcar Willie. Honest. Dan rattled off a few others — Roman Candle, Pineapple, Alberta Girl and others — but Boxcar Willie is my favorite. It’s my pal. I can hardly bear to slice into it, but as lunchtime approaches, I’m sure I’ll overcome the feeling. (P.S. I did. Wow, what a tomato!) Now, as we all know, potatoes and apples have names, too, but here are a few potato names I hadn’t heard: in addition to fingerlings and Yukon gold, how about all-blue, cranberry, caribe and Kennebec.
As interest in organic foods at last begins to take hold (it’s slow going but we’re getting there), more and more feature articles appear in various publications shedding light on what organic means. For vegetables and fruits, it means grown without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. For meats, it means not injected with hormones or antibiotics, but most important, to rate the USDA label “organic,” produce must have grown on land free of chemicals and other prohibited substances for three years prior to certification. That qualification in itself separates “natural” from “organic.”
Although I didn’t compare actual prices with store vegetable prices, the cost of things here seemed to compare well with those in our local markets.
The heat on that 94-degree day was almost unbearable there at the stands, even under the umbrellas. I admire those hardy farmers, who had been there, they said, since 7:30 a.m.
Looking across at the triangle of Winston, Germantown and Mermaid, at the newly resurrected park in that spot, with its inviting benches, one could visualize oneself sitting there happily chomping on a celery stick or an organic carrot on some breezy day — that is, when the temperature drops. As for me, I took my bag of goodies, and especially Boxcar Willie, and headed for home.
Since we probably won’t be having anything like Whole Foods here on the Hill in the foreseeable future, it’s nice to know that organic produce is available on the weekend (and Tuesday evenings) at least until fall. See you on the Avenue.
