MarketBasket | Magic 'pumpkin'
It's October all over the Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch. Rick Nichols went foraging and here's what he came up with.
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It's October all over the Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch. Rick Nichols went foraging and here's what he came up with.
Magic 'pumpkin'
Maybe you're not going to make it to the pumpkin patch this year. Or maybe you've had it with marauding squirrels picking on your jack o' lantern. In which case, maybe it's time to check out "gourdkins" from Meadowbrook Gourds in Carlyle, rich, autumn-red, and dried to a shell of their former selves. Featherweight, and centerpiece-ready, for Octobers to come.
Gourdkins, $10.99 each, at Pennsylvania Country Store, 215 592-9772 or www.pageneralstore.com.
Heirloom cranberries
If you're serving a heritage turkey this season, perhaps it's time to try heirloom cranberries. These low-spray berries (there are also white varieties) are from vintage bogs near Tabernacle, N.J. They're dry-harvested, which is easier on the berry. They tend to be a mix of Wilcox, Beckwith, Early Richards, and Centennial, slightly fruitier and more intense than most of the newcomers.
Paradise Hill's heirloom cranberries, $3 pint, $6 quart, Fair Food Farmstand, 215-627-2029.
Oktoberfest and wurst!
Some of the best market news this fall has been the arrival of Fox Chase-based Rieker's Prime Meats' hand-crafted German sausages and cold cuts at the terminal's Dutch Country Meats stand. The white sausages are called Oktoberfest weisswurst, modeled on the Munich beerfest originals, gently seasoned with caraway seed and marjoram. They're half pork and half veal, fine for steaming with kraut or pan-browning.
Oktoberfest weisswurst from Rieker's Prime Meats, $5.99 a pound, Dutch Country Meats stand, 215-922-5842.