Pennsylvania Markets Part III

We bid farewell to our impromptu hosts, Noel and Helen, and headed north on 94 toward Mechanicsburg. Just outside of York Springs the landscape changes dramatically into apple orchards as far as the eye can see. We stopped at Peters Orchards to explore some apples and other recent crops.

To my delight they had just harvested the remains of their Brussels sprouts. There were huge bins of them still on the stalk in the back waiting to be made market ready. There were also huge bins of cabbages.

But first the apples. Northern Spy and Honey Crisp are two varieties that are hard to come by in the city, so I stocked up on them. Then I saw a shelf of apple butter that would have rivaled Bubba’s litany of shrimp dishes for variety on a single theme. People in Pennsylvania must be pretty particular about how they like their apple butter.

When the time came to add it all up, I walked out of there with quite a deal. Given that the price on the Brussels sprouts was $3 per stalk, I expected to pay a good bit more for this market basket of goods than I did. For 3 Brussels sprouts stalks, 3 butternut squash, 1 blue Hubbard, 1 cauliflower, 1 quart of pear cider, 10 apples, and a can of peaches thrown in for good measure I paid ....................................

$10 .00

Pennsylvania ... I'll be back