Sweet Corn and Grilled Peaches

In my six-mile commute to work, I pass three farmers’ markets, and let me tell you, ‘tis the season for signs on the road marketing their wares.  I understand.  That’s a lot of competition – a farmer’s market on every corner practically.

The signs for “Sweet Corn” and “Peaches”, which are all the rage at all three of these markets right now, are actually pretty tempting.  These are some of my favorite foods – I mean, the corn doesn’t even have to be sweet to entice me, and I enjoy anything made of peaches, including those dandy frozen margaritas they make at the Franklin Inn.   Sweet corn and peaches have the added appeal of being healthy and low in calories, unlike some of my other favorite foods like, for instance, Italian hoagies or chocolate cake.

Sometimes the markets try to sweeten the pot by building whole events around their produce.  Kaelin’s Farm Market offers a weekly Sweet Corn and Grilled Peaches Roast, assuring us on their signage that is it “their own” corn and peaches that they plan to roast.  And my dad’s neighbor Nancy tells me that Soergel’s Hot Dogs and Sweet Corn Roasts on Sundays just can’t be beat.  That might be true, but I will probably never find out.  I usually avoid the markets when they are having any kind of event. Seriously, there are traffic jams on the main road and a guy directing traffic to park in the far fields when Soergel’s hosts anything like that.

Shenot Farm Market has won awards, and is not afraid to advertise that for those driving by.  They seem to specialize in apples – lots and lots of apples. Their “Award Winning Apple Cider” sign actually did make me stop on the spot one day to pick some up for my cider connoisseur husband who did deem it to be “damn good.”

Not that everything that the farmers’ markets offer is healthy. Shenot makes some mighty fine looking fudge, but of course I can’t tell you how it tastes because I’ve been on a diet for what seems like forever.  And now Soergels is offering “Amish Donuts Every Saturday,” presumably to go along with their Amish furniture.  Hmm, what makes a doughnut Amish, I wondered.  Is it a certain kind of doughnut, or is it just made by Amish people?  As I always do when I have a question about food, I turned to my husband, who was trained as a chef.

 

“What’s an Amish donut?” I asked.

 

“A doughnut that wears a black hat and a long black coat,” he responded, without missing a beat. Oh, we had a good laugh at that - he does amuse me, but clearly there were no Amish instructors at the Culinary Institute of America.  The Internet (my second source of information about food) revealed that an Amish doughnut is a maple glazed doughnut. 

All this reminds me of a funny food-related sign from my past.  Once I was lost in Beaver County driving along Route 18 when I happened upon “Sadie’s Big Beaver Restaurant.” I know, I know,  this restaurant probably was given its name for the most innocent and obvious reason – because it was a restaurant located in Big Beaver, PA, owned by a lady named Sadie.  But still, you have to admit, this was one funny name for a restaurant.

The humor of the name of this restaurant is lost on the locals, by the way. Mention this to someone from Beaver County and they all have the same response.  “Oh, yeah, Sadie’s” they say, wistfully.  “She had good food – too bad she closed a few years ago.”  It is sad that Sadie’s closed, but perhaps she can take solace that the name of her restaurant continues to give pleasure and amusement to so many – well, okay, maybe just to me- even 20 years later.