Review: Wolff's Apple House

Restaurant:

Address: 81 S. Pennell Rd., Media, PA 19063
Rating: (out of 5 stars): ★★★★
Style: Farmer’s market with prepared goods
Food: Great, most items are local
Atmosphere: Warm and welcoming, reminiscent of a county fair
Parking: Large lot
Service: Very friendly
Price Range: Inexpensive
Unique Features: Local everything--coffee, baked goods, produce, honey and even pasta in addition to plenty of flowers and plants for purchase.

The airport symbol for Chicago O’Hare International Airport is ORD, which doesn’t make any sense until you find out that where the airport exists used to be an orchard. Consider ORD a truncation of orchard. Likewise, in Middletown Township is a farmers’ market that also used to be an apple orchard.

I was feeling under the weather in more ways than one but a trip to Wolff’s cured all of that. I had a ball, eyeing all the local produce, products and prepared foods. Everything looks good enough to eat and I thought I would take the time to teach you some of my farmers’ market tips as we begin this new school year.

Eating locally is quite easy at Wolff’s because most of the inventory is local. Make sure to take a peek at the "local board" on your way in to see exactly what is available. When asked why it’s better to eat local I explain that produce is just like us. You know how you feel after sitting through a 12 hour plane or car ride in a cramped position? Well your fruits and vegetables feel the same way. An apple that has traveled 25 miles is going to taste and look better than one that was picked before it was ripe, sprayed with chemicals to delay ripening, then traveled 2,500 miles only to be sprayed with more chemicals to resume the ripening process. There is a wide variety of apples at Wolff’s and while the honey crisp variety is enjoying her day in the sun, I am and forever will be partial to gala apples. Don’t be afraid to try different kinds of apples (or anything for that matter) and see which one is your favorite.

The fruits in the ante room make way for the vegetables in the first part of the store. Fall vegetables include most root vegetables (turnips, celery root, parsnips, potatoes) as well as many varieties of squash including acorn, spaghetti and butternut. The rich flavor of butternut squash makes it ideal for soup that tastes heavenly but is actually good for you.

Wolff’s has all different kinds of potatoes and while oven roasting small red or white potatoes with some olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme sprigs and garlic is one way to go, you can not beat warm mashed potatoes when the weather turns brisk. One thing I learned in restaurants was to heat up the milk and butter together in a small pan and add the warm dairy mixture to the potatoes before mashing them together. This results in light and creamy potatoes.

I turned to the refrigerators full of homemade prepared goods and chose the potato pierogies. These were outstanding. Full of potato flavor with plenty of seasoning (you could see flecks of black pepper in each bite), each dumpling made for a perfect rainy day lunch.

What’s amazing about all the prepared goods is that almost all are made locally. The apple butter, fruit preserves, honey, dry pasta, doughnuts, bread are all prepared mere miles away. The apple cider and pumpkin doughnuts were amazing. Both doughnuts were tasty, pleasantly sweet and rolled around in cinnamon sugar. As cake doughnuts they are more dense than yeast doughnuts but not heavy at all. They are appropriate any time of day.

The more commercially available items by the registers are a far cry from what you find at your local supermarket and I didn’t hesitate to pick up some nut bars for a quick pick me (they are gluten- and dairy-free). The cashier rang me up quickly and efficiently and I enjoyed chatting with many of the staff members throughout the store. Wolff’s Apple House is a special place and I wish we had something like it near my house.

Click here for the website.