Dear Customers, There’s something very dreary about the forests of Penn’s Woods when they become devoid of foliage.  Maybe because we know it’ll be six or seven months before we see the trees fully leafed out again! This time of year, particularly when we return to Standard Time, the days are so much shorter and…

Dear Customers, Long about 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening, my eyelids begin to get heavy.  My body starts winding down in preparation for the next 8 or so hours of sleep.  Except for the exact times, this routine plays out, with little deviation, every night of the week.  November is the annual equivalent…

Dear Customers, Halloween falls on next Monday which means the “holidays” are only a few short weeks away.  These two, major end-of-the-year holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, are completely “food-centric”.  There are so many traditional delicacies associated with them both that it’s hard to find space on the dinner table sometimes. The pandemic and its resultant…

Dear Customers, A few weeks ago, I talked about the practice Americans have of naming practically every day of the year as, “National ______________ Day” where you fill in the blank.  Imagine my surprise to learn that October 17th is known as National Pasta Day.  As if it needed its own day!  My Grandpa Thomas…

Dear Customers, By now we’re all unfortunately familiar with the term “inflation” and how it affects our everyday lives.  Gasoline prices, food prices and pretty much everything we have a need for is more expensive than it was not that long ago. We deal with several major vendors that are popular and well known, nation-wide. …

Dear Customers, There are certain foods that just go together.  Often, they’re so ingrained in our culture that you can’t think of one without the other.  How about “peanut butter & jelly”?  Or beans & weenies?  Steak & baked potato? Well, there is another “pairing” that is so delicious together that it literally cries out…

Dear Customers, If you’re like me, you get a little tired of the ever-increasing practice of naming days, weeks and even months as “National ———- Day, Week or Month” (you fill in the blank).  In any given 30-day period there are anywhere from 15 to 40 specially designated “events”.  It’s gotten a little out of…

Dear Customers, History creates new words and phrases which evolve, usually out of necessity.  If you were to compare a dictionary from 50 years ago to one published in 2022, there would be many, many new entries that didn’t exist in the earlier edition.  For instance, the word, Covid, was unheard of in 1972. So…

Dear Customers, In retrospect, I imagine I’ll look back on the summer of 2022 quite fondly.  I’ll focus on the abundant sunshine and overall good weather.  The less than desirable attributes are often pushed out of memory, not to be recalled.  Among those were the complete lack of rain during most of July and August,…

Dear Customers, When January’s chill winds blow and February’s icicles hang heavy from the eaves, we’ve grown accustomed to the vagaries of the fresh produce market.  Temperatures plummet in Florida and the orange crop suffers, both in quality and quantity.  Too much rain in the Salinas Valley in California and lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and strawberries…