Recipes from Central Market

by Good, Phyllis Pellman; Stoltzfus, Louise; Central Market (Lancaster, Pa.)

• ISBN13: 9781561482108
• ISBN10: 1561482102
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-11-01
• Publisher: Good Books

Summary

There stands, just off the center square in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a monument to a food and gardening tradition-Central Market-both a building and an event. The standholders of this timeless farmers market have brought together their signature recipes in this bountiful collection. This new collection of recipes from the standholders of Lancaster, Pennsylvania's beloved Central Market is as lush and full of bounty as the farmers market itself. Set in the center of lively, historic Lancaster, the market offers richly varied produce, breads, and homemade dishes to its loyal shoppers. Here, now, are recipes from these same gardeners, farmers, cooks, and bakers. Ever ready to share their plenty, they have brought together their favorite recipes, using fresh ingredients and tried-and-true techniques. This collection mirrors the market-its traditional foods, rooted deeply in Pennsylvania Dutch soil, and its burgeoning multi-cultural flavor. (A Middle Eastern baker shares an aisle with an Amish vegetable-grower!) Recipes from Central Market has brisk salads and vegetarian main dishes. On neighboring pages are the comforts of favorite pies and jams and stews. All from the oldest, continually operating farmers market in the United States.

Excerpts

About This Cookbook-and the Place from Which It Came There stands, just off the center square in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a monument to a food and gardening tradition-Central Market-both a building and an event. It is an architectural wonder in its gracefully historic character. It is a throbbing and enduring center, supported by its residential neighbors, the business and professional workers who share its streets, and all the loyals who drive in from greater Lancaster and even nearby states. What brings the customers? What holds the standholders? What sustains the remarkable life in this place when the city that surrounds it must fend off a slow-down of commercial activity, a dwindling tax base, and fears of crime? There are answers: Food that can't be resisted because it is carefully grown or produced by knowledgeable hands. Spirited standholders who understand their work as artisans. Devoted customers who know that going to market is always worth the trip, the earlier in the day, the better. A city who recognizes the treasure it has and continually interprets (and re-interprets) the market's charter-and intervenes when it is challenged. Those who bring their bounty to market, and those who line up to take it away, know good food. They are attuned to the seasons. They understand texture and flavor. They enjoy the robust and the subtle. These "experts"-who work with the basics, the truck-patch-grown, the home-baked, the hand-prepared-have gathered together their own favorite recipes for this cookbook. Some of these recipes call for products the standholders produce and sell, some are well rooted traditional dishes, some are simply personal favorites. As a collection, Recipes from Central Market mirrors the mix that Central Market is-the historic and novel, the foods of the long-settled Germans and the more-recently-arrived Asians and Lebanese, startlingly simple dishes and also multi-stepped productions. We are grateful to the many standholders who took time away from their market-tending and market preparation to put their recipes in readable form for this book. Market Master Don Horn and fourth-generation standholder Viv Hunt made many connections for us. Joy Kraybill ably oversaw many details. Steve Scott did considerable research on the market's history and wrote much of the historical material. Thank you all. Central Market offers its pleasure with food when you visit its brick-walled aisles-or when you prepare any of these choice recipes. -Phyllis Pellman Good and Louise Stoltzfus

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Excerpted from Recipes from Central Market by Phyllis Pellman Good, Louise Stoltzfus, Phyllis Pellman Good
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.