The Modern Cocktail Garden: Presenting 18 plants to grow (and drink) this summer.

Herbal cocktails have evolved beyond the mojito. Why should the garden be any different? All across town, smart bartenders are mixing sophisticated summer elixirs with leaves, flowers, berries and buds of locally grown flora. Since you, savvy gardener/drinker, already have the mint-and-basil basics mastered, we thought we’d help you diversify your imbibe-able herb portfolio. Muddle

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3 mins read

Curd is the Word: You don’t need a dairy to make farmer’s cheese.

Resembling a pot of creamy, green-flecked pebbles, the addictive herbed farmer’s cheese made by Sue Miller of Birchrun Hills Farm materializes unpredictably enough to make its every farmers market appearance memorable. Sweet, milky and deliciously versatile, farmer’s cheese is just a bottle of milk and a squeeze of lemon away when you can’t get your

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2 mins read

Upper Crust: Pie, demystified

For most of my life, I believed that pie was special occasion food, reserved for big family dinners and primary holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Because of that, I developed a parallel opinion that making pie was extraordinarily hard. Why else would it be trotted out only once or twice a year?

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2 mins read

On Tap: Frecon’s Hard Cider

Dry, aromatic and alcoholic, cyser (pronounced sizer) is a type of mead made by fermenting honey in apple cider. According to Hank Frecon, humans have been keen on the stuff since ancient Babylon. His family’s orchards in Boyertown provide the raw material for Frecon’s Hard Cider, an all-local line of fruity ferments made for Kutztown’s

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1 min read

On Tap: Sly Fox Christmas Ale

Sly Fox Christmas AleSly Fox Brewing Company recently released their annual Christmas Ale. A mild brew with delightfully understated notes of ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, this red ale has a beautiful rich color—

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1 min read

Mariposa Co-op: Bust a Move

Mariposa Co-op grew out of buying clubs that flourished in the 1970s. In the early ’80s, several groups merged, opening a storefront at 4726 Baltimore Avenue. The co-op has come a long way since then: currently 1,000 members strong, Mariposa has outgrown its original space.

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1 min read