Today's Main Ingredient: Bring Farm Food to Your Table

Matt Shaffer has operated Matt’s Farm Market outside Hamlin for 20 years. He grew up in a farming family. At age 5, working beside his mother in her garden, he planted his first patch of sweet corn. By his early teens, he was growing and selling sweet corn and pumpkins locally, and he started raising beef cattle. Today, Matt farms about 200 acres, growing sweet corn, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes and a few other vegetable crops, as well as hay for his cattle. “Watching things grow and gathering them for harvest is really rewarding,” he says. He also likes working with animals and finds being around his cattle is “very relaxing. They are my therapists.”

Matt also works part-time off the farm to catch up for bad years. “We farmers are at the mercy of the weather, markets, equipment failures, animal damage, a dangerous workplace, and a bunch of other things,” he explains. “But then there’s that everyday challenge on the farm that keeps it interesting. That’s the lifestyle I’ve always known and grew up in. I wouldn’t change that.”

Bryan Roff grows cultivated exotic mushrooms in a year-round, indoor temperature- and humidity-controlled environment and forages choice edible, wild mushrooms in the Tri-State region (PA, NY, NJ). He studied mycology (mushroom science) at Penn State University, and Woodland Mushroom Cultivation and Forest Pathology at Cornell University. And he completed certification courses from Mushroom Mountain LLC and holds a permit to sell wild-foraged mushrooms in PA and NY. His farm, Marley’s Organic Mushrooms and Wild Foods, is located at 100 Mushroom Farm Road near Milford, PA. You can find Marley’s Mushrooms at a half dozen farmers’ markets in the Upper Delaware River Region including Honesdale and Milford, PA, and Narrowsburg, NY.

Allaina Propst was born and raised in the woods outside of Honesdale, PA and spent much of her childhood in her Grandpa’s garden. Although her green thumb never truly developed, she enjoys cooking the overwhelming bounty grown by our wonderful local farmers’ in her home kitchen.

Allaina owns and runs Here & Now Brewing Company on Main Street in Honesdale, and strives to help create a more sustainable local economy the old-fashioned way by sourcing products as locally as possible, reducing waste, and just doing the right thing

Tammy Preble is the owner and operator at Wolfe Springs Farm. Recently moved to Wayne County, Tammy and her husband Matt are U.S. Army veterans. She also manages market garden production plus sales & marketing at Fertile Valley Farm, all while homeschooling their young daughter. Working together the two farms also source a local CSA, providing weekly meat and/or vegetable shares to 40+ subscribers. Tammy focuses on growing unique and beautiful fruits and vegetables in a natural way.

Tannis Kowalchuk started Willow Wisp Organic Farm with Greg Swartz, and she leads cut-flower production, cooks the farm crew lunch, and manages the social media accounts at Willow Wisp. In 2018, Tannis became the founding artistic director of Farm Arts Collective, an agri-“cultural” center based on the farm that provides public programs in theater, agriculture, food, and ecology. Tannis is a professional theater-maker and has created over 25 original productions including work with NACL Theatre and Primus Theatre. She has a weekly radio show, “Ophelia’s Flowers,” on WJFF and sits on the boards of Evergreen Garden in Monticello, NY and the Tusten Heritage Garden in Narrowsburg, NY.

Tannis is a guest in Episode 2: Lettuce and Salad Greens.

Caleb Johnson is the chef and co-owner with wife Alex of Native Food and Drink on Main Street in Honesdale. Alex is a Honesdale native, who met Caleb while both were working in a restaurant in Philadelphia, then brought him home. Caleb’s menus change weekly, featuring local fresh produce and proteins. The restaurant also has a chef’s table (actually a counter) where you watch up close as the chefs prepare dishes in their small, open air kitchen.

Caleb is the featured chef in Episode 6: Radishes and Episode 15: Eggplant.