Whoa, that Whole Foods is crazy. The aisles in there were literally wide enough to fit a Jeep into them, especially the frozen foods aisle. As you can see, we came away with a nice haul. Several bags full of goodies to keep us going along with a box of six wines our fantastic friend Lindsay gave to us. The wine gift basket was from My Wines Direct and yes, they do ship their CA wines to PA!

Picky just happened to have a relatively clear schedule during the promo and went on a few adventures while Messy was toiling away in her office. With his smart phone loaded with music and plugged into the sound system, he rolled through some parts of North Philly in search of graffiti. He found a few good walls, but this was his favorite spot after backing up the Jeep onto the sidewalk and next to an abandoned lot. He couldn't figure out what exactly that loading dock-like structure was for in the background. While tempted to put the Jeep into full 4×4 and storm the lot, he moved on.

Way down in South Philly is FDR Skate Park, one of those spots photographers flock to like a moth to a flame. Every once in awhile, you just gotta drift down there. With the Jeep, Picky was able to hit a lot of spots around town quickly as opposed to the usual combo of foot/bike/SEPTA. It was midday and the place was fairly empty other than a small photo shoot and a handful of kids. The half pipe stands a few yards from the main run. An imposing sight for most. For a little fun, Picky dropped the Freedom Drive II into full-time 4WD and gunned it through the rough dirt lot full of who-knows-how-deep fresh puddles. With 19" of clearance, it has enough to get over most things. You can cruise over the biggest of speed bumps without a hitch.

Before picking up Messy, he stopped off at another South Philly landmark, Frangelli's Bakery at 9th and Ritner Streets. They make delicious yeasty donuts. They're more like a layer of condensed croissants than a Dunkin Donuts cake donut. Fantastic. The donuts were so good that he went back a few days later only to see that they had just shuttered their doors for the rest of the summer. But rest assured, they've reopened their doors as of today, September 8th.

For a special treat, we went up to North 5th Street into Koreatown. A place nearly inaccessible to car-less Center City residents. Sure, you could take a bus up there, but that would take forever. While it's still a trek from Center City in a car, we made it out there and chowed down at Jong Ka Jib, a soft tofu soup specialty house. Highly recommended by everyone who had ever eaten there, we walked in with high expectations and out with extremely full and content bellies.

Over the weekend we took a last-minute trip to the beach with some friends. We buried our feet in the sand, swallowed enough seawater to remember our childhoods all too well and took in some mid-summer sun.

On our way back from the shore, we had to take a pit stop at Weber's for some root beer floats. One of our passengers mistakenly asked for out drinks to go so we didn't get the full drive-in experience, with the frosty mugs in a tray clipped to our windowsill, but such is life. We still enjoyed our floats! (Weber's also sells their awesome, slightly spicy root beer in 1 gallon glass jugs for those who want to enjoy it at home.)

The Jeep was plenty roomy for the two of us and three of our friends. There was enough room for a run to IKEA to get some much needed shelving for Messy's records (now hanging in our living room!). The city gas mileage lingered at around 14mpg which was abysmal. The 2.4L I4 DOHC 16V engine seemed to like the highway much better where the mileage jumped up to the rated 28mpg.

During our test drive, we clocked nearly 800 miles in the pouring rain and the searing heat. The Jeep handled any puddle we threw at it and the dual-climate AC worked like an ox at all times. And finally, a quick clip showing off one of the very cool features of this fully loaded model: remote start!

Here's Tushar and Bill from Philly Food Guys checking out the Chevy Malibu with it's solid aggressively styled two-tiered front grille.

Here's Thad from Philly Phoodie checking out the Malibu with it's two-toned interior. I rode with Thad and Preson in a fully spec'd out Malibu. We used the OnStar system which as a little odd to use without a dedicated map screen. It's turn by turn directions were spoken aloud and written in text on the radio panel. The XM radio was spotty while driving in the pouring rain and fully crapped out in the woods around New Hope. It even started to skip like a CD at one point which was weird. I didn't bring my auxiliary cable for my phone so we had to make do. Our ride also had a USB port complete with a super easily losable tiny rubber cap. We joked about just tossing the cap to save the future owner some heartache of the loss. This midsize car with a full size trunk could probably fit 6 bodies given that GM has cut down on it's use of the donut tire. Instead, they're loading cars with a combo sealer/inflater kit which plugs right into the lighter. Oh, this car also had a standard 120v 3-prong outlet in the back for whatever you want to take with you on a road trip. We were woefully unprepared for this and had nothing.

Thad tried his best to put the Malibu through the test while manually shifting most of the way up to New Hope and by the time we landed at the Logan Inn, I was ready for a refreshing Arnold Palmer. And before long, we had a train of food coming out.

Blooming onion ($10). Oh man, it's been at least 10 years since I saw one of these in the flesh. Their version had a spicy roasted red pepper dipping sauce.

Cavatelli pasta ($17) is a newish to me pasta which I love. My friend Julia (one half of Tatsebuds and Tidbits) has a cavatelli maker and it's really fun to use. Logan's dish had sauteed brocoli, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes with a nice toss of Pecorino. The pasta was right on and I always love juicy sundried tomatoes. Winner.

Jumbo lump crabmeat cocktail ($16) was really jumbo. The fist-sized cakes were full of big hunks of crabmeat which made you angry you ever had those horrid splintering shards of crabmeat in all those other crab cakes you've had.

Baked brie in phyllo with a raspberry preserve ($12) was deliciously gooey. The raspberry preserves offered a nice rich sweetness to cut through the heavy brie.

Michelle Greco from Visit Bucks County gave us the spiel about the area. Thad peppered her with 3rd grade book report style questions throughout the afternoon which she handled like Superman does with bullets (remember that scene when the bullet hits Superman in the eye?!). Louis Licitra, President of the Greater New Hope Chamber of Commerce, welcomed us to his stomping grounds and told us a bit about the continuously running inn (the Logan) in the county. His one-liners through the afternoon had me thinking he left early to make his rounds on the stand up circuit in NYC that evening.

Stop 2 was Marsha Brown (whose website has annoying un-shut-off-able music). The eatery is set in a 150 year old former Methodist Church which Brown, a Ruth's Chris franchisee, gutted and redid. Parts of the old church remained like the massive stained glass windows, the pew seats which were remade into the decorative quilt-like pieces on the walls and that gigantic painting. What is going on there? One guy seems to be riding a horse made of fire while stabbing a lion in the face with a spear. Awesome? Yes.

Chef and GM Caleb Letchner came out to present the dishes and explain a bit of the history of this Creole joint. First up was a chunky lobster and shrimp bisque ($5). It was more chowdery given it's texture, but it was deliciously seafoody.

Crawfish etouffée ($15) was served with a bevy of chopped vegetables on rice. Hearty eats in this simple cajun country dish.

Eggplant Ophelia ($15) was my favorite entree for the afternoon. I said something I almost never say ever: "Can you pass that eggplant dish? I want seconds." toward the end of the meal. A formed pile of shrimp/crabmeat casserole with perfectly grilled eggplant in a Creole butter sauce. Cue saliva. Many times eggplant is rubbery, slimy or overcooked. This was sublime. It had a mysteriously smokiness to it which I couldn't get out of my head.

Lentchner's Jambalaya ($15) was a cut above the rest. Duck confit and andouille sausage to go along with crabmeat and srhimp—this is special. While the confit gets lost in this heavy dish, the spicy andouille shines.

Here's the chef bringing out plate after plate of food. There's more!

Any steakhouse has a standard chopped salad to supply some ruffage for the massive cut of beef you consume. Lentchner's formed chopped salad ($10) is packed with lettuce, asparagus, broccoli, egg, artichokes, bacon bits, crumbled bleu cheese, crisp onions, croutons and Kalamata olives. There was so much texture going on in the salad. The crunch of the salad was a nice change of pace from the softer dishes offered, but it was just as heavy as the rest!

Mamere's crab cheesecake ($15) seemed to be the favorite of the entire table. While it's also listed on the entree menu, I think it's something of a combo appetizer/entree/savory dessert; I guess many savory tarts can fall into that all-encompassing category. Filled with jumbo lump crabmeat and smoked gouda with green onion coulis and remoulade sauce, it was incredibly rich (duh). Each side of the table fought a mental battle to space out bites to finish off the slices.

The baby spinach, fig and bleu cheese tossed in a fig vinaigrette atop prosciutto di Parma ($13) makes for one of my absolutely favorite salads. The prosciutto was a little thickly cut for my liking, but it made the salt kick that much harder.

The chef looking over Pati and Tushar.

A little bit of everything on my plate.

A look at the exterior of the former church.

The final stop on our food crawl: The Blue Tortilla [un]fortunately, we were all completely stuffed. We sampled some of their starters, but everyone agreed that their tastebuds were just about spent.

Fresh guacamole came out and it's loaded with dairy (Chipilo Cream and Cotija Cheese). I'm just not a fan of that style of guac. Their homemade tortillas, however, were fantastic!

A heap of vegetarian nachos with beans hidden at around layer three.

A mix of cheese, chorizo and chicken quesadillas with some rice and beans.

After stuffing our faces some more, we squeezed into our caravan and took off for Philly. We had a great time talking over our New Hope feastival and traded tips on favorite spots back in Philly. It's always great to meet new people and eat with old friends. New Hope is a great spot to do both.

Here's everyone else's take from the afternoon:

• Driving the Northeast from GM
• Philly Foodie
• Apartment 2024
• Philly Food Guys

As Brendle opened up the door to the shack, out wafted that fry-o-lator smell. A friend of ours has a biodiesel car in LA and we rode in it when we visited 3 summers ago. This smelled like that, but more so. It's not an offensive smell, just a smell that means, oil is up in here. Have you ever been to a big deep fry party? Well, we have, a few times, and the smell in the deep fry party is more overwhelming than this shack which was powering the entire farm.

We walked with Glenn to his greenhouses where he can grow his produce year round. Above is a champagne grape vine – gorgeous eh? He also has tons of concord grapes on the property which are super sweet.

So into the greenhouses. There were all kinds of goodies all around. He and his crew grow all kinds of micro greens, herbs, tomatoes… Above is a shot of Glenn and one of the Farmstand's awesome volunteers, Jamie, strolling through one of the greenhouses.

And a 12' banana tree! That's half of a banana leaf on the right there. The banana tree hasn't produced any fruit yet, but it's there, growing and getting huge!

Just outside the door from the banana tree were more goodies. Citrus plants. Lemons, blood oranges, kaffir limes. These were grown just outside of the greenhouses warmed by the residual heat and protected from the wind. On another part of the property, Brendle has a bunch of paw paw trees growing.

We ventured into the original greenhouse which Brendle made from lots of found materials. He mentioned lots of found railroad ties and iron piping for the hoops. That incredible stretch of rosemary in the photo above was awesome. It was about 7' X 30' and it smelled decadent.

This passion fruit blossom caught the eye of everyone who went into the hot house. It was quite dazzling to see up close. Layer upon layer of stuff going on in every which direction you could see.

The entire farm was so idyllic it was almost sickening. I was walking with my co-worker Emily, complaining about gorgeous every square inch of the entire plot was and we passed by this scene. A group of steps overgrown with grass, flanked by lush greenery.

We walked down the road a bit to get to one of the several acres of garden. Above is a row of corn which was just starting to come up.

Here's Glenn talking to one of my co-workers, Jennie, about the crops on this little plot.

Here's the gang of tour goers crossing a little creek back to the farm house. Three Black Angus steer followed us back through the field. They were a bit camera shy.

Back inside the Brendle house we came across the most awesome range we've ever seen. An antique range, that the Brendles found on the side of the road, and brought home and restored to beautiful working condition. It's a Clark Jewel Lorain Oven Heat Regulator and it's in perfect working condition. Glen fixed it all up.

And here's my co-worker Nate with a new friend which I found and promptly stuck on his shirt.

Our caravan of cars pulled into the driveway and we were greeted by a gaggle of geese enjoying the shade of a tree on this super hot day. The tour was smack in the middle of Philly's record breaking run of 80°+ days; this day was well over 90°.

A few steps onto the property and we spotted a barn where farmhands were gathering up the sheep. Sheep are an odd looking bunch if you look at them for a bit. The rest of the sheep were out on pasture, but these were in the barn, but we're not sure why.

Above are Philip and Dee Horst-Landis showing us our way to our chariots. You'll notice that Philip is using arm braces, yep, he's a paraplegic, who runs a farm with cattle, sheep and poultry. So, back to the chariots. You can see in the photo above a tractor and a big quad with trailers hitched to them. We got a hayride tour! Oh yeah.

Our first stop was to see the sheep out on pasture. We got off the tractor and Philip lead us to the electrified fence which kept the sheep in a big pasture. The sheep were moved around so that the land was grazed evenly. I forget the exact cycle, but cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens all go through the fields.

Here's Philip pointing to one of the sheep out in the field telling us how many times each animal can go through the field. He said that with their husbandry practices, they're able to pick out the sheep which get sick earlier than on a conventional farm. Their loss rate (sheep are prone to parasites) is remarkably low compared to industry averages.

He went out to the artificial shade constructed for the sheep to give them a quick check. Philip told us that the sheep needed a structure like this because they only eat during the day. If it's too hot outside, they wouldn't be able to eat as much given the heat. So, they can rest under the shade, get a drink of water, and graze. Cattle, on the other hand, don't mind eating at night.

Here's a shot of some of my co-workers, friends and loved ones in the back of Philip's tractor. It was a nice ride throughout. I think it was my first hayride in decades.

Our next stop was to the broiler chickens. Chickens are raised in two categories on a farm: layers and broilers. The layers have been bred for the quantity of eggs they produce. Broilers have been bred to get bigger. These broilers aren't looking too happy, but it's not from a lack of care – it's just over 90° outside. They're kept in movable tent structures so they can graze on fresh grass each day. Chickens are naturally supposed to be out on pasture, eating grass and grubs. Eating what they're supposed to be eating leads to those awesomely golden, orangey colored yolks, not the wan, pallid light yellow yolks you get from cooped up chickens. We didn't have a chance to make it over to where the layers were kept as we were running out of time.

We hopped back into the trailers and over to the pig pens. Meadow Run raises Berkshire hogs. Pink, brown, black, spotted… all different kinds were scattered through 6 or so pens to keep them out of the oppressive heat.

Little piglets were kept separate from the bigger bodies. They seemed content with that.

Here's Dee hosing off the hogs. Pigs don't have sweat glands and that's why they're often covered or are wallowing in mud – it keeps them cool!

And here's my favorite shot of this visit. That pig is grinning ear to ear from the shower of cool water it's getting.

Here's a farming tidbit you won't learn everywhere. Most conventional farms dock the tails (cut them off) of pigs to prevent them from biting each other. Well, pigs are a pretty hierarchical group and nipping is part of what they do. It's when they get all nasty and sick from being pumped with needless hormones when they get nasty with pus-seeping wounds from their tails.

We took one turn by another barn full of sheep before heading back to the front of the farm where we regrouped and went off to our next stop.

We cooled off by going into their farmstore which was immaculate – and on the honor system. This little box contained some cash and checks written to Marcus Horst, Dee's father. You could pick up what you needed, write down what you took (so they could do inventory easier) and head out!

Five clear top chest freezers full of poultry, beef and lamb/mutton. The yellow fridge in the back was full of their prized eggs. They raise a few different kinds of layers, but the most prized eggs are those from the araucana which lays gorgeous blue-green eggs.

The farmstand carries a bunch of Meadow Run products including broiler chickens, stewing hens (what you need for coq au vin), chicken wings, beef cubes, beef stir fry strips, lamb cubes, lamb rib/loin chops, lamb stew meat, lamb sholuders/legs, lamb and chicken offal, lard, ham hocks and three types of delicious sausage: merguez, chorizo and plain. And then there are the eggs which come in a gorgeous brown or those rich green-blue ones.

A short video about Meadow Run's operations from Whole Foods blog (Meadow Run wholesales to WF) shot last year:

Jay, pictured above with the awesome 'stache, was sure to tell us a about how much he cares for the animals as they come onto his property. How they are treated as to undergo as little stress as possible by being transferred at night. How they strive to keep everything as clean as can be. Neither of us had been to a slaughterhouse before, but the comforting words by Jay helped put us at ease. I'll also add that there was no foul odor that one might associate with lots of freshly killed things might conjure. Smelled like farmland.

No use beating around the bush. Above is a shot of a side of beef (half a beef for the pros out there) which was rolled out from the gigantic refrigerator unit separating the "kill floor" from the "processing floor". The fridge was, if I recall correctly, kept at 27°F. Why so cold? The freezing temperature of beef (28°F) is lower than that of water (32°F). I don't recall the exact weight of the side of beef, but I think it was over 500lbs.

Here's a shot of Jay checking on things in another room down the hall from the kill floor with rows of ready to use hooks on the left.

The day we went to Smucker's wasn't a kill day, that had happened a day or two beforehand. Standing on the kill floor wasn't odd. It was so clean. Tools lined up against the walls, floor and walls scrubbed clean, nothing out of place. Toward the end where the killing happened were 3 32 gallon buckets full of beef scraps. These were to be picked up by a dog food company which would, in turn, make some high quality dog food. Nothing was going to waste here.

On to the processing floor. Two lines of workers surrounded what was essentially a gigantic cutting board. They wore chain mail gloves on their non-cutting hands so no digits went missing (and probably also for a better grip on the cold meat). Different stations processed different cuts. One person was cutting front end steaks, one person on ribs, one person on back end steaks… The cuts were weighed out and placed in sorting bins before final processing and packaging.

The craziest part of the tour for me was the use of a chainsaw to cut the sides of beef. The guy pictured above was really making quick work of it all. He'd halve the sides and haul the pieces to the table for sorting. He was a big dude and I certainly could not have done his job.

Smucker's is a busy facility. Slaughter orders are booked 2 months ahead of time as they're an in-demand shop. They do huge orders of 100+ and orders of a handful. They work with their customers to make sure they're getting what they want. They really care about their product and they take pride in their work. Fair Food sells beef (steaks, ground beef, jerky and beef sticks [think really tasty SlimJim]) from Landisdale Farm which uses Smucker's as their slaughterhouse.

It should be noted that Messy, who grew up not really eating meat, found the visit highly educational and not gross.

So parts two and three will be up soon and we hope to visit more farms, dairies, bakeries and other local food producers in the future.

Since that date, we've found a reason to go back to Weber's three more times.

Honestly, the food at Weber's is not that good. There aren't many choices, but that's kind of refreshing: just standard fare like hamburgers, hotdogs, pork rolls and (yay for the vegetarians!) grilled cheese. The fries are quite tasty. All of the food is super cheap. [If you click on the image above, a new window will appear with a zoomable version of the image above. You'll be able to see the variety and prices of the menu current for Summer 2008.]

Where Weber's shines is in service and dessert. Their homemade root beer is phenomenal (it has an almost spicy kick to it) and the floats are not to be missed. The delicious milkshakes are thick enough to eat with a spoon. Food is served by quick, smiling, carhops, who attach a tray to your car window (as seen above). Root beer (which is also available by the gallon in a cool reusable glass bottle) is served in frosted mugs. The whole novelty experience more than makes up for the mediocre food. Is there a better way to spend a hot summer day than sipping root beer floats out of frosty mugs, with your feet on the dashboard and oldies on the radio, on the side of the road in Jersey? We don't think so.

Messy ****
Picky ****

The final word: You can skip the food, but don't miss the root beer floats!

Weber's Famous Root Beer Drive In
Route 38 at King Ave
Pennsauken, NJ 08109
856.662.6632
Seasonal (Spring-Summer) 11am – about 9pm