A return visit

If you have read through my posts you may remember a group of "Red Hats" - they were here months ago. Yesterday one of those ladies drove to Kennett Square, PA just to get some of our fresh mushrooms! She remembered how fresh and delicious they were.
She was a happy camper especially getting her free lb. of button mushrooms!

A young student from the Radnor School District chose Kennett Square, PA for a school project. She and her mother came to The Mushroom Cap yesterday, leaving with an education about mushrooms, how they grow, how nutritious they are and how many are grown and shipped from our part of the world. We make sure that PA residents and others know that mushrooms are Pennsylvania's No.1 Commodity and how the industry is important to Pennsylvania's economy.
Mom and daughter will surely be back for a return visit to Kennett Square.

Harrington's Coffee Company

We have added Harrington's Coffee to our list of Kennett Square items available for purchase at The Mushroom Cap. One pound packages of #45 (decaf available too) is a nice addition to our KSQ gift baskets. You can not only purchase this coffee by the pound you can come in and have a complimentary cup (gratuity appreciated) any day of the week!

Harrington's Coffee Company, est. 1995, provided a great gathering place on State Street then on Broad Street in KSQ for business meetings, friendly chats, internet accessability, a visit with Santa and more for 13 years. Eveyone can remember the cozy, comfy atmosphere in the room with the fireplace. Amazing what a long ago car dealership can become. "Mushroom Capital of the World" on our water tower became reality in 2007 because of several early morning meetings with Al Willard, Dennis Melton and myself at Harrington's! We watched the Augustine family grow at the "big" table building memories for all. How about the time we did a short film clip about Kennett Square to submit to the "View"? Many locals sat front and center at Harrington's to watch the Franklin Center construction across the street. These are just a few of my memories - so many more for others who frequented Harrington's more often than I. Most can remember artist, Rea Redifer as part of the storescape in good weather. Rea, we miss you, Mrs. Harrington (Carla Willard), we miss you too but happy you are sill providing us with your coffee!

Some Kennett Square residents who frequented Harrington's often will be moving to NC soon. They will take with them memories and gifts from KSQ including a pound of Harrington's coffee, compliments of their friends and neighbors. When they get settled in and sit down to their cup of #45 they will surely remember the good times had in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Mushroom Capital of the World.

Hope to see you all soon!

and more...

The Mushroom Cap and The Growing Tree are two businesses within the same building at 114 W State Street in Kennett Square. The Mushroom Cap features Fresh Mushrooms, Gifts, Collectibles and a Mushroom Exhibit featuring the original Phillips Mushroom Museum pieces. The fresh mushrooms are in a cooler in the back room - please come in - we really do have fresh mushrooms - we also have great mushroom food products. We have Kennett Square dried shiitake, oyster and maitake mushrooms. We have a variety of mushroom powders that are prepared in house! We have Kennett Square Potpourri (what is that?) - a souvenir like no other! Cookbooks, jewelry, aprons, postcards, mugs, etc. Be sure to ask for your free pound of button mushrooms when you spend $10.

Tomorrow I will ship the April Mushroom of the Month Club feature - 2 lbs. of fresh maitake to four recipients. One to PA, one to DC and two to NY. Also shipping a 3 lb. box of large white mushrooms for stuffing to someone in Charlotsville, VA.

The Growing Tree features women's (street level) and children's (lower level) consignment clothing. We've just added the women's clothing and accessories two weeks ago. Inventory includes Vera Bradley, Coach, Liz, Ann Taylor Loft, Chicos, Dress Barn just to name a few. Several items have arrived New With Tags! See the red dress on the manequin? It sold yesterday - Ralph Lauren!

Hope to see you soon!

Easy marinated button mushrooms

Have you ever tried Garlic Expressions Salad Dressing on mushrooms?
Cloves of garlic await you. Cut the stems of several pounds of button mushrooms to make them perfect little buttons. Blanch (not sure how to do this? - search "how to blanch vegetables) them for about 1 minute - drain - place mushrooms in glass bowl - pour the whole bottle of Garlic Expressions over the mushrooms. Refrigerate. Quick and delicious way to serve white button mushrooms that are soooooo good for us! Vitamin D - white mushrooms and breast cancer, white mushrooms and prostate cancer - do your research. Mushrooms are the only plant life that have Vitamin D.

Too long to wait at Longwood Gardens

Had lots of visitors to The Mushroom Cap this weekend - From Columbia, MD, Baltimore, MD, Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, York, PA, Media, PA and beyond.
Found it interesting that two people stopped by after having a bite to eat at one of Kennett Square's fine restaurants. They came to KSQ to eat! The Terrace Restaurant at Longwood Gardens had a 1 1/2 hour wait today. Does everyone know that downtown KSQ is only 2 miles from Longwood Gardens? Why wait to eat?
Too hot too soon? Not for those who wanted to grill marinated portabellas - had two guys come to town on motorcycles - stopped in for ports yesterday - were taking them back to Philadelphia for their dinner. This just reminded me of the four young people who came to The Mushroom Cap a few years ago. They arrived at Toughkenamon airport and hitched a ride to The Mushroom Cap to buy mushrooms to take back to Washington, DC for their dinner. How adventurous is that?

Morels arrived today

Morels are available - not let's see who is reading my blog! These are the best morels that I have ever had at The Mushroom Cap. Have you seen this t-shirt? Gotta love it!

More visitors from England today!

I am going to start taking pictures of our visitors - hopefully they will let me share them with you. Three young ladies from England visited The Mushroom Cap today and were in awe of being in a room filled with mushrooms! They will be in the area for 10 days - going to NYC for a few days - lucky them! They bought KSQ post cards to send back home.

At the end of the day someone came in to buy my fresh mushroom salad! She couldn't resist telling me about her niece going to Paris, France for a convention having to do with tourism where she was receiving an award. What she thought would be interesting to me was that on the menu at the dinner was a course serving: "world known Kennett Square, PA mushrooms". The niece couldn't resist telling her aunt! Gotta love it Kennett Square! We are on the map!