Cooking With Ted, The Vegetable Expert
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
MOUNT JOY (Lancaster Co.)
If you’d like to prepare nutri
tious vegetables that your family
and friends devour, Ted Shenk is
the person to see.
This Mount Joy produce farmer
offers “Cooking With Ted” pro
grams that you will love.
For more than 50 years, Ted and
his wife, Doris, have operated
Donegal Gardens, a produce stand
at Root’s Country Market, Man
heim, and at Central Markets,
Lancaster.
Ted said, “I like to promote veg
etables and show people how good
they taste.”
Kids don’t turn up their noses at
vegetables if Ted cooks them. This
father of four and grandfather of
six, has always loved to cook.
Since his seasonal business is slow
during the months of January
through March, Ted wanted some
thing different to do with his time.
When his wife’s Farm Women
Society asked him to demonstrate
stir frying, Ted was hooked on
food demonstrating. Since then,
this affable, jolly couple have been
busy traveling to many organiza
tions to show others how good and
attractive vegetables can taste and
look.
“Stir fry is great served over rice
and it’s something different from
the usual meat and potatoes,” Ted
said. “I’m not trying to compete
with Chinese stir fry. 1 use fresh
vegetables found in Lancaster
County and sold at my stand year
around.”
Ted’s programs are not limited
to stir frying. So far, he has four
programs to choose from:
• Introducing Fresh Veget
ables Thru Stir-Fry
• Introducing the Four Popu
lar Squashes (acom, spaghetti,
zucchini, and butternut)
• Ten Hors D’Oeuvres and
Appetizers Made From Fruit and
Vegetables
• Filling (stuffing) leam
Ted’s special recipe.
Ted is proud that his program is
different than the usual organiza
tional meetings, but he is especial
ly pleased that his program gives
vegetables a positive plug.
“Seeing is doing,” Ted said.
And that’s what many of his guests
Ted Shenk loves to cook —especially vegetables that he
grows and markets at Roots Country Market and Central
Market, Lancaster.
do after tasting Ted’s specialties.
Ted tries to keep his recipes easy
to make. Most of his ideas were
gathered from fabulous buffets
that appear on the cruises that he
and his wife often escort
For stir frying, Ted generally
uses.chicken breasts, but pork,
beef, and other lean cuts are some
times incorporated.
Ted is the sixth generation of
produce farmers in his family.
Since Ted took over the operation
in the 19S0s, consumers’ demands
have changed from peas and pota
toes to favorites such as broccoli,
squash, and tomatoes.
“We used to grow 75 varieties of
vegetables,” Ted said. The Shenks
now buy some of the produce from
other farmers.
The Shenks use their acreage to
its maximum by concentrating on
double and triple cropping. They
start and finish each season with
spinach planting, plant sugar peas
in the spring and again in August,
and expand their broccoli crop by
cutting out the center head of broc
coli so that side shoots develop and
can be picked about 10 days later.
“It takes a lot of picking,” Ted
said. The parents and the four
children worked at the business
together as the children were
growing up. Now, the Shenks hire
school kids for much of the sum
mer harvesting. Some of their
grandchildren are now old enough
to help.
The Shenks, like many produce
growers, find the labor end of pro
duce growing is expensive. Ted
said, “California produce growers
use machines and migrant workers
for harvesting. In the East, we need
to pay higher wages.”
Ted said with three working
together, they can cut a bushel of
spinach every five minutes.
To control weeds, the Shenks
mulch with dried sweet com
stalks.
Leaf lettuce, is grown in hot
beds, spring onions are wintered
over, and radishes, sugar peas, hull
peas, and strawberries are
harvested in the spring.
Doris grows dill, flowers, mea
dow tea, mints, sunflowers,
gourds, and parsley. They continue
to grow purple cabbage, endive,
and brussel sprouts.
The Shenks do not limit their
love for growing things to pro
Ted and Doris Shenk show off the spinach that they grow with other produce on 10
acres of beautifully landscaped hilly terrain. In their love for growing things, the
Shenks have designed gardens of beauty along the Donegal Creek In Mount Joy.
Samples of Ted’s specialties are sure to convince tasters that vegetables are not
only nutritious but delicious.
duce. They built their own home
near a creek, and have landscaped
the hilly terrain with hundreds of
colorful shrubs, trees, and plants
for year-around beauty. They also
raise Christmas trees and red leaf
maples to sell.
Write Ted and Doris Shenk at
1461 Marielta-MtJoy Pike, Mt.
Joy, PA 17552 or call (717)
653-5204.
Here are a few of Ted’s recipes
for vegetables and fruit.
RED BLISS POTATOES
Red-skinned potatoes, diced,
unpeeled
Pan boil, drain, and roll the pota
toes in melted margarine. Shake
with Mrs. Dash’s Salt-Free Sea
soning. Stir. Sprinkle with grated
Parmesan cheese.
BROILED GRAPEFRUIT
Section grapefruit, but let it
remain in shell
Brush with margarine. Sprinkle
with sugar and cinnamon. Broil
until it bubbles on top. Garnish
with a cherry or strawberry in cen
ter of grapefruit.
EXTRA-SPECIAL SPINACH
DIP
In medium bowl, blend:
1 envelope Lipton vegetable
recipe soup mix
16-ounces sour cream
14 cup mayonnaise
'A teaspoon lemon juice
Stir in:
6 ounces fresh spinach, steamed
and chopped
3 whole spring onions, chopped
Chill. Makes 3 cups dip. Good
with fresh vegetables and crackers.
\ Vegetables are
good-take one
to lunch.
TIPS FOR STIR FRY
Use peanut oil. Slice boneless,
skinless chicken breast while still
slightly frozen. Prepare fresh veg
etables by cutting in toothpick
shapes.
Stir and steam vegetables in 'A cup
chicken broth in the following
order:
Spring onions
Suing beans
Carrots
Broccoli, chopped
Cauliflower
Zucchini
Sugar peas
Snow peas
Mushrooms
Season with Soy sauce, herb
mix, and Mrs. Dash’s seasoning.