Dairy

FEW FOOD writers have done more to make vegans both cheer and grumble than Mark Bittman. Certainly, the guy knows food, particularly the plant-based kind. He's a columnist for the New York Times Dining section and the lead food writer for the Sunday magazine. He writes for the Times opinion page and blogs, too. He also wrote the best-seller How to Cook Everything . Leafy greens are a trendy topic now, but Bittman wrote the book on 'em back in 1995 (see Page 25). He's done a vegetarian cookbook and has examined some of the problems associated with overconsumption of meat.

When Jon Dorfman was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at 9, his parents weren't thinking about their son's future. They were just trying to get through the next tantrum. It was 1998. Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, had been listed as a mental illness for only four years. Even as a child - Dorfman could read multisyllabic medical terms at 4, but had violent meltdowns in shopping malls - he knew the diagnosis was not good news.

Perhaps you're one of the 5,000 people who volunteered to clean up Germantown Avenue on Sunday as part of the Presidents' Summit for America's Future - and you're wondering what else you might be able to squeeze in between collecting trash, scrubbing graffiti and sweeping dirt. (Then again, maybe you're not a volunteer and your intention is to stay as far away from Germantown Avenue as possible until the dust settles and everybody goes back home.) You should know, if you don't already, that the Avenue is lined with scores of stores, shops and eateries that are as varied as the neighborhoods it runs through.

Pennsylvania divides a few ways: Phillies vs. Pirates. Democratic ex-factory towns vs. Republican ex-farming townships. Nittany Lions fans vs. everyone else. And Wawa vs. Sheetz - though that might be the least bitter rivalry: The state's two big gas-and-milk, Cokes-and-smokes, Tastykakes-and-store-built sandwich chains try not to fight. They're not like Ford vs. GM. Instead, they have mostly drawn lines and split the land between them. Like Comcast and TimeWarner Cable. Which you prefer depends on where you were raised: Wawa is Philly and the Shore from Jersey to Virginia Beach.

Acme Markets intends to build a 1.4-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution complex near Reading, worrying leaders of the union that represents the company's warehouse workers in Philadelphia. Acme, operated by American Stores Inc., has two warehouses in Philadelphia that together employ about 750 in about 1.1 million square feet, according to Jim Brennan, president of the warehouse workers' union, Teamsters Local 169. The local, fearing that Acme plans to move those operations out of the city, will hold an informational meeting this morning at its headquarters.

Location, location, location - it's important in the grocery business, too, with colorful produce drawing customers in and dairy items pulling them to the back of the store. But the trip through the supermarket can be long and winding, and customers skip aisles because they think they don't need toothpaste or cereal. New research, using the latest technology, finds that the proper use of mobile coupons could significantly pump up unplanned grocery spending, getting shoppers to buy beyond their lists.

Abbotts, Harbisons, and Lehigh Valley are dairy names as synonymous with the Philadelphia area as Tastykake and Campbell Soup. But the fact is, all those milk brands come from the dairies of one company: Johanna Farms of Flemington, N.J. Johanna Farms has been steadily expanding its milk business, and in February bought its chief competitor, Atlantic Processing Inc. (API), an Allentown dairy that sells the Lehigh Valley brand of milk. In a deal estimated at $17 million, Johanna Farms bought all the milk plants run by API and took over all its business accounts.

Jeffrey Roberts, author of "The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese," will lead a tasting of cheese and beer from 6-8 tonight at DiBruno Bros., 1730 Chestnut St., Center City. $45, 215-665-9220, ext. 237. At 6:30 tomorrow night, Roberts will compare American and British cheddars at the Tria Fermentation School, 1601 Walnut St., Center City. $50, 215-972-7076. At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, he'll appear at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market, 12th and Arch streets. And at 7 p.m. Oct. 29, he'll do a book signing at the White Dog Cafe, 3420 Sansom St. Down at the farm Hendricks Farms cheese is available at a handful of area restaurants and at the Headhouse Square market in Center City.

Earlier this month, police in Chester County arrested three white men with alleged ties to the Revolutionary Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The trio is accused of placing a burning cross on May 29 in front of a Honey Brook duplex that was home to two minority families. Residents expressed outrage and shock over such an activity in a predominantly affluent area such as Chester County. But state law enforcement authorities and others who track hate crimes say suburbs and rural areas throughout Pennsylvania have become breeding grounds for hate groups in the last three years.

Over the last 15 years, restaurants and chefs have gotten most of the credit for the blossoming of Philadelphia's vibrant food scene. But for local home cooks, no single institution has had a greater impact on boosting the quality of the city's ingredients - and in particular, its cheese boards - than Di Bruno Bros. The Di Bruno's at 930 S. 9th St. has been a jam-packed, 900-square-foot nook of cheese-and-salami bliss since 1939, a gem of South Philly authenticity that remains one of the priceless beating hearts of the Italian Market.