i'm not in PA, but some thoughts come to mind. i do quite a fair bit of plotting on my place.
1) Is the area to be planted heavily weeded/overgrown? i ask because smaller seeds such as clover/chicory do well in well prepped seed beds, but have a more difficult time taking hold & getting established in a densely packed soil that has not been disced/worked. heavily thatched grass is a pain to work...and burning is not always an option in the late summer due to risks. i burn every spring, mostly to remove thatch and woody brush from areas that will become new plots the following fall. I try to burn on a 3 year rotation, by torching about 1/3 of my place each spring (usually burn in late feb, weather permitting)
2) How is the area for other green crops? the Corn & Fruit you mentioned are great deer magnets, but most times i have planted a palatable crop in a new area they move in quickly, and if you have the only green plot for miles in an area with a lot of deer, it'll come up and then be wiped out in days.
3) Rye, wheat, or a mix produce a lot of tonnage, and unlike brassicas that have stopped production after freezing, we get some regrowth during warm days in the winter on the cereal grains. If you are a late season bowhunter, or if you are trying to hold deer in your area for more months, that may be of help.
4) i have had best luck with mixes in my plots....in some years when the weather went to hell, excessively wet/dry soil can affect crops, and having a variety of seed started may mean some of you plantings will tolerate the extremes better than others.
not trying to imply brassicas wont work, because my deer eat the hell outa them...just takes some extra steps. I always mix in a few pounds of purple tops and assorted brassicas in my plot mixes.
when i first started plotting my place, i rented a field and brush mower, buddy & i cleared an acre in a few hours. we scalped it low, and i found a cheap disc harrow on craigslist & drug it behind my huntin truck.
dedicated Clover plots do need some care & maintenance too; such as mowing & an occasional treatment to prevent grass invasion. Since I am lazy and don�t get out in the summer much to mow & maintain my plots as often as I should, I often seed cheaper annual clovers rather than work to keep perennial plots nice for years.
If you have a Co-op or seed store in your area you can get all your seed a good bit cheaper as opposed to paying for brand name seeds, especially if you decide you like plotting & it works for you. on small plots wont be much cost savings, but if you like doing it & start plotting more, will add up.
As an afterthought, we have had great luck in turning some of our less traveled roads/trails that wind through the timber into green highways; we put stands along them in areas where deer trails intersect & have had heavy deer usage on those plots where some of the more shy deer that avoid large open plots in daylight felt comfortable on those trails.
To avoid having to work the soil multiple times, I�ll mow my plots down in the fall, disc, and sow my seed mix. The deer enjoy them all winter, and some February or thereabouts I�ll walk around and hand broadcast clover seed, (no disc/plow) along with a bit of Rye�the Rye acts as a cover crop, helps prevent weed intrusion, and fixes Nitrogen in the soil.
As Spring comes along, it all greens up, looks nice, the Turkeys like it, & deer get a second round of high protein food at fawning time. By may/june or so the rye is done with, I mow a second time, and the clover which has been sheltered by the rye pops nicely, so I get food plots that provide nutrition most of a year by mowing twice & discing once.
I went out to harass the turkeys 2 days ago, and I drove around taking pix of some various plots; here are a few pix as of last Sunday showing various stages of greenup as the rye/clover mixes are looking pretty nice:
the Green Mile....one of the roads we seeded, where it runs into a food plot.
One of our bigger clearings....i put a plot at each end with a ladder, and stuck another ladder halfway in between. 2 pix, first one as it looked last Sunday, the other a couple years ago when we did our last controlled burn on that piece: