A Visit To The Sewickley Farmers' Market !

 

Shoppers At The Sewickley Farmers' Market

Once again, you can't miss the signs directing you to the Sewickley Farmers' Market!  It was a brilliant sunny & warm Saturday & LFLF was out and about o this side of the Ohio River.

Sewickley Farmers' Market - Follow The Signs --->





Dillner Family Farm Customers

Peas, Strawberries, & Eggs From Dillner Family Farm

Green Onions, Beets, & Rhubarb At Dillner Family Farm

Today we stuck with photos of the farmer vendors ... leading off with Dillner Family Farm  and  Clarion River Organics . 
There are also plenty of food & specialty vendors to choose from here.  You can certainly take home something ready to eat or pick up unique gift items!

Clarion River Organics - A Great Selection of Greens!

McElhaney Family Farm - Customers Making Their Beef Selections

Cherry Valley Organics - Yes, We Have Lemon Grass!

Cherry Valley Organics - Soaps & Lip Products

Cherry Valley Organics had a very nice selection of personal care products in addition to the herb & veggies plants offered today with more organic produce as the season progresses ...
Speaking of the season progressing, the folks from Brown's Pure Maple Products said that they had a late start to the season this year.  Normally finishing around the 1st of April, they went a week longer with their maple taps up in Venango County ... everyone seems to be a week or two behind this spring.

Buying Maple Syrup From Brown's

Here's a close-up of the maple syrup products ... too many to fit in one picture!

Half of The Selection at Brown's Pure Maple Products ...

The Other Half of Brown's Pure Maple Products!

 

Rain or Shine!

It didn't look good for the Ambridge Farmers' Market this afternoon. Just before I left work, it was pouring in the parking lot ..... not to worry though. By the time I made it to the market, things had cleared up. True farmers' market afficionados come out rain or shine, and of course the vendors are there unless it's a total wipe-out or it's dangerous. Bedding plants, herbs, veggie plants, and hanging baskets were popular today as these Enon Country Gardens customers can attest! Expect to hear more about them as they work with the Farmers Market Nutrition Program to provide nutrition education materials, educational materials about PA farm products, & outreach to FMNP participants to increase involvement in the food assistance program.


What else was at the market today? Lettuce and green onions. How about garlic scapes from Dave? They have an extremely short season. Or strawberries from 2 vendors. Pat the baker even had shortcake (!) for sale ..... saved me from having to haul out the Bisquick & whip up shortcakes when I got home! The strawberries and edible pod snow peas were going fast. After all was said and done, the sun even came out. There had to be a rainbow somewhere ......

Strawberries & Heirlooms

Here are the first strawberries of the season in this "neighborhood". Found these on Friday at Randy's Raisings in Calcutta, Ohio. Needless to say, our 2 quarts are GONE now!
Also, outside of the greenhouse at Randy's Raisings was a wagon load of tomato transplants. Not just any tomatoes, mind you, but a large selection of heirloom varieties. Having already planted 4 varieties of heirlooms, I opted for 6 Super Marzano paste tomatoes and a 6 pack of the heirloom "Nebraska Wedding". I'm giving away 3 of them to a restaurant owner --- maybe they'll show up in a "local salad" this summer. If you still need some heirlooms, I'd say to stop in at Randy's for a selection in 6 packs. Zoom in on the pictures below for variety names ..... also seen ...... Amish Paste, Azoychka, Black Prince, Brandywine, Prudens Purple, Cherokee Purple, + many that I can't remember. Also saw a few packs of purple tomatillos. Plus tons of standard tomatoes. Lots of peppers, but I didn't study those.

Local Food Goes On a Roadtrip!

Everyone seems to define "local food" in a different way ...... home town, home county, home state, 100 mile radius, etc. Well, this weekend, local food went on the road and made stops on the way to Virginia and in the Prince William County Virginia area.

The weekend started with a stop at the Somerset County Farmers' Market just off of the Somerset Pennsylvania Turnpike exit behind Georgian Place. http://www.somersetcountyfarmersmarket.com/ As usual, it's always windy & cooler in Somerset!

We started with some colorful good looking produce. One of the unique items of the season are locally grown strawberries! Grandma's Produce had customers lining up for their strawberries. Grower Joel has figured out a way to produce local strawberries in late summer/early fall. What a treat at this time of year. For the technically inclined out there, here's a link to a report on how this is being done by some growers in the Somerset County, PA & Garrett County, MD area. http://www.sare.org/reporting/report_viewer.asp?pn=ONE06-060&ry=2007&rf=1

For most of us, it's just good eating .......

We also picked up some maple products and Shiitake mushrooms at the market. The mushrooms and tomato chunks drizzled with Italian dressing grilled up great for dinner on Sunday. They were a side-dish to local Angus beef steaks that we'll talk about later this week.

That's it for now ...... more on heirloom tomatoes and other products on the next post!