Published Monday, October 10, 2011
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It’s almost noon when savvy Pittsburghers make their way to Market Square on Thursdays for the weekly Farmers’ Market.
Vendors feature prepared foods and fresh produce, and the Square fills with businessmen and women looking to grab a fresh bite to eat.
“I like to get out at lunchtime, for one thing, and just see what they have and see if I want to get anything new,” said Lois Thompson of the North Side.
While farmers’ markets are considered by many to be summertime events, vendors still have a fresh selection of goods to offer in the fall months, many through mid- to late-November, if only differing slightly from the traditional fruits and vegetables.
“It’s the same customers that we’ve had throughout the summer, but now their eating habits are changing because of produce availability,” Larry King from Harper’s Valley Farm said on a gloomy Thursday afternoon in September. “As it gets colder, the warm-weather vegetables just don’t grow anymore.”
And with the changing season comes new produce and new methods of upkeep. Sandhill Berries, a fruit farm located in Mount Pleasant, has the most variety of berries in the summer, but also offers unique flavors for the fall season, which, according to Sandhill vendor Rob Shelley, are even better. In the later months, the stand offers more than 200 varieties of apples, fall raspberries, gooseberries and more.
Larry King from Harvest Valley Farm in southern Butler, said the farm recently swapped out its peaches, concord grapes and beans for winter vegetables, such as a variety of colorful squashes, cabbage, greens such as collard and cale, leaks, red beets and potatoes. At Thursday’s market, wooden crates filled with bright orange and green squashes, such as hubbard, spaghetti, acorn, butternut, carnival, sweet potato, delicata and sweet dumpling, were a prime example of the fall’s festive offerings.
Other vendors, like Nancy Hellman from Evelyn’s Elegant Edibles, which specializes in pre-packaged soup mixes, do not change the product offered, but see an increase in sales for the season.
“Our products remain the same through the summer and the fall, but since we sell a lot of soups and rices,” Hellman said. “This is the time for us.”
Additionally, farmers at the markets employ seasonal methods for harvesting crops.
Harvest Valley takes precautions to protect more delicate produce, such as tomatoes and to select varieties of lettuce. According to King, rows of these produce are covered with a thin, T-shirt material meant to protect against frost, increasing daylight temperature within the blanketed area by 12 degrees and nighttime temperature by eight degrees.
Some vendors, like Sandhill and the River View Organics dairy stand, are investing in value-added produce to extend their profit on summer foods into the fall months.
Value-added products are those that can be used in other ways than their original or expected purpose. Value-added products are usually those that are more expensive to keep up, like tomatoes or other seasonal fruits, but that sell for a low individual price on the market. By selling tomatoes to a company that makes salsa, like Clarion River Organics did just a few weeks ago, value is being added to a product that would not have sold as well as a simple tomato on the market.
For Sandhill, it is using the berries not suitable for individual sale to make another sweet treat.
“We take it from the field, and we process it into a value-added product, so we use every piece of fruit,” Shelley said. “We make jam and jelly; we have a winery now so we make a wine out of it; some of the broken berries we use for pies. We take it from the ground all the way through to some product.”
Clarion River Organics, a cooperative of 10 family farms along the Clarion River in west and central Pennsylvania, highlights other products for sale when the summer produce is no longer viable.
“I think people kind of want that comfort food when it comes to the fall, ” said Nicole Kubiczki, who was selling for River View Organics dairy stand, one of the 10 family farms in the Clarion cooperative. “Then as the produce starts to die down, I think our sales for the cheese, the eggs, the organic grains will start to increase.”
And according to Shelley, the farmers’ market crowds are knowledgeable of the process and where the produce comes from.
“I think the customers know us, they come visit our farm, they know our product,” Shelley said. “This is a stable work area crowd that comes every Thursday, and it’s well supported. They start with us in the spring and continue through the fall.”
