The Swissvale Farmers Market

A Shopper’s Perspective by Polly Young

I’ve been coming to the market for 4 or 5 years. Every year it gets bigger and better! As we stroll through, listening to volunteer musicians playing sweet soft music, we experience vendor after vendor of not only amazing produce and gorgeous native plants, but also a variety of frozen meat, sweet treats, savory snacks, jewelry, other artistic goodies, information booths, matcha drinks, …sometimes there’s gyros, fried chicken, or tacos – so we don’t have to make lunch or dinner.

I’ve come to know the friendly produce farmers and they’re so knowledgeable and funny! The meat man is super smart, too, and I always pepper him with questions – to which he replies with educated, lengthy answers. He talked me into the pork chops, which were juicy and flavorful.

As an accompaniment I picked zucchini because I had it recently – simply sautéed, and it was delicious. Also the asparagus looked amazing so I picked up some of that, too. We always talk to lots of people who share their stories of gardening, which helps to make the market an even more special experience. For dinner we made the pork chops, zucchini and asparagus on the grill. We used a simple marinade for the meat, and just olive oil, salt and pepper for the veggies.

As fresh as it gets; food from the grocery store is never like this. While we were eating we felt we were slowly walking through meadows of tall flowers and grass, brushing our hands against them, smelling their pleasing perfume through the gentle cool breeze.