University Times

Summertime means fresh produce season and Pitt employees have more options than ever for purchasing local goodies.

The Oakland Farmers’ Market returns June 19 with a dozen or so vendors featuring homegrown and homemade local products such as fresh produce, cut flowers, free-range eggs, artisan cheeses, baked goods, salsa, homemade pierogies and various grass- and forage-fed meats including beef, poultry, goat and lamb.

The market will be held 3:30-6:30 p.m. each Friday through Nov. 20 on Sennott Street between Atwood Street and Meyran Avenue. (The market will be closed July 3.) Free parking is available in the adjacent UPMC lot.

Vendors will include Dillner Family Farm, Christoff Farm and Garden, Vibo’s Italian Bakery, Cinco de Mayo Salsa, Gosia’s Pierogies, Sand Hill Berries, Dream Thyme Farm, Mish Farms and Creekside Bakery.

Pitt and UPMC are among many community partners sponsoring the farmers’ market with the Oakland Business Improvement District (OBID). Information on the farmers’ market is available at www.oaklandbid.org or by calling 412/683-6243 ext. 28.

Pitt’s Office of Community Relations also sponsors a Farms to Pitt program, run by Isidore Foods, that enables University employees to subscribe to a weekly delivery of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products from local farms. The program, launched in 2007, offers fresh products delivered directly from area farms to designated locations on the Pittsburgh campus. Subscribers pay a fee in advance then receive farm-fresh products over a 22-week period beginning in June.

For more information on the Farms to Pitt program, visit www.isidorefoods.com, or contact Steve Zupcic at stz@pitt.edu.

New this year to Oakland is a market called Farmers at Phipps, according to OBID executive director Georgia Petropoulos. Farmers at Phipps will be held 2:30-6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays beginning June 3 and running through Oct. 28 on the Phipps Conservatory front lawn.

“The two markets have a different set of vendors, so they are not really competitive as much as complementary,” Petropoulos said.

“The Phipps market features more local organic foods,” including vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs, honey and plant seedlings, she said.

The Phipps farmers’ market is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s “buy fresh, buy local” program. Pitt is not a sponsor of the Phipps market.

—Peter Hart