Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance
hosts a harvest potluck
By Victoria Bradley | Photography by Megan Wylie Ruffing

On one of the last warm Saturday afternoons of the season, members from Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance gather at the Rhododendron Pavilion in Highland Park for a potluck. They are subscribers from all over the city, local food fanatics who bought a share in a program that delivers a box of fresh produce, compiled from almost 30 regional farms, once a week. The members have become experts at cooking seasonally, and today, they’re sharing their favorite dishes, along with (horror and) success stories.

Cunningham Meats has roasted and donated a local pig, and everyone gathers around as the foil is unfolded around the magnificent beast, its sweet and savory aroma perfuming the fall air. CSA manager Karlin Lamberto begins carving while Pucker Brush Farm’s Pam Bryan unveils other dishes members have placed on the picnic tables. “Do we have [serving] utensils for everything?” Lamberto says. “No, but we’ve got hands,” Bryan jokes back.

Members buzz about, oohing and ahhing and trying one another’s special recipes. Chris Atwood confesses to having purchased The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg for tips and tricks on what to do with the wild card selection of fruits and vegetables he’s received each week. “I got kohlrabi and had no idea what to do,” Atwood says. “But I really wanted to learn.”

Blaine Conner has been a Penn’s Corner member for three years.  He’s glad that his children, Gwendolyn and Spencer, are growing up in a community where local food is important. “Our family is proud to support local farms,” Conner says. “I’m from Illinois, and my wife’s from Japan, but we love living in Pittsburgh.” He laughs and adds, “Just as much as we love coming up with new recipes for turnip greens.”

Several farmers are in attendance today, too. David Yoder, of Nu Way Farm, not only grows heirloom tomatoes, lettuce greens, and French breakfast radishes, but he helps to pack the 318 boxes weekly for subscribers. “We love to work for people who enjoy and appreciate what we’re doing,” he says. “Because of Community Supported Agriculture, small farms are coming back again — partly because people who live in the city are making it a priority to buy local food.”

Lamberto moved to Pittsburgh last year, from Arizona. She and her husband chose the city based on programs like Penn’s Corner. “There’s a nice quality of life here,” she says. “I was a CSA member in southern Arizona for years, and it changed the way my family ate and the way we lived our lives. When we moved here, I was trying to find something similar. I left a career of 10 years. I wanted to do something that I felt more passionate about. I feel strongly about food choices.”

And programs like Penn’s Corner are launching other businesses.  Simon Huntley works for a company called Small Farm Central, which manages Penn’s Corner’s subscription list and offers special software for the CSA, as well as for 400 other CSAs across the country. He says that Penn’s Corner is one of the best. “[General Manager] Neil [Stauffer] was one of our first customers, four years ago,” he says. “And the quality of product being distributed by this CSA is so high. Plus, this is an organization that is helping farmers get to market and sell their produce. The farmers only need to concentrate on growing really good food. And they do a great job in this region.”

Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance is one of 32 CSAs in Western Pennsylvania, a number that Stauffer says is growing exponentially.  “It’s growing across the board,” Stauffer says. “And still, there’s room for more farms and more CSAs. There’s a spirit of cooperation here, and the more word gets out about CSAs, the better it is for all farmers.

And yes, supporting local farms is great for our local food choices and our local economy, but it’s also about the types of landscapes you want to see in your hometowns. If it’s not used for farmland, it’ll be used for something else.”