Jun 8, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 5 min read

A few years ago, would-be vendors started receiving phone calls along these lines:

“Hey, we’re going to start this new farmer’ market. Can you give us a chance? We’re a group of moms and a reverend, but we all have business backgrounds and we know what we’re doing.”

Thus began the Peters Township Farmers Market at St. David’s Episcopal Church, still organized and conducted by the Rev. Kris Opat, the church’s priest-in-charge, and nine others on the board of directors who happen to be mothers of youngsters.

“We all volunteer and do it because we’re passionate about supporting local farmers and artisans,” board member Seashal Belldina explained, “and bringing their goods to the community and creating a place to congregate and for neighbors to spend time with each other.”

The church already had somewhat of an agricultural presence as the site of a South Hills Interfaith Movement Community Garden. Opat, a past chairman of SHIM’s board of directors, decided it might be a good idea to expand the concept to a farmers’ market.

“So he reached out to a couple of moms in the church’s preschool,” Belldina recalled. “And kind of by word of mouth, they gathered a group of us together.”

They initiated the project by researching farmers and artisans within a 100-mile radius of St. David.

“We looked at their growing practices, what products they offer, the quality of their food, and started cold calling the ones that we really liked a lot,” Belldina said. “It took a lot of phone calls. I think we had an Excel spreadsheet with a hundred different businesses that we were originally reaching out to before we got started.”

Their work continues in earnest as the market enters its fourth season, from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 27.

“During the winter, we put together a new contract for the year, and then we have a couple of meetings and all take on different jobs,” Belldina explained. “If there’s a category we think we’re short on, we’ll look through our lead list of, say, honey vendors or dairy vendors, and break up who’s making calls to whom. And then we break up who’s making calls to our past vendors to make sure they’re coming back, and that we want them back.”

She and fellow board member Chelsea Johnston have marketing backgrounds, and they handle promoting the market through various means, from posting fliers in strategic locations to spreading the word through social media.

Carrie Ace schedules each week’s entertainment, with singer-songwriter Donna O scheduled for June 20. Also on the summer’s bill are Peters Township High School students Mila Shadel, a talented guitarist, plus members of the bands Element 92 and RSBB. Steven Hart, a 2017 Peters graduate, returns to perform July 11 and Aug 8.

Other women who serve on the market’s board of directors are Kami Chalovich, Bridget Crakovich, Nikki Eckenrode, Melissa Germain, Gianna Thomas and Beth White.

Once the market starts for the season, it offers a wide variety of produce, meats, dairy products, desserts, refreshments, condiments, sauces, dips and the like, along with freshly cut flowers, body care products and other artisan goods.

Many of the vendors return from last year, and some new ones are in place, including Bethel Park resident Cynthia Powell’s business: P3 – Powell’s Paleo Pastries. She features grain- and gluten-free baked good and mixes for cookies, pancakes and other treats.

A veteran who served as a military combat police officer, Powell became ill several years ago and determined she had allergies to certain food ingredients.

“To be honest, I’m a junk-food junkie. I like my cookies and cakes, and so on and so forth,” she admitted. “So I just started practicing, and I ended up throwing a lot in the garbage.”

She finally hit on some winning recipes, and one of her sons – all three are veterans, as well – convinced her to try her hand at selling.

“I do like to bake, but I was never really into it until I did get sick and I needed to do something on my own,” she said. “So maybe it was my military kicking in, saying, ‘You’ve got to do this.'”

Meanwhile, the farmers’ market moms continue to stay on task.

“We’ll be sitting in our board meeting and have five babies all around us, and toddlers,” Belldina reported. “And a lot of times working at the market, you’ll see a bunch of kids back here. We’ll slow-feed them some food from the market to keep ’em happy.

“And we all do it for free. We just want to create this environment and support local farmers, and bring fresh, local food to the community.”

For more information, visit www.peterstownshipfarmersmarket.org.