The Pittsburgh Dish

066 Exploring the Mount Oliver Farmers Market

• Doug Heilman • Season 2 • Episode 66

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Step onto Brownsville Road with us as we immerse ourselves in the sights, smells, and flavors of the Mount Oliver Farmers Market. This episode takes a delightful detour from our usual format as we wander through this vibrant community gathering, microphone in hand, meeting the passionate entrepreneurs who make this neighborhood special.

The market reveals itself as a microcosm of Pittsburgh's diverse food scene. Chef Alekka Sweeney shares her slow-roasted strawberry mini pies and explains how her Hilltop Shared Kitchen nurtures small food businesses. Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt transports us to her homeland through Flavor Puerto Rico's authentic cuisine, including five varieties of empanadas that keep customers coming back for more.

Mount Oliver Borough Manager Rick Hopkinson provides insight into how events like this farmers market help build sustainable local shopping habits, while newer businesses like Nick's on Hilltop showcase their popular wings and specialty burgers. We discover unique products like Chef Ken's gochujang barbecue sauce, Devin's whiskey-infused vanilla extracts, and Kelly's freshly cut flowers and herbs from her urban farm.

The connections between vendors become apparent as we speak with each one – Chef Janet mentions how Chef Alekka helped her prepare for her first market appearance, while another vendor, Ripepi Winery talks up collaboration with The Cheese Queen. These relationships form the foundation of a supportive community where entrepreneurs lift each other up.

As summer continues, there's one more market in August where the Cheese Queen will celebrate a third anniversary. Whether you're a Pittsburgh local or planning a visit, this episode offers a taste of an up-and-coming food neighborhood worth exploring. Which vendor would you visit first? Follow us to discover more hidden gems throughout the Pittsburgh food scene.

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Doug:

Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, doug Heilman, and we're doing something different this week. We're on the streets of Mount Oliver Right now I'm walking out Brownsville Road and we're going to check out the Mount Oliver Farmer's Market. Nothing better than a vibrant community. I know I have some old friends there, as well as probably some new ones to meet. Lots of goodies to check out. Let's go talk to some people. Some new ones to meet. Lots of goodies to check out. Let's go talk to some people. Hi there, would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

:

Hello, I am Chef Alekka Sweeney.

Doug:

Aw, Chef Alekka, you are a friend of the show as well.

:

Yes.

Doug:

What is going on up here in Mount Oliver today for you.

:

So we're. This is the first Mount Oliver Farmer's Market that I've done.

Doug:

I'm selling a whole bunch of my favorite baked goods. I specifically see mini pies.

:

Yes, kind of inspired from my trip to Toulouse.

Doug:

Yeah, that looked amazing.

:

So it is a roasted strawberry pie with my all butter pie crust that everybody loves, so I slow-roasted the strawberries for three hours yesterday.

Doug:

And this is like what? Like a six-inch pie, yeah, so it's a six-inch pie.

:

It's one of my favorites, I would say you can have it yourself, yeah. I would If you want to share it, you can.

Doug:

Your packaging is beautiful.

:

Thank you.

Doug:

You're always on point. With your brand, you're getting customers.

:

So if you need to go, let me know. Oh no, I've got help. Okay, Always bringing help with me. Now what did you bake all this up at the Hilltop? Shared.

Doug:

Kitchen. I did. I did it all in the Shared Kitchen space and remind us that location.

:

It's just down the road here, so it's 735 Brownsville Road.

Doug:

Okay, and we're at about 150 Brownsville right now.

Speaker 5:

So we're just not too far away, not that far away.

Doug:

I don't know if we've talked about the shared kitchen since you've been on, so this is a newer concept for you. Yes, you manage this kitchen, and when we say a shared kitchen, what does that mean? A shared kitchen?

:

So smaller businesses can come in and prepare their foods, like, for example, ken came in yesterday.

Doug:

Chef Ken is across the street now you're talking about.

:

He came in and made his barbecue sauce. So we rented the space for three hours.

Doug:

Okay.

:

So I made it pretty affordable for small businesses to rent by the month or part-time or by the hour.

Doug:

I love this. So folks that need a commercial kitchen space to make a product that they're going to sell elsewhere- Off-site. Yeah, they're not really making it and running a restaurant in the kitchen. No, no, no, no. But they're making it and they're taking it Off-site To sell elsewhere.

:

I also use it for my private events. I do all my prep at the shared kitchen.

Doug:

Okay.

:

And then I'll take it off-site to private events. All right, which?

Doug:

I've helped you with a couple of reasons.

:

I know They've been so much fun. Yes, you are my best helper.

Doug:

Aw Well, let's talk a little bit more about what you're selling today. In addition to the pies, I see some cookies. Yes, what are these? Have sea salt on?

:

them. I have malden sea salt. Oh my goodness. So these are my 24-hour chocolate chip cookies.

Doug:

Yeah, it doesn't take me 24 hours to make them. It won't take me 24 hours to eat them either.

:

So the trick is, you make the dough and you let it sit for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

:

And you let them out at room temperature for about five minutes, I sprinkle sea salt on them and then I bake them, so they're like soft and chubby, like me.

Doug:

Now, what does that overnight rest do? Is it let the flavors get together? Does it let the dough get a little cool funk on it, or I don't know?

:

I mean, it's not fermenting, it's really not fermenting, but it does like the flavors meld yeah, yeah I think there's a couple of schools of chocolate chip cookie like people like the thin and crispy.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

:

Or they like the like the Le Bon kind of vibe. Okay, so what this does, it kind of solidifies the butter.

Speaker 7:

Mm-hmm.

:

And keeps everything stable. So the outcome is like this nice crunchy outside. Yes, but still and still kind of almost underdone in the inside.

Doug:

Which is exactly how you want it.

:

Yes, so I take them out of the oven when they're almost done and let them finish cooking on the sheet pan.

Doug:

Yeah, that sort of carryover cooking, yeah the carryover cooking. All right.

:

And then the brown butter. Butterscotch blondies. Oh my goodness, the pan weighed like a small child.

Doug:

Well, these themselves I'm just lifting. We've got like a small child.

Speaker 8:

Well, these themselves.

Doug:

I'm just lifting, we've got like a three by three square here, but they're heavy. They are, wow yeah, delicious.

Speaker 8:

They are so good.

:

I can already tell I mean I knew I had fruit, I knew I had chocolate. You know I have the apple cinnamon muffin. So I had a whole bunch of butterscotch chips left over and I, I'm like listen, why not?

Doug:

Why not Brown butter?

:

butterscotch. It was so good, wow, and it's going well with my coffee this morning.

Doug:

I bet it is. So this is the first time you've set up at the market. Now there's one more in August. Are you going to be?

:

back. Yes, I'm going to be back. All right, I'm excited. I love Thanks so much for joining us on the Pittsburgh Dish. Thanks for coming, doug. You're always my favorite, the Pittsburgh Dish is number one.

Doug:

Hi. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 9:

Sure, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and I am co-owner of Flavor Puerto Rico with my husband, Victor Schmidt.

Doug:

Up here in Mount Oliver, in Mount Oliver, how long has Flavor Puerto Rico been open?

Speaker 9:

We have been open now five years.

Doug:

My goodness, yes, and if someone hasn't visited your shop, okay, and they're not familiar with Puerto Rican food, yes, tell me what are some of the, the big sellers, or just some of the, the main dishes that you guys love to make here.

Speaker 9:

Sure, so we sell flavorful, delicious food from the island.

Doug:

Yes.

Speaker 9:

And one of our big and top sellers is our penil with arrogo gandules. And let me translate that. That is our slow roasted pork with rice and pigeon peas. I know pigeon peas translates into peas, but it's not, it's a bean.

Doug:

It's a bean, it's a bean.

Speaker 9:

Are they little yellow beans? They're little yellowish, greenish beans, nice and creamy. Nice and creamy and it's delicious. It's one of our biggest top sellers. And for those people who don't eat pork. Our other big seller is our pollo guisado, which is delicious. It comes with potatoes and chicken and people love that. So that's great for our non-pork eaters.

Doug:

The chicken stew, what's it called again? So it's pollo guisado, okay.

Speaker 9:

Okay, so people love that.

Doug:

That's our second big top seller, best seller, yeah.

Speaker 9:

And people love that. And then we also have five empanada flavors which people come in today. I know about your empanada, yeah people love to come eat our empanadas we have five flavors, so we have chicken, beef and cheese. We have a vegan one, which my husband made the recipe himself okay, what's in the vegan? So in the vegan one we have um coconut flour, we have lentils, we have beans, so it doesn't have like any meat substitute none of that stuff, because a lot of people who are vegan really don't like the meat yeah, you're not just going with.

Speaker 9:

The beyond burger thing we're not going with the beyond burger meat substitute, so he made it and people love it. Even our non-vegans buy our vegan empanadas because it tastes so good yeah, we also have a dessert, one which is a caramel apple empanada. Okay, and you eat that with a little bit of, with a little bit of sugar on top.

Doug:

Okay.

Speaker 9:

That's delicious. And then we have the one that the kids love it's a pizza empanada. What so the kids love that? Because they say it's like a hot pocket. So they love the pizza empanada.

Doug:

Well, I was going to say, if someone's not familiar with empanada, it is like the best kind of hot pocket. Yes, yes, but I was wondering if you did have a sweet one. But you do, we do, we have a sweet one.

Speaker 9:

And then once, in a while we will have the steak and mozzarella which is our limited time addition sometimes that we put on the menu once in a while which is also a nice salad.

Doug:

I love that.

Speaker 9:

We offer catering. You can look us up on our website, wwwflavorcuatoricocom, and we offer catering.

Speaker 5:

We do deliver for catering Okay.

Speaker 9:

So we've done weddings, we've done parties, we deliver to colleges. We do a lot of big colleges for catering.

Speaker 5:

Yes.

Speaker 9:

Yep, so, and then our hours are Monday through Wednesday. We're open 12 to 6.

Doug:

Okay.

Speaker 9:

Thursday through Saturday, sundays we're closed. We have to take the day off to set up the food and everything, but those are our hours right now.

Doug:

Well, thank you so much and remind us your name again.

Speaker 9:

And again, my name is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt and I'm co-owner of Flavor, puerto Rico, with my husband, victor Schmitz.

Doug:

Yvette, thank you so much for talking with us.

Speaker 9:

Thank you so much for the interview and if you haven't been down to Flavor, puerto Rico, please come down and check us out.

Doug:

You heard it here.

Speaker 9:

All right, thank you so much.

Doug:

Hey there, how you doing Good good. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my name is Rick Hopkinson. I'm the Mount Oliver Borough Manager.

Doug:

Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about what your role is for all these businesses up here doing something really good in Mount Oliver?

Speaker 3:

We're really focused on supporting and developing the business district. Yes, you know working with local businesses doing events to help drive foot traffic to their businesses, helping them succeed. And this farmer's market is just kind of another facet of that.

Doug:

Yeah, and I was talking with one of the other vendors it's not just a farmer's market where folks have come in. It's a lot of the businesses that are here all the time, so it's bringing in folks that maybe get a taste of their product on the street and then come back and visit even in their brick-and-mortar location.

Speaker 3:

I think it's really all about forming habits, to like getting people to get into the habit of coming up the Brownsville Road and shopping local and fun things like this I think get people to see that we have a lot to offer and hopefully start to build those habits of shopping local and fun things like this, I think get people to see that we have a lot to offer and hopefully start to build those habits of shopping local in the monoliver business district.

Doug:

I love that and this market has been going on all summer long. There's one more in august. Any other events in your mind's eye that will happen in the fall or over the winter for mount oliver?

Speaker 3:

yes, so we actually are partnering with the hilltop Urban Farm to do a harvest fest. I think that might be our fourth annual Nice.

Speaker 3:

Third or fourth annual Love that, but that is in September, okay. So that'll be a lot of fun. We'll close the road down, we'll have the same kind of local vendors, but the Hilltop Urban Farm will really be the highlight and showcase of that event. They've been growing all year long. We'll have live music and, you know, local brews and that type of thing. Closer to the holiday season we do a cookie tour on Small Business Saturday, free parking. We actually worked with a local artist, maria DeSimone, up the street to do a map. So we're really excited about this mapping project and what it could potentially do for the Montoliver, allentown and surrounding business districts.

Speaker 3:

So it's kind of like a Disney map. It's kind of whimsical, fun, really colorful. It captures the essence of the business districts and then it has a QR code where you can go on a landing page to see all of the businesses in our area, in the Hilltop area as well, as you know the events that we have coming up, so we would like to kind of unveil that after Halloween we have people to start thinking about shopping local for the holidays.

Doug:

It's sort of a fun trail.

Speaker 3:

Like you know, you're kind of following Candyland or so, yeah, yeah, speaking of artists, do you know who our singer is today over on the deck? So that is Gianna Rockoff, and I actually met Gianna last year at Megan McGinnis the cheese Queens. I actually met Gianna last year at Megan McGinnis the. Cheese Queen's Night Market, which kind of celebrates her anniversary, which is, I would say, probably the inspiration behind all of this, but you know Gianna is an up-and-coming artist, beautiful voice.

Speaker 3:

You know dynamic duo between the two of them. So we're really excited to have her for the Farmer's Market.

Doug:

And speaking of Farmer's Market, you are not just the borough manager. You are parked here at a table with a lot of farm fresh produce. Can you tell us where this is all from?

Speaker 3:

Yes, so all of this produce is from Triple B. Triple B Farms in Monongahela has been an amazing partner.

Doug:

They're a great friend of our show. They were just on earlier in July. That's so awesome. Yeah, yeah, that's so awesome.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So we place our order with them and actually I drive up there. You know I'm there at 7 in the morning picking up the you know fresh farm, fresh produce.

Doug:

These peaches look amazing. Oh, they're so good. The peaches are incredible. Well, thanks so much for talking with us and thanks for all you do up here in Mount. Oliver, thank you.

Speaker 7:

This is Shafalaka. This is Chef Janet from Chef Life.

Speaker 9:

Hacks. This is Yvette Rodriguez-Schmidt from Flavor of Puerto Rico, and you're listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

Hi, how are you doing today?

Speaker 5:

Good, how are you?

Doug:

Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your business?

Speaker 5:

Sure, my name is Megan Veronti. I'm one of the owners of Nixon Hilltop in Mount Oliver.

Doug:

And you guys just opened not too long ago.

Speaker 5:

We did. We just opened on May 2nd. Congratulations, thank you. I appreciate that very much.

Doug:

Is this one of your first markets here on the Hilltop, so this would be our second one, because we did the first Mount.

Speaker 8:

Oliver Farmer's Market.

Speaker 5:

We've also done their live music. We had a bar for their live music. Okay, and I see some really good looking wings here today. Yep, wings are one of the things that we're known for, our chicken especially. We have hand-breaded chicken tenders in the restaurant. We do a really big wing night 50-cent wings on. Wednesdays. But I would say my partners are definitely known for their chicken.

Doug:

All right, all right, well, that was my question. So, since Nick's just opened, can you tell us a little bit more about the menu and maybe even the hours?

Speaker 5:

Is it breakfast, lunch, dinner? Is it just dinner? So we have brunch on the weekends? Yeah, we do brunch. Our hours are getting ready to change. We've been open 11 to 11 daily.

Doug:

Oh, that's a lot.

Speaker 5:

But because we're new, we weren't really sure when we would be busy. We're going to be changing our hours on the weekends to open at 12 and we will be doing brunch on saturdays until four and all day on sundays so 12 to 8 wonderful and then um the rest of the week we do a normal lunch and dinner menu. We have a bunch of burgers that are really great our aloha burger is is flying out of the kitchen.

Doug:

What is on that?

Speaker 5:

That one has our sweet chili sauce and grilled pineapple provolone cheese. It's very good.

Doug:

Aloha yeah.

Speaker 5:

Aloha for sure. And then we have some specials that we run the rest of the week, like we just did a steak burger the other day. It was a steakhouse burger, it was with a steak patty. That one sold out in a matter of hours.

Doug:

I love that.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Doug:

All right. So we're talking about Nick's on Hilltop, nick's on Hilltop yeah. If folks want to find and follow you, sure It'll be at.

Speaker 5:

Nick's on Hilltop on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, and we have a really active Instagram and Facebook page. We post our daily specials there and we let you know what events are going on in the restaurant.

Doug:

Love it. Thanks so much for talking to us today and all the best with the new restaurant. Thank you, I appreciate it. Hey, how are you doing today? I'm good. How are you doing Good? Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 12:

Yeah, I'm Chef Ken of KCZ Cuisine. I'm a private chef here in the Pittsburgh area. My wheelhouse is East Asian flavors tuned into like a Western style fine dining feel. So what I do is I bring a chef's table to your home for any sort of celebrations birthdays, dinner parties, that kind of thing Love that. I also do some private cooking classes as well as some personal chefing.

Doug:

Chef Ken, I have been following you for a little bit on Instagram because I think my friend Ashley Cesarato had you for some type of dinner.

Speaker 12:

Yes, I did a dinner for her. Alex Eats Too Much. Yes, nelly the Pittsburgh Food Nerd. And then Ashley's husband.

Doug:

Yes, all of these folks are good friends of the podcast. Yeah, thank you so much, I love how connected everybody is. Yeah absolutely so. If folks want to find you for an event, what is your handle on social and can they get to you that?

Speaker 12:

way. Yeah, so my handle on social is Ken underscore cooks food. So, and then my website is kczcuisinecom. Um, you can find me on instagram, on facebook, I think. Yeah, that's the main places that people find well, that sounds great.

Doug:

And so, ken, we're up here in the mount oliver market. What are you tabling today?

Speaker 12:

I see some cool looking sauces here yeah, so I have a gochujang barbecue sauce oh, I love going it's, it's so good, so good it brings such a depth of flavor to basically anything is this something you offer is as one of your meals?

Speaker 12:

so show up or it shows, oh the farmers market for me today is really like this is my first farmers market. I've never done this before. I just thought it would be fun to see yeah know, make some stuff, kind of show off what I can do. But the gochujang sauce I make for like the recipes that I do for clients, I'll do like braised ribs or, like a Brit, like a pulled pork with this.

Speaker 12:

So good. And then I'm also slinging some cucumber salads A Chinese style smashed cucumber salad and a gochujang sesame oil. Love that.

Doug:

You know, after a while people will be asking you to sell that gochujang sauce. I'm hoping. What is your connection to the Mount Oliver community?

Speaker 12:

So actually I've known chef alecca for a little bit, uh, and she, you know I I use her kitchen space every once in a while.

Speaker 12:

The hilltop, yeah, the hilltop's your kitchen and because of that, uh, you know, everybody on mount oliver hilltop um, allentown has just been so uh, welcoming, like meg and rick. They they've invited me to you doing this the farmer's market as well as helping me with because I'm a pretty new entrepreneur. Yeah, like invited me to go to the Hilltop like the business development sessions. So I've learned a lot through that and that's sort of my connection to here, amazing.

Doug:

Well, thank you so much for talking to us today. All the best on your chef adventure, that solopreneur adventure can be kind of scary, so I'm glad that you found this community. Thanks a lot, Ken. Thank you very much, hey. How are you doing today?

Speaker 10:

I'm good. How are you? I'm great.

Doug:

Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 10:

Absolutely so. My name is Kelly. I'm the owner of Armful of Flowers Urban Flower Farm and Design Studio in Mount Washington, right here in Pittsburgh.

Doug:

I have been following you for a really long time. You have beautiful bouquets. Thank you, you're so kind. Well, I'm also noticing today we're at the Mount Oliver Market Such a beautiful day today. So good and you have a ton of herbs. Yes, I don't know if I realized. Do you grow these?

Speaker 10:

We do. Yes, I had no idea, so it's actually really exciting. This year, we started an herb program and an edible garden program at the top of our farm, in addition to our cut flowers.

Speaker 7:

Love it.

Speaker 10:

And it actually was curated, planned, planted and maintained by our Not your Mother's Flower Club, which is like the funnest club in the entire world. So good and these ladies pulled together these beautiful herb planters and they've just been so prolific. We sell herb bundles at our farm stand on Mount Washington now and we figured we'd bring some here, because what better place to sell herbs than at a?

Doug:

farm market. So smart, I mean, are you growing all of these flowers?

Speaker 10:

Oh, yeah, for sure, oh my gosh.

Doug:

Everything is so beautiful. Thank you, now educate me. I'm looking at, I'm going to take some pictures here in a second. So are these zinnias?

Speaker 10:

They're actually kind of my soul flower.

Doug:

Are they? This is a beautiful color.

Speaker 10:

Yeah, my mom, when I was a little girl, had zinnias growing all around the border of her garden and it was really like when I got older. It was the thing that I remembered most as a child and I was like I just remember how vibrant and tall and beautiful they are. Like I can grow those and I can give them to my friends and that's kind of what blossomed and started my business and started our farm beautiful zinnia yeah what is this?

Speaker 10:

Oh, she's really fun, so she's celosia, okay. Celosia, celosia, yeah, and so we grow all sorts of gorgeous varieties of her on the farm.

Doug:

They're taller and spikier.

Speaker 10:

In a way, they're very fluffy.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 10:

We consider them kind of like a filler in our bouquets, but they're also really cool dried, so we love something on the farm that we can dry and utilize in the fall and winter months as well.

Doug:

All right, I'm going to turn my attention down to these herbs because I want to cook with them. Are we talking flat leaf parsley here? Yes, some gorgeous flat leaf parsley.

Speaker 9:

It smells so good, Absolutely give it a good sniff.

Speaker 7:

It does yes.

Speaker 10:

And then we do have some sage.

Doug:

The sage is looking amazing we have mixed bundles as well. I love this on the end I know it's an opal basil. Opal basil. I always call it purple basil, but it is so gorgeous.

Speaker 10:

She's gorgeous, she's so luscious and she's really, really good as an alternative to a classic basil.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 10:

She's really great on a caprese salad or do like a purple pesto, like how fun is that? It's just a fun way to take a different approach to cooking.

Doug:

I have grown that in the past and it is. It's just. I actually think I put it in my pots as another, just a color, A filler. Yeah, yeah, and I can see you doing that with a bouquet as well.

Speaker 10:

Yes, we actually. So there's two different ways. You can grow basil, you can let it flower.

Doug:

Yes, I see a little bit of that and typically if you're growing, it for food.

Speaker 10:

You wanna cut that back, so it's not quite as bitter.

Doug:

Right right.

Speaker 10:

But if you let it grow, they're really great for cut flowers. They're beautiful yeah, they're beautiful foliage and they give our bouqu. Is this summery smell that? Just makes you want to hug the bouquet it just smells like summer in a little bit.

Doug:

Hang on to summer as long as we can. Yes, absolutely, oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much. Let's just remind folks where they can find and follow you if they're interested in more of your work.

Speaker 10:

Absolutely so. You can come find us on Mount Washington in Pittsburgh. We're on the corner of Bingham Street and Virginia Avenue and we have a farm market actually every Saturday and Sunday as well. Um, and our next big event is our flower fest on August 24th, where we close the street down and all the vendors are themed around flowers and you can pick your own flowers from our farm.

Doug:

Oh, I love it. And what is your handle again on Instagram?

Speaker 10:

Yeah, so it's just at arm full of flowers.

Doug:

All right. Thank you so much, kelly. Hey, how are you doing today? Good, how are you doing? Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and your business name?

Speaker 8:

Absolutely. My name's Devin. I run Spirited Extracts. We're a vanilla extract company. We do things a little differently though, where we have different alcohol bases, so we kind of create different flavors in our vanilla extracts.

Doug:

We met once before at Hometown Homegrown at the Heinz History Center.

Speaker 8:

Yeah, correct. Yeah, it was back in November, that's right.

Doug:

Yeah, big event, and so business is good.

Speaker 8:

Yeah, we're doing well. This is our third summer selling Congratulations. Thank you so much. Our better time is normally in the fall when people start baking a lot more, so it's always good to be out here in the beginning and start getting back into the groove and things Okay.

Doug:

And you're doing all this locally. I mean, we're so used to going to have to buy our McCormick's or something, but we can buy vanilla extract straight from you. Yes, I'm just in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, I'm in.

Speaker 5:

Whitehall.

Speaker 8:

I make all of it there I source my vanilla beans and get all the alcohol here as well, and then, age, all of it for a year here, so I try and make it a little bit better than what you're going to get in a grocery store.

Doug:

Okay, and tell me a little bit more about those different bases that you mentioned earlier. So you're not just using, I guess, whatever the traditional alcohol would be. How does yours differ from what's on the market?

Speaker 8:

Yeah, yeah, so I do have just that classic vanilla extract like you would find, but then the other ones I have are whiskey-based, brandy-based and orange liqueur-based Okay. So the idea behind it is that you're kind of getting different flavor profiles, so you're mixing and matching what you think would go well together, like, for instance, my personal favorite is the whiskey one. One I just really like whiskey and two I really like making chocolate chip cookies and so chocolate and whiskey.

Speaker 8:

Those flavors pair really well together. So when you're using it in that you're kind of adding this more warmth and these other flavor compounds that you're not getting from just that traditional vanilla.

Doug:

So just for the science of it, the alcohol is what really brings in that vanilla flavor. It holds on to it. So you need some generally some kind of alcohol base. Yes, but then, just like the vanilla stays in the cookie, a little bit of that whiskey flavor or that orange liqueur flavor is also staying in your baked good. So you're kind of getting a two for one.

Speaker 8:

Exactly. So. What I'm doing is getting all those other flavors that you find in whiskey and brandy the sweetness of brandy, the citrusy of the orange liqueur and it's adding that to the vanilla. So you're getting that vanilla punch still like you would from a regular extract, but you're getting all those other flavors as well. And you're right that the alcohol is necessary, because that's what draws the actual oils out of the vanilla beans. It's what makes it actually vanilla extract.

Doug:

Wow, where did this all get started?

Speaker 8:

Yeah. So I started with just baking myself. I wanted to, whenever I bake something I like, really try and make it the best possible that I can, and so I go way too hard, way too extra with it. And so I started just making my own vanilla and I wanted to make it a little stronger and I wanted to know that it was like really good quality and that I knew what was in it. And so when I started I was like, oh, I was like I've never really seen anybody do this with whiskey, so I want to make my own batch with whiskey. And I started making that in my cookies and I was like this is actually really good. And so then I wanted to experiment a little bit more and see what other alcohols I could use, and I went through 10 different alcohol types, like tequila and gin and rum and some other whiskeys, and I found the four that I think worked the best that classic one like a neutral, and then the three others that I had mentioned as well.

Speaker 8:

So it all started from a baking background and just kind of expanded into that.

Doug:

And you're on your third year now.

Speaker 8:

Yep my goodness. Yeah, second full year of selling now. Congratulations, thank you.

Doug:

All right. So I know you're out here today vending. What is your connection to the Mount Oliver Hilltop Market?

Speaker 8:

So my girlfriend actually works in this area. She works for Hilltop Alliance and so I've been in this neighborhood a lot, both here and out in town. I spend a lot of time at the different events here, you know night market and different markets around here. In general Cheese Queen, who's here as well. I've got my product in her store, so really it's just like a good chance to expand my footprint, I think. Yes, just introducing the new neighborhood. Just try and get the name out there.

Doug:

Remind our listeners if they want to find your spirited extracts. How can they find or follow you? Where can they get them?

Speaker 8:

Yeah, so we have a website, spiritedextractscom, just as you would spell it. We're on Instagram if you want to follow us there. We're in a few different farmers markets throughout the summer hometown homegrown. At the end of the year we're normally in, and right now I'm trying to expand into different coffee shops and different cafes, things like that, and hopefully, maybe by the end of the year, into some grocery stores.

Doug:

Oh, I love that Well. Thanks so much for talking with us today.

Speaker 8:

Thank you, it's been great.

Speaker 12:

This is Chef Ken with KCZ Cuisine.

Speaker 8:

This is Devin O'Leary with Spirited Extracts.

Speaker 10:

This is Kelly, with Armful of Flowers and you're listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

How are you both doing today Good?

Speaker 6:

Good, a little sweaty, but very happy to be here. It's getting warm.

Doug:

Would you introduce yourselves and who you're representing today here at the market?

Speaker 4:

You got it. My name's Liz Metzler. I'm the Director of Farm Programs at Hilltop Urban Farm.

Speaker 6:

And I'm Wiley Ford. I'm the Community Farm Coordinator at Hilltop Urban Farm.

Doug:

I'm looking at your table and I see lots of vegetables and beautiful flowers. Is this herbs down in front?

Speaker 6:

Yeah, the seedlings down in front are all from Hart Farms in our farmer incubator program, and then the rest of the stuff came out of our what we call our community farm plot, which is about three quarters of an acre of space where we primarily do diversified veggie growing for three food bounties in the area.

Speaker 5:

I love that.

Speaker 6:

So we work with the Brashear Association down the street and then Abiding Missions in Allentown and St Paul AME Church over in Knoxville.

Speaker 5:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

So this is our first time selling. We had more than, like the pantries would be able to distribute.

Doug:

Yeah, so you brought that abundance here, for the market today, yeah. Exactly. I love that. It looks so fresh, so good, and it is a farmer's market, so we needed to have some fruits and veggies, of course yes, so we actually learned there wasn't a farm vendor here, and that's kind of why we took that slot.

Speaker 4:

We don't really like to compete with other farms and so actually the borough has a stand over there with Triple B Farms and we just let them know what abundance we had. And then they got produce that wasn't competing over there with Triple B Farms, and we just let them know what abundance we had, and then they got produce that wasn't competing and so hopefully everyone just has sales today. So smart yeah, we're just really rocking and rolling and trying to get food access into this neighborhood.

Doug:

It's so much great energy going on in Mount Oliver with the permanent shops that have come out on the street. Love seeing you all coming out and sort of round out the market. Yeah, thank you both so much.

Speaker 6:

Of course I want to know what everybody else is working on, oh.

Doug:

I'll tell you I'm going to have to listen to your podcast. You will, you will, yes, okay, hi there. You are a special guest of this market today, aren't you?

Speaker 7:

I am. It's my first one ever. I'm very excited.

Doug:

Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 7:

Sure, I'm Chef Janet Loughran. You also know me from Chef Life Hacks.

Doug:

You're a friend of the show. Yes, janet has been on before. Do you know what episode number?

Speaker 7:

Oh, probably. I think it's episode eight.

Doug:

Okay, I'll look it up. Yeah it was pretty early on. Yeah, yeah, and so you're up, you selling today.

Speaker 7:

Well, I'm kind of known for my granolas. I have a gingerbread granola. That's delicious. It has molasses in it, so it really has that gingerbread flavor.

Doug:

That looks good, but I see this other one mango coconut, Mango coconut.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, that was a new one for me. I tried to do one that had zero, had no nuts so that one just has sunflower seeds.

Doug:

It's important to some people.

Speaker 7:

Yeah, we're also going to be making some yogurt parfaits with some fresh pineapple and then I have this berry compote here, blueberry compote you brought this to me once before, so I've had this it's delicious, it's so good it's so simple too, because you just simmer it with a little bit of honey and apple cider vinegar and it becomes like a jam, so you can put it on yogurt, or you can put it on your pancakes or waffles if you want to.

Doug:

Delicious. I love it. Now, Janet, I didn't know that you have done pop-ups like this. Have you done this before?

Speaker 7:

No, this is my first one. This is brand new. I was a little stressed this week, but I think everything turned out okay. Aleka was a big help.

Doug:

For folks that can't see the visual. She has a lovely frame with all of her items and she's got a little Venmo coat. You look totally pro here. I'm trying to be organized. Well, let's talk for a little minute, because I know we talked back in the fall for Thanksgiving prep, but when we talked on your interview more than a year ago, you know you were doing a lot of meal delivery and so some things have changed, right. So tell me a little bit more about, like your current business model, Like what all are you offering or doing right now and what are you not doing anymore.

Speaker 7:

Sounds good, so I'm focusing more so on catering private events, private chefing as well, as I'm doing a lot of cooking classes, which I love. I love teaching people how to cook. It's so neat because they don't realize that they really can do this. It's not intimidating once they're shown. I did do meal delivery for a couple of years. I have put that on the back burner. Sometimes, I'll do a pop-up here and there if I have nothing on my schedule that week.

Doug:

I think that's the thing. I thought that was changing. You were kind of, you were kind of winding that part down.

Speaker 7:

Right, I know and my clients miss me and I feel bad but it's just, it's very time consuming, and there's other things that I would really like to pursue Right Fun things, you know. Plus, I have more time for my family now yeah, you know they're getting. I have a nine-year-old and a four-year-old and they're not getting any younger no, you can't.

Doug:

You blink and it's gone. Exactly, you got to do that, but you're still killing it on social media. I see all of the tips, or I should say the hacks, and they're not always chefing hacks.

Speaker 7:

It's life hacks too exactly, I try to do a mixture. So yeah, like I said, I just love teaching people how to cook, and my party people I call them yeah, they've all come together it's just a nice community and I just love doing it.

Doug:

So I want to ask you about a semi-recent post of yours, and this was grilling hacks for the summer. I think I saw you out at your grill. Am I remembering this right? It was with like a half of a cut onion or something. Oh yeah can you tell us that hack?

Speaker 7:

yes, if you want to make your grill non-stick because you don't want to use oil that can flare up you just cut an onion in half, grab your tongs and run that onion on the grates and it has like. It makes like a barrier, so it's more non-stick for you.

Doug:

Okay, anything else while we're still in the depths of summer for grilling hacks.

Speaker 7:

Oh well, if you want to make those beautiful grill marks you know how they love the diamond pattern Right. Whenever you put the piece of meat or a vegetable or something on the grill, put it on a diagonal.

Speaker 5:

So, those lines are going straight up and down Put it on a diagonal After a couple of minutes.

Speaker 7:

what I like to say is move it from 10 to 2.

Speaker 3:

Yes, that's all you have to do. 10 to 2.

Speaker 7:

Let it go for a couple more minutes and once you flip it over it's that beautiful diamond pattern driver's ed.

Doug:

Oh well, janet, you're always great for your hacks and your tips. The granola and the compote look great. I'm going to come back and get a parfait from you Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the Pittsburgh Dish and thanks for supporting up here in Mount Oliver today.

Speaker 7:

I'm happy to be here, nice to see you.

Doug:

All right, you too, bye, bye, bye. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Speaker 13:

Sure, hi, I'm Janelleelle. I'm from Ripepe Winery.

Doug:

And Janelle, you're up here at Mount Oliver. Tell us, like, what brings you up here today?

Speaker 13:

Sure, well, I've actually become good friends with a lot of the businesses up here and I do a lot of collaborations with the Cheese Queen, and Hilltop Alliance invites us up. But we're a local winery. We're from Monongahela, we have a 10-acre vineyard there and most of our wines are made from grapes that we grow or we source local fruit from Triple B Farms.

Doug:

We love them.

Speaker 13:

Yes, we do too. We're up here selling wine by the bottle and by the glass.

Doug:

Okay, and if folks want to come visit you, is the winery down in Monongahela open to the public on certain days?

Speaker 13:

Yeah, we're open Friday, saturday and Sunday. Our tasting room is open. You can walk in. You can do a flight. If we don't have a food provider, you can bring your own food or just grab some small bites in our tasting room. I love that.

Doug:

And what are you sampling today? I see something with peach or strawberry, is that right?

Speaker 13:

Yes, so we brought two of our fruit wines. We brought three sweet wines and three dry wines. I brought a strawberry and a peach from Triple B Farms fruit Our Valley Sunrise is a blend of a red and a white. That's our best seller. Those grapes come from our vineyard. And then I brought our three most popular dry wines is our Repepe White, our repepe rosé and our cabernet.

Doug:

All right, and I have learned this over the years that dry means not sweet.

Speaker 13:

Yes, so dry means no sugar. It doesn't describe the sensation in your mouth. So, those are things that get confused a little bit, but we love, you know, to educate our customers. We do a lot of classes and educational events at our winery where we just like talk through basics of wine tasting and yeah.

Doug:

All right, learn a lot. Yeah, so great she's getting into her cooler. Oh, and she's getting me the peach. I like this.

Speaker 13:

Yes, so our peach is actually made from peaches from Triple B Farms and our property. We have some peach trees on our property. When we make our fruit wines, we do it in the style of a red wine.

Doug:

Okay.

Speaker 13:

So we crush the fruit and then we do the fermentation on the mash so you get color and flavor that you can't get from just the juice, and so you get a lot of like depth, of flavor and aromas, and it's all natural, no artificial color or flavor.

Doug:

All right, they look beautiful. It smells really good, so I'm going to take a sip. Okay, that is delightful. Yeah, I mean it's very. I mean this is one of the sweet wines and it is really drinkable on a warm summer day like today.

Speaker 13:

Yeah and I we've been experimenting a lot with wine spritzers or like a wine cocktail. Yes so cocktail style, without you know, with using our wine, so you can add some sparkling lemonade or you lemonade, or just like a club soda or some fruit, you can do sangria with it.

Doug:

Okay.

Speaker 13:

There's a lot of different things you can do, even if you don't always like sweet wine, and it pairs great with sweet food.

Doug:

Okay, well, we're going to go find some sweet food. Okay, Janelle, from Repepe Winery. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you, okay, we've come inside to the Cheese Queen and we're going to talk to our friend, megan McGinnis. Megan, you were on, I think, episode 39.

Speaker 11:

I was on episode 39. Oh yeah, it was such a great fun time.

Doug:

Well, we love having you and it's always fun to be up in your shop. We're here in Mount Oliver, yeah, and outside I just talked to Chef Aleka and Chef Janet. They're parked right in front.

Speaker 11:

I know and I love having them out there. What a great energy right?

Doug:

Yes, so this market that you all have been doing up in Mount Oliver, it goes on once a month. We're in July, so we've got one more.

Speaker 11:

Yes, and guess what? We're celebrating Cheese Queen anniversary. Oh, that's great.

Doug:

Now tell us about the anniversary. Where are we at?

Speaker 11:

So we are going to be here three years.

Doug:

Wow.

Speaker 11:

That's wonderful.

Speaker 7:

Congratulations.

Speaker 11:

We're really excited. I wanted to. I'm very busy this weekend.

Speaker 7:

I had a very busy weekend with weddings.

Speaker 11:

So actually Cheese Queen anniversary was yesterday. But I'm going to celebrate it because for the farmer's market, because that's how my dad started his business, so I want to bring that together. And my family started their business my grandpa from a farmer's market. I remember as a child running around in a farmer's market. There's something about bringing fresh food to people and making it accessible. That makes me so happy and I want to celebrate that for Cheese Queen.

Doug:

Well, I'm so happy for you. Congratulations, I'm so excited.

Speaker 11:

We're going to have our Cheese Queen cart going. We're going to have our sandwiches a lot of Cheese Queen favorites. We're going to have some special friends popping up. We're going to have music by our dear friend Gianna Rockoff, and she's over there singing today. But she'll be there, and Chef Aleka, chef Janet, all the people here today will be back, and then we'll have some that were here in June. They'll be back and we're going to have a full market in August.

Doug:

And we should remind our listeners too. It's not just vendors that are kind of coming in that don't exist here, it's really a lot of the folks that occupy the street, like yourself, like Flavor of Puerto Rico. We have Nick's on the hilltop that just opened recently, so they're right outside as well, so you're really coming up and getting on the street flavor of what Mount Oliver has to offer all the time.

Speaker 11:

Yes, and then also Triple B Farms is supplying our produce. We love them, and yes, and we at McGinnis, when my family had their stores. We had such a great relationship with them and I'm actually doing their farm events for their date nights out there with my cheese boxes. So it's just kind of working with those partners Amazing.

Doug:

And supporting.

Speaker 11:

And all the local and we have corn today, we have peaches today.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Speaker 11:

We have all those great things.

Speaker 7:

So great so many amazing.

Speaker 11:

It's just supporting the community and there's so many great businesses up here in Montoliver I don't think people know about, so I'm really excited for people to come and kind of experience just the peace. That's right Of what they do, and then they'll be able to come back.

Doug:

Yeah, get up here.

Speaker 11:

Yeah.

Doug:

Now for yeah, Get up here. Yeah, Now for your shop. I know you're doing a lot of weddings, as you said, a lot of catering.

Speaker 11:

Do you still have some open hours? I don't have any open hours. I'm mostly posting pop-ups. That's right when I'm going to be with my cart and I'm going to be doing Lunchables, like sometimes I might post on a Monday. Hey, we're open this Friday. Yes, come in, we'll have these cheeses, we'll have these sandwiches, you know those kinds of things.

Doug:

So folks need to be following you on your socials.

Speaker 11:

Yes, to see where we will be and the cart is just rolling all around Pittsburgh.

Doug:

It is so fun If folks haven't seen that cart they need to.

Speaker 11:

The adult Lunchable is a thing, and we're going to be at Red's Good News this coming Saturday with the cart.

Doug:

Over in Brookline. Brookline, we love Brookline.

Speaker 11:

And we're popping up there from 12 to 4. We'll have the Cheese Queen cart. You can play cornhole. Sit on the picnic tables, enjoy the sunshine, have your lunchable, have your beer.

Doug:

And what's the date for that?

Speaker 11:

August 2nd.

Doug:

All right, it's coming right up.

Speaker 11:

It is.

Doug:

Megan McGinnis, the Cheese Queen. Thank you so much and thanks for inviting me up today. This was really your idea.

Speaker 11:

Doug, I love you so much, we had to have you here Well we love you guys, thank you.

Doug:

Thank you so, Aleka? Yes, Doug. What was the best dish you've had to eat this past week?

:

That's a really good question. We just went to Balvanera. Oh yeah, Down in the strip district, my mom's birthday and they have an empanada there that has the corn and the red pepper in it sounds delicious I have not forgotten about that.

Speaker 10:

That one empanada, that's the best thing I've had spaghetti and meatballs I love spaghetti and meatballs made very well oven roasted salmon and I used some lemongrass from our herb garden in it. It was so good and I just I love using fresh herbs in the summertime. And. I had some really good, like farm fresh potatoes and all that good stuff in it.

Speaker 8:

So yeah, my partner's mom made beef bulgogi. That is so delicious.

Doug:

Oh, I bet, I love bulgogi.

Speaker 6:

I made birria tacos last night, one of my favorite dishes and that kind of that was really good. I was exhausted. I was just like burnt out from the week. That really helped me get back on track. I used some of the onions and cilantro that we grew on there. So good Fantastic.

Speaker 13:

Well, actually I've been cooking with my kids a lot. We made homemade pasta carbonara. Wow, how old are your kids? They're still young. They're 10, 12, and 14, but especially my middle son, he's 12, and he loves to cook. That's a pretty impressive dish. We did. Yeah, we made from scratch. Sounds delicious. We're a pretty impressive dish. We did. Yeah, we made it from scratch. Sounds delicious. We're always trying something new in the kitchen.

Doug:

What was the best dish you had to eat this past week, this past?

Speaker 12:

week. Ooh, I made a soy braised pork chops. It's a recipe that I grew up with in China and it's super simple and it's just homey, it's rich and it's so good over rice.

Speaker 7:

I made sweet and sour chicken that you would get at any Chinese restaurant, but I made it at home and I feel like it might have been a little bit better.

Doug:

Well, because you made it.

Speaker 7:

If you look online, made with Lau L-A-U. He has taught me so much about Cantonese cooking. He used to be a chef at a Chinese restaurant.

Speaker 4:

We're farming and it's hot, and so this week I got really into this Caesar pasta salad and so I added some peas and some kale from the farm and just did it up, and it's something nice that can stay cool and is refreshing, but still has that carby, high density energy I need. Sounds perfect, yes.

Doug:

Rick, the name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you had to eat this past week?

Speaker 3:

I actually had an abundance of cucumbers, so I made a cucumber and tomato salad with parsley, some olive oil and lemon, and I just ate that with some crusty bread with olive oil Perfect that sounds so great for summer. Really good Best bite this week.

Doug:

Thank you. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at DougCooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Selecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.

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