Antonio Hernandez / Roundup, Petrina Roudebush / Roundup
It’s not every day that the hustle of traffic melds with the alluring smell of fresh fruit and laughter.
Where the country rests only a few feet away from the daily grind of city life.
Yet on the corner of Victory Boulevard and De Soto Avenue, that is exactly what many will find at the Pierce College Farm Market; a place that is impervious to the choking smog and car horns that surround it.
Home to a various amount of food vendors and attractions, the Farm Market seems to hold promise.
“It’s such a unique property, it’s going to be great,” said Lee Ostendorf, the acting Farm Market manager. Ostendorf has seen a lot of farm markets in her day as well, overseeing them for a total of 16 years.
The Pierce College Farmers Market is her seventh event, and already she views this to be vastly unique compared to the rest. This is mostly due to the fact that it’s specifically on a farm, a first for markets of this type.
“A lot of times we bring animals to the market, but they already have them here. They live here,” said Ostendorf as she stared out near the entrance to the market.
Past that entrance lay a collection of booths and produce distributors.
One of whom, being Craig Matthews, a connoisseur of antique farm engines. Flanked by a 1936 International Harvester, Matthews stands ready to answer questions over the loud piping of its pump-jack.
“I’ve always been interested in engines, I worked on them when I was a kid,” said Matthews, “I lived back east and there were a lot of engine shows. I went to a state fair in Richmond, Va. and they had a lot of these engines out. Since then I’ve always been interested.”
His interest has led to a collection of more than 14 engines and they don’t come cheap either. The price for an engine usually cost between $500 to $600, but Matthews doesn’t believe that money is the point.
“The first time I saw one running I was in awe,” said Matthews. He also attended Pierce from 1976 to 1979, where he earned a certificate in mechanical design.
All around Matthews, there were things to partake in, including jewelry vendors, a small train for children, an inflatable slide, caricature drawings and a petting zoo.
“We went on the Carousel, it’s an antique and we are going to go on the train ride then we are going to buy her a bracelet,” said Anib Nahmias as her daughter, Stella Nahmias, got off the pony rides. “We plan on taking some fruits and vegetables home too.”
Nahmias wasn’t the only visitor to notice the fruits and vegetables for sale. Eva Prado has frequented Pierce’s Markets before and stumbled across the Farmers Market recently since she works across the street. The strawberries are what do it in for her.
“These strawberries, they are just so sweet. When I buy them, I buy them at another area and they are simply just not as sweet,” Prado said.
With fruit in hand she left, back into the city that so many forgot existed when they stepped under the wood sign that read “Pierce College Farm Market”.
