More to Oakland’s farmers market than profits

It’s a little hard to imagine a modest farmers market set up on a street that is also… It’s a little hard to imagine a modest farmers market set up on a street that is also surrounded by bars, businesses and pizza shops.

But that’s what Laura Tsyler enjoys about it.

Tsyler drives two hours from Minerva, Ohio, each Friday to come to Oakland with her two daughters to sell her baked goods made from home.

“It’s worth it because I sell a lot,” said Tsyler. “And besides, I like Oakland. It’s always alive.”

Tsyler runs one of the several tents set up every Friday through Nov. 18 from noon until 4 p.m. on Sennott Street between Meyran Avenue and Atwood Street. These family-owned or independently-owned businesses strike a balance between bringing in income and providing a friendly experience for consumers that they couldn’t find at most large supermarket chains.

William Lewis of Oakland comes to the farmers market every week to buy Tsyler’s cashew crunch bars.

“I love this stuff,” Lewis said. “It’s like crack!”

Tsyler said that business for her has increased in the past year.

“It’s mostly through word of mouth,” Tsyler said.

Right beside Tsyler, Ada Miller of Carrollton, Ohio, sells items such as snack crackers, popcorn, pasta and pickles. She tries to purchase as many homegrown products as she can, but she adds different ingredients to “spice it up.”

This is Miller’s first year coming to the Oakland farmers market, and as the weeks progress and people hear about what she sells, she said that her sales have increased.

When Miller heard about the Tsylers coming to Oakland, bringing in profits and fun experiences, she decided that she wanted to be a part of that. That kind of growth, both in individuals bolstering markets and founding new ones has been part of a national trend.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a national directory of farmers markets known to be operating in the U.S. Between 2010 and this year, the number of farmers markets has increased 17 percent.

And even though those at the farmers market have to adjust to a new time of the market, they still continue to come each week.

In past years, the farmers market was between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., which some of the vendors preferred.

Marie Dillner from Dillner Family Farm in Gibsonia, Pa., has been coming to Oakland for three years, but she has seen a significant decline in customers at her tent.

She attributes the lack of business to the new hours conflicting with working hours.

She said that people come during their breaks, but they tend to purchase more baked goods, which can hold over until it is time to go home. Produce tends to be more difficult to take back to work.

Dillner Farms provides various kinds of vegetables and fruits organized in baskets. Dillner comes to Oakland while the owners, her parents, Don and Jane, stay back at the farm.

Tsyler, on the other hand, had an almost completely bare table by 4 p.m.

“The bacon, egg and cheese bread — people come and get that every week,” Tsyler said.

Deanna Hitchcock, who operates a tent at the corner of Sennott Street and Meyran Avenue, sells vegan and gluten-free items, such as cinnamon buns, cookies, cupcakes and muffins.

“It’s hard to find a lot of gluten-free food,” Hitchcock said.

By the end of the day, her table had only a few items left to choose from.

“You have gluten-free?” a woman asked.

But when Hitchcock said that her gluten-free goods were sold out, the disappointed woman said that she would be back next week.

Theresa Clark, who works in Pitt housing, said that because she has a break around 11:30 a.m., she is able to walk down to the farmers market to buy some goods before returning to her shift.

Before buying some rolls from Dino Lopreciato’s tent, she moves on to buy some cabbage from Dillner’s.

“I’ll see you next week,” Clark said as she walked away.

Lopreciato runs a tent selling different freshly-baked Italian breads such as pepperoni bread — which was sold out by the end of the day.

“Everything is made by hand,” Lopreciato said. “It’s a much better quality.”

He said that business seems to have increased from past years, but he can’t tell if the time change has really influenced sales because of the bad weather in the past few weeks.

He and his mother, father and brother, who are from Calabria, Italy, bake the items at their bakery, Vibo’s Italian Bakery, in Brackenridge, Pa.

“When a family owns a business, they care about the business,” Lopreciato said.