As local as you want it: An afternoon at the Kennett Square Farmers' Market

The barbecued chicken you can smell on the State Street sidewalks every Friday afternoon these days isn't the only thing at the Kennett Square Farmers' Market that's hot.

The market, which opened for the season on Friday, May 15, provides plenty of something even hotter: top-quality local food. A visit there will give you a quick introduction to some two dozen of the Chester County area's top producers of local vegetables, other foods, and a variety of handcrafted artisanal products.

Plenty of shoppers showed up for opening day, because local food is a talked-about topic lately, and what people are saying is that it makes more sense for the planet and your palate to get local food in its prime than it does to get an underripe tomato from a thousand miles away.

"Buy Fresh, Buy Local" is the mantra, and it's been catching on in the 10 years since Claire Murray of Inverbrook Farm and Doug Harris of The Paper Market started the market. Today it happens every Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. from May 15 through October, in the Genesis walkway off State Street, just east of Union Street, and along the State Street sidewalk.

In its first year, about five vendors took part. Today, it's about 25, with two of the originals, Inverbrook Farm and Big Sky Bread Co. still involved.

The Big Sky breads were a hot item, and so was the ready-to-eat barbecued chicken. Early season vegetables such as lettuce and rhubarb were available, and if you wanted ideas for preparing them you could see cooking demonstrations by Denise Sheehan and Yvonne Post of Cooking for Real taste the results. Other booths sold handcrafted or artisanally produced jellies and jams, chocolates, dog treats, soap, and a variety of other goods.

The theme for year 10 is "Decade of Delicious," says Abigail Morgan, one of the market's coordinators, along with Hailey Cohn and Sarah Reese. The market is run under the auspices of Historic Kennett Square (HKS), and according to Morgan HKS Executive Director Mary Hutchins has helped the borough and market to interact, with Hutchins securing grant money and making sure ample parking is available.

It's a win-win situation, Morgan says: Local farmers have an outlet, and the borough gets a weekly event where people can mingle and shop, which helps make the town a destination. Local merchants benefit from the increased foot traffic, and organizations that produce and promote local food and sustainable agriculture can distribute literature to people with an interest in the subject.

The market's popularity has benefited from increased interest in locally produced food generated by word of mouth and national media, including the Obamas' organic White House garden. "That's a huge part of it, definitely," Morgan says.

A couple of tips to know: The market has certain vendors who only come out for First Friday, when many of Kennett's shops and galleries stay open late. And there are special events coming up, according to Morgan, including a "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" festival on July 17, with live music and cooking demonstrations (Philadelphia singer-songwriter Chris Kasper supplied the music on May 15).

Several of the vendors on the market debut May 15 offered seedlings (also known as plant starts) for tomatoes and other vegetables. One such vendor is Happy Cat Organics, which specializes in heirloom plant varieties, and in helping people grow them. Selling plants makes good sense for a market that specializes in local foods, as one visitor said, because food grown at home is the most local food you can get. But if you don't have time, space, or the inclination for a garden of your own, or you want artisanal bread, hot chicken, and lots of other locally produced foods and other stuff, the Kennett Square Farmers Market is well worth checking out.