Cook Farm begins first market, with plans for more in the future

Mark and Alicia Cook started the market five weeks ago, with produce & fresh-cut flowers for sale.

Mark and Alicia Cook have started their own market on the Colonel Edward Cook House property, bringing it back to life.

The historical house in Belle Vernon, which is on the National Historic Registry, has been brought back to its original farming roots by the married couple and they’re both excited about it.

“A lot of positive feedback. People seem to be excited that we’re doing this. Something local for them in this area. I also think people are just tired of big box stores,” Mark said. “Now we can maybe get some fresh, homegrown stuff in people’s gardens and so that’s where we’re kinda at with that.”

The Cooks started the market five weeks ago after they decided they wanted to do something different on the property.

The house and the market are located on 350 Cook Road and are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.

The market offers a wide range of produce for shoppers, along with signature fresh-cut flowers that the Cooks grow on the property.

The market has also featured local small businesses like soap maker Meg Fine, and Alicia says they’re actively looking for artisans, especially those who can create anything related to the colonial era.

“We actually just talked to a blacksmith who we’d like to see if he’d like to make some things and sell them in the market as well,” Alicia said.

Businesses that participate in the market are only charged 10% of their total sales, and the Cooks invite other local home gardeners to bring their produce to sell.

The couple has used the historic aspect of the property to attract customers and say it adds to the experience of being in the market.

“We run this out of our spring house. We call it ‘The Cooks Farm: The Market to Remember’ because it is like taking a step into the past when you’re walking through the door,” Mark said. “You’re not walking in Giant Eagle, you’re walking in a spring house, an actual still functioning spring house.”

The Cooks have decorated the inside of the spring house with antiques, giving it a similar look to when it was initially built.

So far their customers’ favorite produce product is tomatoes, and they sell out of them every weekend.

Mark used to be a local wrestling coach, and his favorite part of opening the market has been seeing kids he used to coach come in as grown adults.

“We used to do tours here for the second graders from Rostraver and Marion Elementary school. And now those adults say ‘hey, I remember when we came into this spring house, I remember we walked into the farm house,’” Mark said. “So the history and being able to share the farm with a new generation, and reacquaint myself with friends. That has been the biggest blessing.”

They are expecting to do the market beyond the summer and into the fall and winter as well. They hope to offer pumpkins, corn stalks and hay so people can use the products to decorate for the fall season.

“We hope to be open back up by springtime to be offering things like flowers for Mother’s Day in the spring,” Alicia said. “So we’re hoping that it continues on from year to year. We want to expand and turn it into not just a market but an educational place.”

They also hope to restart tours on the property and give visitors the opportunity to take a walk into the past.

Both Alicia and Mark added that the market isn’t just an effort between them, but also their family members, who have been very supportive in putting everything together.

The Cooks are applying for the property to become a Bicentennial Farm, which recognizes Pennsylvania farms that have been owned by a family for more than 200 years.

The house will be 250 years old in 2026, and they expect to have a major event to celebrate the property and its history.

Mark encourages people to come out and check out the market, especially his wife’s flowers.

“If you need fresh-cut flowers, my wife makes the beautiful, prettiest, awesomest bouquets out there,” he said. “She puts the flower rings. I don’t know how she does it. She can make a dead flower look pretty.”