Editor's note: Every week our New Jersey correspondent Brian Yarvin checks in with a dispatch from the Garden State. This week we've sent him just over the river to a farmers' market that popped up last year in Philadelphia.

The Headhouse Market, on Headhouse Square in Philadelphia, is just a hop, skip, and a jump from New Jersey and does a remarkable job giving great farmers a place to put their best in front of discerning consumers. The market was started last year by The Food Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing great food into urban Philadelphia. This group does all sorts of things including working with gardeners, farmers, and urban schools, and the market fits in well with its other activities. Nicky Uy, The Food Trust's project coordinator told me that it has thrived from the day it opened and always draws crowds. At the corner of Second and Lombard Streets near downtown, it wasn't all that hard to find. Although parking was expensive at the site, I found a free space less than three blocks away.

The whole market was supposed to fit under a long, open shelter, but on the day I was there, it was spilling onto surrounding sidewalks. As I waded through the crowds, I started recognizing vendors. Griggstown Quail Farm, one of the Jersey's finest poultry producers, was there. Tom Culton was drawing his usual mob as another Lancaster County specialty producer, Yoder Heirlooms, startled me with his quality and variety of tomatoes and eggplants. There was no way I could shop from a list; the distractions were too compelling. Eggs with pastel-colored shells, my home state's best berries—even the carrots were crying out to me.

I needed a break and sat down, only to find a cooking demonstration by Pat Willard, the author of America Eats!, preparing Brunswick stew. I've often confused this dish with its stew cousin burgoo, but Pat straightened me out—and I promptly forgot her clear answer.

Back in the fray, the crowd was notably chic and fussy. They were the types of people to buy one carrot at a time. I tried to imagine such a business in central New Jersey, where people buy five pounds of spinach or ten pounds of potatoes, but all I could picture was my neighbors complaining about the high prices.

So what's worth buying? Tom Culton's intense tomatoes and Queen's Farms' unusual, deeply-flavored mushrooms. But the real answer is: everything is worth buying. I can't comment on the beauty products, but when it comes to food, this is the place. How good would life be if all produce tasted like this?

For right-then-and-there eating, go for coffee, baked goods, and the amazing, authentic tacos inside a Mexican tent. Still though, this is mostly a place for cooks. As the market wound down, I had the following dialogue with one New Jersey vendor:

Me: "Why do I have to leave the state to get great New Jersey ingredients?"

Him: "What?"

Me: "You've never been to Collingswood?"

(I hadn't. While I've visited most markets in the Jersey suburbs of New York, Collingswood, a Jersey suburb of Philadelphia, is not one of them. Stay tuned for that one...)

About the author: Brian Yarvin is an educator, photographer, and author of three cookbooks; Farms and Foods of the Garden State, Cucina Piemontese, and A World of Dumplings. He lives in New Jersey, and every week will share with us another food discovery from the "sixth borough" of New York City.

The Headhouse Farmers' Market

Headhouse Square, 2nd and Lombard Streets, Philadelphia PA 19176 (map)
thefoodtrust.org/headhouse