Mark Smith says that Pittsburgher Highland Farm is his third act. After a childhood on a conventional dairy farm, a career in real estate, and now, as a rancher in the Laurel Highlands, we spoke with him about his commitments to sustainability as well as passion for the majestic Highland Cow.  

Sustainable, Local Meat is Just Better at Pittsburgher Highland Farm

Rancher Mark Smith, co-owner of Pittsburgher Highland Farm, holds a strong belief that his Scottish and Irish ancestors, upon arriving in America, surveyed the rainy, hilly, and rugged terrain of Western Pennsylvania and declared, “Yep, this is home.” Today, as Smith and his business partner, Dana O’Connor, populate their section of the Laurel Highlands with Highland Cattle – distinguished by their unmistakable reddish-brown coats and impressive long horns – it’s not hard to mistake a photograph of their ranch for the breed’s ancestral origins across the pond. 

I came across Pittsburgher Highland at the Bloomfield Farmers Market, where the grass-fed, organic ranchers have vended since 2015. After chatting with O’Connor about her commitment to sustainable meat production and healthy eating, I left the market with one of her favorites: a Delmonico Steak. I prepared the thick and marbled cut as simply as I could, with salt, pepper, a quick sear and a trip to the oven. The steak turned out velvety smooth, subtly sweet, and juicy. It was easily one of the best steaks I’ve ever tasted.  

Growing a Canopy in the Highlands 

“Hiya Bethie!” Smith calls us out to a cow who has been with Pittsburgher since almost the beginning. Like a happy dog, the giantess wags her rope-like tail as she saunters over to inspect the apple in Smith’s outreached palm. 

I’ve joined Smith for one of his weekly tours of the farm. When the weather allows for it, Smith gladly shows interested patrons around the pastoral landscape. Just 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, he and his team house their sows and raise their calves. Eventually, the boys get shipped to their second location down the road to be processed into a large variety of high-quality products for excited customers. 

Smith is not just a Highland Cattle expert. He is an enthusiast, sharing facts about the ancient breed with a childlike excitement and wonder. Smith admits that while most people join the tours because the cows are undeniably cute, he hopes his attendees leave with a greater appreciation and understanding of the hard work it takes to be a farmer, as well as the creativity and trial and error farmers undergo to achieve sustainable outcomes. 

The Growing World of Sustainability

Currently, Smith is really excited about “Silvopasture.” Silvopasture, a portmanteau of the Latin words “silva” (forest) and “pastura” (grazing), refers to the intentional integration of trees, forage, and livestock within a single plot of land. For Smith and O’Connor, that’s 122 acres of rolling green. The result is a multi-layered system, each component benefitting the others in an ecological dance. Silvopasture management will look different on every farm. Snapshots of silvopasture being practiced today show cows roaming through a grass carpeted woodland. Goats munching on the leaves from the branches of black locusts, a jungle gym for pigs made of shiitake inoculated logs, or turkeys strutting around apple trees, stopping to peck at patches of asparagus. 

It’s all so aesthetically pleasing, but the benefits of an integrative pasture don’t stop there. A pasture planted with trees has the potential to sequester five to ten times as much carbon from the atmosphere than a treeless pasture of the same size. Additional trees and forage provide both a soil and canopy habitat for increased biodiversity. Improved soil fertility. Resiliency against erosion. As silvopastoralists, like Smith, manage their farms for both trees and livestock, they can diversify their production with nuts, seeds, fruit, timber, and mushrooms. Shading from trees can provide comfort to cool weather-loving animals like Smith and O’Connor’s highland cows.  

With help from PASA Sustainable Agriculture, the Harrisburg-based organization elevating mid-Atlantic and Northeast farmers, Smith and O’Connor have begun their foray into the leafy practice. To extend their growing season and also create a “big time permaculture,” they hope to plant a mix of Black Locust, high reaching Poplars, and sweeping Willows. 

Plan Your Own Visit to Pittsburgher Highland Farm

Smith and O’Connor have established a ranch so lovely that to many visitors, Smith’s informative walking tour is not enough. At the top of the ranch sits a custom-built, solar powered tiny house that is used to hosting glampers ready to escape the city for a night or two. The “Highland House” offers access to peaceful hiking trails, spectacular stargazing, as well as glimpses at the fuzzy, friendly, and mystifying Highland Cattle.  

Story by Nina Katz
Photography by Jeff Swensen

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Discover the blossoming narrative of Collette Walsh’s Sol Patch Garden, a vibrant urban flower farm nestled in the heart of Braddock. 

The best view of Braddock’s last operating steel mill isn’t from atop Kennywood’s coasters or the iron arches of Rankin Bridge – it’s from amongst the towering rows of crimson amaranth and canary sunflowers of Sol Patch Garden, Collette Walsh’s urban flower farm on Braddock Avenue. 

Though 2023 marked Sol Patch’s first growing season in Braddock, locals have been fanning over Walsh’s floral flair since 2016, when the farmer made the switch from vegetable production to fleurs. Walsh quickly outgrew her original digs – her Grandmother’s Forest Hills backyard and expanded to a half-acre plot at Hilltop Urban Farm. All the while, Walsh prepared the soil and integrity of the farm’s current home in Braddock, where she also happens to live. Now, fully transitioned to farming on the Monongahela, Walsh almost can’t believe how much she has grown, and how much growing she still gets to do. 

Sol Patch is All About “Flowers For the People” 

In making the switch from vegetable to flower production, Walsh saw for herself a more financially stable future, creative expression, and connection to her community. Indeed, “flowers for the people,’ is Walsh’s personal mantra, and the ethos with which she makes decisions for Sol Patch’s future. The perimeter of the deer-proof fence enclosing the garden is densely planted with summer annuals for neighbors to pick and enjoy for free. With each arrangement, Walsh and her team aim to create 3-dimensional collages of touch, smell, and wonder. 

“I want to change this norm around flowers – that they only appear at weddings and funerals,” says Walsh as she floats by a row of her current favorite plantings: the night-blooming Jewels of Opar. She kneels for a closer look at the delicate mist of tiny magenta blossoms, hanging like clouds above their bed of bright green foliage. “Flowers can give us an everyday sensory experience,” Walsh continues as she plucks one of the green leaves and pops it into her mouth. “I’m honored to be making that happen for folks.” 

Braddock Roots 

Western Pennsylvania is full of people who have somehow ended up back where they started. In a connection that Walsh describes as “cosmic,” her family history comes from Braddock, where her Great Great Grandparents operated the Braddock Tannery when the town’s population was in the tens of thousands. Generations of Walsh’s family grew up in a three-mile radius of her half acre flower farm. In November, as Sol Patch’s greens and pinks harden to silver and brown, the winter winds off the river will carry Walsh’s seeds down the winding roads connecting Braddock, Rankin, and Forest Hills, joining the lingering whispers of Walsh’s ancestry. 

The Future of Sol Patch Garden

Beyond her undeniable, familial pull to Braddock, Walsh notes that her love of the borough comes from her affinity for industrial landscapes. She grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn – another industrial, riverfront neighborhood, that like Braddock, is a monument to an uphill battle and sits in the shadows of an American behemoth. 

Sat directly beneath the region’s last operating steel mill, Sol Patch blooms from the furnace. In Red Hook, Walsh grew up with the only front-facing view of the Statue of Liberty New York City has to offer. Beneath the raised torch of Lady Liberty, Walsh became interested in agriculture, raising chickens in her family backyard under the title, “Red Hook Poultry Association.” In present-day Braddock, Walsh and her team often find themselves working in the garden before first light, cutting stems of dahlias while the mill’s pyres burst out flames. Walsh can’t help but think that she is exactly where she is meant to be. 

Every time Walsh drives her truck away from the farm, to sell her fresh or dried flowers at a farmers market, teach bouquet making workshops, or adorn someone’s special occasion with her pretty petals, she passes a sign for Braddock. The sign is also engraved with imagery of the borough’s industrial history. As Walsh looks forward to her future in Braddock, perhaps a zinnia or sunflower would make a fine addition to the welcome banner.   

Story by Nina Katz
Photography by Jeff Swensen

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