A Touch of the Countryside in Union Square

When gardener, Trina Pilonero, brings her organic herbs and vegetables to the Union Square Greenmarket she makes sure she keeps her wolf spiders at home.

Organic herb and vegetable grower, Tina Pilonero, sources plants for her international customers and now grows 300 varieties of tomatoes amongst other things. Shar Adams/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—When gardener, Trina Pilonero, brings her organic herbs and vegetables to the Union Square Greenmarket she makes sure she keeps her wolf spiders at home.

“We pluck them off,” she says “We need them—they are voracious bug eaters’.

Pilonero has been growing organic herbs and vegetables since 1992 and started to bring her produce to Union Square around eight years ago.

She refuses to use any pesticides, including the approved ones, because the sprays kill both the bad bugs and the good ones—like the wolf spider.

It is also a matter of trust with her customers. “They would not buy from me if I was using spray,” she says.

Pilonero’s customers are the reason she makes the trip from her Silver Heights Farm in Sullivan County to the ‘big smoke’ to sell her produce.

“I don’t like cities,” she said. “I don’t like noise and I don’t like traffic but I am very happy I am here.”