Pamela Boyar, who runs the 9-year-old Sunset Valley Farmers Market in Southwest Austin, is a fast-talking, energetic woman with a shock of auburn hair. Boyar’s peers in the North American Farm Direct Marketing Association recently selected her as Farmers Market Manager of the Year for the U.S. and Canada, an honor which, in her line of work, is akin to winning the Oscar for Best Actress. When I arrive at the market around 11 a.m. on this chilly Saturday morning, the rush has subsided and Boyar can finally take a break. Not that that’s her style.

We sit at one of the tables that has been set up in front of a small stage where “Jimmy Joe,” a regular performer, is between sets. My questions about the market and its origins compete with the steady stream of vendors who wander over to chat with Boyar and to see the photos we’re looking at on my laptop. “Show him this one,” Boyar says excitedly as Peter Steinhardt, who manages the website, joins us. “You’re a very attractive woman,” Steinhardt tells her when we reach a picture of Boyar winning her recent award. She does indeed look radiant in the photo, grinning triumphantly, holding a giant bouquet of roses in her arms.

Soon we’re up and touring the market, passing local pecans and bell peppers, several jewelry booths and Austin Natural Soap. “I still have nine of the original twelve vendors,” Boyar says to me, gesturing to the booth, which offers handmade soap in scents such as Vanilla Dream and Texas Peach.

At Raw Essentials, a recent addition to the market, an attractive, willowy woman named Mystica Linworth eagerly presses samples on me. “I’m so excited about this food,” she gushes, urging me to try the pecan butter, which tastes amazingly like cookie dough. The food has not been cooked at above 116 degrees in order to preserve its enzymes, which raw foodists believe are essential to health and longevity.

We wander on, passing the fragrant Kettle Corn booth and Groovy Greens, which sells sprouts and wheatgrass. “This looks much better than last week,” Boyar tells an herb vendor, whose wares are attractively placed in baskets. She is very much in action, her attention to every detail apparent. As we circle the market, with vendors stopping Boyar to say hello or give her some piece of news, I begin to understand why she received her recent award.

Boyar asks if I’m hungry and I am, so we stop at Empanadas La Boca, which offers not just empanadas, but thick-crust pizza and Greek specialties as well. “We have a lot of farmers market kids,” Boyar tells me, gesturing to the teenagers helping their parents at the booth. Fifteen-year-old Corrina LaGuardia, a Westlake High School student who also spends each Saturday morning helping her parents at the booth, agrees. “This is our life now,” she says.

Along with Italian and Greek specialties, the market offers what Boyar calls an “ethnic food court.” Vendors sell homemade prepared Ethiopian, German, and Thai food, Oaxacan tamales and other eclectic delicacies. Several vendors offer cheese and dairy products as well as all-natural beef, buffalo, and pork. A few local restaurants have booths, too, including Eastside Café and Sweetish Hill Bakery. As Tiara Payne, who helps Boyar at the orientation booth, points out, “It’s the best place around to get a continental breakfast.”

Even on the cold morning I visit the market, it’s hopping. During spring and summer, the number of vendors increases from 80 to 120 or so, and the number of visitors rises, too. About once a month, Boyar organizes some kind of festival to honor a holiday or in-season crop, and there’s always plenty to do for the kids. For Halloween, Boyar organized a haunted house; for Christmas, kids decorated gingerbread cookies. During berry season, adults benefit from the festivals too, enjoying cobbler, pies, salsa and other delicacies.

Boyar first held the market at Westlake High School, but it expanded so much that she moved it to its new location in Sunset Valley, just outside of Southwest Austin, in 2004–a relationship that has proved symbiotic. “The city of Sunset Valley has been incredible,” Boyar tells me, citing a recent marketing grant that the market received in January. And the market is doing wonders for the city, too, having been recognized by the Audubon Society as one of the country’s top ten farmers markets.

It’s clear that much of this success is due to Boyar’s efforts. With a marketing background and years spent working as an “organic forager” for top chefs during the height of California cuisine, she understands the farm-to-table business from multiple angles, and no detail escapes her eagle eye. “She’s got all these hands. It’s easy for her,” Payne says. “She’s an amazing woman.”