Welcome back to the season of fresh! The 2010 season kicks off this Saturday, May 1 with some exciting new features! Though I have loved the winter turnips and apples, I am happy to start chowing down on my spring favorites of asparagus, peas, pea shoots, strawberries and rhubarb! The weather will be gorgeous, the music will be toe-tapping, and the farmers are excited to see old friends and new faces!
New this is year is Smallwood’s Veggieporium from Berryville, VA. Certified Naturally Grown, they have the full range of produce you expect at MtPFM plus some unusual new items to look for later in the season: epazote, edamame, bitter melon, chrysanthemum and more! This week they are promising to fill your basket with spinach, lettuce, collards, kale, wild watercress, cut herbs, and bedding plants including blooming sunflowers, more types of cherry tomato than you’ve ever heard of, regular tomatoes, okra, lettuces, kale, chard and herbs. They’ll have school garden asparagus for sale by a real high school student farmer – all proceeds go to benefit Clark County High School. Check out their gorgeous potted herb towers for your balcony…or Mother’s Day Gift (I want one).
Look for Truck Patch Farms, selling produce, meat and eggs, in their new location next to the bandstand. This week, Bryan had to get a picture of himself picking strawberries in April, he was so amazed! Come very very early for a handful of the first strawberries of the season! Or just wait ’til next week when they’ll be fat and juicy. Tons of asparagus in purple and green, including the extra tender, deeply flavorful, thick stemmed stalks from older roots. That’s right, I said “thicker stem = tenderer”…it was news to me too last year, but now it makes perfect sense – ask about it. Lettuce, salad mix, arugula, Bright Lights and red Swiss chard, curly kale, cut herbs: sage, chives, garlic chives, and mint. Pork and beef, no chickens yet, but lots of eggs.
Groff’s Content Farm: Family farm raises 100% grass-fed and -finished lamb and beef on organic fields, pastured Berkshire pork, beautiful pastured eggs and chickens. Yummy dog treats and ask for nice big bones. Ask about ordering her fresh, farm processed chickens in a couple weeks and about her neighbor’s rabbits!
Quaker Valley Orchards: Gorgeous asparagus in green and the slightly sweeter purple. Pink Lady, Fuji, and Golden Delicious winter apples. Applesauce, honey, new jam flavors, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, canned peaches. Some bad news and some good news: Fredi refuses to make pies anymore, but she is now releasing her cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple pie fillings in jars for you to do with as you please! I’ve not had time (or confidence) to make a pie crust yet, but at our house the cherry pie filling was delicious in the center of oatmeal chocolate chip thumbprint cookies, the blackberry pie filling went atop seared venison medallions, and the blueberry became an ice cream topping with some Atwater granola. Meanwhile, our family is still absolutely hooked on Fredi’s strawberry jam and tomato sauce until those seasons start!
Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company will appear at market every week this year! Offering the most local dairy products in DC (just 25 miles up from the Beltway in Boyds, MD), and featured in all kinds of fancy restaurants and delis. You can get their amazing, creamy cheeses at your own little neighborhood farmers’ market!
Reid Orchard: Pink lady and Fuji apples, apple cider, and canned goods, plus Caitlin’s amazing selection of garden starts! Veggies: Indian corn, zucchini, patty pan, eggplant, possibly some sweet and hot peppers, and the first round of heirloom tomatoes. Herbs: every kind of mint imaginable (Julep, Kentucky Colonel, Chocolate, Peppermint, Pineapple, Spearmint), stevia, Vietnamese coriander, sweet woodruff, santolina, fragrant ornamental curry, bronze fennel, basil (African Blue, Genovese, Sweet), chives, garlic chives, cilantro, lavender (Fern Leaf, Goodwin Creek, Hidcote, Munstead, Provence, Sweet), lemon balm, lemon verbena, oregano (Greek, Hot & Spicy, Italian), curly and Italian parsley, rosemary (Arp, Creeping, Gorizia, Mrs. Howard’s Creeping, Tuscan Blue), sage (Berggarten, Grower’s Friend, Pineapple, Purple, Tricolor), sweet marjoram, French tarragon, thyme (Coconut, English, Golden, Lemon, Lime, Silver Edged, White Flowering), and winter savory.
Richfield Farm: Asparagus, spinach, spring onions, rhubarb, hanging flower baskets, herb starts.
Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, French Baguette, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and granola.
Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas are great for sandwiches, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.
Una Vendedora Mysteriosa: I have a space reserved for an ultimate-in-local MtP neighborhood producer to sell an authentic Latino food…
We’ll be missing some favorite vendors this season. Both Painted Hand (the delightful Sandy with her goat and veal) and Keswick Creamery (cow cheese and yogurt) found that Saturday markets were too tasking to themselves, their families, and their livestock. Look for them on Sundays at my favorite far-mar in Bloomingdale (opens May 16th). Tree and Leaf Farm bought a new farm over the winter – 60 acres with forest and water in Spotsylvania. They have a lot of work ahead of them, and they have decided to scale back their DC markets to just Dupont Circle on Sundays. Look for them there to get your favorite greens!
New partnerships:
Second Saturdays at Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market are Latino Family Day! Local, lively, Latino music, fresh, hot Latino foods, Spanish speaking information and nutrition education, opportunities to practice conversational Spanish, bike safety give-aways and more! This all day event organized by the Latino Association of Mount Pleasant (LAMP) and the Latino Federation of Greater Washington (LFGW) includes the market in the morning, followed by a free picnic and events in the afternoon, and a Latino movie night (with English subtitles) sponsored by Mt Pleasant Main Street. Watch for our first Latino Family Day on May 8th.
Beep beep! Look out for the Compost Cab! Learn about a new service in the Mt P neighborhood will pick up your organics each week and ensure that your kitchen scraps are put to good use by a local, not-for-profit urban farm that turns it into soil to grow food for the community. Later this Spring, we’ll be partnering with them for free compost drop-off at the market once a month.
Mount Pleasant Main Street will host a booth at market every other week this year, starting with this Saturday, May 1, in anticipation of the Mount Pleasant Music Fest and International Workers’ Day Festival from 2p-7p. Bands, DJs, raffle, giveaways, and food for sale!
Don Juan Restaurant across the street to the south is planning outdoor seating with coffee and breakfast items! If they see a lot of market traffic, we’ll work on helping them feature market products: think pancakes topped with Quaker Valley Orchards blackberry pie filling, Cherry Glen Goat Cheese quesadillas, jalapenos, etc. Ask about their kiddie yard too!
Farmers’ Market Bike Clinic is back this season to top off your tires, lube your chain, tighten you brakes, fit your helmet, and do whatever it takes to keep you on the road and loving your bike! Always looking for more volunteers of any skill level – especially interested in low skilled volunteers and Spanish speaking help.
If you’re interested in volunteer activities at market, we have lots of little things to do! We’d love to have your help, and there’s always a little perq involved. Please sign up on our Volunteer Calendar!
Heard about Facebook? We’re there now too at Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market DC faceplace! Or sign up for our jibbering Twitters at twitter.com/MtPFarMar.
May 1 – 2010 Opening Day
Welcome back to the season of fresh! The 2010 season kicks off this Saturday, May 1 with some exciting new features! Though I have loved the winter turnips and apples, I am happy to start chowing down on my spring favorites of asparagus, peas, pea shoots, strawberries and rhubarb! The weather will be gorgeous, the music will be toe-tapping, and the farmers are excited to see old friends and new faces!
New this is year is Smallwood’s Veggieporium from Berryville, VA. Certified Naturally Grown, they have the full range of produce you expect at MtPFM plus some unusual new items to look for later in the season: epazote, edamame, bitter melon, chrysanthemum and more! This week they are promising to fill your basket with spinach, lettuce, collards, kale, wild watercress, cut herbs, and bedding plants including blooming sunflowers, more types of cherry tomato than you’ve ever heard of, regular tomatoes, okra, lettuces, kale, chard and herbs. They’ll have school garden asparagus for sale by a real high school student farmer – all proceeds go to benefit Clark County High School. Check out their gorgeous potted herb towers for your balcony…or Mother’s Day Gift (I want one).
Look for Truck Patch Farms, selling produce, meat and eggs, in their new location next to the bandstand. This week, Bryan had to get a picture of himself picking strawberries in April, he was so amazed! Come very very early for a handful of the first strawberries of the season! Or just wait ’til next week when they’ll be fat and juicy. Tons of asparagus in purple and green, including the extra tender, deeply flavorful, thick stemmed stalks from older roots. That’s right, I said “thicker stem = tenderer”…it was news to me too last year, but now it makes perfect sense – ask about it. Lettuce, salad mix, arugula, Bright Lights and red Swiss chard, curly kale, cut herbs: sage, chives, garlic chives, and mint. Pork and beef, no chickens yet, but lots of eggs.
Groff’s Content Farm: Family farm raises 100% grass-fed and -finished lamb and beef on organic fields, pastured Berkshire pork, beautiful pastured eggs and chickens. Yummy dog treats and ask for nice big bones. Ask about ordering her fresh, farm processed chickens in a couple weeks and about her neighbor’s rabbits!
Quaker Valley Orchards: Gorgeous asparagus in green and the slightly sweeter purple. Pink Lady, Fuji, and Golden Delicious winter apples. Applesauce, honey, new jam flavors, novelty popping corn-on-the-cob, canned peaches. Some bad news and some good news: Fredi refuses to make pies anymore, but she is now releasing her cherry, blackberry, blueberry and apple pie fillings in jars for you to do with as you please! I’ve not had time (or confidence) to make a pie crust yet, but at our house the cherry pie filling was delicious in the center of oatmeal chocolate chip thumbprint cookies, the blackberry pie filling went atop seared venison medallions, and the blueberry became an ice cream topping with some Atwater granola. Meanwhile, our family is still absolutely hooked on Fredi’s strawberry jam and tomato sauce until those seasons start!
Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Company will appear at market every week this year! Offering the most local dairy products in DC (just 25 miles up from the Beltway in Boyds, MD), and featured in all kinds of fancy restaurants and delis. You can get their amazing, creamy cheeses at your own little neighborhood farmers’ market!
Reid Orchard: Pink lady and Fuji apples, apple cider, and canned goods, plus Caitlin’s amazing selection of garden starts! Veggies: Indian corn, zucchini, patty pan, eggplant, possibly some sweet and hot peppers, and the first round of heirloom tomatoes. Herbs: every kind of mint imaginable (Julep, Kentucky Colonel, Chocolate, Peppermint, Pineapple, Spearmint), stevia, Vietnamese coriander, sweet woodruff, santolina, fragrant ornamental curry, bronze fennel, basil (African Blue, Genovese, Sweet), chives, garlic chives, cilantro, lavender (Fern Leaf, Goodwin Creek, Hidcote, Munstead, Provence, Sweet), lemon balm, lemon verbena, oregano (Greek, Hot & Spicy, Italian), curly and Italian parsley, rosemary (Arp, Creeping, Gorizia, Mrs. Howard’s Creeping, Tuscan Blue), sage (Berggarten, Grower’s Friend, Pineapple, Purple, Tricolor), sweet marjoram, French tarragon, thyme (Coconut, English, Golden, Lemon, Lime, Silver Edged, White Flowering), and winter savory.
Richfield Farm: Asparagus, spinach, spring onions, rhubarb, hanging flower baskets, herb starts.
Atwater Bread: Organic sourdough and yeasted breads: Peasant Wheat, Caraway Rye, Cranberry Pecan, Kalamata Olive, traditional San Francisco Sourdough, Ciabatta, Country White, Chili Cheddar, French Baguette, Spelt, Sunflower Flax, and more. Brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, and granola.
Panorama Bakery: Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, mini ciabattas are great for sandwiches, sliced loaves, danishes, sticky buns, apple turnovers.
Una Vendedora Mysteriosa: I have a space reserved for an ultimate-in-local MtP neighborhood producer to sell an authentic Latino food…
We’ll be missing some favorite vendors this season. Both Painted Hand (the delightful Sandy with her goat and veal) and Keswick Creamery (cow cheese and yogurt) found that Saturday markets were too tasking to themselves, their families, and their livestock. Look for them on Sundays at my favorite far-mar in Bloomingdale (opens May 16th). Tree and Leaf Farm bought a new farm over the winter – 60 acres with forest and water in Spotsylvania. They have a lot of work ahead of them, and they have decided to scale back their DC markets to just Dupont Circle on Sundays. Look for them there to get your favorite greens!
New partnerships:
If you’re interested in volunteer activities at market, we have lots of little things to do! We’d love to have your help, and there’s always a little perq involved. Please sign up on our Volunteer Calendar!
Heard about Facebook? We’re there now too at Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market DC faceplace! Or sign up for our jibbering Twitters at twitter.com/MtPFarMar.