A Father's Day Farmer's Market

One of the regular events that defines the sense of community in Takoma Park, Maryland is the Sunday Farmer's Market. Opening in the summer of 1983, it was the first Sunday farmer's market in the greater Washington, D.C. region; and being that Takoma Park is basically ground zero for the Christian denomination known as the Seventh Day Adventists (who call Saturday the Sabbath and treat Sunday like any other of the remaining 6 days of the week, it makes perfect sense.)

The little statue in the foreground of the above image is a bronze of "Roscoe the Rooster." Roscoe is the unofficial mascot of Takoma Park. Something of a local gadfly in his day. No one knows were he came from, and though his stay amongst us was a brief one, his untimely demise against the undercarriage of an ill-driven SUV left a void in the hearts of those who knew him best. One that eventually necessitated this monument as a memorial to him. It's the kind of thing that explains the gestalt of my city better that any diatribe or academic paper could even hope to. And week in and week out, there he now sits, Lord of the Sunday Farmer's Market.

Of course, it's not the statue of Roscoe that brings hundreds and hundreds of people to the couple of dozen stalls each week. It's the produce. This week, early season fruit (blackberries, raspberries, blue berries, and cherries), all manner of greens (lettuce, chard, tot soy, celery, parsley, cilantro, arugula, dandy lion), tons of squash/Zucchini (mostly medium to small in size), crates of sugar snap peas, and tomatoes seemed to dominate. You could also find some really beautiful pickling cucumbers, and in one stand there were beets to die for!. The problem, of course, is the price.

With most of the major chains in this area; (Safeway, Giant, Shopper's Food Warehouse) now offering a wide variety of organic produce at prices that undercut these farmers--sometimes by 50%--my heart is torn.

Besides the produce there are other reasons to shop here on a Sunday morning. There are the cut flowers and the nursery flowers. There is an organic egg man who usually has a line of about 20 people by the time the place opens for business and continues to require some patient queuing as long as his supply lasts. There is an organic butcher with meat products of all sorts. There are two bakeries which make every sort of bread and role and cookie and cupcake and scone and well you get the picture. There's at least one organic dairy which focuses on cheeses. There is also one to two honey booths.

My favorite stops include the "Green Hippie Farm" (not it's real name, this is my moniker). This collection of retro flower-children entrepreneurs focus their efforts on greens. They introduced me to the wonders of Tot Soy, and they grow this hyper rich deep green pseudo-parsleyesque cultivar of Celery that kicks up anything that you could possibly add celery to to a higher-power of gastronomical satisfaction. We're talking soups, salads, stuffing, rice dishes, you name it, I'm there. They had the luscious looking beets today.

Another is the bakery run by the Hispanic family. They know bread and how to make it so it's eggshell crusty on the outside and chewy-soft and butter-ready on the inside.

So with limited funds, how did I spend my cash today? A loaf of cheese bread ($5) to last me the week. And a cluster of tomatoes, $5.50. There is no reason to buy a tomato that you will not actually enjoy eating. But I'll be pining over the beets all week.....