H STREET: Farmer's Market Opens Saturday

A new farmers' market will be opening on June 5 in the 600 block of H Street NE, in the parking lot directly across the street from H Street Self Storage. The market will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the season lasting from June 5 through Oct. 30. The H Street NE market will be operated by FreshFarm Markets, which runs five other farmers' markets in the greater D.C. metropolitan area.

There will be a special cooking demonstration at 11 a.m. on Opening Day sponsored by Sur La Table. Chef Frank Linn, sous chef at Sur La Table's Cooking Table, will be demonstrating cooking with seasonal vegetables. Recipes and food samples will be available.

The farmers' market will begin with seven farmers, but other producers have expressed an interest to FreshFarm Markets. Expect as many as 10 operators by the end of the season. So far, FreshFarm has commitments from Gardeners' Gourmet, Md. (greens from arugula to collards and salad mix, seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs); Highfield Dairy, Penn. (goat and cow's milk cheeses, eggs, pork, beef, seven-grain and wheat breads, fruit sorbets); Toigo Orchards, Penn. (seasonal fruits and vegetables; greenhouse tomatoes; heirloom tomato pasta sauces and salsas, honey, horseradish); Ashbank Farm, Va. (hydroponic tomatoes and cucumbers, lilies grown in greenhouse; preserves); Quaker Valley Orchard, Penn. (seasonal fruits, including cherries, peaches, berries, apples, pears; pastries from seasonal fruit); Cedarbrook Farm, W.Va. (organic vegetables and berries, eggs; later in the season duck and pork from Heritage breeds); and D&S Farm, Md. (lots of berries, including strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches and apples).

All FreshFarm Markets are producer-only, which means that farmers/producers must grow or produce what they sell at market. All of the farmers are from a 150-mile radius of Washington, from the states of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In order to qualify, farmers complete an application that includes crop plans and a farm map. The farms are then inspected before they can qualify. Annual inspections continue, so that FreshFarm Markets can see and learn about the current crops, growing practices, etc.

The first FreshFarm Market started at Dupont Circle in 1997, at the1500 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW, between Q Street and Massachusetts Avenue and the adjacent Riggs Bank parking lot (Sundays, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., open all year) and now showcases the products from approximately 30 growers. Other FreshFarm Markets are at Penn Quarter, on 8th Street NW just below E Street (Thursdays, 3-5 p.m., May through October); Georgetown, at Hyde Elementary School, 3219 O St. NW (Saturday, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., May through October); St. Michaels, Md., in Muskrat Park on the Eastern Shore (Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. - noon, May through October). FreshFarm Markets was co-founded and is still co-directed by Bernadine (Bernie) Prince and Ann Harvey Yonkers. They are both residents of the District of Columbia.

H Street NE with be the newest market and is the result of a partnership project with the H Street Main Street Program and the D.C. Office of Planning.

The mission of the FreshFarm Markets is to connect city dwellers with farmers and their locally grown food, educate the public about food and farming issues, provide vital economic opportunities for farmers, and celebrate the Chesapeake Bay watershed region's agricultural heritage and bounty.

For more information about FreshFarm Markets, visit their Web site at http://www.freshfarmmarkets.org. To receive a weekly market e-mail that provides the most current list of seasonal market foods and market events, send an e-mail to bernie@freshfarmmarkets.org. Thanks for supporting our local farmers with your food dollars! §