Chris Upton and Chrissie Felkins choose a two-pound grass-fed London broil at the Alexandria Farmer’s market to take to friends for a Saturday night barbecue. Kinsley Coulter of Coulter Farms sells beef and pork as well as cheeses and eggs. Shirley Ruhe
It was dark on the farm as Kinsley Coulter got up at 2 a.m. to load his truck and drive the 150 miles from Juniata County, Pa. to the Alexandria Farmer's market on Saturday. "We've been doing this every week for six years," he said, and they also come on Tuesday and Thursday to the Crystal City and Ballston Farmer's Markets.
Bicycles ride up to the corner of the market, mothers push baby carriages, customers squeeze past each other, and a couple of friends whoop and hug at the surprise of seeing each other at the market. A crowd gathers around Coulter's containers lined side by side with small cheese cubes with toothpicks handy for sampling.
"We make 16 kinds of cheese, all from our organic milk," Coulter said. Squares of plastic-wrapped emmenthal sit next to small curls of curd cheese, two of the favorites. On down the line are Gouda, pepper jack, muffaletta and homemade butter. "Which one did you like?" he asks a frequent customer. "It's easy to make good cheese if you start with good milk." Coulter has 35 dairy cows that are milked by his sons. Today two of his four daughters, Eunice and Shawna, dressed in white caps and long bright dresses, are waiting on customers and keeping the table full of cheeses and milk. "We also make our own yogurt. Dairy is the centerpiece of our business," he said.
Coulter walks over to a white freezer and opens the lid. "We have vanilla, chocolate and coffee ice cream in here made with just cream, eggs and organic sugar the old-fashioned way." But he points out that people don't come to a farmer's market looking for ice cream. Still sales have doubled since last year but it isn't an explosive growth item. He runs the business with his family including his wife and seven children and four hired girls from church. “We enjoy our work.”
A blackboard advertises beef 100% grass-fed as well as pork. His farm has 20 pigs and also 150 lambs. Coulter has removed a two-pound piece of London broil from an ice chest which Chris Upton and Chrissy Felkins contemplate for a barbecue with friends tonight. Upton volunteers in less than a year that Chrissy's last name will be Upton, too. "I can't wait," he said. They pick up a bottle of chocolate milk to complete their purchase. Another customer selects a package of beef sizzlers plus a carton of brown eggs.
At the end of the table, festively decorated jars full of honey are lined up in neat rows. Cartons of brown eggs sit on wooden crates nearby. Coulter says they started last year with 53 bee hives but lost some over the winter. The honey is raw and unfiltered and contains "whatever is bloomin' on the farm." He explains that half of the people buy it because it is raw so heating doesn’t destroy the enzymes and it is also unfiltered so it contains pollen from all different plants Coulter disappears behind the stand and hauls out bags of ice to shake around the milk.
When the market closes, he will drive the 150 miles back to Coulter Farms, arriving about 4:30 p.m. and unload the truck. Then he’ll think about going to bed to get ready for church at Shade Mountain Christian Fellowship on Sunday: "It's a big day for us."