Carol Carrier, of Plant Masters, lets the colors of her flowers do some of her advertising. Her merchandise will also be different throughout the time of the year. “When you work at a farmer’s market, you really eat well,” she said. Photo by Ken Moore.
Corey McCleaf will bring 33 varieties of fruit to the Potomac Farmer’s Market this summer.
Emily Starck will sell 53 varieties of heirloom tomatoes during the farmer’s market season, which runs Thursday afternoons from May through October at Potomac United Methodist Church.
Keisha and Scotty Sherman, of Simply Delicious Desserts, work with 50 pounds of rhubarb every morning, and make breads, cakes, ginger strawberry tea, scones, cookies and cupcakes. They also brought their “goodies” to the Strawberry Festival last weekend.
The best part of a farmer’s market?
“It’s all pulled or cut this morning,” said Jason Gross, who farms the land his grandfather once farmed.
What does a kale blossom taste like?
“Pick one. Try it,” said Gross, of Hillside Meadow Farm.
“There are few venues where you can ask questions directly to the people who grow and make your food,” said Emily Starck, who works at Lydia’s Fields at Wheatland in Purcellville. “A brand new farm,” she said, in its first full growing season.
Starck enjoys talking with people, working community events, educating them, doing outreach. “Most farmers look forward to spreading ideas,” she said.
McCleaf homeschools his three children, and the curriculum for his 9-year-old and 11-year-old sons will involve working with him at his stand.
“I like getting off the farm,” he said. “It’s fun watching the expressions on people’s faces.”
McCleaf will have 53 types of fruit, depending on the time of season. In addition to the cameos and goldrush apples — “a little bit tart,” he said — that he brought last week, he will have peaches, plums, apricots and kiwi berries, and seasonal greens and vegetables as well.
Carol Carrier, of Plant Masters, spreads her flowers at the end of the Potomac United Methodist Church parking lot.
“All the flowers you see now will be different in September,” she said.
Vendors get to know each other, too, they all say.
“When you work at a farmer’s market, you eat really well,” Carrier said.