The Connection

May 5 marked the beginning of farmer’s market season for Vienna, and heralded a new location for the decades old marketplace. Run by the Optimists Club of Greater Vienna since 2002, the market has seen at least two location changes in that time before settling on the parking lot of the Vienna Community Center this season. The farmer’s market has been a staple of Vienna for the past three decades, and now has more than 35 vendors, live music, and face painting as well as a guest booth for vendors and special events that do not wish to be present the entire season.

VENDORS AND CUSTOMERS alike were fans of the new location. Vicky McCleaf of McCleaf Orchards, whose orchard has sold produce at the Vienna market for the past 12 years, said she saw many old and new customers in the weeks since the move. The proximity of the W&OD Trail and the Community Center meant that there were many more walkers and bikers than before. There were so many customers that by 10 a.m., halfway through the market, she had already sold out of strawberries and all she had left were apples, eggs, and honey.

Diane Miller of Kuhn Orchards has seen multiple changes in location for the Vienna market in her 10 years working it, though the Orchard itself has seen many more in the nearly 20 years it has been a vendor there. Sales were normal for that time of year even with the location change, but Miller attributed that to the location of the farm more than anything else. Kuhn Orchards is in northern Pennsylvania where the colder weather has kept the more in demand summer produce, like berries, from growing yet.

THE OPTIMISTS CLUB of Greater Vienna is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization focused on providing services and donations to children’s organizations in the Vienna area. Numerous awards, donations to elementary and high schools, academic contests, and scholarships are the primary means of service, along with volunteer programs in elementary and middle schools. All vendors’ fees levied from the farmers market are given back to the community through those same awards, events, and donations.

Oakton’s farmer’s market meets on the Saturdays as well, and is also experiencing some changes from their usual schedule. The Oakton market is pushing its time an hour back, now opening at 9 a.m. and closing at 1 p.m. The main impetus, according to Conor Kaygusuzh, the market master, is to give the vendors a chance to make it back to their homes and farms earlier in the day, while allowing shoppers earlier and more convenient access to the produce they need. Although it runs year round, peak season starts in late April and goes until early November, at which point fewer vendors come to sell goods but the market still meets.

Changa Ormond of cocktailovations, a mobile bartending service, began vending at the Oakton market for the first time on May 26. Her hope was to bring her hand-pressed gourmet lemonades to a wider audience than D.C. where her mobile bartender service began five years ago. The lemonade business, which she started in April, was an offshoot of her bartending service that specializes in high end soft drinks. Ormond found the Oakton Farmers Market through Frontier Kitchen, a culinary incubator based in Lorton. Frontier Kitchen helped her enter the market scene through connections with Community Foodworks, a philanthropic organization based in D.C.

THE OAKTON FARMERS MARKET is run by Community Foodworks, which is focused on bringing local foods to underserved populations in the greater D.C. area. The organization allows for those who receive federal food benefits, like SNAP and WIC, to match up to $10 of those funds with tokens to buy local produce at their markets, effectively turning $10 into $20. Signup for their program can be found on their website, community-foodworks.org.