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While the Farmers Market opened on schedule last weekend in Rockville, the produce is a bit behind schedule due to rain. Kevin Grove at Quarter Branch Farm (near Point of Rocks) has leafy greens and white chard, and expects rainbow chard and assorted radishes next week (including French breakfast varieties).  I also discovered that he offers two versions of CSA boxes for the Saturday market:  a standard farm share and a new market share.  For both shares, the customer prepays for a season’s worth of produce.  In the farm share, the farmer assembles an assortment of the best produce for the week and brings it in a box or bag for customer pick-up at the market (it gives the customer the best produce, but no choice).  The market share allows the customer to select from the produce available for sale at the market and charges it against the pre-paid account (it gives the customer choice, but not the best produce).  Eight Rockvillians are participating and he’s not selling any additional shares this season, but it’s something to consider next year.  Tikvat Israel also offers both summer and fall CSA shares with a Monday afternoon pickup.

Although leafy greens and strawberries currently dominate the market, you’ll find a couple vendors with tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini (thanks to greenhouses).  New this year is Grandma Vera’s Bakery out of Saverna Park (near Annapolis) with a wide selection of pastries and breads, some of it influenced by Vera’s Brazilian roots.  You’ll also find them at Wednesday’s market in Rockville. Otherwise, you’ll find lots of familiar faces selling produce, meat (fresh and cured), eggs, cheese, bread and pastries, flowers, honey, and garden plants.

Other nearby farmers markets are the Farmers and Artists Market in Olney on Sundays and the new one at King Farm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  They’re all different so try to explore all of them this summer (although I’m still waiting for a mushroom vendor).

The May 2011 issue of Washingtonian magazine features, “Where to Find Great Food” in the greater DC region–it’s about sources for ingredients (e.g., butchers, bakeries, spices, cheese), not restaurants–seems to favor Virginia.   I’m not sure if that’s because they just don’t know the area north of Chevy Chase or if they’re too afraid of the Rockville Pike.  I’m delighted that they found these outstanding places in and around Rockville (many of the places are listed as Rockville but they’re actually Rockville-Adjacent):

• Dutch Country Farmers Market (they listed Laurel, but there’s one much closer in Germantown)
• Firefly Farms (they sell their goat cheeses at the Rockville Farmers Market)
• Cherry Glen (they sell their goat cheeses at the Olney Farmers Market)
• Saint Michel Bakery (they’ve told me that they’ve had to double production in response to the Washingtonian‘s listing)
• Bagel City (in the shopping center with Office Depot and Friday’s on the Rockville Pike)

But there’s a lot that was missed, so using their same categories, here are my recommendations: Continue reading →

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Today Rockville Town Square was a wonderful place to explore Maryland’s wineries and Rockville’s fine wine stores.  It was the fourth annual “Uncorked,” a music and wine festival downtown featuring nine wineries and four wine retailers, along with cooking demonstrations, several bands, and a couple food and plant vendors.  The beautiful weather attracted a large, diverse, and happy crowd.  All the booths were crowded with tasters pushing forth their wine glasses to sample a broad selection of wines. Usually you were able to get a taste within a few minutes of waiting, however, some visitors treated the booths like bars and just hung out asking for drink after drink (come on, everyone, there are thousands of people at this event–“pour, drink, leave”). Usually, the servers would notice the crowd, ignore the slugs, and reach out to offer tastes to others who were waiting but I was absolutely miffed at the dazed servers at Jackie’s Wine Club, who just kept serving the same few people at the front.  Fortunately, I could easily move on to the next booth.

There was something for everyone at this festival.  Maryland has a reputation for producing sweet fruit-flavored wines and you could find some unusual ones, including mango, watermelon, green apple, and kiwi pear at Solomon Island.  They’re too sweet for me, so I was focused on the traditional varietals such as reislings and chardonnays offered by Boordy, Frederick Cellars, Running Hare, and Elk Run.  All the wineries also sold wine so you could pick up something that you’d have to drive out of the county to find and Terrapin Station Winery was the only one offered boxed wines–in an attractive modernist 1.5-liter square box.  Although Montgomery County is the dominant wine dealer in the area (why is the government involved in selling liquor?), they weren’t present but other specialized stores  were, including Gilly’s and the Bottle Shop (both are on the fringes of Rockville but I’m glad to have them in town).

Thanks to the City of Rockville for producing this fun event for adults!

For the next issue of Rockville Living, the online magazine, I’ll be writing about farmers markets since it’s the beginning of the season.  Of course I’ll talk about the market in Rockville, but I may also mention the relatively new market in Olney (since it’s close by and very different) and the Farm Women’s Cooperative Market in Bethesda (because it’s the oldest and has an interesting history).  I’ve already begun interviewing some of the vendors to get their perspectives and I’ll be making some recommendations on what to buy from whom (e.g., grass-fed beef from the Kaufmann family at Garden Path Farm at the Rockville market on Saturday), but if you have recommendations, suggestions, or ideas, post them here for consideration.  I need to file my story soon, so let me know by June 16 (but of course, you can post comments here or at Rockville Living afterwards).