It’s farmers market season and everyone is feeling the pull toward the street markets. Shopping at them can be confusing and overwhelming. To help you get through the season happier, healthier, and with more money in your pocket, here are some tips.
Cost
Every newbie to the markets talks about cost. I call it the supermarket hangover. They have trouble understanding why they should pay more. Isn’t food at the supermarket and the farmers market the same?
Definitely not. The supermarket food is priced correctly, cheap because it is cheap food. It has …

Here is a food claim may shock you.
Farmers markets offer food that is three times better for you than supermarkets.
A study published in September 2007 by the Organic Center discovered this startling fact after looking into our modern food system. They had a theory that food has changed since the 1950s, before the industrial food revolution. To test this they gathered seeds from the 1950s and today, grew them to harvest, and compared their nutrient values.
In nearly every category our modern food was lacking. The study gets complicated and covers …

We love our DC farmers markets. We love our VA farmers markets.
Here in the DC metro area we have an incredible amount of markets (among highest in people/markets ratio). There are multiple markets every day (except Monday) and they are open during your lunch break or in the evenings.
To help you find all these markets A Clean Life offers a brochure (link below) listing them by day/hour/metro.
Lower on the page you will find a comprehensive list of all markets in the DC metro region.
pdf of brochure for download —-  …

A helpful guide to farmers markets by day all around the WMA (washington metropolitan region). The list includes markets from DC, MD, and VA from the small stands to the big FreshFarm/Smark Markets.
I have visited many of these markets but not all. If you go to one please pass along your experience. It would be helpful to know that all are open and worth visiting.
And, if you’re starved for quality local food on off-days the Silver Spring Coop is open everyday from 9-9pm and located at – 8309 Grubb Road, …

This morning I was fortunate to attend new media press event with Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. A small group of us took a short trip outside of Washing DC to Tree and Leaf Farm. Which is exactly 47 miles away from the Dupont Farmers Market in the city, according to co-owner Georgia O’Neal.
The reason for this farm adventure was to launch a very special program for the USDA, called Know Your Farmer Know Your Food. The details of which are still coming out. DepSec Merrigan did clue us …

“A lot of us didn’t set out to farm for a living, to have that be what we did all day,” said Greg Strella, 24, who came to MICA to become a sculptor and graduated a farmer. “I certainly didn’t feel that way even 12 months ago.”
But there he is, under a straw hat, atop a tractor, managing Great Kids Farm, a 33-acre organic spread owned by Baltimore’s school system.
More young people are turning up at seminars on sustainable agriculture, said Jeff Schahczenski…he credits the Food Network for promoting foodie …

Long Beach
A visit to Long Beach is always exciting for me. I love its small city charm mixed in with the grit of its bigger city (LA) next door. The downtown farmers market was no different.
Some details on the market is that its open from 9-4 on Fridays and is at Long Beach Blvd and 5th Street next to the Walmart in a big shopping center. They shut down two full roads of traffic for the vendors which means their are a lot of them. The vendors range from east …

The Dupont Farmers Market is the premier market in Washington D.C.
It is open “year round, rain or shine” and it has 2 rows of stalls, around 10-20 hawkers (depending on the season). Also depending on the season are the goods available. With each visit you can find the same reliable farmers and a rotating sprinkling of others, each bringing you the latest seasonal fare.
And there is nothing like rain or shine, especially in DC. This city is swampland and pretty murky stuff at that (the HBO mini-series John Adams, part …