Farmers Market

Westminster's popular Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market will close its doors by the end of next month to prepare to move into a vacant grocery store in northern Baltimore County this summer, its manager said. The new farmers' market will be in the old Metro Food Market space at Ashland Marketplace in Cockeysville, said Nancy Boltz, the market's advertising and public relations director. The farmers' market, open Thursday through Saturday, plans its last day at its present site May 29, she said.

Bel Air's new Marketplace on Main will open for the first time this coming Wednesday, May 8, in the town's new Main Street parking lot between the Sheriff's Office and the Main Street Tower restaurant and across from the courthouse. The Bel Air Downtown Alliance is a partner in the new outdoor market in partnership with The Town of Bel Air and The Mill of Bel Air. According to a news release from the alliance, Marketplace on Main will feature local growers and producers, artists from the Harford Artists Gallery, a delicious menu from Main Street Tower and a variety of weekly specials and promotions, including live entertainment.

Lancaster is the heart of Pennsylvania's "Dutch Country," but to see how Amish and Mennonite farmers really live, skip the tourist attractions of the Lancaster County seat and head north to Ephrata. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every Friday, Ephrata's Green Dragon Farmers Market offers produce, baked goods, fresh meats and much, much more. In addition to the weekly market, the town of Ephrata is home to some unique attractions. Regular visitors usually hit Green Dragon first and then head elsewhere in the afternoon.

Fells Point Farmers' Market returns on Saturday for its third season on Broadway Square. The opening day of the market's season will include a tribute to Michael D. "Mick" Kipp, the bartender and spice-maker known affectionately, and widely, as "Mick T. Pirate. " An empty stand will be set up at the market to honor Kipp, who died of a heart attack on Sunday. Market-goers will be able to leave tributes to Kipp in a memory book at the empty stand. There are changes this season to the market.

Dorothy Bass picked out a half dozen ears of corn, tugging back the green husks to be certain the kernels were fresh and free of bugs. With equal care, Bass, 91, selected cucumbers, peaches and nectarines, and then paid a vendor at the Pikesville Farmers' Market with cash -- and a check issued by the state. Bass is one of hundreds of county seniors who is taking advantage of a program that helps people with limited incomes obtain fresh, local produce. "We are supplying food to the nutritionally at-risk senior population and also promoting farmers -- everybody's happy," said Joan Schulz, who administers the farmers' market nutrition program for the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

Westminster's popular Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market will close its doors by the end of next month to prepare to move into a vacant grocery store in northern Baltimore County this summer, its manager says. The new farmers' market will be in the old Metro Food Market space at Ashland Marketplace in Cockeysville, said Nancy Boltz, the market's advertising and public relations director. The farmers' market, open Thursday through Saturday, plans its last day at its present site May 29, she said.

Francis Myles, a Harwood farmer, once packed up his produce and drove to Washington on Saturdays, offering his vegetables and flowers to the folks at RFK Stadium and Capitol Hill.There simply wasn't enough space for his produce stand in Anne Arundel County. But no more. On Saturday, the county unveiled a new pavilion near Annapolis, doubling the size of the farmers' market from 22 to 44 stalls."I am very delighted," Mr. Myles said. "I am doing pretty good. I'm looking forward to this being a big market."

It all started back on a Sunday morning in July 1977. The Farmers' Market spent a few years down on Market Place (oddly enough) before moving to its present location. Back then, the market season started in July. MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand the Baltimore Office of Promotion will be on hand to celebrate the market's anniversary. They will also be announcing the introduction to the market of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and debit services. In addition to the program introduction, a new Welcome Center will be dedicated, which will serve as center of operations for SNAP and guest services for the market.

The Aberdeen Farmers Market is open for the season, Fridays from 3 p.m. until 7 in Festival Park at 60 N. Parke St. The market features Hickory Chance Farm's Angus cross beef, Keyes Creamery ice cream and cheese, herbs, flowers, heirloom vegetables, baked goods, seasonal produce, handmade furniture, bird houses, hanging flower baskets, dog treats and many more vendors. The market is open rain or shine. Festival Park is across from Aberdeen City Hall. For more information, call 410-272-1600

Local garden vegetables, seasonal fruits and plants are now available at the Laurel Board of Trade's annual Farmers Market, open weekly on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the empty lot in the 300 block of Main Street, near BB&T Bank. According to Board of Trade administrator Gail Reinhardt, market hours were extended to 7 p.m. to attract commuters coming home from work, especially those who ride the MARC commuter train. Some vendors arrive at 10 a.m. and stay until early afternoon, Reinhard said, while a second-shift arrives around 2:30 p.m. and stays until closing.

Stacey Chambers has always been on the move. As a child, her nickname was Go Go, because she rarely slowed down. So it comes as little surprise that Chambers, 31, would wind up running a fashion boutique out of a bus. Chambers runs Go Go's Retread Threads (the name borrowed from her childhood moniker) out of a bus from the early '90s she's named Elsa, parking at farmers' markets, at festivals and on neighborhood streets to sell vintage clothes. Chambers started the business in 2010 after she heard a National Public Radio story about how small businesses run out of traditional storefronts were struggling.

Cups of coffee warming their hands, the two women hovered over pansies. "I'm looking at the colors that remind me of my grandmother's garden. I'm deciding between the yellow and the white," said Malinda Peeples of Bolton Hill. "I'll probably get them both. " There was still a little room in her bags as Peeples made the rounds on Sunday, the first morning of the season at the city's farmers' market. "I got olive oil, milk, eggs and flour and cilantro. And we got our coffee, of course, at Zeke's," she said.

On Sunday, Thomas Albright will wake up early. Before 5 a.m., the patriarch of the Albright Farms family will be in his truck, driving from his farm in Monkton to the city, where Saratoga and Holliday streets meet underneath the Jones Falls Expressway. By 7 a.m., he'll see his first customers — friendly faces coming to buy Albright Farms' produce or meat, kicking off another season of the Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar. Albright has participated in the market since 1979, just two years after it opened.

If the Super Bowl is over, can spring and the gardening season be far away? Well, yes. If holidays are the markers on the highway to warm weather, we still have to get through Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and this year's early Easter. Not to mention an unexpected snowstorm or two. But the inveterate gardener is sustained during this time of year by catalogs. Lots of catalogs, which start arriving just after Christmas, covers bursting with gorgeous tomatoes or dahlias or foxglove or peppers.

With all the time and effort devoted to the new downtown for Columbia, many good ideas and plans have resulted. I hope similarly good plans for Symphony Woods will result from the stakeholder discussions, hearings and multistep approval process currently ongoing. As a seven-year homeowner here, I have not figured out how to "officially" air an idea for the new downtown/Symphony Woods, which heretofore I've not heard raised: I've spent some time in Durham, N.C., and witnessed firsthand the substantial benefits of the farmers market operating each weekend from April through September in its own, unelaborate but well-sized, purpose-built pavilion constructed in their downtown.

At first glance, a grass-roots farmers' market in the covered parking lot of a suburban mall seems a bit incongruous. But that's the charm, and convenience, of the Westfield Annapolis Winter Farmers' Market, held every other Sunday at Westfield Annapolis Mall from January into April. Patrons can park their car, pop into Macy's to buy a Gucci handbag or designer sweater, then walk across the lot and stock up on potatoes, turnips, cabbage, eggs and chicken, or enjoy a bowl of homemade Italian chicken and vegetable soup.

See some asparagus, snap it. See some peas, shoot them. When you're out at the farmers market this weekend, take some photographs and send them to us. That way, we can all follow the growing season in real time. Even better, we can look back next year and see what came when. You can upload your photographs from your a hard drive of directly from Facebook here. There's room for you to give caption information telling us where and when you snapped your beautiful images.

Yes, the Baltimore Farmers' Market is done for the season. It won't be back until April 7. But you get fresh eggs from the Hen's Nest all winter long. The New Windsor farm will be bringing cartons and cases of its brown and white eggs down to Baltimore every other week Saturday beginning Jan. 5, making three stops around the city. The first stop, from 8 a.m.-9 a.m., will be at the parking lot of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Coldspring Lane. Then, the truck will head east, to 3700 Dillon St., near the Natty Boh sign, where it will park on the parking lot in front of the Push 511 crossfit gym from 9:30 a.m.-11 a.m. From noon-1 p.m., you can get Hen's Nest eggs at the Park & Ride off Rolling Road (Route 166)

From the line at Zeke's Coffee beneath the Jones Falls Expressway Sunday morning, Misty Letz was doling out hugs and Christmas tidings. "Saddest day of the year," she said before reaching across the counter to embrace a barista. Letz had risen early to cram in a final trip to the Baltimore Farmers' Market before it closed its 36th season and left her and more than 5,000 other patrons without their weekly fix of fresh produce, treats and community. "You get to know these people," said Letz, 50. "I'll miss them.