Baltimore Eats - OUR COMMON TABLE - October 2006

When I was planning to buy my first home in Baltimore, the decision was based on its proximity to the 32nd Street Farmers' Market in Waverly. I didn't want there to be too much time between my rising from slumber, and the steaming hot cup of wake-up coffee I planned to enjoy at the market. Now, Saturday plans are usually based around my regular trip to the market where it always feels I'm like walking into a festive gathering of family and friends. This is definitely not your usual Super Market experience.

The first impression that greets a new visitor to the market is the familiarity between the shoppers and vendors there. Each treats the other as a friend -in fact, there's a perceptible camaraderie everywhere in the air.

Discussions center around the size of the weekly crowd, the recent weather and growing conditions, what's available this week -what will be phasing out of season and what's coming to fruition in the fields or orchards in the coming weeks. There's talk of local news and a general catching up with the neighbors. Most market-goers have established a core group of farmers from whom they make their food purchases and they've come to know them well. This conviviality is the result of something most of us too rarely consider - knowing where our food comes from, and who grew it. Revolutionary!

Well not quite so. Ffty to sixty years ago knowing who grew your food was the norm. It was either your family or someone in the greater village or community. Now a small, and shrinking, number of very powerful corporations control almost the entire food industry in this country. That's a little scary!

So how do we step up to the plate -so to speak- and bring about a change? Welcome back to the Farmers Market. As hundreds of thousands of folks, just like you and me, join the ranks of framers' market shoppers each year, we collectively help to turn the corporate food system around.

How so? Well let's visit the 32nd Farmers Market in Waverly and stop by Dave Hochheimer's stall. He's from Black Rock Orchards in Lineboro. Instead of going to "Mega Mart" to buy a bag of apples grown in New Zealand and transported half-way around the globe, I prefer to buy from Dave.

When I buy Dave's locally grown, diverse varieties of apples, I put the money directly into our community by supporting Dave, his family, his workers and his farm. It also keeps the land in agricultural use, protecting the ecological integrity of the Chesapeake watershed. Wow...and that's just a bag of Gravenstein!

Now let's say "Good Morning" to Joan Norman, co-owner of One Straw Farm This morning she's got an array of ruby red, vine ripened tomatoes and gorgeous little sunburst tomatoes, the likes and taste of which you generally will not find in any Mega Mart.

She's got mounds of beautiful organic greens and all shapes and sizes of fall squash. If some of this produce is unfamiliar to you, not to worry. Joan can verbally rapid-fire off recipes for each product she sells -and they are delicious, too. You'll want to have pad and pencil in hand when you talk with Joan!

One Straw is Maryland's largest organic farm, so, the way I think of it, the money I spend here helps to rebuild the very soil. It's also made it possible for Joan and her husband Drew to launch one of our area's first restaurant-to-farm biodiesel operations. Yikes...and all from a butternut squash!

A few stalls away you'll find Kate Dallam from Brooms Bloom Dairy and Woolsey Farm in Bel Air. She's selling free-range local eggs, pastured cuts of meats, and an awesome selection of cheeses. Their Cave Aged Cheddar (yes, it's really cave aged) is made in cooperation with local Amish farmers. Buying a pound of this delicately tangy cheese and a dozen brown eggs, is putting money back into the local community where it will, in turn, nurture others. It keeps the time-honored tradition of cheese making alive in our region and along with that priceless sense of culinary pride, cherished for generations by our artisan cheesemakers. Whoa... and we made that all possible just whipping up a cheese omelet!

The stands and the stories at our local farmers' markets go on and on. Each purchase we make invigorates our local economy, rebuilds our farmland, protects our watershed, and provides healthier food choices for our families. Reconnect with your local food... meet your neighbors, support your community, and go shopping at the market near you!