Biel is executive director of D.C. Greens, a nonprofit that manages the Glover Park-Burleith Farmers’ Market. The market, located in the Hardy Middle School parking lot on Wisconsin Avenue, opens this weekend. It runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday. Proceeds go to school garden programs in the District. What makes your market different?
I think one of the things that’s really exciting about our market is that we really cater to families and kids. We have a lot of space and we really try to make it a place where people can come and spend the whole morning with us. We put out hula hoops; we have face painting; we have live music. People come and bring their bikes for free tuneups. We have a large open space in the middle of our farmers market where people really congregate and come to meet their neighbors. People bring their dogs. What we found is it really creates a space where people come and hang out.
Anything new visitors can expect this year?
We’ve got a lot of exciting new vendors. We have Waterview Foods, who is bringing fresh duck eggs and chicken eggs to the market. We have a vendor bringing freshly roasted coffee, so we’ll have coffee that’s grown in Hawaii on his family farm.
What are some of your personal favorite offerings at the market?
I love all of our vendors. One of my favorites is Spriggs Delight. They have the most amazing goat cheese that I’ve tasted in the area and they are exclusive to our market. They also bring goat milk fudge. People in the neighborhood just talk about them constantly.
The market is “producer-only,” right?
It’s very important to us that we are only supporting vendors that grow their own produce or that are working with materials that are grown locally.
Alex Pappas
