This Week on Chesapeake Summer...Enjoying a Maryland Farmers Market ANNAPOLIS, MD (wypr) - If there's one sure sign of summer throughout the Chesapeake region, it's the growing number of farmers' markets touting local produce. In this edition of Chesapeake Summer, WYPR's Joel McCord visits one of those markets.

Early on a Saturday, Martin Zehner is explaining his tomatoes to a customer at the Anne Arundel County Farmers' Market just outside of Annapolis. It's part of what he calls the give and take with customers that you don't get in a chain supermarket.

"They come and ask what type of corn is this? Under what conditions was it grown, what variety is it and in some cases they even ask how do you prepare it and then where does it come from?"

In Zehner's case, that would be his Davidsonville farm. With the rest of the venders here, there's no question of where the corn and tomatoes, potatoes and green beans come from. There are signs everywhere to tell you: each vendor guarantees that the products he sells were grown in Anne Arundel County.

"They don't want us to go to Schottenheim's and buy produce from all across the Eastern Seaboard, like some of the roadside stands do. I mean, we grow this; this is what we have to grow, and it's all from our farm."

Kathy Ostrowski-Morris and her husband, William, operate a small farm in southern Anne Arundel County. They sell tomatoes, zucchini and herbs from a stand directly opposite Zehner's. And she, too, has a problem with chain supermarkets.

"Well, first off, they want a specific amount at a specific time. I can't guarantee heirlooms or my tomatoes because we pick them when they are ripe."

To fill a chain store's order, she would have to pick them when they are green and let them ripen in a warehouse. And the flavor well, let's just say it wouldn't be the same.

Mark Powell, chief of marketing for the state Department of Agriculture, says the Anne Arundel market, opened in 1981, is part of a growing national trend with a local twist.

"If you buy local, if you buy from a Maryland farmer, you're supporting that farmer, you're supporting that farmland that that producer grows his crop on and by keeping that space open and green you're helping to protect the Chesapeake Bay. And I think a lot of folks can really make that connection in their minds."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the number of farmers' markets nationally nearly doubled between 2000 and 2007. In Maryland, there are 84 farmers' markets this year -- 10 more than last year -- located anywhere from under the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore to church parking lots to this spot on Riva Road.

The market draws crowds so big that the State Police send a trooper to direct traffic. By mid-morning on Saturdays, the parking lot is full and customers look for spaces in office building lots nearby. And Belinda Gertz, a Crownsville farmer, is running out of produce to sell.

"We sold out of string beans already, okra already, we usually have beets and radishes, but we didn't have any today."

She said she had been busy since 6:30 a.m., even though the market doesn't officially open until seven.
Kris Woody sells stone planters at the market, but says she probably buys as much from the other vendors as she sells.

"People get attached to certain vendors for certain things and they'll buy their corn every week from the same vendor, or their cucumbers from the same vendors and then each vendor has specialty things, so that keeps it unique also."

Roland Tetrault, for example, is attached to Davidsonville farmer Zehner's tomatoes. He won't buy the ones in a supermarket.

"There is no flavor in the tomatoes. They go ahead and ripen in the warehouse and turn red, but there's no flavor. You gotta have a tomato that's sun ripened to get the fl And this gentleman down there, listen, they're the best."

Ostrowski-Morris, however, tells customers that folks fight over her heirloom tomatoes.

"It's very meaty, thick inside, pretty, and if you want to like make ratatouille, I would suggest this one. It gives just excellence in "

The Anne Arundel Market is open from seven to noon on Saturdays and Tuesdays. As Kris Woody said, it wouldn't be summer without the farmer's market,

I'm Joel McCord, reporting in Annapolis for 88.1, WYPR.
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