Everyone Eats Fresh: Vendors Stay Loyal Despite Small Size of Crossroads Farmers Market

At the Crossroads Farmers Market on any given Wednesday, you'll see about 10 vendors. The much more well-known Takoma Park Farmers Market has upwards of two dozen every week.

While the Takoma Park Farmers Market is open all year, provides customers with a vast variety of fruits and vegetables and in many ways is the model of the middle-class suburban farmers market, Crossroads comes out as more of a scrappy entry into the farmers market scene.

At the Takoma Park Farmers Market, you'll see young professionals pushing Maclaren strollers, carrying canvas bags and fussing over what herbs would suit their homemade marinara. Crossroads is a little bit different.

There are several different languages heard throughout the market, and along with that comes a diversity of fruits, vegetables and prepared foods. Some vendors have taken to the international fare and started growing vegetables and herbs used in Central American cooking, including chipilin and epazote.

Despite Crossroads' size, its vendors are loyal to the market, which is open every Wednesday from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. from May to October, Co-Director Michele Levy said. The mission of providing inexpensive, fresh, local food and the diversity of the market keeps the vendors coming back.

"We've been here since the beginning," John Stark of Musachio Produce, who also sells produce at the Takoma Park Farmers Market said. "We love all the different folks who come here."

Some of the vendors like Sligo Creek Farm come because they feel a sense of pride in helping low-income residents eat good, local food.

Sligo Creek Farm comes out to help fulfill the mission of its parent foundation, called Our House. The mission of the foundation is to work with at-risk teens to help them develop work skills. The Our House program complements what Crossroads is trying to do by appealing to a more diverse, lower-income crowd.

"We really want to make fresh food available for everyone," said Stephanie Jones, who runs the Sligo Creek Farm stand at the Crossroads Market. "And this is such a great place to help fulfill that mission."