Farmers Market Makes Promising Debut

"Tremendous." "Huge." "Unbelievable."

Superlatives were as plentiful as the fresh fruits and produce at Montgomery Village’s farmers market on Saturday, with hundreds of shoppers taking home verdant stashes from the inaugural event.

By any measure, the market's much-hyped debut surpassed expectations:

Nearly 100 people lined up awaiting the market’s 9 a.m. opening. The 300 grocery bags that the Montgomery Village Foundation gave away were gone within half an hour. Most of the eleven vendors's crates were all but empty well before day's end.

"Blowout, unbelievable," said Spencer Showers, whose family runs S.M. Showers Fruit Farm in Pennsylvania. "I was overwhelmed. We’re really excited to come back next week. It’s got a lot of potential, for sure."

The Montgomery Village Foundation had worked for months to recruit vendors and get the word out to residents. Though it was one of the most popular ideas in resident survey last year, no one really knew what to expect once it arrived. As attendance approached 1,000 in four hours, the market's planners couldn't have been happier.

"Ecstatic. So are the vendors, and that’s what’s important," said Peggy Mark, the foundation's director of recreation, parks and culture. "The vendors not only sold, but sold out."

Raspberries, strawberries, spinach and baby beets were top sellers for Village resident Dan Berbert, a veterinarian who owns Abundant Grace Farm in Damascus. By noon, he was left only with his fresh herbs—and the conclusion that the Village's market has already eclipsed others in the area.

"I’m in the market in Clarksburg and it’s nothing like this," he said.

Shoppers' appetite was such that all that Caprikorn Farm had to do was to give them a mere taste of their goat-milk goodies.

"Anything we sampled, we sold like hotcakes," said Alice Orzechowski, who owns of the Gapland farm.

And the market marked an encouraging debut of Jamie Emery’s home-based bakery—One Sweet Bite—as the Montgomery Village resident offered her miniature desserts to the public for the first time. Heading into Saturday worried that she had made too much, the lesson for next week is entirely the opposite.

"We sold every single thing," she said. "It was even better than we had thought. It definitely exceeded my expectations."