We reap the benefits of farmers' hard work. We can buy strawberries with flavor and scent, tomatoes that have ripened in the sun, vegetables that have grown in worm-turned soil - all these and more bring goodness and taste to our kitchens. So buy them. If you don't support the open air markets during clement weather, farmers may not be able to afford to continue their essential labors in the fields during seasons when you've most likely been lying in bed with a coffee and the Sunday papers. Seems obvious? Actually, not.

Count the number of happy people strolling through markets on a sunny day clutching cups of coffee not bags of vegetables. And others snapping away at the displays with their cameras. Markets aren't just an entertainment. You need to buy the produce the farmers have been toiling all year to bring you if they are to be kept solvent. Fresh farm food may be more expensive than supermarket food. Supermarket food and industrial farms are heavily subsidized. But they can't beat small farmers' produce for flavor. That blush on that tomato has come with exposure to the sun, not from a blast of chemicals that build up in your body.

If you want to keep farmers in the markets, you need to keep them in business. Find DC's market locations at FreshFarm Markets and  the Maryland Farmers’ Market Directory listing locations and hours of each of the state’s markets at www.mda.state.md.us. 

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