UPDATE 1:50 p.m. It’s been five years since Mitch Berliner and Debra Moser founded the Bethesda Central Farm Market and this weekend marks both the Bethesda full market opening and the Pike Central Farm Market opening in White Flint.
It may also mark their rise to the top of the Bethesda farm market food chain.
A Bethesda Urban Partnership spokesperson confirmed that FRESHFARM Market, the Saturday market in Woodmont Triangle, will not return to Bethesda this May.
That leaves just Central Farm Market and the and the Montgomery Farm Women’s Cooperative at 7155 Wisconsin Ave.
On Saturday, the Pike Central Farm Market will re-open in the parking lot of the Mid-Pike Plaza, despite construction on phase one of the Pike & Rose redevelopment project. The Pike Market will include more than 40 farmers and artisan food producers. The Bethesda Market, located at Bethesda Elementary School (7600 Arlington Rd.), has been open during the spring but will ramp up to more than 50 farmers and booths on Sunday.
The White Flint market will include a new feature, described in a blog post from Central Farm Market today:
Cook’s Corner, located at Pike Central Farm Market, is our new initiative for all things food. Chef Lynn [Foster], who celebrity chef Carla Hall called “a tall ball of energy and a food force to be reckoned with,” will direct a season full of cooking classes for adults & children, food demonstrations, market food tours, knife skills & small gadget demos and many other wonderful things to help you to discover how to bring the market into your life.
The market season will also include the popular Bake Bethesda a Pie Contest, a second annual Oyster Festival and other holiday-themed events.
The FRESHFARM Market, which partnered with Bethesda Cares and the Bethesda Urban Partnership to do a market on Saturday mornings in Woodmont Triangle, was one of a number of area markets that FRESHFARM organized. It also served as the food provider for the award-winning “Farm to Freezer” project that provided meals for homeless in the Bethesda Cares program.
Photo via Central Farm Markets
