Meg Cline

Reynolda Farm Market

When I lived in Capitol Hill, one of my favorite Saturday morning excursions was to Eastern Market. Before green-bags were even remotely adorable and trendy, I would go with all my ugly canvas bags gleaned from 5k races and pharmacy techs and load up on my week’s worth of produce – gorgeous ears of corns, blueberries that still had a little bit of farm dirt on them, and zucchini that would roast to such perfection you could cry. I may or may not have a love affair with vegetables. The cheese vendor – oh the cheese vendor. I could have married him for his sage spiked cheese. (If you are reading this and live in DC, GO NOW and get you a hunk.)

I have always been a Farmer’s Market girl. There’s something that just feels right about handing over your money to the person whose hands may have actually been responsible for planting the seed or turning the soil where your broccoli came forth. Call me a agro-romantic if you will, and I’m sure every Farmer’s Market vendor isn’t the bushel and peck stand I’m picturing but HEY. I like to eat off the land my zip code is remotely close to, what can I say?

Today I took my mom and my sister to Winston’s newest spot for locals who like locals, and I was in produce paradise. I started getting twitchy the moment we walked up and there were just piles of big ol’ honeydews stacked outside.

The Reynolda Farm Market is open in the space that used to be Pink Mink (Reynolda Rd, across from The Children’s Home) right in front of the Krankie’s Airstream. (The airstream should be a pretty good reference point – there aren’t many retro-rv’s-turned-coffee-shops are there?) They just opened this weekend, but the goods were plentiful already.

I walked out with a big bushel of peaches, a bag full of teeny mac apples (I love little apples), and a huge bunch of broccoli. I know my husband is super excited about that last one. They also had tons of bread and granola from Ollie’s Bakery, fresh coffee from Krankie’s, goat cheese and chicken from a nearby farm. And even, get this, 5 cent candy pieces. I mean, come on. Play on my nostaglia a LITTLE more.

Tonight’s dinner menu: 2 mini apples, a hunk of broccoli with cilantro-lime ranch (that I made, not from RFM), a peach and a big chewy slice of olive oil & sea salt bread from Ollie’s Bakery.

Tags: nutrition, organic or local