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H St. FRESHFARM Market


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Since there are so many gardeners here, including those growing their own food, I thought you might be interested in the following event this weekend:

Saturday, June 6, 2009 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

2nd Annual Plant Swap. Expand your garden, free, and share tips with fellow urban gardeners.

Exchanges start promptly at 11 am, so come around 10:00 to help sort items. Flowers, vegetables, fruit or herbs from your garden are welcome, just as long as the plants arrive labeled, in pots. Location: Across from H St. Self Storage. Closest Metro: Union Station.

(I couldn't find an established thread for this market, so I created one for this post.)

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Heads, up, everybody.

Do you know anyone who might be eligible for WIC, Food Stamps or Senior Farmers' Market Coupons?

Anyone who works with populations that might qualify, whether as an administrator, health care provider or educator?

Do you volunteer at community centers or places where you might get the word out?

Starting July 4, anyone eligible who has applied and received such forms of assistance can go to the market at H Street, NE or the FRESHFARM Market in Silver Spring, both held on Saturday mornings and receive twice the amount of food that these programs allow you to buy.

A grant has matched the value of WIC coupons, EBT and Senior coupons dollar-for-dollar. This means the $30 in coupons families receive from WIC in Washington, D.C. will be worth $60, etc. This may not seem like a lot, but every bit counts, and when EBT (food stamp tokens) is concerned, the value could potentially add up to a significant amount.

All the shopper needs to do is bring coupons or tokens to the Market Information table at either H Street or Silver Spring and they'll be given vouchers that will double value. Then, they bring both to farmers to pay for fresh (vs. prepared) foods.

Given the nature of bureaucracy, I am not sure if Washington, DC's WIC administrators have informed farmers interested in participating in the program if their application has been approved. (WIC is supposed to start in May.)

However, it is almost summer and the food is coming into the markets in greater and greater quantities. It would be wonderful were greens, berries, squash, corn and tomatoes to find new homes. Only a fraction of eligible families and individuals learn about the program or bother to apply; as Ann Yonkers pointed out on Kojo's show yesterday, the rate of illiteracy in D.C. is only part of the problem.

So, anything you can do to get the word out is welcome!

For a story related to the grant see what Jane Black reports here.

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I saw a message on a neighborhood listserv announcing that the H Street Freshfarm market has changed locations and will now be in the 1300 block of H Street, NE. It opens for the season this Saturday, the 21st, and runs through November 17. Hours are 9 AM - noon every Saturday.

"Farmers and producers returning this season are: Atwater's Bakery, Blueberry Hill Vegetables, Cedarbrook Farm, Dolcezza Gelato, Full Cellar Farm, Garden Path Farm, Keswick Creamery, Quaker Valley Orchard, Red Apron Butchery and Richfield Farm. New this year is Gordy's Pickle Jar."

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The H Street market has added two vendors this year, neither of which I've actually purchased anything from. They've added a crab vendor, although all of the products are pre-made, either crab cakes or various crab dips, not just whole crabs. The person who runs it claims that the crab came out of the water that morning, which I can't comment on. I looked into the crab cakes last weekend, but the cost was a bit steeper than what I wanted to pay ($20 for two crab cakes). The other new vendor is a baker selling croissants. This past weekend was their first day at H Street, and they were completely sold out before I arrived at around 11 am.

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The other new vendor is a baker selling croissants. This past weekend was their first day at H Street, and they were completely sold out before I arrived at around 11 am.

Frenchies. I arrived around 9:15am and ordered a classic croissant ($3), a cardamon pistachio morning roll, and a chocolate croissant. These were extremely good [EDIT: I tasted each and shared with my family], I actually could feel my heart start racing as I enjoyed a super buttery croissant.

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The H Street market has added two vendors this year, neither of which I've actually purchased anything from. They've added a crab vendor, although all of the products are pre-made, either crab cakes or various crab dips, not just whole crabs. The person who runs it claims that the crab came out of the water that morning, which I can't comment on. I looked into the crab cakes last weekend, but the cost was a bit steeper than what I wanted to pay ($20 for two crab cakes). The other new vendor is a baker selling croissants. This past weekend was their first day at H Street, and they were completely sold out before I arrived at around 11 am.

The crab purveyor is Shells Yes. His crab cakes are not cheap, but 100% jumbo lump and quite delicious. We like them better than Chris' Marketplace from the Dupont Market. He also sells lump crab meat by the pound, which is a better deal if you can't stomach the price on his jumbo lump crab cakes.

We only tried one of the Frenchie's croissants, but it was other worldly. They're quite large and very buttery, which is an extremely good thing as they use Tricking Springs butter.

Both of Shells Yes and Frenchie's are very welcome additions to the market.

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