Brisk Business

There's less socializing, and you won't find peaches. But a growing number of winter markets have pounds of appeal.

Layered from head to toe in wool and goose down, nine hardy farmers and bakers have assembled in a windy Leesburg parking lot for the Saturday farmers market. Baby spinach whirls in a frigid dance across the blacktop as the vendors' signs tip and sway. It's not the sort of day for the usual socializing, so die-hard customers buy their bags of root vegetables or apples and run for cover.

"I'm hoping for collards," says Mary Walters, a retired office manager from Leesburg who appears to have forgotten her overcoat. "The ones in the grocery store, I don't know where they come from."

Nearby, dressed in more suitable clothing, Lois Allder of Aldie is buying glistening chard and crinkly kale that was greenhouse-grown and picked the previous night. "I don't mind cold with what's waiting here," she says, hurrying off. "You can't beat this for fresh and organic."

Agriculture does not come to a halt when winter blows into the Washington region. Some farmers have adapted, focusing on hydroponically grown lettuce and greenhouse tomatoes, eggplant, greens and more. Mushroom growers spawn exotic crops of earthy-tasting hedgehogs and mild pom poms, as well as a dozen other varieties, all year. Area orchardists keep their apples firm and crisp for months after harvest in controlled-atmosphere storage. They still press sweet cider, months after harvest.

At the growing number of farmers markets in the region that remain open all year (there are 11, compared with more than 90 that operate in summer), you won't find piles of peaches and baskets of berries in January or February -- although farmers say people still ask for them. But there is unexpected bounty.

This time of year, it's easier to spot the livestock farmers with coolers full of cuts of pasture-raised beef, pork, chicken, bison and goat. Bakers with breads, quiches and fruit tarts are immensely popular. There are particularly appealing prepared foods, such as soups and stews, that farmers make with vegetables and herbs from their gardens. Fresh eggs and dairy products such as milk, butter, cheese and yogurt take center stage.

"We had some of our best days of the year in December with the holidays," says Adam Cook, co-owner of Blue Highland Dairy in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., and a four-year winter market veteran who sells eggs, milk and cheese at the Dupont Circle, Falls Church and Arlington markets. The mild weather was an advantage, he says. Fewer people visit farmers markets in winter, but "if they're going to make the effort to go out in the cold, they are not just shopping around. They are going to buy something."

In peak season, the Leesburg market has about 23 vendors and averages 65 to 75 shoppers per hour. This winter, its first to stay open, as many as 18 farmers and bakers have set up their stands for about 50 shoppers per hour, depending on the weather. As at most markets, the dropouts are often orchardists who can't store their produce for months at a time; vendors who in warmer months sell bedding plants; and, of course, any farmer who doesn't want to spend hours standing in a parking lot in the cold.

Falls Church also joined the short list of all-year markets this winter, with 18 vendors, down from a summer high of 30 and with about 20 percent of the peak-season customers. "A number of vendors asked to give it a shot,"spokesman Howard Herman said. "We've been pleasantly surprised, with hundreds coming through."

Farmers say the year-round visibility keeps the momentum going.

"For markets that stop, it's always a slow start in the spring," says Twin Springs Fruit Farm co-owner Aubrey King. "People forget you exist." He farms in Orrtanna, Pa., and sells his greenhouse-grown tender, spicy arugula, delicate red oak leaf lettuce and assorted vegetables throughout the year at markets in Dupont Circle, Takoma Park and Bethesda.

In 1990, when the area was home to about 20 farmers markets, King became one of the first farmers to start selling in the winter. For multi-vendor markets, the trend toward staying open in the winter began about five years ago with Takoma Park and Arlington.