UPDATE: Amish Farmers Market To Add Branch

Some vendors with the popular Amish farmers market in Burtonsville plan to set up shop in Prince George's County not far from the county seat in Upper Marlboro.

The new market, to open in December in a vacant grocery store at Marlboro Village Shopping Center on Brown Station Road, is an expansion of the Burtonsville site, not a replacement, the market's manager said last week.

The Dutch Country Farmers Market vendors are searching for a new place for their business before next summer, when the shopping center in northeastern Montgomery County that they've been in for 20 years is scheduled to be razed and redeveloped.

Sam Stoltzfus, who owns Yoders Poultry at the Burtonsville market and will manage the new one in Upper Marlboro, said that five of the Burtonsville vendors will sell at both locations and that another five or so new vendors will join them. All will be Amish or Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pa., Stoltzfus said, and will offer the same fare that draws thousands of shoppers every Thursday, Friday and Saturday to Burtonsville. That includes fresh meat, homemade baked goods, fresh-picked produce and hand-rolled pretzels.

The vendors who are expanding wanted "job security" in case a replacement for the Montgomery site isn't found before the Burtonsville Shopping Center at routes 29 and 198 is torn down, he said.

The market in Burtonsville "is maxed out," Stoltzfus said. "Any of our regular customers who come in on a Saturday know we need to branch out."

The Upper Marlboro location, to be called the Dutch Village Farmers Market, will be twice as big, with wider aisles for shopping carts. It will be closer for shoppers who frequently come from the District, Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia, Stoltzfus said.

He said he and other vendors also want to remain in the Burtonsville area -- something Montgomery officials and loyal customers are working on. Officials said the county's Department of Economic Development is searching for other Montgomery locations for the market, considered a public gathering spot and an anchor for Burtonsville's business community.

"Obviously, there's an ongoing concern to try to keep them in Burtonsville," said Montgomery County Council President Marilyn Praisner (D), whose Eastern County district includes the area. "This is a measure of their success that they're expanding."

-- Katherine Shaver