Thursday, March 27, 2008

Prince George's area shoppers will find an array of fresh produce, homemade candies and other foods and even custom-designed furniture at a new 30,000-square-foot farmers market that opened last Thursday in Upper Marlboro.

The Dutch Village Farmers Market, the anchor of Marlboro Village Shopping Center, at 5030 Brown Station Rd., features 12 vendors, all of whom are Amish or Mennonite, from the Lancaster County, Pa., area.

About 22,000 square feet of the market is devoted to food: raw fruits and vegetables, freshly-squeezed juices and ciders, steroid-free meats, dairy products, homemade chocolates and potato chips, as well as a food court with breakfast and lunch buffets and food stands offering barbecued chicken and ribs, chicken corn soup, fried chicken wings and more.

Furniture and crafts, including handmade quilts, are spread across the other 8,000 square feet. Some vendors also offer made-to-order furniture for shoppers with unique requests.

Elom Petersheim, a spokesman for the market, said vendors discovered the Upper Marlboro building in early spring last year while looking for a place to relocate their popular Burtonsville market. The Montgomery County market has drawn thousands of shoppers from throughout the metropolitan area for the past two decades.

The vendors decided that Upper Marlboro was too far to serve as a replacement for the Burtonsville operation but would make a good second location, Petersheim said. The Burtonsville market is in a shopping center that is set to be razed and redeveloped. Vendors expect to relocate in late summer, Petersheim said.

The Upper Marlboro market will be open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

-- LISA FRAZIER PAGE