A mercantile stocked with good from Amish Country moves in on 14th Street. Photographs by Erik Uecke
When the economy imploded, then-financier Eric Smucker decided to pull a career 180 and start working with farms from his native county of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He managed a CSA with a farmer’s co-op; became an intermediary between farms and the restaurants that want to buy their produce; and, most recently, opened a retail operation called Smucker Farms of Lancaster County, specializing in fresh and hothouse produce, canned goods, snacks, and wholesale items from his hometown.
“I’m from Lancaster, but I’ve been in DC for ten years,” says Smucker, which is why he chose the District for his first retail effort. He quietly opened doors to his 14th Street store last Saturday, November 26; inside, his first customers encountered red raspberries, carrots, gourds, handmade furniture and toys, chips and pretzels, votive candles, pickled veggies, and soap—all sourced from Lancaster county. The store is not yet fully stocked—Tuesday, it faced something of a baked-goods snafu—but it should be soon.
2118 14th St., NW; 202-986-7332; smuckerfarmsdc.com.
