Chefs at DC’s best restaurants draw on the bounty of Mid-Atlantic produce year round, but with peaches, tomatoes, corn, peppers, and cherries all reaching their peak, summer is the most exciting time at local farmers markets. Here’s an insider’s guide to the best urban farm stands, from the expert shoppers who know them best.
Colin McClimans, Nina May
At his Shaw restaurant Nina May, McClimans uses ingredients sourced from within 150 miles of DC, and at Chevy Chase’s Opal, he’s continued his local focus. Fittingly, the chef has a close relationship with several local farmers. At the Sunday FreshFarm Dupont Circle Market, McClimans chats with producers like Shenandoah Seasonal, a small plot near Winchester, Virginia which grows some of his favorite lettuces, radishes, and heirloom tomatoes. He also likes talking with Black Rock Orchard’s Emily Zaas about the Maryland producer’s huge variety of stone fruits in the summer and apples in the fall. Another plus for the Dupont Circle market? It’s got great prepared food, like baked goods from Seylou Bakery, so McClimans’ kids can snack while they shop. “Having something that they can eat while we walk around is a very important strategy,” he says.
Paola Velez, Chef and Author
Velez knows farmers markets can be a social occasion. That’s why she, along with Vina Sananikone, organized Anti-Social Market Club, a semi-monthly event where some of Velez’s social media followers gather to shop at a DC area farmers market and picnic together (July’s gathering was at the Fairlington Farmers Market). “In DC it’s hard to make connections,” Velez says. “Everybody’s a working professional and the farmers market is this perfect time of respite. I meet most of my friends there.” At Fairlington, Velez likes to buy steak and thick-cut bacon from Sandy Bottom Acres, and produce from Kuhn Orchards.
Cagla Onal, Green Almond Pantry
The wonderfully simple Mediterranean-inspired lunches Onal prepares at Green Almond Pantry in Georgetown lean heavily on high-quality produce, from the peaches and zucchini she places atop focaccia to the fresh vegetables that are the star ingredients in her dips and salads. Her favorite place to shop is the Palisades Farmers Market on Sunday, where she buys veggies from Garners Farm and flowers from LynnVale Studios. “It is smaller than other markets, but it has a special place for me,” Onal says.
Shamim Popal, Lapis
As the executive chef at Adams Morgan Afghan destination Lapis, Popal is always searching for the kinds of produce common in the cuisine: squash in fall, eggplants and okra in summer, and vegetables like radishes and cucumber for salads. “Since my aim is always to use fresh and organic produce and seasonal vegetables, our menu is vegetarian and vegan friendly,” Popal says. “I get our carrots, okra, eggplants and other seasonal vegetables as much as I can from the local farmers markets.” Popal lives in farm country—Middleburg, Virginia—so does her shopping at Middleburg Community Farmers Market on Sunday mornings through the summer.
Jeremiah Langhorne, The Dabney
Langhorne’s hearth-powered Shaw dining room is tuned in to seasonal Mid-Atlantic produce year-round, and the chef’s newer French bistro, Petite Cerise also prizes seasonal vegetables. To do that, Langhorne tackles the mighty Dupont Circle market every Sunday. “I’ve built most of my relationships with my farmers and purveyors through farmers markets,” Langhorne says. “We’ve broken it up into who does what best, and that’s usually how we shop.” Langhorne’s team buys tomatoes, melons, and beans from Garners Farm (based in Virginia’s Northern Neck); raspberries, sour cherries, and apricots from Quaker Valley Orchards; and veggies like beets and turnips from Shenandoah Seasonal. Some producers sell just a few things Langhorne likes to buy, like Twin Springs Fruit Farm for apples, pears, and tiny kalettes he grills over the fire.
Claudio Foschi, Oyamel
Foschi, the chef at José Andrés’s Penn Quarter Mexican restaurant, loves visiting Barajas Produce, whose farmers truck in produce from Montross, Virginia to the FreshFarm CityCenterDC Market every Tuesday morning. Depending on the season, Foschi uses their tomatoes, zucchini, squash, melons, tomatillos, and squash blossoms (he tucks the blossoms into quesadillas with fresh Mexican cheese). “[Barajas has] great products and the farmers are Mexican so it’s a great collaboration, because they know our food and what ingredients we like. It’s almost like they grow them for us,” Foschi says.
Rob Rubba, Oyster Oyster
The menu at James Beard Award-winner Rubba’s inventive Oyster Oyster—which is vegetarian except for its namesake bivalve— takes advantage of humble produce. Rubba often turns to stands at the Dupont Circle market: Black Rock Orchard for stone fruit and figs, and Dodo Farms for greens like kale and collards. Rubba often ferments farmers market vegetables—baby hakurei turnips were a recent choice—to add to the restaurant’s opening oyster course. “Farmers markets are a key place to connect with your community and put your dollars towards a stronger, more equitable food system,” he says.
Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss, Lutèce
Conroy and pastry chef Coss run the kitchen at Lutèce, one of Georgetown’s hottest restaurants. But the couple lives in Northeast DC, and most frequently shop at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market en route to work. Rather than buy in bulk, they search the stalls for bits and pieces that could become a dish at Lutèce in the future. “It’s more of an inspiration thing, like R&D for a dish,” Conroy says. “Then we’d text, ‘I know you have this because we saw it last week, can we have 10 or 15 pounds.’” That might be squash, snap peas, or tomatoes from Garners Farm. It might also be purslane, known as verdolagas in Spanish, a favorite of Coss’s from her Mexico City days. In Mexico, it would often be stewed alongside pork— Coss likes to serve it dressed simply with olive oil, salt, and lime.
Amy Brandwein, Centrolina
Brandwein, who runs the CityCenterDC osteria Centrolina, is a regular at the CityCenterDC and Dupont Circle markets. At the latter, a favorite stall is Chicano Sol, which brings microgreens, baby kale, arugula, pea shoots, herbs, and an assortment of other vegetables from its central Pennsylvania farm every Sunday. Brandwein appreciates that small farms like Chicano Sol’s are always ahead of the game. “A lot of farmers markets have the seasonal produce before I can get it from my big farmers, because the larger farms don’t have enough crop yet,” she says. Brandwein, who’s interested in ways to make high-quality produce more accessible, appreciates that markets run by FreshFarm now accept SNAP/EBT and WIC benefits.
