Change of Plans

Thanks to interactive real-time maps, traffic apps and public alert services, my chances of being stuck in standstill traffic for hours has been greatly reduced. Traveling major roadways on a regular basis, the smallest of fender benders can slow six lanes to a crawl, if only for the rubberneckers.  When taillights lit up like a Christmas house in front of me last week, the first thing I thought was the dude pulling wheelies and other assorted motorcycle stunts as he wove through traffic finally laid down his bike.

At the same time, two different traffic app voices, practically in unison, advised me to exit the freeway. Too late, I was in the far left lane and stuck there.  Other times, however, I’m able to pivot to surface roads ahead of the oncoming crush of other drivers heeding similar advice and have a reasonably unimpeded drive back to the farm.

Life is like that and having a backup plan helps. No where is this more applicable than in our food system. Could you imagine construction happening at a grocery store where physical access to the location is cut off? Forget it. All stop. Closed. But when something like that happens to your favorite farmers market? We roll with it.

Contractors are much fickler than farmers and food service folks. Could you imagine if the people who fed you acted like the ones who built your additions and decks?  Now you understand why we’re a chronically self-sufficient lot who are more than willing to take on an emergency plumbing project armed with only a pipe wrench and YouTube videos. A motivated willingness to make things happen, you might say.

This week contractors began replacing the roof on the elementary school where the market is hosted weekly. School is out. Roofing weather is here. It makes sense. But it will also displace the market for the next month. We’ll be serving the Bethesda community in a different location a few blocks from our current location.

For the next four weeks we’ll be calling the Montgomery County Farm Women’s Market located at 7155 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda home along with a portion of the public lot next door giving us enough room to accommodate the entire market.

Who will be my new neighbors? When we used this spot last October during the Art Walk, my neighbors were Spiral Path Farm and Potomac Sweets. It was a shady spot and the relief from my usual bright location was welcome. I wonder who I’ll be next to for this stint?

Some customers were a little grumpy over the layout last fall as the usual pattern of vendors was unlike that which they were used to. Here’s a little tip. Vendors tend to mingle during morning set up. We’ll take notice of where our usual neighbors are and will more than likely be able to point you in their new direction.  Many vendors still have online ordering. If you’re worried about getting to market early enough to score your favorites, consider pre-ordering in the coming weeks.

Change is nothing new for farmers. We’ve just had a seasonal change with the summer solstice, crops change, menus change, tastes change. Let’s look on the bright side—the community cares enough about Central Farm Market to let us pivot from one location to another when circumstances arise. We’ll see you on Sunday, only in another location.