Every weekend I head over to the Eastern Market to pick up an assortment of fruit, veggies, bread, and meat for the week. The Eastern Market is both an open air market and an indoor permanent market in the south east quadrant less than a mile from the US Capitol building. The open air market is part flea market, part arts fair, and part farmers market. The permanent market is in warehouse style building with a lot of stands and is open every day. There is a delightful little bakery at one end of the building that has everything you could want: cupcakes, garlic bread, sourdough, baguettes and more. At the other end of the building is the cafe where so many people line up on Saturday to eat the famous blueberry pancakes for brunch.
Every weekend a group of local farms comes to the open air area of the market to sell whatever their farms have in season. For fruit this means that peaches and nectarines are everywhere, most people sell a variety of berries, but almost no one sells apples. For vegetables this means almost anything you want can be found. My favorite stand is run by a little old woman. She sells bags of assorted vegetables for $4 apiece. One of those bags provide me with a salad that lasts a week.
Along with the farmers come the artists who sell their wares which range from beautiful earrings to colorful glass plates to paintings of the district. Amid these stalls are the crepe man, the pretzel stand, the homemade pickle stand, and the mini donut booth.
Heading down to the market every weekend is one of the high lights of my week. There are always interesting people to meet, and there is always delicious fresh food to buy.
KMS
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