Autumn Brings An Extended Farmers Market Season

With the sounds of little league baseball in the background and a crisp fall breeze, many residents came to the Burke Farmers Market on Saturday looking for fresh vegetables, flowers, and homemade treats.

The market meets every Saturday from May to November in the Burke Centre Virginia Railway Express parking lot. It brings local producers who follow the "grow your own" guidelines set forth by the county, which require vendors to be producers located within 125 miles and prohibits brokers and resellers. Even the occasionally brisk wind, which happened to flip one vendor's tent, could not keep the local crowd from searching for locally grown and made items.

At the Glascock Produce stand, proprietor Laura Glascock prepared apple samples for the crowd. Her stand is filled with a large variety of apples, winter squash, jellies, and ciders. "Sales have dropped the last few weeks, but that tends to come because of all the fall festivals happening," stated Glascock. The fall festivals around the area can be competition to the regular farmers markets.

Florist Andrea Gagnon, of LynnVale Studios, works diligently to create bouquets for new and repeat customers who call her by name. Grown on a farm in Gainesville, her flowers are sold at four different city markets throughout the DC metro region. Her sales have been steady the past few years with an increase in sales made through making wedding arrangements. "For the upcoming season we're taking orders for wreaths.  I also have some holly that I know I could sell every branch of just at this market," Gagnon said, while seamlessly arranging a large bouquet by hand.

And as the holiday season approaches, other vendors at the Burke Farmers Market are also tailoring their goods for the late fall season. Many of the vendors were out selling pumpkins, winter squash, decorative gourds and multicolored corncobs along with the typical fare of locally grown fruits and vegetables.  

This year, the Fairfax County Park Authority, which oversees the regional farmers markets, decided to extend the Burke Farmers Market season. This allows for vendors such as Smith Family Farm to begin taking pre-orders for holiday turkeys. Phyllis Ingram, the Farmers Market Coordinator for Fairfax County, said, "We expanded to November because the customers and the vendors demanded it."

The Burke Farmers Market will continue to meet at the Burke VRE parking lot every Saturday morning through November 20.