Debra Moser and Mitch Berliner started the Bethesda Central Farm Market 18 years ago, when they “retired.” Today, they continue to operate three weekly farmers markets that together feature 100 vendors as well as entertainment. Berliner partners with Manna Food Center so vendors can sell fresh leftover produce to the food bank at a discount. Photo by M. Payne

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Every Sunday morning in Bethesda, Maryland, a line forms in front of Bethesda Elementary School. People wait, chatting with others in line, their dogs on leashes and babies in strollers, until a man named Mitchell Berliner steps up on a bench and says, “Good morning, world’s greatest farmers market patrons! Today, we have strawberries, tomatoes and morels. Three, two, one, shop!”

Then, waving and smiling to everyone, Berliner officially opens the farmers market he and his wife, Debra Moser, established 18 years ago.

“This is my retirement project that got way out of control, and I love it,” he said.

Berliner, 76, grew up on Long Island, where he often visited his cousin’s farm and discovered a love of food.

“There were still plenty of farms around, even in the town I grew up in,” he said. “I was fascinated by how things grow. I naturally gravitated towards it.”

A year after Berliner graduated from American University, he started his own food company, operating four farm stands in Montgomery County.

Eventually he started a business distributing wholesale ice cream and organic and specialty foods. He retired after 38 years in the food distribution business — but wasn’t willing to slow down.

On weekends, he and Moser would pick up fresh food at farmers markets downtown, but they thought it was “unbelievable” that their hometown of Bethesda
didn’t have a comprehensive farmers market of its own.

So they approached a local realty company for permission to establish a market in a parking lot on Elm Street. Their company, Central Farm Markets, launched a market there in 2008 with 17 vendors, moved to its current location at the elementary school a few years later, and now has 60 vendors there each week. They also run two other markets in the region, one near Nationals Park baseball stadium and one at Pike & Rose in Rockville.

Every vendor has a story

Berliner knows all 100 vendors who sell everything from mushrooms to wine at their three markets.

He also knows all their stories. One woman farmer used to write for the Los Angeles Times. Another family spent years as migrant workers until they established a Maryland farm. Some vendors started out with a 10-by-10 tent at the market and now sell their products nationwide.

Another vendor, Metro Microgreens, which has been setting up a white tent at the market since 2018, has a “failed retirement” story similar to Berliner and Moser’s.

Mark Ross, the owner of Metro Microcreens, had a job in corporate sales for decades. But he calls himself a “green thumb kind of a guy. I’m one of those guys who could grow anything.”

When Ross’ children were in elementary school, he asked the principal if he could start a garden on school grounds. He raised money to plant organic vegetables and, at recess, would “teach the children where the food came from,” he said.

After 10 years of teaching more than 1,000 students about the school garden, Ross stepped down from both his volunteer project and his sales job and wondered what was next.

“My wife said, ‘You’re so good at it — why don’t you do it for a living?’” So in 2017, Mark and his wife, Debbie, launched a growing facility at their Rockville home and now sell sprouts at 21 local farmers markets.

“It’s fun. With farmers markets, it’s a happy place. People want to come to them; it’s part of their weekend routine. You see the same people come at the same time every week. It’s a very positive atmosphere,” Mark Ross said.

He also sells his microgreens at America’s oldest farmers market — in Old Town Alexandria (George Washington sold produce from Mount Vernon there) — as well as at one of the largest markets in D.C., in Dupont Circle.

There are markets in D.C., too

The Dupont Circle market and 25 other farmers markets in the DMV are operated by FreshFarm Markets, the country’s third-largest farmers market organization.

FreshFarm Markets was co-founded in 1996 by Ann Harvey Yonkers and Bernadine Price. “Both are still alive and well and enjoying their grandchildren,” said Juliet Glass, director of communications and marketing at FreshFarm Markets.

Today, the company is focused on expanding farmers markets into underserved D.C. communities such as Wards 7 and 8. Its newest venue is in Union Market, while its oldest is Dupont.

“We have people who have been shopping with us for decades,” Glass said. “We’ve had farmers who have been selling with us for over two decades, so some of us have seen them to retirement, which is fun.”

The FreshFarm markets accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards, which people 60 and over can use to buy nutritious foods. (Some Bethesda vendors also accept SNAP).

“We love our senior shoppers,” Glass said. “Our markets have music, chef demos and cute dogs — all the things you want in your market experience.”

Music and more

On Sundays at the Bethesda Farmers Market, you may glimpse Berliner joining in the live music performances. On one Sunday, he stood at the microphone alongside a bass player and fiddler singing “I’ll Fly Away” as babies in strollers looked on.

“When you go to the average supermarket,” Berliner said, “people don’t talk to each other. When people go to a farmers market, they have at least 100 conversations, even if it’s nothing more than ‘Good morning, nice to see you again.’

“People have told us we’ve really become like the village green,” he said.

At this village green, Berliner seems to know everyone. As he winds his way amid the tents and tables, people smile, wave and say, “Hi, Mitch!”

He’s been greeting the same people week after week for almost two decades. “It’s neat because I’ve seen their kids grow up,” he said.

A farmers market can be more than a social network; in a crisis, it can be a lifeline. When Covid hit, the Bethesda Central Farm Market closed, along with the rest of the country. But it soon reopened and stayed open, adding an option for car pickup and home delivery.

Last month, the Montgomery County Council presented a certificate to Berliner’s organization “in recognition of service connecting farmers and small businesses with communities during Covid, with special appreciation for providing home delivery and drive-through options for those who are immunocompromised.”

“[Their market] was particularly important during Covid, not just for the farmers and businesses, but for residents who needed a place to go, needed a place to get healthy, local food,” said Andrew Friedson, president of the Montgomery County Council, when he presented them with the certificate.

Berliner also helped bring about a state law that allows wineries, distilleries and breweries to sell at farmers markets. Alcohol wasn’t allowed until the 2015 law.

But what Berliner is most proud of is his decade-long relationship with Manna Food Bank.

Still-fresh leftovers to food bank

Just before the market closes on Sunday afternoon and vendors pack up their tents, Berliner checks in with five vendors to see if they have any unsold food left. If so, they sell it to Manna Food Center at a discounted rate. Manna uses county grants and donations to purchase leftover food and distribute it to people in need at its food banks.

As Berliner pointed out, that means that people in need can get food that’s fresher than that in the grocery store.

Over the years, the Bethesda market has facilitated the donation of hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce to people in need. “We’re at five farmers markets, but this is the most vibrant one,” said Jackie DeCarlo, CEO of Manna Food Center.

In addition, the market partners with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad to teach CPR, with the National Institutes of Health to recruit volunteers for health studies, and with the American Red Cross for blood drives.

There’s always something new at the market, and as the big man on campus, Berliner is in constant motion, greeting people, unloading trucks and helping out.

“Usually, I have about 10,000 steps by 11 a.m.,” Berliner said.

“I thought organizing a farmers market would be a nice give-back project to keep me occupied, But it has evolved into a full-time — and then some — enterprise,” Berliner said. “And I love what I do.”

Visit the Bethesda Central Farm Market on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. year-round at 7600 Arlington Rd.

For a list of farmers markets near you, visit freshfarm.org/markets or centralfarmmarkets.com.