We were on a quest to find some fresh goat meat and ended up at the halal market right next to Waverly. We got there a little too late and everyone was just closing up.

Can't wait for the Downtown Market tomorrow!

Went to the Downtown market, mostly plants, but good asparagus and salad greens. I also saw spring onions and rhubarb. There was a new vendor selling lamb, yummy, with try some curried lamb shanks tonight. Missing was the super nice Argentinian lady and her husband who had great sausage and bacon, and whose homemade sausage and biscuits got my through the line a Zeke's.

Market report: 2 stands had strawberries. better than nothing.

There's a new craft guy selling anything and everything lamb. Dead lamb rug anyone?

Lots of lettuce, asparagus, plants, and rhubarb.

The Curry Shack has some delicious Native American Beef pockets this morning!

Keiffer raised the price on his OJ by a dollar a glass.

The Firefly Farms guys selling goat cheese are my new faves!!!

Is it just me, or does anyone else not remember lettuce season being quite this early last year?

If all this rain holds out -- this is gonna be a good farmers' market summer.

dcdiva, a dead lamb rug is better than a live one, I guess.

Crabtown politics--Kieffer raised his "large" cup of OJ to $5 but the Stone Mountain guys are absolutely prevented by non-competition lobbying from selling the nice OJ they get from Florida they sell on Saturdays at Waverly for $5.50 a half-gallon (except yesterday due to truck crash) When you see Carol, the market master with the purple clipboard, ask her about this.

dcdiva, a dead lamb rug is better than a live one, I guess.

Oh Miss 'Link, quite the contrary. You just have to train the latter.

Please explain chowsearch. What does non-compete mean? Lot's of people sell the same stuff

Waverly Market has weird non-competes, too. That is why Hickory Chance can't get in there.

The Firefly Farms Buche de noire is not bad at all.

Stone Mountain Creamery is not allowed to sell OJ at the Sunday JFX Market. It's apparently because Kieffer was selling OJ first. The Waverly market keeps vendors out mostly due to space, from what they say. It's a multi-year waiting list for the summer market. Same at Takoma Park and Dupont Circle, more applicants than slots. I know at Waverly protective issues aren't a big deal--remember when Stanley the mushroom guy suddenly had competition? But that's a whole 'nother story. The JFX market blocks Stone Mountain from selling OJ because of Kieffer. Plenty vendors selling cheese and asparagus in competition. Doesn't make sense--one is a fresh-squeezed walkaway drink and one is a jug you take home. But this is Mobtown.

Lissa, "Buche de noire"? Is that a Buche de Noel when it's not Christmas?

Dahlink -- actually, Bûche Noir is a goat cheese log coated in vegetable ash, made by FireFly Farms.

No, Dahlink, it is a chevre roll covered in ash and left to age a tad.

I think equating not permitting one dairy to sell orange juice to Mafia rule is extreme. It would be nice if there were a little more transparency in how the various markets decide who gets to sell what.

If I can do a little shilling for Chowhound, I started a thread here last week to talk about all things JFX market related. Both I and other posters keep it pretty well updated. I go nearly every week, so hopefully it will be a good source of info.

I would like to see the no dogs at the farmers market enforced. It's a market, not a picnic or a day in the park. I'm usually at the market by 7:30 AM and it's very crowded. There were at least 5 dogs there, not assistance dogs, but pets. I'm not a dog hater (we have 2), but I would never even consider bringing them to the market.

I am currently feasting on strawberries that were sold out after 8:45. You snooze you lose!

I hate the no dog rule at the market. I hold that any place someone can bring a child, I should be able to bring my dog. Normally, Mr. Jefferson is better behaved than most children, and more often than not he is smarter as well.

I totally agree with RayRay! There was someone there with a tiny black lab puppy on a leash. I was so worried that someone was going to accidentally kick or step on the wee thing. People kept stopping to pet the puppy, causing traffic flow issues. This was at 8:00 and it was already very crowded.

And as we left, there was a corgi tied up on the north end of the market. At least the owners didn't take him into the market, but he looked very unhappy waiting there.

Just leave the dogs at home!!!

It's actually not a "rule", but a health department regulation. You can't take dogs into supermarkets either.

A corgi and a black lab puppy? Very interesting.

I second Robert of CC. If others can bring their loud-mouthed, wailing children, I should be able to bring my well-trained, quiet dog. I feel so strongly about this, that I plan to complain to every market representative I see. Whenever a child is annoying me, I shall seek someone out and let them know. When someone is slowly pushing their double-stroller down the walkway, with their mouths open like they've never seen an apple before, I will find someone in charge. When someone stops to comment on someone else's pinkie mouse wrapped in a blanket and drooling, I will file a complaint. One day, if we all work together, I just know we can get children banned from the markets!

There was a woman with a mastiff at the farmers market. A small mixed breed dog was in the area, next thing I heard was a lot of barking and snarling. The mastiff almost got loose, which would have been a very ugly scene. Then there was the woman whose dog was on a retractable leash. She wasn't paying attention, and the dog kept getting farther away until he got tangled up in peoples legs. I know that people love their pets, I love our two dogs, it's just that the market is entirely too crowded to accomodate dogs.

That little black lab on a leash has a role in a video of the pickle stand, one of several of local farmers markets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_1Yy6Ui6cs

I'm with RayRay on this. I've already admitted here that I did, in fact, once take my dog into the Farmers' Market with me. He's very laid back, but it was a mistake and a very uncomfortable Event for him. Too many smells. Too many voices.

Once again the Mastif ruins it for everyone.

How about we simply say no to big, ugly dogs. The same will be true for big, ugly babies.

I bought a tiny $15 container of morels that were surprisingly tasteless. I'd welcome more competition in some areas

The little dog was ugly too:-)

I will post no more on this subject forever.

RayRay is channeling Chief Joseph.

How 'bout no big,ugly men.

Oh no, RayRay, don't say that! I love every single one of your comments. Indeed, in this economy, you are a bright ray of hope.

How many times is RayRay going to say "this is the last time I will post on the subject"? You don't need to announce it to the blog-world EVERY time you don't like where comments are going. I've seen it here and on the dog blog - it's lame and childish.

I, too, will post no more on this subject. Forever. And ever.

I think I have mentioned this in another context, but our former neighborhood banned dogs at picnics after a dog jumped up and bit a child who was eating a hot dog. That could be an argument for banning kids and not dogs, but I won't go there.

or banning food at picnics.

a dog jumped up and bit a child who was eating a hot dog. That could be an argument for banning kids and not dogs...

Or banning hot dogs...

This drift of comments reminds me of Owl's classic comment/rant on stroller-wielding, coffee-slurping trollers of the markets.
I cannot find it but if Owl could link to it, it would be most appropriate here.

Question: does the market dictate what one can sell, so that no vendor can duplicate another's wares?

Jon Parker- I love the chowhound thread. I hope you can keep it going through the summer so I know what to buy at the market! I'm certainly going to take advantage of the big lobster sale this weekend too. Now if only I could get the recipe for that mac-n-cheese with goat cheese, bacon and shallots!

When I was there around 10, two small dogs started barking and growling at each other, blocking traffic and threatening to kill each other.

Their humans were oblivious.

I love dogs. I have a very mellow, calm, deaf elderly dog. I'd never take him to market. Too many people. Too many smells. Too many SUV-style strollers plowing through the crowds.

I could care less about the health department regulation. I eat around my dog and cats all the time, and I'm still alive. However, it isn't safe for the dogs.

I get really sick of humans who treat their dogs like some extension of their ego rather than as a living being that needs to be protected and taken care of.

Eve, since I don't get up early enough to go to the market I don't mind the big, ugly man ban.

Thanks PCB. That was a good rant. I can almost feel my original agitation, which is odd because it was three days after the best day in years and years. ;-)

It was from the post "No Live Animals Allowed ..." from Sep 14, 2008. Here is the relevant part:

==================================

Set phasers to RANT.

Yeah, most of the time when I go to the market I'm not so much in the Bon Marché kind of strolling mood like my ex-girlfriend used to dig. Any market, any day. Stroll stroll stroll. The Paris bird market was her fave. I'm a freakin' laser guided maniac sometimes. I want apples, I want bok choy and I want to get hell out of there.

So what bugs me more than strollers, because I can see them on my radar and evade. It's the ankle dragging freakin coffee people. Yeah, and that's probably some of you. You know who you are. Mmmmm..... slurpity slurp slurp, ahhhh, mmmm, shuffle stutter-step stop linger start stop wandering in your addict's haze and narcissistic dark roasted egoism. Walking two or more across because if nobody hears your mouth-gasms they just aren't that good. The problem other than my lifelong hatred of the coffee HABIT (not coffee, it's the celebratory ritual of lame addiction that irks me, damn, if you're going to get that worked up start chasing the dragon, swirl into a deep opium fog thinking of crickets and chanting all the vowels.) So I can't avoid you and I can't get to the stand with the hot farm girls. This is about food and an appreciation of tawny young women who rise at dawn and tear things from the ground for my nourishment and gustatory pleasure, get out of my way you poseur weekend divas with your khaki dreams and public onanistic mouth rapture. Gentlemen set your phasers to vaporize, I want my purple habaneros, a sunny smile from pepper girl and in my mind-kill-zone there is just a puddle of non-fat milk java that is the stain that you will be. Slurp on that.

Good morning world. 8>O

Posted by: Owl Meat KillSwitchEngaged | September 16, 2008 9:45 AM

===============================

Wow. Have I mellowed? That was intense.

Owlie, I think that was your before coffee voice.

Laura Lee,
Not to worry, I will still be posting, just not about dogs at the market. I've said my piece. I'm not really interested in engaging in a debate about dogs vs children. I done got chased off the doggy blog and I'm still askeered:-)

Christine: Here you go. The recipe as printed doesn't include bacon, but just add crumbled bacon bits when you add the shallots and goat cheese.

I love this stuff.

Question: does the market dictate what one can sell, so that no vendor can duplicate another's wares?

Rob, I think the restraints must be more narrow. Clearly, the farm produce is duplicated, but the other offerings - commercial seems to be the term used on the the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts website - seem to be controlled. I'm kinda in the Adam Smith camp on those. The market will sort out who stays and who doesn't based on price and quality. Apparently, The Powers That Be are of a different school.

I remember now. That was my post cleaning/furniture moving to please someone else voice. 8>)

Oh oh Jon- the link doesn't work!

Weird. It shows as a link but it doesn't work.

The URL without the link is http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mac-and-Two-Cheeses-with-Caramelized-Shallots-350762

Eve,
Thanks for the info and link. I'd have to agree with you about the Adam Smith thing.