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By Kevin Allen
Rappahannock Neva Staff Writer
In a rural area like Rappahannock, locally grown food is literally in the backyards of many county residents. In Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, finding local food is a bit trickier.
The two areas, separated by just €0 miles or so, are at opposite ends of the supply-and-demand spectrum. Rappahannock has more product than consumers to buy it, and D.C. has plenty of consumers but no farms.
A few Rappahannock farms bridge the rural-urban gap by traveling to weekend farmers markets in the the capital region and other towns, where city folk flock to buy fresh, seasonal food as well as flowers, herbs and other plants.
Sunnyside Farms, located near the Town of Washington, sells eggs, produce and flowers at seven markets in D.C. and Northern Virginia. They also distribute to some restaurants on market days.
Rappahannock is wealthy per capita, Sunnyside manager Gustavo Diaz said, but the population is too low to sustain a farm on local sales alone.
Sunnyside used to have markets at the Schoolhouse in Sperryville and on Gay Street in Washington, but the ventures could not pull in enough revenue.
“There was a customer base of people that were local, but there wasn’t enough of them,” Diaz said.
In contrast, Sunnyside usually makes $5,000 to $7,000 in four hours on Sundays at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market. And that’s money that immediately goes into the farm’s coffers without having to wait for any check to clear from a restaurant or wholesale distributor.
See MARKET, Page B7
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