Hot take: the farmers market on N. Courthouse Rd changed how I shop after one bad Saturday
I used to buy all my produce from the same guy near the west entrance every Saturday, until two weeks ago when his "local" peaches turned out to have a Mexico sticker under the top layer. He shrugged and said the truck comes from everywhere, which was fine, but charging $9 a pound while calling it Shenandoah grown is not. Now I flip the fruit over and check for stickers before I pay anyone. Has anyone found a vendor there who actually grows what they sell, or should I just stick to the stand by the metro?
The "truck comes from everywhere" line got me too, heard almost the same thing from a guy selling "local" corn that still had Florida tags on the crate. What worked for me was just asking straight up where the stuff was picked that week, and watching how they answer. The ones who actually farm it will tell you the name of their place and what is in season right then, and they do not get weird about it. The ones who are just reselling get vague fast or start talking about their supplier network. I also started going earlier, like right at open, because the real growers sell out of the good stuff by 10 and the resellers are the ones still stacked at noon. Ask about next week too, a real farmer knows what they will have, a reseller has no clue. Sticking to one or two stands that pass that test beats wandering the whole market every week.