Published: July 09, 2009 11:19 pm      

Tourism grows at farmers markets

Fresh fruits, vegetables draw locals, new visitors

CUMBERLAND — Annie Rice picked the raspberries herself.

At 90, she’s probably the oldest vendor at the Downtown Cumberland Farmers Market, which brought a bustle of activity to the pedestrian mall Thursday morning.

“Well, I’m not as spry as I used to be,” said the diminutive and white-haired Rice, who sold an assortment of squash and cucumbers to an out-of-town visitor. “But I move around. ... After I get the heavy loads, the corn, (my son) will have to come with me. I can’t take care of all that.”

Rice, owner of Rice’s Orchard on Irons Mountain, was one of the first vendors to participate in Cumberland’s Farmers Market, which was started 19 years ago by Hilda and Jack Miltenberger, owners of Hi-Ja Farms.

It’s one of the events being touted this month by the Maryland Tourism Office, which is encouraging residents and visitors to take advantage of the state’s homegrown products.

“This produce was either picked today or yesterday,” said Hilda Miltenberger, who placed cabbage and broccoli in bags for two customers. “It’s fresh. When we bring corn, it’s always pulled that morning. Our broccoli is always cut that morning.”

That’s what attracts people such as Barbara and Delmas Tasker. The Grantsville couple bought corn and green beans Thursday morning.

“We live for not having to buy the produce in the stores like you do in the wintertime,” said Barbara, who usually visits the farmers market at Country Club Mall, where it comes every Tuesday. On Fridays, the Miltenbergers and other vendors set up along Frostburg’s Main Street.

“It’s very popular,” Hilda said. “We meet a lot of people. We educate people with different varieties of vegetables we have. We tell them how to cook them. A lot of the young mothers that come with their young children, they want to know how to cook certain vegetables. We enjoy doing that.”

Terry Dow, owner of Munchies Organic Natural Farm, passed out recipes for quail eggs, including directions for making a cheese quail egg omelette, a quail egg pie and poached quail eggs — Cajun style.

“They’re just like regular eggs except a little bit more rich because they are slightly higher in cholesterol,” said Dow, who also had several tomatillo plants for sale. The plants produce a fruit similar to a tomato, but sweeter, Dow said.

“A lot of times it’s used in salsa,” he said.

The farmers markets continue through October, and Rice expects to have a bigger variety of produce as the summer progresses.

“We don’t have too much yet,” she said. “It got started late. It was wet and what have you.”

On Thursday, Rice’s red and black raspberries were big sellers.

“Boy, we’ve been enjoying those raspberries, Annie,” said Evelyn Higgins of Harrisburg, Pa., who bought vegetables at the farmers market, but picked raspberries at Rice’s farm two times last week.

The Higgins family doesn’t have trouble finding ways to eat fresh berries.

“We eat them with milk,” Higgins said. “We eat them with cereal, we make a pie, we make a fruit roll ...”

Contact Kristin Harty at kharty@times-news.com.