It's believed to be a first: a farmers market selling locally produced, nonindustrial kosher organic meats and poultry.
Beginning on Sunday, Kol Foods will have a stand at the Bethesda Central Farm Market, in a parking lot off Elm Street.
Both Mitch Berliner, the market's co-founder, and Devora Kimelman-Block, who founded Kol Foods, said it's highly unlikely that any farmers market in the country, let alone Greater Washington, offers such kosher meats.
"I have personally been to the vast majority of markets in Greater Washington, and I couldn't find anything," Berliner said. "I've been to some of the bigger, most successful markets in the country and I have not seen it yet."
Indeed, a Google search yields results for stores selling organic kosher meats, but no farmers markets.
Kimelman-Block, believes that's because organic kosher meat is typically produced industrially. Even though those animals may be grass fed, with no hormones used, she said, they are kept in confinement in feed lots.
Kol Foods, she said, purchases cattle, lamb and chickens from small, family-owned farms in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where the animals have free range on pastures. Shechita, kosher slaughter, takes place in Baltimore or Pennsylvania, under either the Orthodox Union or Star-K.
Until now, Kol Foods meats have been available only in bulk through its Web site. At the market, Kimelman-Block said, customers will be able, for example, to buy a single chicken, or two steaks.
The prices, she said, will be comparable to the Web site prices, where, for example, six one-inch rib steaks (8 to 9 pounds) sell for $164.99, and a family pack of three chickens (11 to 11.99 pounds) sells for $71.99.
Berliner invited Kol Foods to become part of the Sunday morning market. "We wanted to be inclusive," said Berliner, whose market already included several (nonkosher) organic meat and poultry stands. "We want everybody to have the option."
For Kimelman-Block, the Bethesda market will provide a chance to interact with customers and talk about her farmers in the real world.
"We'll be able to meet face-to-face with a lot of the following who are normally purchasing online," she said. "It's nice not having to be virtual." -- Debra Rubin
