Peña was visiting the market on the day it opened, March 20. The farmers market, a collection of mostly Amish vendors from Lancaster County, Pa., is the only one of its kind in Prince George’s County.
Most of the goods sold by the market’s 12 vendors — such as meats, cheeses, sweets, produce and baked goods — are organic and come from the Amish community in and around Lancaster County.
Shoppers can get hot meals as well as groceries at the market, which has a few dining areas.
Peña said the market is welcomed in an area with little to offer beyond mainstream supermarkets that do not carry many locally grown foods.
‘‘They have an abundance of products, which I think has been lacking in this area for a very, very long time,” said Peña, who has lived in Upper Marlboro for 30 years.
The market is primarily an offspring of a similar market in Burtonsville that will be closing this summer. Vendors lost their lease at the Burtonsville location, so about a year ago they began looking for a new site, said Elam Petersheim, a manager at the Upper Marlboro market.
There also are separately owned and operated Dutch farmers markets in Annapolis and Germantown.
During their search, the Burtonsville vendors came across a vacant grocery store in the strip mall on Brown Station Road at the intersection with Old Marlboro Pike.
‘‘We liked the facilities and the neighborhood,” Petersheim said. ‘‘We feel there is an opportunity here.”
Of the market’s 12 vendors, five are maintaining a presence at both locations in Upper Marlboro and Burtonsville.
The market is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Petersheim said the group will also set up another market on Route 1 in Laurel later this year to serve more of their Burtonsville customers.
Petersheim, who has been at the Burtonsville location since 1996, sells mostly candy, but also some bulk foods and jams. His father makes fudge and holiday candy, including 20-pound chocolate Easter bunnies on display near the cash register.
The Upper Marlboro location, a former supermarket, also gives the vendors and their customers about 30,000 square feet of space — twice as much as at Burtonsville.
‘‘I like it better because we have more room,” said Henry Stoltzfus, who sells 65 different cheeses and styles of deli meats, all of which he said are organic and come from the Amish community in Lancaster County.
Stoltzfus, who had been at Burtonsville for 10 years before setting up in Upper Marlboro, said he recently introduced ‘‘something you cannot buy anywhere else” — five flavors of organic turkey, including barbecue, buffalo, lemon pepper, oven-roasted and low sodium.
A major addition to the Upper Marlboro location is a vendor with about a third of the floor space who sells hand-made crafts, from furniture to decorations to grandfather clocks.
‘‘The goal is pretty much to bring solid wood furniture into the area,” especially oak and cherry, said manager Levi Stoltzfus, no relation to Henry Stoltzfus.
Shoppers can order customized items, Levi Stoltzfus said.
Dolores Foreman, a 13-year resident of Upper Marlboro who was browsing in the crafts section, said she was excited to have a new grocery store near her house.
But it could have its problems, she said.
‘‘The pastry section is not going to help us lose any weight,” said Foreman, who said she lives around the corner from the market. ‘‘All those homemade pies and cakes. It’s going to be a nightmare for me.”
E-mail Andy Zieminski at azieminski@gazette.net
