Shoppers gather at one of the 130 vendors at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market, located under the Jones Falls Expressway. Since its founding in 1977, the market has added artists, musicians, wineries, vintage shops and food trucks. This spring the market introduced quiet hours in the early mornings. Photo courtesy of Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts

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Every Sunday morning, an asphalt parking lot under the Jones Falls Expressway blooms with color.

In the pre-dawn darkness, farmers arrive in their trucks, bringing fragrant fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers. Local artists and musicians trickle in. Their colorful creations brighten the urban canvas, and their music echoes off the overpass and cement pillars.

The Baltimore Farmers’ Market, which celebrates its 47^th season this year, is the largest farmers market in a state known for them. Around 130 vendors sell their wares here every week — everything from berries to dog biscuits to macaroons.

“It’s like a festival every Sunday,” said Delaney Cate, special event and farmers market manager of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, which oversees the Baltimore Farmers’ Market. “We’re there, rain or shine.”

One of Charm City’s many claims to fame is that it’s home to America’s oldest market system. Of the 11 public indoor markets in the network, six remain, including Broadway Market (1786), Hollins Market (1877) and the most famous, Lexington Market, which first opened in 1782.

A tradition for six generations

One Maryland farm has been selling its produce in the city for six generations. Pahl’s Farm in Woodstock, Maryland, in Howard County, first started selling vegetables from the farm at historic Lexington Market.

“I can remember my father-in-law talking about his parents taking the horse and wagon down to Lexington Market to set up and sell,” Pam Pahl said. One customer told her husband, “My grandmother used to buy from your grandfather.”

Pahl was there on the opening day of the Baltimore Farmers’ Market in 1977.

“It was crazy. It was really busy, and we didn’t know what to expect,” Pahl remembered. “It was really the first farmers market in the area. It’s gone gangbusters.”

Pahl’s four children grew up going to the Baltimore Farmers’ Market, and her daughter still accompanies her on Sundays, rising at 4 a.m. to make the half-hour drive.

“From the time they were six months old, they were at market, in playpens and backpacks,” Pahl said. “It’s really neat. You have a following.”

One fellow vendor became godfather to Pahl’s oldest daughter. Customers have watched the Pahl children grow up, and Pahl, too, sees new generations appear.

“There’s one guy who was born the year the market started. I remember him running around to all the farmers, climbing up in the trucks. Now his son is doing the same thing,” she said.

Specialty food, arts and crafts

The biggest change since opening day, Pahl said, has been the addition of different kinds of vendors, including artists, food trucks, wineries and distilleries.

“It’s amazing how things have changed. It’s gone from strictly farmers to crafts” and hot food, she said.

One of those new food vendors is the mother-daughter company called The Salad Lady. Debbi Mims and her daughter, Keli Chase, sell Chase’s popular chicken salad — and a dozen other salads — every Sunday. Mims encouraged her daughter to start a company in 2015.

“She said, ‘Mommy, everybody’s asking me to make food for them. I think I need to go into business,’ and I said, ‘Go for it.’ It has turned into a great thing.”

They started selling chicken salad, potato salad, pasta salad and more at the market five years ago. “I’ve been there for her since day one,” Mims said.

Another family that has witnessed the market’s growth in the past decades is the Stoecker family, who came to America from Germany and bought land in 1903 in Middle River, Maryland. Four generations later, the Stoeckers are still growing vegetables, which they sell every Sunday at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market.

“My father was one of the original members of that market when he started in 1977. My entire childhood, my father was waking up on Sunday morning and going to that market,” said Rebecca Stoecker-Dolly, who co-owns Stoecker Farms with her brother.

“We have family photos of both of my brothers in a pack-and-play underneath the tailgate of the big truck when they were itty bitty babies.”

Now Stoecker-Dolly follows in her father’s footsteps, waking up at 3:30 a.m. every Sunday to drive to the market.

“Our Sunday market, that’s our tradition. We’ve seen that market change a lot over the years. If you’re looking for anything and everything, that market is definitely the place to go.”

A second career as a farmer

Of course, not all farmers at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market have such long histories.

Mark Ross, who owns Metro Microgreens, came to farming late in life. Ross had a job in corporate sales for decades, but he considered himself a “green thumb kind of a guy. I’m one of those guys who could grow anything.”

When Ross’ children were in elementary school, he asked the principal if he could start a garden on school grounds. He raised money to plant organic vegetables and, at recess, would “teach the children where the food came from,” he said. “Most kids just think their food comes from the back of a grocery store.”

After 10 years of teaching more than 1,000 students about the school garden, Ross stepped down from both his volunteer project and his sales job and wondered what was next.

“My wife said, ‘You’re so good at [growing vegetables] — why don’t you do it for a living?’” So in 2017, Mark and his wife, Debbie, launched a growing facility at their Rockville home and now sell sprouts at 21 local farmers markets.

“It’s fun. With farmers markets, it’s a happy place. People want to come to them; it’s part of their weekend routine. You see the same people come at the same time every week. It’s a very positive atmosphere,” Ross said.

New: Quiet hours

This spring, the Baltimore Farmers’ Market introduced “quiet shopping hours.” From 7 to 9 a.m., people can browse the food stalls without amplified music.

“The market is a bustling place — we are under a highway,” said Cate, the market manager. “We’re trying to make the market more accessible, whether people have hearing issues or sensory issues or just want a quieter shopping experience.”

That means more time for conversations. After all, the market is a gathering place where people can meet old friends or chitchat with strangers.

For mother and daughter Debbi Mims and Keli Chase, every Sunday is a reunion of sorts. Both of them were born and raised in Baltimore and now live in Columbia.

“We love the atmosphere at the Baltimore downtown Farmer’s Market,” Mims said. “We don’t live in the city anymore, so we get to see old classmates, old neighbors and old friends.”

Visit the Baltimore Farmers’ Market on Sundays from 7 a.m. to noon from April to December. It is located underneath the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX I-83) at 400 E. Saratoga St. Free parking is available during market hours. For more information, visit farmersmarketbaltimore.org.