Nutgraf

Mitch Berliner, along with Ann Brody Cove, founded the Bethesda Central Farm Market, the latest addition to the Bethesda’s produce options. When I met Mitch on a recent and beautiful Sunday, he was holding down the fort for the Blue Ridge Dairy representative who’d stepped away for a moment. Mitch has advanced schmoozing technique, and was doing a fantastic job of attracting people to the booth and encouraging them to sample the goods. I can personally vouch for the excellence of the applewood smoked mozzarella. It’s like bacon, but fresh and mozzarelly.

• Here’s my previous post about the wonders therein.

This newest market of the three in my immediate environs has some keen new features. There was a lady sharpening knives and other sharpen-worthy utensils, and I’ve been reading about dinner events at local restaurants. They’ve also got some kind of dealie called Fresh Give!, the gist of which seems to be that each day’s market can be sponsored by a local business that pledges some amount of money to buy up any leftover food at the end of the day’s trading. The goods are distributed to a local food bank or kitchen, the producers make a little extra if they don’t sell out, and the company gets a little attention and a tax benefit.

Anyway, Mitch’s enthusiasm is contagious, and so I e-mailed him a few questions that he was kind enough to answer.

This is the third market in the neighborhood. What need are you trying to meet that the others don’t?

I think that Bethesda was in need of a real, comprehensive farmers market.

Check out their Web site to learn more >>

You told me about (and I enjoyed watching) the knife sharpener who makes twice-monthly appearances. Do you have other services or promotions on the way?

You will see that we are trying to be a real community-building place where folks will come not just to purchase great food from the people that grow or make it, but to have an entire experience. We’ve developed great relationships with Manna Foods and Bethesda Green, and are also trying to connect the local restaurants to the farmers by having them purchase product and host farm dinners.

What was the biggest challenge to getting this market started?

Since we started late in the year, it was difficult at first to get the farmers to commit. But when they heard about the plan, most were able to figure out a way to be here this season and we have a waiting list of farmers for next year.

What kind of response have you had from the community?

I think it has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had so many people come up and say that they are thrilled to have a place like this finally in downtown Bethesda. We are getting many people from Chevy Chase, Rockville, Northwest DC and Potomac as well. The best marker is that each week more people are coming, and more importantly, they are coming regularly to purchase their groceries.

This market is on Bethesda Lane on Thursdays and in a parking lot by Jaleo on Sundays. Why is it migratory?

The parking lot is rented during the week and on Saturdays.

How do you seek out and select participants?

Combined, both Ann and I have been in the food business for over 80 years. We are passionate about food and nutrition, and we have always visited and shopped at markets. We knew who the “A” team would be and we sought them out to join the Bethesda Central Farm Market.

Here in lovely downtown Bethesda, we are blessed with a few farmers’ markets. I don’t know why we’ve got three, but maybe now that I’ve pointed it out, they will battle to the death and only one will reign supreme.

• The Montgomery County Farm Women’s Cooperative Market: A longstanding tradition with an eclectic mix of handmade handbags, cut flowers, beads and rugs, the Best Damn Bakery in Captivity, and assorted other schlock, and – oh- some vegetables. This market is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with some kind of semi-sanctioned flea market action happening on Sundays as well.
• Bethesda Farmers Market: This is a weird one – open 10-2:30 on Tuesdays and Saturdays, this has your standard fare – small cardboard quart containers of fruits and vegetables, some potted herbs and breads and schmears. I say weird only because I resent it being open 10-2:30 on Tuesdays when I’m downtown working so I can live in this neighborhood.
• Bethesda Central Farm Market: This newcomer has a whole bunch of stuff – artisan cheeses, fruits/veg, bread, sausages, chicken, eggs, fish, schmears, honey, flowers… and, apparently, an itinerant knife sharpener. It’s migratory – appearing in two spots on Thursdays and Sundays – and pretty energetic.

I heart beets

Spouse and I went to the Bethesda Central Farm Market on Sunday, and bought flowers, bread, tomatoes, mozzarella, salad mix, radishes and beets. In our advanced age, we’ve discovered the joy of beets and have just recently learned how to administer them:

• Procure beets.
• Remove leafy stems from beets.
• Wash beets and pick off beet whiskers.
• Wrap beets festively in foil.
• Bake at 350 for as long as you’d bake a similarly sized potato. Say, an hour.
• Let cool. This is important.
• Put down a tarp or something because this is where beet juice comes into play.
• Remove skins. They come off pretty easily with water and a standard issue vegetable peeler.
• Rend them into salad-sized pieces, making your kitchen look like the location of a massacre.
• Combine them with greenery, crumbled Stilton, walnuts and a very light, citrus-y viniagrette.
• Enjoy.

Next up, Mitch Berliner of the Bethesda Central Farm Market answers a few questions about the neighborhood and this young upstart of a market.

To celebrate the independence of our great nation, Spouse paid off our kitchen-related debt yesterday!

In the spirit of the Fourth of July, I observed an annual tradition around here and stood in the parking lot in front of my house in the rain listening to the fireworks at the country club down the street. They sound incredible from here. You can only see the top third of most of the bursts since the trees are healthy and robust, but the sound travels down the overhead phone and electrical lines to the office buildings down the way, and back. It sounds like some super hip high-tech stringed instrument.

Here is a super short audio file of the results. It was hard to get a clean clip, I’m afraid. The wet road made the cars really loud.

But back to what’s really important – our solvency. See where we were a mere 1.5 years ago when the Kitchen Remodel Was Revealed!

The longer we live in this house, the less there is of the house we bought. I find this interesting. Here’s the list:

• New roof
• New windows
• Kitchen remodel
• 2 bathroom remodels
• One bathroom re-plumbed after idiot contractors Did Everything Wrong. Everything. It was amazing.
• Electric upgrade (from fuses to breakers – no more staggering around in the dark replacing fuses while cursing)
• New water heater, and washer/dryer
• New front step, storm door and assorted interior and exterior painting and wood repair
• Replaced garage door springs (no more being cut in half by the garage door while looking for fuses in the dark and cursing)

To celebrate this great day, we are making a vow for next time: Condo.

But, in the interest of sharing our good fortune, if anyone in the Mongtomery County area needs the Best Contractor Ever, I would be delighted to provide Saint Steven’s information. We also have a kickass plumber and electrician.

And now, proudly presenting Part II of interview with Mr. John Rotsart, Executive Director, San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park.

To refresh:

• Here is Part I, where we learned the phases of a model railroading project.
• The San Diego Model Railroad Museum
• Balboa Park

I know that often aerial photos of railroads and cities are used. Has accessibility to these resources changed in light of increasing homeland security concerns?

Aerial photography has gained a wide following among those who model a particular railroad.  Because this is the era of mega-mergers, rail fans are often chased off the best hiking and photo locations by railroad security. However, in my own experience I haven’t noticed any aerial security changes. The advent of satellite photography enhances a modeler’s understanding of the terrain, physical features and watersheds one is modeling.

How did you get started with model railroading?

My start in model railroading dates to a time I was six years old and my Uncle Ray gave my brother (his godchild) a Lionel 027 “Scout” train set for Christmas. He soon grew tired of the trains, but I had an interest, and our Dad bought some used toy trains rolling stock for us. When I was 12 Dad bought a box of HO (1/87 actual size) train stuff and we changed scales.  With Dad’s help building a 5X9 fold down HO layout, I created scenery out of papier-mâché. My cousin, who lived two blocks away, got interested in HO narrow gauge and I followed with a new shelf layout in our two-car garage. I soon was stymied by trackwork and electrical challenges.

My model railroading then had as turn for the better when six boys on Central Avenue in Lemon Grove decided to organize a model railroad club. Three other boys joined us for the first meeting in October 1961.  In time this interest group mutated into the La Mesa Model Railroad Club.  The father of one of the boys worked for Ray Fellows, the then Mayor of La Mesa. Ray arranged for the club to occupy the upper floor of Nebo Hall, the old La Mesa firehouse and jail as the teen club space.  Another attorney friend of Mayor Fellows incorporated the club as 501 (c) (7) in November 1962.

What is the most incredible thing in the museum that visitors should not miss?

Our museum features scale model railroads of San Diego County and Kern County, CA.  The most exciting structures in the museum mimic one another.  The high timber trestle in Corrizo Gorge is still out there in east county. We have both an HO version and an N scale (1/160 actual size) version.  The HO version was made from scale lumber during World War II.  The N scale used a CAD computer program in 1989 with plans furnished by the actual railroad. It’s all styrene plastic.  Two other sights to see are the marvelous 1,600 sq. ft.  3-rail toy train exhibit, and the world famous Tehachapi Loop on the La Mesa Model Railroad Club. If the Tehachapi Mezzanine is closed when you visit, just ask a La Mesa Club operator to give you a guided tour.

There are a several different scales of model railroads. There must be a reason people choose to work with one – what’s the advantage of one size over another?

Choosing a scale in model railroading is often based on available space for a layout.  Sixty years ago before World War II the most popular size of model railroads was O scale (1/48 actual size) same as Lionel trains. After the war, HO scale (Half O) became enormously popular and by the early 1950s overtook O scale in popularity among hobbyists. That contrasted with to toy trains where Lionel O gauge still reined as most popular.  Basically one could cram much more railroad in HO.  By the 1970s an even smaller size “N scale”  (1/160 or nearly half HO) on the model railroad scene, again imported from Europe at the beginning of its marketing career.

Over the years, the performance of the operating scale model trains has improved tremendously. Going from brass to nickel silver rail helped continuity problems. Switching to Digital Command Control (DCC was perfected in the 1990s but dates from the 1970s) from old analog electrical control systems helped make modern model railroads much more realistic (and much more expensive). Lastly, in the late 1970s size moved in the other direction with large scale garden model railroading where enthusiasts could combine the best of both hobbies—model trains and gardening into an single outdoor experience.

Spouse and I had the good fortune to visit San Diego several weeks ago for some much-needed vacation. Our vacation policy is “Walk Your Legs Off,” and we spent one of our Extreme Walking days at Balboa Park, this incredible urban fauna preserve with 15 museums, a massive organ of much repute (get your mind out of the gutter), trails, clubhouses for every imaginable hobby and free parking.

One of our stops was at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. Spouse was initially reluctant to go in, but I had an uncle who was an avid collector and have run into a couple of other model railroad enthusiasts and knew that this isn’t playing with trains – it’s an exercise in research, detail, and cheerful obsession with a place or a time. Liking trains doesn’t hurt either.

The museum is incredible – the models are enormous, detailed, carefully maintained and lovingly manned by volunteers who seem to never tire of running the trains. Some of the dioramas have little jokes in them, encouraging you to move slowly and look closely.

Presumptuously enough, I wrote to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum’s Executive Director, John Rotsart, who was kind enough to answer a few questions. Here is Part 1 of the interview:

Model railroading is not a casual hobby, I know. What are the phases of creating a new model?

In general creating a new model railroad consists of the following steps:

1. .Assuming you are working in one scale and this is a scale model railroad, and not a toy train, you can research the prototype.

Photos of the actual cars or locomotives or the route of the actual railroad that you are modeling increases your knowledge and joy as a successful model builder. Research is very helpful providing details you would want to add. Railway historical societies publish monthly or quarterly newsletters and also describe particular railroads and their practices. Model railroad magazines that are fully indexed (Check our SDMRM Library that is open four or five days a week), the Official Guide published annually and available at our library are a treasure trove of information about particular cars.

2. Purchase hobby tools and invest in a scale rule.

Assemble the kit, or if purchased preassembled make sure the details you researched in # 1 are completed to your satisfaction.

3. Paint and weather the car or loco.

Having a hobby airbrush is almost required to get a decent finish. Weathering with paint or chalk can be fun.  Starting in the 1960s taggers often graffitied the cars, but earlier cars from the fifties or before weren’t tagged by vandals. Railroad cars have a life cycle of at least 25 years sometimes double that. New paint is seldom applied, so very often you have the accumulated life of the freight car layered in dust, mud, oil, rust and grime.

4. Mechanical inspection and testing.

The term “gauge” refers to the distance between the rails; the “scale” refers to of the ratio between the model and actual prototype. A model railroad track and wheel gauge that is the industry standard is provided by the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association. You may join and then purchase a NMRA track gauge for $5). This small metal gauge, which I call the condensed version of the model railroaders’ bible, has so many uses. You may check the track gauge, switch gauge clearances, wheel gauge and flange depth, overall height and width clearances and couplers. All the mechanical things you need to check to make sure your model will conform to international standards, track properly and not derail.

5.Track planning

Track planning is very popular with many How-to books and at least one or two articles on this subject in every issue of a magazine. Features of the prototype railroad you are modeling, including special scenic features that will draw a modeler towards incorporating scenes, backdrops, buildings or other structures such as bridges or tunnels into his/her choice for a model railroad layout.  The limited space of reality such as actual dimensions of a room or garage doesn’t have to be limiting.  Compression, abridging reality to fit your imagination, is a specialty of model railroading.

6. Operation

There are many varieties from looking at the trains go round and round to timetable operation, and even compressing time (using a fast clock) so each operating hour is, say, an actual 20 minutes. Switching cars and delivering imaginary goods is one way a modeler may choose to order cars in a train. It has become a very popular operating scenario to stage a road switcher style op session.

Tune in next time, when we learn about the homeland security implications of all of those aerial photographs!

• Read Part II of the interview!!