fers resources and support to local
farms and food and beverage producers,
while seeking to increase
the visibility and awareness of the
diverse products made and grown
here in Montgomery County.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak
hit Montgomery County in March,
businesses have been meeting
virtually on a monthly basis during
the Food Council’s Food Economy
Working Group meetings, sharing
best practices, challenges, and collaboration
opportunities. The inventive
strategies that these businesses
have introduced have become
fundamental to their livelihood.
The Denizens Brewing Co.’s
“BeerMobile” has been making
beer and food deliveries throughout
Montgomery County since
March, while the Brookeville Beer
Farm’s curbside pickup option has
drawn residents out to the Agricultural
Reserve for delicious brick
oven pizza, beer, and a picturesque
drive. Packaged food producers
like Cinnamon Tree Organics and
Caulfield Provisions Company, who
typically rely on farmers markets,
expos, or events for a significant
percentage of their sales, offered
discounts and reduced shipping
costs when the outbreak began
to encourage customers to shop
online. Henry’s Sweet Retreat, a
Bethesda-based candy store and
dessert bar, began offering cookie
decorating kits to keep up with the
increase in at-home cooking.
A Time to Shine for Local Farms
During these unprecedented times,
businesses continue working collectively,
and residents continue
showing their support, to ensure
that the MoCo Made movement
stays alive amidst the chaos. In
early April, One Acre Farm began
inviting local farms and food
businesses to contribute products
to their newly introduced “MoCo
Made CSA Boxes,” which include
an assortment of local, seasonal
fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy
products and locally produced
pantry items like salsa, rice, and
spices, distributed on a weekly
basis to roughly 60 Montgomery
County families. The MoCo Made
boxes, which sell out regularly,
have featured produce from Bella
Vita Farm, Butler’s Orchard, and
Metro Microgreens, among other
local partners. “Our MoCo Made
box brings to life the Food and
Beverage Guide, and showcases
how much more diverse we are
in the food and farming sector
than meets the eye,” says Michael
Protas, owner of One Acre Farm.
“This has given us the opportunity
to meet and connect with
other businesses that we might not
necessarily work with in a normal
year, which has been really exciting.
Although some of them are
our competition, we all can work
together for the common good.”
For years, the local table-crop
farming community had discussed
the desire and need for a centralized
system to aggregate and distribute
local produce to individual,
retail, and wholesale customers.
Thanks to COVID-19, a modified
version of this type of system came
to life in a matter of weeks.
Farms that rely on CSA memberships,
like One Acre Farm, were
overwhelmed with interest during
the height of the pandemic in the
spring; a survey of CSA farms in
the DMV-region, conducted by the
Metropolitan Washington Council
of Governments (COG), found
that this year was one of the most
successful spring sign-up periods
MoCo Made boxes from One Acre Farm
bring together a variety of seasonal
offerings from local farm producers and
food businesses in Montgomery County.
28 plenty I Summer growing 2020