One of my favorite dining-out experiences this month wasn’t at a restaurant, but a supper club. The brand new Farmers Market Supper Club, to be specific.
From home cooks Charlie Urrutia and Erica Choi, long-time city residents and farmers market regulars, the concept was inspired by a desire to create a community of people who love to cook using locally sourced ingredients.
“As overly ambitious home cooks, we care deeply about our food system and commonly find ourselves immersed in our city’s farmers markets,” Urrutia says.
The premise is simple, you bring a dish to share featuring an item you purchased at the farmers market—with the hope being that local ingredients spark creativity in the kitchen. Unlike other supper clubs, which are usually ticketed, all you need to do to attend the potluck-style gathering is sign up with a dish to bring.
I found out about the inaugural supper club through a friend, Emily Trageser, who met Urrutia at a pottery-making class a few months ago, and offered to help co-host the first event. As Smaltimore goes, when I saw the sign-up sheet, I noticed a few other familiar names, all of whom made total sense to be among the first to attend the new get-together. We all share a love of cooking and shopping for seasonal produce, after all.
“Folks that prioritize shopping at the farmers market for weekly groceries likely have an overlapping interest in food, agriculture, and cooking,” Urrutia says, “as well as shared values for supporting local businesses.”
Compared to other cities of its size, Baltimore boasts a staggering amount of farmers markets. Within city limits alone, if you were so inclined, you could find a farmers market every day from Wednesday to Sunday. Most are seasonal, but some, like the 32nd Street Farmers Market on Saturdays (a personal favorite), run year-round. The largest in the city, as well as the entire state, is the Sunday-morning Baltimore Farmers Market & Bazaar located under the Jones Falls Expressway.
Not only do the open-air events build community (the bustle of shoppers, children entertained by performers, and the sheer abundance of produce—which provides an opportunity to speak with growers directly), they have also served as incubators for some of Baltimore’s favorite food spots. Notably, The Urban Oyster, whose chef/owner Jasmine Norton clinched a James Beard Award nomination this year; Ekiben, whose chef/co-owner Steve Chu is also James Beard semifinalist and now boasts a cult following with three brick-and-mortar stores in the city; and Arepi, the Venezuelan arepa purveyor that expanded to a storefront in Fells Point last year.
Before attending the inaugural Farmers Market Supper Club last week, I was admittedly stressed. I hadn’t had time to shop at a farmers market (I know, I know) but, as fate would have it, I did have an unopened mason jar of pickled watermelon radish that I made with the surplus I purchased right at the end of the Baltimore Farmers Market season last year. I also scoured my fridge and pantry and had all the makings for my banana bread chocolate chip cookies, which I’ve been perfecting all winter. (What is a supper club without some decadence, anyway?)
There’s something very intimate about sharing a meal with a stranger, especially if you made the food yourself. Whenever I bring a dish to share, it feels like showing someone a little bit of my soul. When I arrived, my response anxiety settled in: “Will everyone like my food?” But, as I soon came to realize, sharing a meal will cement a bond between strangers in seconds.
The nine-person event was intimate and beautiful. The spread was vibrant, featuring dishes like stuffed mushrooms with andouille sausage; a couscous salad with arugula, cucumbers, and red onions topped with pistachios; kimchi deviled eggs; and a homemade quiche. For dessert, we enjoyed the cookies and homemade ice cream.
The conversation at the table ranged from fostering dogs to—inevitably—food, restaurants, and farmers markets. Two participants, Elissa and her partner, Nick, reminisced at the table of when they used to live downtown. From their apartment window, they had an aerial view of the Baltimore Farmers Market, which gave them an idea of how busy it was at any given time to plan their Sunday-morning grocery shopping.
The event was the first step for Urrutia and Choi toward building a larger community of locals with their shared interests. With about 20 people on the email list currently (visit @thefarmersmarketsupperclub on Instagram and sign up to learn about the next event on May 12), the goal is to host the supper club on a monthly basis and, hopefully, expand—perhaps working with local producers, farmers, and restaurants in the future.
Ultimately, “We want to bring together our local community of home cooks and market lovers to foster connection through food and local agriculture,” Urrutia sums up.