Photo by Brandon Fox

Northside food critic and weblogger Brandon Fox recently surveyed four of Richmond’s favorite farmer’s markets, including the new Lakeside Farmer’s Market in North Richmond. Her article appears in the August edition of Home Style, the monthly home-and-garden insert to Style Weekly. Here’s what she had to say about the Lakeside market:

The smallest of markets is also the only one with a 1949 white pick-up truck parked next to it, and the only one in Henrico regulated by the Virginia Department of Agriculture. Just eleven vendor spots are available at the Lakeside Farmer’s Market. No crafts–only food, plants, and produce are sold, and with two sets of hours on Wednesdays and another set Saturday morning, the more distracted of us have our best chance of remembering to go instead of having to wait until the market rolls around the following week.

Hanover Produce is there in the afternoon on Wednesday with the best tomatoes in town, as is Pleitez Produce, and the new fruit and berry CSA, Agriberry. In the morning you’ll find peaches from Lowe’s Arlington Farm, lemon cucumbers from Pleasant Field Farm, and Chile Llama Farm has been known to bring up to six different kinds of garlic. It’s hopping on Saturdays with plenty of produce, freshly baked goods, as well as eggs, pork and beef. Market manager Peter Franciso worked three years with the county to get the project off the ground, and so far, despite worries about competition from other markets and a desire to keep things small, he sees it grow every week.

Go read the whole article.