BURTONSVILLE -- Some swear by the perfectly fluffy cheesecake. Some say the draw is the bourbon chicken and the fried chicken wings. For others, it's the soft pretzels studded with chunks of salt, the creamy ice cream, the warm-from-the-oven dinner rolls, the honey-glazed doughnuts, the fresh vegetables or the case of glistening meats - massive stuffed pork chops, rings of turkey sausage, thick slices of smoked bacon.
The hours are limited, the lines are sometimes long. The market, a collection of 14 shops run mostly by Amish vendors from Pennsylvania, does not have wide aisles or shopping carts or a thousand brands yelling out in neon colors.
Rather, what shoppers get three days a week at the Dutch Country Farmers Market - and what makes them so devoted and practically cheerful about the queues - is ultra-polite service, a homemade touch, food straight from the farm, a hurricane of good smells and the feeling of being swept to another place and time, when bonnets were the rage and food-contamination scandals were the stuff of science fiction.
But passion can't necessarily save the beloved eastern Montgomery County institution, which opened July 3, 1987 - precisely 20 years ago tomorrow. The landlord plans to raze the building that houses the market, redevelop the strip and make way for a supersize grocery store. And while the market managers remain optimistic that they'll find another spot in the area - they loosely have a one-year deadline - they do not have a new home lined up yet. Some vendors, who want a backup plan in case a local alternative doesn't surface, plan to add stands and start selling at a market in Upper Marlboro.
And so, an undercurrent of worry lurks as people buy, rave, eat, lick fingers, poke melons, examine radishes, devour ridiculously ample single-dip cones and lug shopping bags filled with their favorite goodies out to their cars.
On a recent Friday afternoon, Lois Lotis waved a container of blue cheese spread.
"This is why I come. It's to die for," said Lotis, 65, of Adelphi. "If you like blue cheese mixed with cream cheese - my mouth is watering thinking about it!" She is also quite partial to vegetable chips and a pumpkin roll cake with vanilla filling - all items she says she would never be able to find anywhere else.
"I'll be sick if they move!" she said.
Once a week, Allison Boone heads over to the market from work; the butcher's number is programmed into her two cell phones and she usually calls ahead so she doesn't have to wait at the counter.
"This is as fresh as it gets!" she said, opening her shopping bag to show packages of turkey sage sausage, ground turkey, Black Forest honey turkey and turkey breast. "They wrap things up so nicely and neatly. Everything is labeled. No spills, no juices. They put a careful touch on everything," she said. "You can't get that at local supermarkets. You really can't."
Boone, who lives in Silver Spring, is quite positive that the deli sells the best potato salad in the nation - "certified!" She has, in the past, bought 25 pounds at a time for parties. Her guests are often also treated to her favorite dessert: a pumpkin custard pie that's only available in the fall. She serves it so regularly people think she bakes it herself; usually, she comes clean.
"People never leave with just one bag. I'm three, four times out to my vehicle frequently," she said.
Chris Jones, the president of BMC Property Group, the company that owns the shopping center - which sits near U.S. 29 and Route 198 - knows that the community is wildly attached to the center. They've made that quite clear as word of the imminent move has trickled out.
But he plans to install an anchor supermarket that will be open seven days a week - not three. (The market is open Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday.) And the big chains don't want to move next door to a grocery-selling competitor. Furthermore, Jones expects to triple the size of the center, which would require borrowing money. Lenders look for tenants with credit ratings, he said, and the Amish, with their self-sufficient ways, can't provide that.
On the other hand, most grocery stores with credit ratings don't offer the likes of whole rabbits, sweet watermelon rind and pickled eggs. And so, as the search for a 20,000-square-foot space goes on, customers from Montgomery, Howard and Prince George's counties - and beyond - search for the consummate treat, and business bustles forward. In honor of the market's 20th anniversary, Daniel Lantz roasted a whole 220-pound pig for 15 hours. Customers gathered in the parking lot to watch as he stripped off the meat using rubber gloves. He sold the pork on kaiser rolls with a drink for $3.95 in the market's sit-down restaurant.
Elsewhere, Amish girls in aprons twisted shaped pretzels by hand and carefully placed pastries in boxes. Kids ate doughnuts covered in sprinkles. Adults gazed into glass cases, considered their diets and debated whether to get barbecue ribs, coconut custard pie, apple fritters.
Abigail Murton, 58, of Silver Spring picked up a greasy soft pretzel for her husband - "It's disgusting! It's wonderful!" - then gazed longingly over at the ice cream stand. "Ohh. I like the hand-packed ice cream," she said. She paused. She watched a fresh-faced Amish teenager scoop, then waved her hand. "No! I'm done! I'm done!" she said.
The bakery's intoxicating sugar-and-jelly smells lingered just outside the market where Bobbi Cohan, 70, was perched on a bench. She was savoring a pale-purple ice cream cone - black cherry single dip on special for 99 cents. "There are whole chunks of cherries. Big chunks!" she said. She picked one out and popped it in her mouth. "Delicious!"
Cohan, who semi-regularly drives to the market from Wheaton, had picked up chicken, tuna, broccoli, crab and potato salads, bean soup, coleslaw, barbecued chicken, a rack of ribs, a rotisserie chicken, roast beef au jus, four pork sandwiches, mozzarella and some skim milk.
"I'm in heaven," she said. "I live alone and this is for me and my two little dogs."
She slurped happily on her cone.
"It's not a shopping trip," she said. "It's an experience."
rona.marech@baltsun.com