Reston Farmers Market Manager John Lovaas Steps Down After 26 Years

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Having already gained the support of the Lake Anne of Reston, A Condominium Association Board, the Friends of T.O.M.A.T.O. asked RA for money to pay for advertising and to hire someone to run the market. The person hired to be market manager would be trained in the first year and take over the market in its second year.

Everyone on the RA board said they didn’t want to get involved in something like that. But Lovaas asked if it was going to be a paid or a volunteer position. They said the latter.

“Here’s where it happened. Here’s where history was made,” Lovaas recalled. “I said, ‘You know, I’d do something like that.’ End of story.”

Aside from raising some vegetables with his father when he was younger, Lovaas didn’t have much experience with produce or fruit. But, Leo Brubaker, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, taught him everything he needed to know that first year about running a farmers market.

Then, with Lovaas taking the helm in the second year, the Reston Farmers Market grew from nine to 12 and now 35 vendors who set up every Saturday morning in the Lake Anne Plaza parking lot for the next 26 years.

Patch: When you started out, were those nine vendors just selling produce and fruit?

John Lovaas: My recollection was that there were four, perhaps five, produce and orchards. The rest was a spice vendor calling themselves Peace in the Valley. They wore all the ‘Peacenik’ clothing of the era. I was always worried they might be selling something I didn’t authorize on the back of the truck, but they weren’t. The Flowers Lady, Marvelous Market, and there was possibly Nature by Design, a native plants guy.

The five that are still there are Penn Farm, Glascock’s Produce, 78 Acres, Grace’s Pastries, Toigo Orchards, and Potomac Vegetable Farms.

As the years went by, was there a difference in the type of vendors you were getting?

Over time what has happened is I still have the biggest compliment of produce and orchard vendors. But over time, we developed a secondary level of bakers, meat vendors, plant vendors. You’ll notice we’ve now we got doughnuts. We’ve got ice cream and crepes.

What makes the Reston Farmers Market different from the other markets in the area?

When I started this market, you could probably buy five or six kinds of apples. You could buy three kinds of tomatoes. You could buy one kind of eggplant. You could buy one kind of corn. You could buy — I don’t know how many kinds of peppers.

You can buy 45 to 50 kinds of apples. You can buy 40 t0 50 kinds of peppers. You could buy 10 kinds of eggplant, different sizes, shapes of cauliflower.

Having been the market manager for 26 years, how does that experience differentiate you from managers at other farmers markets in the area?

A lot of farmers market managers come in on Saturday morning, they setup, went home for a while, and came back to close up. I’m there all the time or somebody who’s my assistant is there all the time.

In what ways has the market helped to feed those in the area experiencing food insecurity?

We added the gleaners function. At the end of the market, volunteers takes what the vendors haven’t sold, and they take it. That can range from a single pickup to a couple pickups.

We got the SNAP program. It took me five years of lobbying to get them to deliver the SNAP program here. I wish they would get more takers. On a good day, they’ll have 25 or 30.

Cornerstones is a great asset to the market. Cornerstones has the relationship with the beneficiaries. That’s the benefit of having Cornerstones manage it.

We also have master gardeners. All the homeowners come in and they’ve got a problem with their plants etc. These are folks who come in and talk to the people grow their food.

How did you wrangle you wife Fran into helping you with the farmer’s market?

For the first 10 years, she was working most weekends, so she didn’t have any duties. Then she saw how much fun I was having and she came over and said she barged in is what happened. So she’s been with us for 15 years.

About five years after she did that, a lady came up to us named Ann Strange. She said she was concerned. “My husband’s about to retire. I really want something for him to do. Can you help me out?”

Keith Strange has been with us like 10 years and Ann started a couple of years after he did. They know as much about the market as I do.

Over 26 years, you’ve taken the market and expanded it, what are your thoughts now that you’re stepping down?

I’m leaving the market in great hands. It’s an all volunteer operation. Fran has been with me 15 years. Before her there was another lady who came and worked with us for a couple years and then a guy who worked for a couple years.

Keith, who has been with me for 10 or 11 years, and Ann, they are totally in lock-step.

I just made a recruit. A guy named Ben Miller, whose name I didn’t know but I’ve seen him for many years. He always shopped here. It turns out he worked one year and one of our stands. Fran said for me to tell you that she’s going to be working with a younger man. He’s only 65.

Why did you decide to step down at the ripe old age of 81? Did you just feel that you’ve done enough?

It’s not that I’ve done enough. I’m not sure that it isn’t time for some new blood. I’ve been doing it 26 years. I’ve got a way of doing it. I think it can only be done this way and I noticed every once a while everybody’s pushing on the side. They’ve got different ideas. That said, my wife has worked with me for 15 years. She’s going to stay on.

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