Red Apple Farmers Market

I came here after a problem at a nearby ethnic market (The Caribbean Market at 7505 had wrong hours posted online). Great place and great prices! I was able to find a specific brand of Jamaican tea I drove all the way out here for. I didn’t look around much, but they seem to have all of your ethnic/​international grocery needs at nice prices. Very convenient and I will definitely be back again.

The first thing I saw when I walked in the store was the ripe plantains. I knew they were going to taste wonderful once I got them home, sliced them up, and cooked them, and they were good.
Also while you are there try the sorrel with ginger, ginger beer, and roasted coconut milk. They remind me of being in Jamaica on the beach.

I drive from Northern VA to go to Red Apple simply because their prices really can’t be beat and they always have everything I need. Good yam is hard to find and they have never failed in that department.

I’ve been curious about this place for months now and finally had an opportunity to go in. The name is a bit misleading as it’s definitely not a farmer’s market, nor does it have primarily fresh produce. Instead, it’s more of an international food market catering to African, West Indian and Latin foods.
Produce included some of the more common stuff like spinach and tomatoes, but also some things I’d never seen before — malanga, sour orange, and some other root vegetables. Prices were excellent. $ 2.19/lb for okra. (Shoppers has it for a whopping $ 5.99/lb). $ 2/​lb for tomatoes, $ 1.79/lb for bagged spinach. (Don’t get the tomatoes — awww-​full mealy post-​refrigeration and devoid of flavor.) There were lots of fresh hot peppers bagged together, and things like aloe leaves, sugar cane and more.
There was a line to the door for the meat and seafood counter, which I only glanced at (I am pescetarian), but I did see that it had goat’s head. Try to find that in Safeway!
Most of the store was packaged items. They had a huge African spices selection and lots of bottles of «essence of» (orange blossom, etc). Also, there is a great variety of starches for cooking (rice, cornmeals of all types including a variety from Haiti, couscous, flour including rice flour, etc). The baking section also had some interesting yeasts and sugars. I picked up cubed sugar from Paris. (Love cubed sugar, but it is so hard to find!)
Canned foods were in full display. I think they had no less than 6 types of coconut milk, and was also surprised to see Argentinian corned beef. (They eat that there?!)
You can’t have a store catering to Africans and Islanders without having a lot of hot sauces and pickled peppery type things, so those were also fully stocked.
Red Apple didn’t have a ton of packaged junk food, but there were some shortbread cookies from Scotland and sugar wafers as well as a few other things. Finally, it offered a fair amount of HBA things like hand soaps, ointments and creams. It was interesting to see so many «lightening» products.
If you’re like me and love to go into international stores and try new foods, check out Red Apple Farmers Market for a pleasant (and cheap!) experience.

Definitely a nice addition to all the ethnic stores in the area. Good selection of African and Caribbean food items. Nice choices of meats, especially goat and lamb. Impressive selection of African produce and products. Hot sauce aficionados will be pleased at the selection. The prices seemed reasonable. Interesting choices in ice cream flavor. A small place, but packed with select items.

One night I was wondering where I could find breadfruit, a delicious melon looking item that you cook like a potato, and Red Apple Farmers Market did not disappoint! Breadfruit is usually only found in tropical places like the West Indies and Jamaica. This market has a crazy selection of Caribbean and African items — make sure to try the Jamaican bread which comes from NY but is oh so good as french toast. If you are in the mood for trying new cookies, they have cassava and peanut butter cookies from Sierra Leone. You can get random things like a goat’s head or frozen turkey necks if you so choose. My favorite aisle was the great selection of jerk and hot sauces that you can drool over. I definitely recommend coming here to check out items you cannot get anywhere else. I even found Pears soap which is a favorite in my family and can be hard to find.

So you have finally decided to try cooking some of that great ethnic food instead of throwing away that hard-​earned cash on your local carry outs. But where on earth does one find cassava leaf, decent palm oil or stock fish labelled in a language you know? Well look no further than Red Apple. I was super impressed by the low prices and variety complete with a butchery to get those rare cuts of meat. H-​mart offers wonderful variety as far as international foods are concerned but caters to mainly Asian cuisine. For African, Carribean and Latino cuisine Red Apple is a solid bet.