captioned by the national capaptioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> thank you for joining us for a look at business and finance here in the washington region. i am gordon peterson. rebecca cooper has the day o off. thought it would be a good time to bring up a warm weather business topic. one contributes nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to montgomery county in new delhi alone. -- montgomery c county alone

now we would like to welcome to members s of montgomery c county's ricultural commuty -- wa butler of butler's o orchard and suzanne hermesho runs the potomavillage farmers' m market. i have been your orchard many times. your family has been in this orchard for 60 years? how is it different today? >> my mom and dad started back in the 1950's. it was a wholesale operation. we were in germantown way out in montgory county papassed everything. now we are much more urban. lotsts of folks tnsition to the pick your own farm and roadside market.. people come tos and we give them the opportunity to pick fresh fruits andegetles out

of the field. >> i remember there were cattle.. you've got a big tax deducti if you had cattle on your property. what are the issues facing you now as this business of yours has changed? >> it is a double edged sword. we need a lott of customers. we have a lot of customers around us. sometimes agriculture has trouble fitting into an urban area. we do have somessues somemes, but we get along very well with o neighbors. they are happy to have us. our challenge is to keep changing with the times. >> i have been out therend i see a lot of children running ound. you are giving them that experience. >> so they can seehere the food comes from.

they know during certain seasons, certain things are ripe. dodo not always have fresh fruits and vegetables here in montgomery county. they get a an oortunity to learn what is ripe and when. >> h long have you been running the potomac village farmers' mararket? >> my fifth ye. >> what are the changes you are seeing? >>nd increased interestt in purchasing local products. >> why is that? that is a nanational brand. >> people are leaing re about freshness and quality and how far their food has to travel to get t them. they also want to have relationships with theirarmers and see where their food is comingrom. they willome to a farmer's market a and get a chance to meet a former with they do not get to do that in a supermarket.

>> what is the toughest part of your job? >> the weather. we had extremes last year -- heat 100 degrees in june, and extrtremes of raiain, lightning storms and windstorms. the weather is probably the most challenging aspect. >> if i wanto start a farmer's market, wh is your best advice? don't? >> location, location, location. people ce o in the rain. it is important that you be there for them. >> what do you do when there is a drght? >> we do a lot of irrigation. >> have you refine that over the years? >> we used to do ovoverhead irrigation. now it is drip irrigation. you can use a lot less water.

we bring people out to the farm. there were 1-degree days in june that we had which were really tough. >> when we think of montgomomery county we think of mainly ere people live. we do not think of it as a farming area. how extensive is it? >> there are 93,000 acres in montgomery county's agriculture reserved. that is where our farm is. there is a lot of grain farming going on. not as many daiairies.. still a lot of grain and crops. i think montgomery count is number one in pumpkpkin production, strawberry production. >> consumers have a demand for products that sometimes you cannotroduce. >> seasonality place intnto it.

if you are coming to look for broccoli in the hot heat, summer months, it is not going to be there. you can go to your grocery store. if y you come looking for the fuji apple the fall, it is not going to be there. but when those products s come in, you get thehe best tasting freshest. >> how diyou know w fuji is my favorite apple i love them. >> if you go to a grower or a farmer's market, they are en better. >> you can also o help us out with cheeses and not it. >> the farmers' market is not only about f farmers. it is about local.. we have local businesses -- bakks, cheesemers, a young

entrepreneurs' program. we have a teenar who makes -- we are giving opportunitity to local businesses as ll. >> ok. think local. thank you very much forr joining usus. next in our small business bolick, a local brewer.re we will be rigbeht back. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

>> we are going toocus on our small business spotlight this week on a small business that might outgrow that classification if it continues

on its presencourse. port city brewing company, the first brewery and alexandria ll butcher knew there would be some problems but he may not have predicted that keeping up with demand would of been one of them. so you wake up one mornining and you thought you would start a brewery. is that how that works? >> not quite. i got started in the wine business in the midlantic area from pennsylvania to south carolina. itit is a markethat i know pretty well. >> so why do i i port city beer? >> it is much more flavorful. id has layers of flavor whereas other beers may not. >> so there is a relatn to the wind business. you say the years are going the same direction. >> absolutely. craft beer is almost the same as

the one business. is based on the quality o of grapes that you get. our ingredients are madade with the finest t qualities in the world.d. we started almost a year agogo. we planned on produducing about 2,500 baels ofof beer in our first year and week out-p-paced at bybout 20%. >> why the increase in demand? it is very interesting to meet. why would they pick yours? >> a lot of it has to do with the fact that there was a lack of local options. d.c. was thehe only major metropolitan area without a brewery like this. we also realize there are a lot of choices already in the market and our quality had to be world clclass. >> are you in competition with

other breweries? >> capital city brewing -- they are our friends. they brew beer to be consumed in their restaurants. we brew beer to be purchasased from restaurants and stores. there is a lot of choice out therso the q quality has to bee there especlly in a sophisticated market like dc >> w are yourest customers? >> restaurant,otels, specialty high-and grocees. we are and about 200 retailers across maryland, d.c., and virginia. >> do you u sell something ee besides the year on your web site? >> we do have rchandise available in our tasting room anand we give public tours on saturday. we are in alexandria a about 2 miles west of old town. 3950 wheeler avenue.

>> s so people can go into that place e and drink beer all afternoon. >> we prefer too look at it as an educational experience. >> the winineries in napa valley do the same thing. >> you can come in and lk at the tananks a meet the brewers d see how itit is de from graiain to glass. >> what are the risks that you run into here? the chances that you get some bad hops oromething. >> the pitfalls really are you have t to maintain quality. you have to be consistent. we have to maintain a consistent supply. our competitors will be there with another kind of beer that will take the top line. >> ok. port city y brewing company,

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>> congress is back in session and president obama has rejected t keyone pipipeline. on our roundtable today, kate andersen brower, josh booak from "polico," and ter morici from the university of maryland schoolf business. its seems to me that this rerejection of the keystone pipeline deal thathe president made last month -- >> really,y, obama was in a

diffult positionecause two bi constituencies, the democratic party environmentalists, and labor weren opsite sides of this issue. a $700 billion pipelinehat tranans canada would have brought in 20,000 jobs. 1 union workers sai obama should be hugging a jobls construction worker inststead o of hopping trees.s. that really shows this bibidding againseach other. republicans had a field day w with it of course. >> the flip side argument that the democrats are going to give it is imagine how many construction jobs we could hav if a highway bill is passed. the politics and the messaging do not always mesh perfectly. how w well can thehe democrats

artilate it? >> it is quite significant. the opportunity to ri ourselves of and the easternany better eat -- middlele eastern oil isermanent. i think o years from now it will be buililt. >> it was dinitely a situation where republicans would not go ahead withth this payroll tax extension if it was not part of it, and the white house said they were not going to approve the pipeline. it is interesting the timing before the state of the union so they could counteract it with a strong message on jobs. also, everyone's attention is focused on south carolina, florida, and the republican race. >> speaking of the state of the unn, i have the "politico" state of the union addition.

can congress sink any lower? >> amazingly, yes, they can. there was rearch that put togethther a policyy on a rtain index going back to 1985. it has never been this high. it came pretty close to 350 during theebt ceiling dispute. a lot of the issues on the table are not going to geget resolved until after the election. >> you d did a substanantial piece on the economy. you have substantialanks worried abouthat is going to happen after the electn. thfate of them will depend on who is in the oval office. then you have austety measures. >>peter, what impapact does this deal have? >> this is the worst time to be cutting the budget deficit. we project the economy to grow about 2% per year.

of the government is cutting back, so there will be less demamand. no one knows when investment will be workingng for this administration because economic policy is so uncertain. >> as we know, mitt romney perhaps t the preresumpve nominee -- who knows, actuly. mitt romney is running against barack obama and always o on the economy and jobs. >> gas prices this summe as they go u the obama administtion is bracing for a whole new line of atta on gas prices. you are going to hear the president talked a lot about how there arere fewer oil imports than before and domestic oil production is up. i am sure mitt romneney will take that attack if he becomes the nominee.

>> whehere is the president going to go for his state of the union? " i think there will be manufacturing announcements and things that have to do with job creaon. there is whole mantra coming from the white house that they have abandoned working with congress. >> what is the volcker rule and white publicans hate it? >> the volcker rule tries to stop trading for the house with customerer deposits that are injured by the government. the proboblem with this is the government was to ensurere that the banks keep doing market making the kinds of trades that alwed our markets to function smoothly. figuring o out h t to stop them trading themselves is so touough. >> on top of that theanks have huge resources. if they bebet wrong, they can get

into aot of troue very quickly. if joscannot bet on his bank he will take it to peter's bank. the volcker rule is u unworkable as long as we do not return to glass-steagall. >> what you are going to see here- on the campaign trarail you are going to geget the 10,000-foot view of what needs to happe in d.c., the r real work of government will be taking place. >> mitt romney is going to be a very ambivalent republican o on this issue. the way to attack obama is to concentrate all this power and continue to tradade. >> kate, fla., january 31 -- >> they have nine offices, more than they had in new hampshire and iowa. they have thousands of volunteers. florida is a key battleground

state. wiwith the faire of the dream act and immigration reform, it is going to be a tough sell ththis time around. florida is not very representatative of the hispanicic community. so it is going to be a little bit of a challenge for them to go out there and mobilize grass- roots boaters. >> they have a big opportunity in florida because of the dream act because it will give the presidident an o opportunityo campaign against mitt romy. is goingo be very tough for newt gingrich to move to the president's position and not ienate voterers iflorida. >> are the voters going to punish congress in 2012? >> it is almost like a parent threatening a beloved child. they raise their voice. a willingness to screream and

shout, but at the end of the day, the kid always gets a lollipop. >> thank you very much. stick with us. our number of the week, 95. will explain after thehe break.

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>> our number of the week, 95, is it good news if you own a home in the right neighborhood. a final home sale price, home sellers are receivingng 95% of list price or betr in a number of d.c. neighborhoods. no better location than capitol hill nororth east. se went for 97.4%. thananks. before w go, we would like to remind you that you have options on how to o connect with "washington business report." twitter facebook, and you can find a streaming version of the whole show at wjla.com. rebecca cooper will see you next and.

i am gordon peterson. thanks. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation every solution comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance.

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