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Louise Keckler shows off here sprouts to a customer at the Bethesda Farmers Market. She's not sure she'll be back next year. (Chinmoy Sarkar)

BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 4 (UPI) — As Louise Keckler set up her stall on the last day of the Bethesda, Md., farmers market for this year, she said she did not know whether she’d be back next spring.

In fact, she’s not even sure about the future of the farm that has been a family business for generations.

Like a lot of growers in the region, Keckler had been a regular supplier of organic produce to consumers in Bethesda and other Washington suburbs for years. But after 9/11, some markets, including a major one at the National Institutes of Health, were closed for security reasons. Some growers were forced out of business but others, like Keckler, hung on.

Some of the survivors turned to Bethesda Urban Partnership, a non-profit organization that runs a program called Community Supported Agriculture.

Under CSA, customers pay in advance for a fixed quantity of produce for the following year. In spring, when the market opens, customers collect a basket of produce each week and return the following week to fill the basket again. This guarantees the growers a profit regardless of weather conditions or yield.

But just as more buyers were signing up for CSA, the economy slumped and CSA’s advance payments dwindled. Keckler, who travels more than 70 miles every week from Gardners, Pa., to the market in Bethesda, said she barely managed this year.

“I guess only some people are still being able to pay for organic produce in this day and time,” she said.

Ghassan Neshawat, a CSA committee member and owner of a 40-acre farm near Silver Spring, Md., sounded grimmer.

“Business is slower than ever and a lot of people have dropped out,” said Neshawat, who immigrated from Jordan nearly 40 years ago. "CSA is barely making it.

“About 80 percent of my business comes from CSA. We have some deposits but need more to work with for next year. This is what I do full time and if CSA does not get funding I’d have no options left.”

The U.S. Agriculture Department estimates that owners of small farms like Keckler and Neshawat produce about 15 percent of the nation’s annual fruits and vegetables.

The Bethesda market had a variety of fruits and vegetables along with jams, herbs, cheese, farm-raised meat and homemade hummus. Being the last day, some buyers were milling around and wishing the farmers luck. As customers left with full baskets, the market grew empty and the sellers seemed more apprehensive.

“I hope I can be here next year,” Keckler said to one departing customer. “Pray for us.”