David’s Natural Market
871 Annapolis Road, Gambrills
410-987-1533
When walking through the front door of David’s Natural Market in Gambrills, I immediately sniffed out the homegrown vibe—a very good vibe—that keeps alive the community tradition of offering personalized customer service, locally-sourced products, and scratch-made culinary goods. The grocer is a brick-and-mortar testament to the London family’s dedication, nearly 40 years in the making, to offering wholesome, quality, and health-conscious options in an otherwise homogenized, big-box grocery industry.
By focusing on customer wellness first and foremost, David’s Natural Market is able to offer original and wholesome products that owner David London believes will, not only, sell well but also provide a sense of integrity and backstory with every purchase.
“Here, a customer can come in and know what they’re getting—a healthier option,” London says. “And if somebody asks for something and we can get it, we’ll say, ‘Sure, you’re going to buy it, so we’ll get it.’ We like the model that we have.”
Kelly Stern, who serves as manager of the three market locations (the other two being Columbia and Forest Hill), expounds on London’s point. “We know most of our regular customers by name,” she says. “What grocery store does that? It’s like Cheers of the grocery store. And because we are a small business, we also deal directly with local vendors very easily. People walk in the door and they’ll show us a product, and we might buy it on the spot.”
Thus, the business philosophy is built on relationships—creating meaningful relationships with customers and vendors. We recently sat down with London and Stern at the Odenton market to discuss the company’s origin story, best practices, offerings (including grab-n-go lunch/dinner options), and a seasonal recipe for the fall.
David, can you share the backstory of the market and how your family started the business?
In 1971, my dad was a food broker that worked for his dad. He didn’t like the products he was selling, because they were candy and things that had artificial color or flavor—and a lot of sugar. So, he decided to open a natural food store. [My parents] were hippies. They opened this natural food store, very small, 500 square feet, called Nature’s Cupboard of Love. It opened in Glen Burnie on Delaware Avenue.
In ’71, I was in sixth grade. I grew up in the business and after college, my dad needed a manager. Then in ’86, they were basically getting out of the business. I took over the Columbia store, which was very small. It was like a thousand square feet. Then we just started growing with the community and the industry. We just expanded to the left, expanded to the right—just kept knocking down walls left and right. We could support the community that was growing and empower people to eat naturally.
How on top of the trends do you have to be in order to maintain a successful business?
I think the trends give us a little boost, a little kick in volume. But you have to be really careful. [Some entrepreneurs] are opening whole locations based on fads. I don’t think that’s good. We have the opportunity, as an independent, to get products before corporate [companies]. Kombucha, cold brew coffee for example. We might have been carrying it for six months before them.
Kelly, who are some of your local purveyors; from where do you source your product?
We have two farmers that we work with directly. And most of our suppliers now have local produce. When you go up the produce aisle, you see one of our local farmers who also has fermented products. She actually used to manage the farm next door. She worked here, also, while she was trying to secure a loan. Now, she’s a single woman farmer on the Eastern shore. We deal directly with her. Those are the kind of people we want to support. We have another guy, Joe, who’s from Family Farms. He grows predominantly everything that we buy, but he also has farmers he’s working with that are all certified organic. We actually have another guy that, he goes to Alaska. I think he lives in Crofton. He goes to Alaska for four or five months and fishes, he comes back, and we buy his salmon. It’s in the freezer. I think he sells it at farmer’s markets, too.
The meats, we offer options. There are organic options, there’s some more local options. That’s always changing, all the time. We’re always looking, we just brought on a chicken farmer from the Eastern Shore.
So, there’s a lot of stories behind the products.
Yes, and we’re seeing that customers really like that. Probably the biggest thing with meats and fish is people want to know where it’s coming from. I think that’s increasing. They’re very distrusting of our food sources in this country.
Your deli and cold cases offer grab-n-go meal options; what makes them so popular?
People are coming in here and getting those items because they’re trying to make healthier choices, especially at lunchtime. Instead of going for fast food, they’re coming here. They know that the ingredients we use could be organic, all-natural. They love our soups. It’s hard to go anywhere for homemade, house-made soups. We use the ingredients that we have. The meats that we use [for deli sandwiches] are preservative-free. They’re definitely more natural meats. We’re very particular about the product that we sell in the deli. I don’t know that you’re going to find that anywhere else.
The recipe you’re sharing with us is seasonal in that the star ingredient is an apple; where are your apples grown?
Kelly: We work with Kauffman Farm in Pennsylvania; we bring in all these apple varieties from them. People definitely come for those apples, those local apples.
David: A lot of heirloom varieties. Things you haven’t seen, since you were a kid probably. They all come in wooden crates still.
Kelly: So that’s kind of the draw. They are local.
Apple Crumble All in One
Ingredients
3 large apples
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided use
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar, divided use
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour, divided use
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 scoops of vanilla ice cream and caramel for serving
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Peel, core, and dice one apple. Place it in a small skillet with 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of the brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the butter. Turn the heat to medium high, stir, and cook until the apple dices start to soften and release their juices, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and then stir in 2 tablespoons of the flour until dissolved. Let cool. Meanwhile, slice the tops off the remaining two apples, and core them, but do not go all the way through the bottom. Remove most of the inside of the apple, but leave enough intact so that the apple still stands up on its own. Stop about 1 inch above the bottom of the apple. Fill the apples with the cooled apple mixture. In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining cinnamon, brown sugar, butter, oats, and flour. Pinch the butter into the mixture to form a crumble. Divide the mixture between the two apples and pack it firmly on top. Place the apples in a small baking dish, add a splash of water to the bottom to prevent sticking, and bake for 25–30 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.
