On a day redolent of turkey, yams and grandma's sweater, let's start where food begins. In Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, where development is swiftly displacing agriculture, Clagett Farm survives as a direct connection between grower and consumer. With support from the Capital Area Food Bank and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the farm grows more than 45 kinds of vegetables and distributes them to low-income communities and to paying customers. Buying a share in the farm gets you weekly deliveries of stuff you can't find at the supermarket and helps bring fresh produce to the District's Ward 8, where there's been no supermarket since 1998, when Safeway folded its tent (www.clagettfarm.org).

Thanks this year to three men who have enlivened the city by creating new gathering places: Anthony Lanier's Cady's Alley in Georgetown -- notably including his Viennese cafe -- has become an alluring hangout with a clean European design, while Mike Benson's Cafe Saint-Ex and Bar Pilar have boosted the comeback of 14th Street NW. And along H Street NE, Joe Englert's string of bars and eateries is almost single-handedly extending the city's boom to a strip where even cops didn't like to get out of their cars a few years ago.