Celebrate an All-Local Fourth of July with Smart Markets

This Week at our Oakton Market
Saturday 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
2854 Hunter Mill Rd.
Map

Check out these special coupons for savings on Angelic Beef, Loudoun Valley Vineyards wines, and iPLANT2 seedlings.

You can preorder crabs from Virginia Crabs, $55/doz. To order ahead, just reply to this email and give us your order. The crabs will be ready for you at the market. Don’t forget that you can also preorder from Uncle Fred’s BBQ. Check out his menu, then call him at 540-313-2222 to preorder.

Look carefully! We are adding to our high-quality lineup of vendors this week. In addition to our old favorites who never miss a beat or a market — Heritage Farm and Kitchen, Angelic Beef and Tyson Farms — we are welcoming The Culinary Herb Farm, Ashbank Farm and Sweet Hearts Patisserie.

Heritage Farm and Kitchen will have freshly butchered free-range pork and lamb. And check out iPLANT2. New this week will be mint, the return of Joe's wife's fantastic fig jam, and his daughter Jenny's locally famous, from scratch, cupcakes. Flavors to be announced at the market. And bring your gardening questions.

From the Founder

Dear Shopper,

My father’s birthday was July 4, and I spent most of my early youth thinking the entire country celebrated my very own father’s birthday.

Since all three of us girls adored our Dad, we thought it made perfect sense that Daddy Paul would be the honoree at everything from family picnics to small-town parades and fireworks. It wasn’t really a disappointment for me to learn otherwise — I just figured that it was the rest of the country who had lost out.

As you can imagine, the Fourth of July is still special for me, even though Daddy Paul is no longer around to celebrate with us. His side of our extended family still tries to get together every Fourth, and we plan to spend the day in Rawley Springs this year, where my grandparents had a huge split-log cabin for many years up above where the old hotel had sat before it burned to the ground — in the 1920s or ’30s, I imagine. (I will ask about that on the Fourth).

That’s also where the swimming hole in the river was known as Blue Hole — named for the color you turned when you hit the water. I did not spend much time in the water there, but my parents certainly did as teenagers. I have pictures of my Dad and his friends jumping off the rocks into the hole, which was quite deep.

But this year, I would also like to ask you to consider planning and executing an all-local Fourth of July. If we can pull off an all-local Thanksgiving, and many of you know by now that we can, then the Fourth should be a breeze. And what better way to honor a country that can feed us perfectly well if we choose to buy from those we know?

At your farmers market you can probably find local, free-range and “additive-free” meats — just about any cut of any meat that you would want for that grill. Look for pasta, breads and sauces for that pasta.

You can stock your summer pantry with herb and spice mixes and rubs to dress up salads and season your grilled specialties, pickles and relishes, jams and jellies and honey. And don’t forget the dairy products for those wonderful homemade baked goods you are going to make yourself.

Check out the great international foods to help expand your idea of what it means to be an American, and we have gluten-free products at many of our markets to demonstrate that great American gift for coming up with what we need as well as what we want. To help you along here I will be posting new summer recipes on our website throughout the week.

See you at the market!