Rain Rain Go Away!

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

Announcing the latest in farmers’ market chic — our very own crepe lady who will bring us both sweet and savory crepes for your immediate and later-at-home enjoyment. Michele Hirata is as excited as we are to be joining us with Crepes de Pouce Gras. Check out her menu and come hungry.

We also hope to have Gianni Cavanna’s son with us for the first time this fall bringing his Dad’s wonderful pasta back to Oakton. His appearance may be delayed another week depending on the demand for his services in the Richmond area, where he works for a volunteer fire department. Lorenzo told me last week that he might be delivering water to rural Hanover County for at least another week — and that was due to the power outages caused by Irene. Who knows what they are dealing with after all of this week’s additional rain?

Max Tyson will be bringing some tasty bicolor corn this week along with buttery and perfectly ripe yellow Bartlett pears in addition to red Bartletts and two varieties of Asian pears. Asian pears make a particulary good accompaniment to meat dishes as they hold their shape and flavor, and of course we will have a recipe or two for you to try. I will also have several more chicken-wing recipes — let’s move those chicken wings this fall for Alden!

Don’t forget that Uncle Roger is bringing Lothar’s gourmet sausages, so ask about them even if you do not see evidence of them. And Betty’s Chips and Salsas will also be on site under their own tent.

From the Market Master

These are the times that try men’s souls — well, maybe not men’s, but certainly mine. The one part of my wonderful job that I dislike is trying to first-guess the weather forecasters. I would love a job like theirs; it’s a better gig than being a baseball player, where being successful only one-third of the time makes you an all-star. Weather forecasters never have to get it right and they can be employed for years. They just have to predict that something like rain or snow — or a sunny day — has a one-third chance of occurring, and no one is going to complain.

Unfortunately for people like me who are trying to manage an outdoor business, these one-third success rates do me no good. I actually just need to know if it is going to be raining most or all of the market today; that’s all I ask. And no one is telling me that.

If we believe the weather forecasters at all, we can look forward to some lovely weather for this weekend’s markets, but don’t be surprised if we are short on vegetables from the Northern Neck. Some of our farmers were wiped out by Irene and have suffered even more inundation of their fields this week. With the equanimity that all farmers learn to live by, they realize that this is what they live with every year. Temperatures too high or too low for the time of year or too little or too much rain — it’s always something!

What our farmers have endured the past two weeks reminds me to remind you that every now and then we should thank them for the burdens they bear to bring us real food. It takes the kind of love for the land that John Steinbeck so eloquently portrayed in several of his great and lesser-known works. Where would we be without our small farmers?

When it’s raining, we hope to see you at the market and will appreciate your business even more than usual. If even one-third of the regulars show up, maybe I can be an all-star!

Jean

Photo by giffconstable