Smart Markets: Cooking Demo with Annie

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

Special Events This Week

Annie’s Back and cooking up a storm — oops! Didn’t mean to say that! She will start cooking around 10:30 a.m. to avoid the midday heat, and she will whip up three courses for you. Her menu will include grilled peach salad with cucumbers, bell peppers and pecans; chicken with peach, jalapeño and tomato pico de gallo; and chocolate mousse with raspberries. But she reserves the right to make changes once she arrives at the market and does her own shopping. Come watch and learn!

New Vendors This Week

Valley View Bakery will be joining us permanently, and they want to know what you want them to bring. So speak up and let them know what kinds of breads and pastries you would like to see in the market.

I have encouraged them to bring their baguettes and whole-grain hot dog and hamburger buns. I am so tired of the grocery store examples of both. They do lovely “decorated” focaccia loaves, but I have also suggested that we might like to buy the plain square loaves and adorn them with market produce and cheese ourselves. Feel free to let them know what you want; they really do aim to please.

On the Way In and Out

Ignacio is bringing gorgeous Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes and charging only $4/lb. These are wonderful sauce tomatoes, and with a little sauteed onion, garlic, and fennel, you can make a big batch of sauce for canning or freezing and have it all year long.

Max Tyson is also bringing his lovely West Virginia tomatoes, which are really good for canning, burgers, sandwiches, and anything that needs a good thick slice of tomato. And all the tomatoes are great in this uncooked tomato sauce, which really must be enjoyed within an hour of creation.

Ask about when to expect berries — our farmers come from a wide swath of the farming area around Northern Virginia from Pennsylvania through West Virginia and down to the Northern Neck of Virginia. We recruit farmers from so many different places because it gives us a long growing season at the market, so you should feel free to ask how long the berries will be around but then watch for them to appear somewhere else. Nevin will soon be sending his day-sensitive strawberries, and few markets in this area will have these gems. Because they ripen in much warmer temperatures than spring berries and usually without so much rain, they have a wonderful aroma and an intense flavor.

Also, Max of Tyson Farms says to watch for the first Ginger Gold apples in a week or two and then the Fujis and Honey Crisps before the end of August.

This Week at the Market

We are hoping to have Max Tyson, Sr. back with us this week. I have been assured that he is feeling better and is much further on the way to recovery from the auto accident that took him from us for a while. I know that those of you who have bought from him for nearly five years will want to stop by to say hello, and of course to buy some peaches.

From the Market Master

Hats off to our vendors and our shoppers for helping us through the worst weather week in my ten years of managing farmers’ markets. Even when we understand the ravages of several hours in 100-degree temperatures, we feel that we need to keep our markets open for the farmers. They work in the heat whether the markets are open or not. They need to be able to sell what they are picking when they pick it, or it returns as waste or compost back to the fields that produced it. We also need to be there for our regular shoppers who, with or without power, turned out last week and bought what they could eat quickly or safely store at home.

I an particularly grateful for those vendors other than the farmers who came out to support their farming friends and to be there for the shoppers. They knew full well that they were not going to make nearly the money they normally do and also knew that they were going to be pretty miserable in unsheltered parking lots with only Mother Nature’s breeze (and as much water as they could drink) to provide relief. I also want to thank our market managers for service beyond the call of duty and for their wise and cautious management, shutting down markets early when necessary to get our vendors home in good time and good health and ready to return the next day.

It looks as if we will enjoy much more normal summer weather at our markets for the next couple of weeks, and we do have some special events and demos planned, so check our website’s event calendar for Annie’s next visits, music at the market, or a demo by our latest in-house expert, Patricia Repko. Patty will be “touring” our markets over the next couple of months to talk about preventive health care based on diet and exercise.

The cheapest health-care plan incorporates how you eat and how you live. If all you are doing is comparing prices every now and then, it may appear to be more expensive to shop at a farmers’ market. But if buying fresh and local is taken as a seasonal challenge, you will naturally take in more nutrients that can actually prevent disease and discomfort at a lower year-round cost than grocery-store shopping can provide.

We also hope to have a few other demonstrations (such as an olive oil tasting) for you throughout all of our markets. You can stay updated by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, checking our website, and subscribing to our newsletter through our website.

Thank your farmer when you see him or her next. They did not come out last week just to sell but to keep their commitment to you. On the weekend of June 30, we were open when no one else was, and they did it without air conditioning. It was amazing to show up at the Springfield market on the 30th, not having been able to contact any of the vendors, and see all but two come rolling in from a three-state area. The only two who did not make it were home bakers from Springfield who had lost power just as they were planning to bake for you on Friday night. That’s the one downside to offering the freshest of everything — no power the night before means no product for the market.

And P.S. — the latest version of the Farm Bill that has passed the House of Representatives contains helpful measures for local food and local farms. Read our blog post for the details.

See you at the market!