This Week at the Smart Markets Oakton Farmers' Market

This Week at our Oakton Market
Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
2854 Hunter Mill Rd.
Oakton, VA 22124
Map

This Week at the Market

This is the last Saturday for ordering your Thanksgiving turkey, and while you are signing up at Heritage Farm, sample some egg nog and buy a pint of pumpkin ice cream to try. You’ll be glad you did.

This is also the time of year for Comforting Shredded Beef and beef-based soups. Pick up some of Doug’s soup bones, make your own broth and use it to make richly delicious soups, stews and the shredded beef. Doug will also sell you a roast for the shredded beef recipe.

Ignacio is still laying out the most beautiful display of Northern Neck vegetables. Last week he had red and purple carrots for a ridiculous price, and his beets and turnips are gorgeous. Let’s hope Max Tyson is still picking those greens too – they were beautiful last week.

Special Events This Week

Annie is back to give you new ideas for Thanksgiving side dishes and a nice dessert, too. She will be ready to cook for you by 10:30 a.m. and will mesmerize and tantalize you for at least two hours. She also hands out samples of everything she makes.

Vendors With Us This Week

Celeste is back with her own bazaar and fabulous Fabbioli wines. Think about picking up a bottle of the raspberry Merlot for a gift for your hosts if you are visiting friends or relatives for Thanksgiving. They will invite you back more often!

Vendors Absent This Week

Our new vendor with the wonderful fudge has been called away to be with his ill father, so we will give him time to see this through and welcome him back when circumstances permit.

From the Market Master

If this election has taught us anything other than that too much money is being spent on these things, it is that good old grassroots organizing trumps big money every time. The key word here is “organizing” — not the facade of organization but the use of available data to set goals and establish priorities followed by a team-based, on-the-ground, person-to-person effort to be heard. Nowadays “on the ground” can include the use of social media, but it will always require personal contact and follow-up.

Those of us who want to see change in our national food policy as well as the diets of our fellow Americans have the opportunity now to gear up and stand up for what we would like to change. The GMO-labeling initiative in California failed, but we can still learn from that campaign. For starters, we need better lunches in our schools, more education about how our diets affect our health as individuals and as a nation, and a better Farm Bill. And we need to learn now to advocate for what we want.

Shopping at a farmers’ market won’t solve the nation’s problems, but it does bring you together with other people in your local community who probably feel the same way you do about these issues. If you are inclined to advocacy, take that into account. I encourage you to use that access, that goodwill and the resources of Smart Markets and work together to make your voices heard at all levels of government. I promise you that someone is listening.