Rain Rain Go Away!

This Week at Our Centreville Market
Friday 3:30–6:30pm
5875 Trinity Pkwy.
Map

Very Important Announcement: Jacob and Windmill Meadows Farm will not be with us next week, September 16th. He and May are going to visit their newest grandchild in Kentucky. We wish them a safe trip with their own little one who was born last winter, the youngest of their eleven children. The point here is that you will need to buy ahead for two weeks this Friday; Jacob wanted me to be sure to give you advance notice, so this is it.

Leandra, our balloon lady, will be on site again this week — she must really like all the children and generous parents who visit our little market! If you haven’t brought your youngsters lately, now is the time to bring them to shop so they too can shop at the balloon store.

Igor also wanted me to remind you about pre-ordering his good steamed crabs. For Friday, Saturday or Sunday pick-up, you should email me by replying to this email by Thursday evening. If you prefer to wait until Saturday morning to pick them up, you can do so at our Oakton Saturday market or the Gainesville Sunday market.

Another couple of reminders: We have some of the best home-prepared foods in this area in Betty’s chips, salsas, gazpacho and enchiladas (chicken cheese) and in Mabelle’s Argentine empanada varieties and pastries. Many of their items can be frozen to have on hand for your own healthy fast-food meal, and the chips keep surprisingly well for days when rewrapped in their original bag.

Last but not least — Max Tyson is now bringing two Asian pear varieties and both yellow and red Bartlett pears. Don’t forget to try the free samples — the yellow Bartletts are perfectly ripe and taste like butter, they are so creamy and dreamy.

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