Seasonal Cooking

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

Batten down the hatches and stock up for the weekend! We can’t sell you a generator or flashlights, but we have everything you need to eat well while secure in your fortified bunker. And most of what we have you can eat out-of-hand at room temperature if absolutely necessary.

Tyson Farm will be bringing Gala apples for the first time to our market, and there is a promise of Honey Crisp apples to come next week! And Max Tyson says we should have peaches for another three weeks at least. Also, if you have not yet tried his tomatoes that grow on a West Virginia hillside just outside his home, you need to check them out. They are meaty and full of flavor, so they are good for every use you may have for them — especially canning and sauce as well as eating raw.

Jose’s Produce is still featuring corn and tomatoes, including a variety of heirlooms at great prices. And for the last-gasp recipes of summer, check out the Smart Markets table for recipes that you can make ahead and freeze for school lunches — such as the vegetarian chili, which can be eaten warm as a soup or at room temperature with chips (Betty’s, of course).

Which reminds me, Betty is now bringing enchilada dinners, gazpacho and that wonderful guacamole. Even more good stuff for the bunker, but all this week the guac has sold out in the first hour of the market. Come early if you really want some.

And oh, those empanadas! Our most recent addition to the market has been a big hit with the customers — Mabelle and her Ma Chef business will soon be selling Argentine sausages, too. Ask her when they will arrive.

Of course you can always take home the best BBQ in the area — Uncle Fred will be on hand as always with smoked pulled pork, chicken, brisket and ribs. My family spent some time in North Carolina, where we lived for some time, but not once were we tempted to stop for BBQ — we have the best we have ever eaten right here.

From the Market Master

Dear Shopper,

What a gorgeous day again today! — one of several with a hint of fall in the air over the last couple of weeks. I have always loved the graceful, slow change of seasons that we usually experience here in Virginia. California and Florida have no appeal for me at all. In addition to missing the colors of fall and the blooms of spring, I would miss the change of the food seasons, too. I get excited when the apples and the winter squashes start showing up at the market and love the fact that they share the end of the summer season with corn, tomatoes and peppers — making for a long transition into the full fall market.

What I really welcome when the seasons change is the opportunity to try new recipes with garden produce and to get out those stock pots, the cast-iron braising pots and the bundt cake pans — all of that kitchen equipment that we need for soups, stews, and fall and winter desserts. The food magazines that I receive are already touting the bounty of fall, and I cannot wait to make salsa-braised kale (with Betty’s Salsa, of course), the basic green soup with its many variations, the vegetarian shepherd’s pie, and the southwestern saute with salsa grits.

I have what I need at the market right now to try our wonderful market chicken breasts in skillet chicken with apples and cranberries, which could work with pork as well. I wait all summer to make the pumpkin pasta salad I created for our family Thanksgiving one year, and I am always looking for a new dessert to take to that same feast. This year it might have to be an apple cream-cheese bundt cake with praline frosting. I hope we can have Annie come and teach you all to make all of these.

I have no idea what it must be like to shop in such a way that you essentially eat the same diet all year long, buying out-of-season produce which could not possibly be fresh or full of its maximum health benefits. And what is there to look forward to if you are eating stale kale in August and hard peaches in May? Or those awful mealy, tasteless apples all year long?

Another major benefit of buying local and cooking seasonally is that you get all of the healthiest benefits from the food you eat at the best possible prices. Especially at your farmers’ market, the seasonal produce is usually cheaper than store-bought, especially when the markets are flooded with fruit and veggies picked the day before you buy them.

So if you get excited about these things too, watch the newsletter and the website for the new recipes to appear and for Annie’s fall schedule of market cooking classes. Mmm — I can smell the squash bisque now!

See you at the market!

Jean