This Week at Smart Markets Lorton Farmers' Market

Map

Thanks for the overwhelming welcome for Uncle Fred’s BBQ last week. He promises to bring more this week, but you can always preorder or call to ask him to save something for you if you will be arriving later in the market. Reach him directly at (540) 313-2222.

We are hoping to see a similar welcome for two new vendors this week. Janie Hakim, who calls her company Sweet Nuna, will bring her baklava. She has been a big hit at our Reston and Oakton markets, and she is spreading her wings again. Also joining us will be Denise Hicks of Postmodern Foods. Denise has been coming to Reston and Springfield and has also decided to expand her reach. Both of these vendors bring the kind of high-quality products we appreciate at our markets, because we know you will be as enthusiastic as we are. They both understand the value of sampling, so line up for a taste and hopefully a purchase.

Our small home bakers cannot regularly plan for party or event sales at the market. One person with a plan for a party can pretty much deplete Kylie’s Pop Shop’s stock with one sale. Kylie still has a good day but spends the rest of the market explaining that she is out of most everything she had brought. Please let her know in advance for any sale of more than a dozen cake pops, or if you want to order a candy that she cannot bring in the heat of summer. She can still make them for you as a special order. (I will send you the email she sent me with her instructions.) All of our home cooks would benefit from your thoughtfulness. Some of the vendors who live close enough to the the Lorton area will be happy to deliver a big order to your door.

Many of our vendors announce their menus for the week on our Facebook page, so check before you come to market if you want to plan ahead. Postmodern Foods and Celtic Pasties will do that this week, and Kylie will let us know if she is planning anything new.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

The June issue of Smithsonian magazine featured a number of good articles about food and our appreciation of it. One article in particular reviewed the recent scientific study of how cooked food has helped the human brain develop and how it can aid our good health and good sense today.

Our bodies get much more out of the calories in cooked food than in raw food. A raw-food diet, which of course is also going to be a vegan diet, will contribute to weight loss but will also contribute to the loss of essential nutrients that our body needs to remain healthy over a long life. (Raw fruit is healthy, however, because it evolved to feed animals.) There seems to be a correlation between the discovery of fire, its use to cook food, the subsequent transition to meat-eating, and the growth of the brain as humans evolved. As Adler concludes, “The great apes spent four to seven hours a day just chewing, not an activity that prioritizes the intellect.”

There was also an interesting article about how we develop likes and dislikes for foods. And there’s a discussion between Ruth Reichl and Michael Pollan. Reichl recalled her decision as the last editor of Gourmet magazine to run a story about tomato farming in Florida. It caused tremendous angst among editorial staffers but also led to changes in Florida law that had permitted virtual slavery in the tomato fields.

We need to see more of that kind of journalism, and more of Pollan and others, online and disseminated via social media. How else will our young people catch on to the “food revolution?” Jamie Oliver makes good use of technology, but we are going to need more apostles and more of them using social media. One great article will not make a ripple without more stones being thrown into the water by lots of us standing on shore.