This Week at the Smart Markets Bristow Farmers' Market

This Week at our Bristow Market
Sunday 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Piney Branch Elementary School
8301 Linton Hall Rd.
Bristow, VA 20136
Map

Dear Shopper,

I want to thank our host, the Piney Branch Elementary School, and its Parent Teacher Organization for inviting us to participate in their Family Fun and Fitness Fair this past Wednesday evening. It was a great event where we were represented by our great volunteer Carol Buckingham, two of our farmers, and Kathryn Strong from the Virginia Extension Service, who gave a demo about home canning.

We hope to schedule free monthly canning classes at the market beginning in May. Let me know if you are interested.

Uncle Fred’s BBQ will be with us this week with a full complement of smoked meats and sides. The amazing Taste of Local truck, complete with propane, will also be with us with their full menu of burgers, soup of the day, and Lauren’s slightly spicy marinara sauce.

Max Tyson of Tyson Farms will be there with his apples and winter veggies, and B&D will bring freshly processed, free-range chicken and plenty of fresh country eggs.

Cakes by Shelby will grace us as always with wonderful baked goods, including mini tarts, cake pops, and giant slices of the cake of the day. She is also providing a hot chocolate bar with fixin’s for kids of all ages to warm you from the inside out.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

I know, I know! One more word about dieting for the new year and we’ll all scream for ice cream! But I am not going to talk about dieting, which means removing something from your diet -- or lots of somethings as the case may be. You can add to your diet in a healthful way with more vegetables all the time and maybe in the process realize that you can eat less meat and still be satisfied. Then you will be dieting without even trying.

René Redzepi is the latest chef of the moment, the intense and creative owner of Noma, the latest star in the restaurant firmament located in the relative obscurity of Copenhagen. I probably will never eat there, and I am not sure I would swoon over some of his rather strange concoctions, but I do agree with just about everything he says about vegetables. Beginning with: “The dimension of flavors you find in [vegetables is] so much more diverse and exciting than the three or four animals we eat all the time.”

That’s a quote from an article by Adam Sachs in the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine. But after being inspired by the words, ideas, and “rules” of Chef Redzepi, I was even more pleased to see some great winter veggie recipes farther along in the magazine and also in several other books and articles I have looked at this month.

Check out the Bon Appetit Cooking School tutorial on salads in the same issue and try the recipe with carrots from your winter farmers’ market. Or this one with butternut squash and carrots from the February issue of Living magazine. Or for a great introduction to easy home cooking that is full of great salad and vegetable-based soup recipes, check out Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home, a seasonal romp through his own vegetable garden. Or check out Jamie’s Food Revolution, which reintroduces the home cook to “simple, delicious and affordable meals,” many of which focus on vegetables as the main course.

Once a week, and not on the same day of each week, just decide to cook and serve nothing but veggies for dinner. Ignore your meat and potatoes–loving husband and your hamburger-addicted kids and try some new recipes that I promise will offer the same satisfaction as a meal with meat. There are enough bean and egg recipes out there to keep you cooking all year, but you don’t always have to include those either. Remember what Redzepi said and take heed.

Saveur magazine’s annual 100 Best issue (Jan/Feb 2013) lists as No. 10 Skin-on Roasted Beets. “Is there anything quite as gorgeous as an unpeeled roasted red beet? Glistening in olive oil and dusted with salt and pepper, beets cook to a moist softness. Their hue deepens to a tantalizing garnet. The sugars concentrate and, in places, caramelize as the juices seep out of the roots’ paper-thin skins, which crisp delectably as they cook. The roasting tames the beets’ natural earthiness, and a mouthwatering sweetness takes hold.”

If you are ready to attack a beet or a winter squash in your kitchen right now, you can also try this Carrot Salad with Yogurt and Coriander or Jamie Oliver’s Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup. And feel free to share your own favorites by posting a comment.