This Week at the Smart Markets Bristow Farmers' Market

This Week at our Bristow Market
Sunday 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Piney Branch Elementary School
8301 Linton Hall Rd.
Bristow, VA 20136
Map

On the Way In and Out

Doug Linton will bring his Angelic Beef back to market this week. The Piedmontese breed is genetically more tender with less saturated fat and cholesterol than any other breed. In addition, the cattle are free-range and grass-fed (though grain-, not corn-finished) and you can meet and talk to Doug about his breeding methods each week. Learn more about the health benefits of this beef and pick up a flyer with the latest data on red meat in a healthy diet.

Tyson’s will have their apple cider this week, which you need for applesauce. Cooking the apples down in cider produces a sweet applesauce that does not need sugar or any other sweetener. A few new varieties are also being picked -- look for your favorites.

Great greens are coming back for their fall presentations at Luis’s and José’s stands. Kale, collards, mustard greens, and don’t forget beet greens, which have a subtle, peppery bite that offsets the sweetness of the beets themselves. I always cook the tops and bottoms separately, then serve them together with just salt, pepper, and a little butter.

The sweet baby pumpkins are joining their relatives, the winter squashes, at the market. José, Luis and Fossil Rock will have them. We have new recipes for their use throughout your menu, from soup to seeds.

Shelby at Cakes by Shelby is bringing a different cake each week and selling it by the slice, and they are going fast! And with the cool weather, the cake pops are back, too. Ask her about her other new products -- I think I saw a cheesecake on the table last week.

Mike and Debby at Blue Dog BBQ are trying to keep up with the demand; ask them about pre-ordering to ensure that you can get what you want for your football feast.

Vendors Absent This Week

Mike Burner is still away -- he will be back.

From the Market Master

Dear Shopper,

I want to conclude this week the voluminous accounting of the things you miss by not shopping at your local farmers’ markets and to thank you for the feedback I received last week. As a preface to this I want to mention an important opinion piece in the September 23rd edition of The New York Times. The title itself is intriguing and the entire article well worth reading if you seem to work constantly and persistently to attain or maintain a healthy weight.

“Eating for Health, Not Weight” by Dr. Dean Ornish doesn’t present new information, but it does encourage us to take the data that are out there and think about them in a new and helpful way. How’s this for something to think about? “Perhaps the biggest misconception is that as long as you lose weight, it doesn’t matter what you eat. Yet being thin and being healthy are not at all the same thing. Being overweight is not necessarily linked with disease or premature death. What you eat affects which diseases you may develop, regardless of whether you’re thin or fat.”

If this intrigues you as much as it did me, read on. For further instruction, visit Dr. Ornish’s website and follow his advice for eating through his list of recommended foods for staying healthy.

With that in mind, here’s a little more incentive, hopefully, to shop for that healthy food at a farmers’ market near you.

The Fun

The farmers’ market is a cauldron in the same way that our country is a melting pot. Food markets have different names all over the world, but in each country, they are where people come together to share their love of food and their commitment to its culture.

Food is the authentic voice of culture. It speaks to us even as it keeps us alive and healthy; it transports the history of the world to your table; it brings people together to share what we have created from the land over thousands of years. You will meet many others at a market who are just as enthralled with their culture as you are with yours and just as anxious to share it with you.

Our markets are often filled with music to remind you that our own culture is a melting pot of food and music . We bring you some of the best musicians in the area who perform at our markets for fun and profit — well, maybe not profit. Considering what we can afford to pay them, they must surely do it for fun! Check out our fall event calendar as it begins to fill up. Watch for bluegrass, old-time, and jazz — we’ve got it all!

See you at the market!

Photo by Sarah Sertic/Tribal Spider Arts