This Week at the Smart Markets Bristow Farmers' Market

This Week at the Smart Markets Bristow Farmers' Market
Sunday 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Bristow Commons
Bristow Montessori School Parking Lot
9050 Devlin Rd.
Bristow, VA 20136
Map

I want to share a comment on the state of our lives from Diane Blust, founder and president of Sustainable Reston and one of our great market managers. It’s nice to know that I am not the only one who reacts this way to the mundane.

A sad commentary on the state of food in America: The Food section in The Washington Post this morning has the following in the ingredients list for Chive Chicken: “3/4 ounce (1 small clamshell pack) chives.” We’re so removed from our food we now measure it in plastic packaging rather than handfuls or bunches or even stalks or stems? I’m so glad my little neighbors, Nolan and Violette, can run through my garden and grab a snack in its natural state … and so sad for all the little ones (and big ones) who think food comes from a plastic farm.

Thanks largely to your input and the blessing of good weather this winter, we have decided to add back the fourth hour of the market and begin our summer hours March 11. Please spread the word in the community that we will be open until 2:30 p.m. starting next Sunday.

This week, I recommend the roasting chickens from Rainbow Acres, the peach and apple butters from Tony Fetters Fruit Farm, the lip balm from Twin Feather, and the soup bones from Angelic Beef that make the best stock ever -- and after 40 years of cooking and catering, I have made lots of stock! My family also recommends Betty’s chips and all of her salsas, but my granddaughter thinks the guacamole is the “best ever” in her book. Those are a few more of those little gems I promised to highlight. More of those next week.

The best tip I can give you is this: Take your time, shop and sample your way through the market, and buy something each week that you have not tasted, served or cooked with before. As someone once said in a TV ad: “Try it, you’ll like it.” That’s the “best ever” at the market -- you can try just about everything.

We should have plenty of eggs this week between Sally at Rainbow Acres and Max Tyson at his fruit stand. Sally was running out of eggs early every week, so Max has graciously agreed to bring to market eggs from another of our vendors who is not selling this winter. He had eggs accumulating at his farm, and we needed them -- so while accepting nothing for his trouble, Max stepped up to help us get those eggs to market. As usual, he’s just happy to do anything to help the market. We have the greatest vendors!

From the Market Master

I am writing in the rain today -- third-best thing to reading and singing in it. I will get around to reading later today, but I am only allowed to sing with my granddaughter in the car. And boy, do we rock out on the road!

Nowadays when it rains, I think about the farmers -- and I think about them when it doesn’t rain for weeks or months, too. Either way, the weather forecast is filtered through my understanding of the needs of the farmers with whom I work.

I was not a bigtime activist foodie before I got involved with farmers’ markets. I was just a mom and caterer who cooked from scratch because that’s what I learned at home in home ec classes and that’s what I liked to do. I was excited to discover a market in my neighborhood when we moved to Fairfax because in those days, the selection of fresh vegetables was limited, even at the grocery stores. In fact I drove all the way from Woodbridge to Magruder’s in Vienna to shop.

After 15 years of buying from the old Vienna market at Nottoway Park, I became the volunteer market manager and began to learn more about the challenges and joys of small farming from some of our area’s small-farm pioneers, such as Hana and Hue at Potomac Vegetable Farm and the Plancks.

I have gradually come to realize that while there I can do a lot to help promote the farmers through our markets, there are some kinds of support and incentives that only government can supply. In fact, there are some elements of the Farm Bill now before Congress that could help farmers’ markets serve more people and to help small farmers have more retail sales outlets such as markets.

The bill’s provisions would help Smart Markets and our farmers to acquire the technology to accept WIC program, SNAP (food stamp) and Senior food program EBT cards. It would increase money for the Department of Agriculture’s Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, which we really don’t need, but some markets do. More importantly, it would fund the Specialty Crop grant program to help small farmers who grow for markets. The Farmers Market Coalition reminds us that “this bill’s total investment of less than one-sixth of one percent of USDA’s budget would address the needs of a large and growing sector of American agriculture as well as boost local economies.”

You can learn more about this bill and how you can help on the website of the Farmers Market Coalition.

Sometimes we just need to do more than shop at farmers’ markets, or we may all lose that opportunity. It will help all of us involved in this endeavor if we can create greater access to our markets for those who really need healthier food choices. And as many of you already know, we are here to teach everyone who shops with us what to do with all that great produce.

Here’s another great winter recipe so that you can prove my point.

See you at the market!

Jean