This Week at Smart Markets Manassas Park Farmers' Market

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We are heading into our last month of the season this year. Since we do not have a turkey provider and the loss of Daylight Savings Time will soon shroud us in darkness, we will close this year at the end of October. However, we will be back next spring in a new location that will be accessible to more of the Manassas Park population. With stepped-up outreach to the community of both vendors and shoppers, we expect that the market will be bigger, better, and available to SNAP recipients. We will be working with our vendors over the winter to get them approved to use the EBT system so that none of us will have to bother with tokens.

We are also looking to incorporate more education programming into this market, and we look forward to working more closely with the staff at your amazing community center to coordinate with other healthy-living initiatives in your city. These are the collateral benefits of hosting a market — learning more about how to eat healthy, how to cook healthy at home, and how to take what you learn about the food system in our country to heart (double entendre intended). It usually takes us a year in a new location for us to learn how to further our own goals (as put forth in our mission statement) beyond just helping to save small farming, but we are already meeting and working with the private and public sectors to make things happen next year.

In the meantime, come enjoy new apple varieties arriving all month long, and at least five varieties of pears. Check out the autumn salad recipes this week. Look for winter squash, Brussels sprouts, turnips, beets, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, all some of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. And while those gorgeous sweet peppers are still coming, make several batches of Red Pepper Hummus to freeze for school lunches and football parties this winter. You can still find almost all of the veggies used in this Vegetarian Chili at Crazy Farm’s stand, which is another great recipe for making in large batches and freezing in pint- or quart-sized containers.

Wicked Oak will continue to supply you with great country eggs. Talk to them about ordering a family pack or other cuts in bulk and let them know if you want to stock the freezer with chickens, too. They always accept preorders, but this month let them know early so they too can plan ahead to meet your needs.

Wine is another product that you can easily buy in bulk. Fabbioli Cellars offers great discounts on cases of wine, and you can select a mixed case. Talk to Celeste also about buying yarn for your holiday projects, too.

And now is the time to start thinking soap for gift-giving. Ken at Liz Soaps will be bringing holiday fragrances soon. Buy a variety of soaps and put together personalized gift baskets for everyone on your list. Teenagers and grandmothers will love them. And there are soaps for men, too.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

It’s always fun to pass along good news in the world of health and nutrition, especially when it broadens our understanding of the importance of a healthy diet to our overall good health. The Washington Post pointed out Sept. 23 that a large majority of older men and women are now taking calcium pills and spending a total of $1.2 billion on them. Surprise! They don’t really need to and maybe shouldn’t be.

According to the Post, “recent evidence suggests that getting calcium from pills might not be as safe or effective for some people as getting it from food.” The article recommended food-based sources of calcium, including dairy products, leafy greens, and fortified foods.

And what do we have in abundance in our farmers’ markets now? Leafy greens — not just several varieties of kale, but chard, collards, mustard greens, and beet greens. Just imagine the farmers we would have competing to sell at farmers’ markets if even half of the expenditure on calcium pills was diverted to greens!

McDonald’s once again deserves a nod for its renewed and expanded commitment to introducing more fruits and vegetables as alternatives to french fries in their adult-oriented value meals and to aggressively promoting healthier beverages for its Happy Meals. This is a long-term program that will be phased in slowly — primarily to develop the supply chain, I suppose — but there is no doubt that these efforts will have an impact on the American diet. Since McDonald’s began encouraging children to choose milk instead of a soft drink with their Happy Meals, their milk sales have increased by 50 percent since the mid-2000s. They have also learned from experience that they cannot dictate those healthier choices, but they can offer them and let the customers move to them at their own pace.

There is reason to believe that those choices will improve over time. Science has finally caught up with the common sense of centuries, and proof is pouring in that what we eat can make us healthy, wealthy, and wise. How and what our children eat can affect their their ability to learn, as well as their ability to earn. The choices we provide as responsible adults influence and maybe control what they eat as kids. Those choices also build a foundation that affects what they choose for themselves as adults.

This process must involve — and ideally be led by — our schools, where all of our children are exposed to some of the worst foods they can eat. Even in our area, there is progress here too. Visit Realfoodsforkids.org to learn more about what is happening in Fairfax County. They need volunteers to expand their good advocacy work throughout the county; check out what you can do for the school in your neighborhood.

And one last thing: Guess what? An apple a day can keep the doctor away! According to a Sept. 26 Post article, apples were recognized for their health benefits by ancient Roman and Anglo-Saxon civilizations. More recently, apples have been proven to lower bad cholesterol when eaten every day and also seem to prevent strokes. The Post also pointed out that apple skins are loaded with fiber and quercetin, a phytochemical with anti-inflammatory and heart-protecting qualities, and may reduce the spread of cancer cells.

With all those locally grown great greens and appealing apples out there now, this is the time of year to get healthy, and I can’t imagine two better-tasting ways to do that. Buy a mess of greens and a bushel of apples and get crackin’.

And remember the children out there who aren’t yours when it comes time to devote some of your valuable time to a valuable effort such as improving the health of the community.

Photo by Sarah Sertic