This Week at the Smart Markets Reston Farmers' Market

This Week at Our Reston Market
Wednesday 3–7 p.m.
12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.
Map

Make sure you don’t miss the market next week — from 5 to 7 p.m. we will be joined by local jazz vocalist Lena Seikaly and her band. Lena has been called “one of the local jazz scene’s most promising performers” by The Washington Post. Visit her website for a preview and be sure to stop by for a few tunes.

For the next few weeks, our mailings will include a running list of what’s new at the market, and there will be something — or many things — new each week. Some of these wonderful new items will not be with us in a local, producer-only market for very long. We are lucky if we see apricots or sour cherries for more than three markets. And those peas and sugar snaps you are seeing now will be gone soon. That’s why we put so much work into providing recipes for you each week.

We work hard to include farmers who represent a wide range of growing conditions in our area, from the tip of the Northern Neck in Virginia up through the Piedmont, into the Shenandoah Valley and on into West Virginia and Pennsylvania. We do this to extend your enjoyment of those short seasons, so just about the time the strawberries have all been picked in Colonial Beach, they are just being picked in the cooler climes.

Watch this week for more summer veggies at Ignacio’s stand and for the first strawberries and rhubarb at Fossil Rock, and for sugar snaps and snow peas at both. Tyson Farms may also have sweet cherries, and Heritage Farm might have the first shelled peas of the season. Vendors still have plenty of asparagus, lovely lettuces, and lettuce mixes. Try the early radishes sliced thinly with a sprinkling of really good balsamic vinegar and olive oil from Olio2Go. Serve with some spicy greens mix from Shenandoah Seasonal Farm and you will be dining like kings, queens, and the very rich who eat at the best restaurants in the country.

Check out Fossil Rock for samples of goodies made with Wade’s Mill products. Their corn meal and grits are the best you can buy in this area, and the wheat berries are great for summer salads.

Olio2Go will be with us this week and will have some great oils and vinegars for you to sample and buy!

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

My family spent a lovely week at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., last week, where we enjoyed six days of perfect weather and great food. Yes, even in the remote reaches of the Eastern seaboard, there is good food to be enjoyed at a variety of restaurants and people at the grassiest of grass roots who are supporting farmers and promoting locally sourced meats and produce. In fact, if you subscribe to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution newsletter, you know how widely this movement has spread, not just across the country but around the world.

Big Food is continuing to foist unhealthy processed foods upon us with no regard for science or our good health, all because they can and because no governmental agency is authorized to stop them — though The Washington Post reports that the Food and Drug Administration is getting “jittery.”

There has also been positive movement on the Farm Bill. In a state such as Virginia with few major corporate farms but lots of small, family-owned farms, our representatives in Congress do not get a lot of calls, emails, or petitions about the issues being addressed in the Farm Bill. They need to hear from us because they won’t hear from small farmers.The average size of a Virginia farm is around 40 acres, and these farmers are not organized, nor do they have the time or inclination to participate in a process that they see as deaf to their interests.

It was once suggested to me that I organize Virginia farmers just to raise and protect their own interests in the General Assembly. And it is an intriguing idea, except that I connect that concept to the idea of herding cats. But we can help, and you can learn more if you are interested. Here is a Post article with more information.

In other news, read this article about myths and truths regarding antioxidants. It is a good analysis of what these do in and for your body and a good prescription for what you should be eating to take best advantage of antioxidants in nature. When you see all of the good things arriving at the market over the next few weeks, you will know why I encourage you to read this now. It’s always a good time to learn something new about what real food contributes to your real health, but now is the best time to practice what you learn and what I preach.

There is a lot to learn and a lot going on. Who knew what shopping at a farmers’ market could mean for you, your family, and the world?