This Week at the Smart Markets Lorton Farmers' Market

This Week at the Smart Markets Lorton Farmers' Market
Thursday 3:30–7 p.m.
Workhouse Arts Center
9601 Ox Rd.
Lorton, VA 22079
Map

On the Way In and Out

Russ Anderson at Wicked Oak Farm will have freshly processed pork cuts this week and lots of that great sausage. From now on, he expects to have an ample supply to get us through the winter months when those pork chops and sausage come in handy for comforting cool-weather meals.

Steven Stotzfus is planning to bring grass-fed, free-range beef in a couple of weeks; ask him about the timetable. If you have not sampled naturally raised beef, try the ground beef in burgers or meatloaf and ease your way into this lean but richly flavored meat. It is so much healthier for you.

New apple varieties continue to arrive at Chester Hess’s stand, and he should have pears for a couple more weeks.

Terri Tinney at the Comfort Snack Mix tent has added a wonderful, low-sugar, whole-wheat banana bread that may even be better than the zucchini bread, and that’s saying a lot. Partner it with the Trickling Springs ice cream for a wonderful ending to a family dinner.

Special Events This Week

Luanne O’Loughlin, who owns a small import company called Olio2Go, will bring a selection of Italian olive oils and vinegars for sampling and sale this week. You can try them all and then decide which you would like in your kitchen pantry. I have my favorites for a variety of uses; I usually have at least two on the shelf and lately three. Good basic ingredients like these can elevate your cooking without any additional hard work.

Ford and Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, have joined forces this summer for the 2013 Ford Escape Hunger Drive. Together they will be holding the drive at this week’s market.

For each shopper who visits the Ford table, Ford will help provide 40 meals to Feeding America. You will also have the opportunity to see the all-new 2013 Ford Escape and the chance to enter in a sweepstakes to win one.

Stop by the Ford table and let them know that we are aware. We know that people are hungry even in Fairfax County, and we appreciate Ford’s donation to the cause.

Vendors Absent This Week

Nyall Meredith of Celtic Pasties is taking a break this week. He will return next week with those wonderful pasties.

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!