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

Chester Hess wanted me to remind you that he has Honeycrisp and Stayman apples straight from the orchard and for the difference in flavor at a ridiculously low price. (That was me, not Chester.)

Steven Stoltzfus asks for your patience regarding the beef — the butcher set them back a couple of weeks, and it may be two more weeks before he can bring Piedmontese beef to our market. Learn more about Piedmontese beef in the meantime or ask me about it, and we will have you lined up to pick up steaks for the grill or sauté pan, roasts for Comforting Shredded Beef and ground beef for chili and those Barbecue Franks that kids just love.

Terri of Comfort Mix is bringing new items each week, and Kylie is bringing a gluten-free cake pop this week and also a new raspberry pop. Anne has her full complement of salad dressings this week.

Wicked Oak still has sausage and always has freshly processed whole chickens and chicken parts. If you want the backs and wings (and feet), come early. I was with them all day Saturday and still missed getting parts for stock. And I refuse to make squash bisque, the best soup ever, without homemade stock.

This Week at the Market

We are pleased to announce officially that we will be open at the Workhouse Art Center all year long, with maybe a break at Christmas and some scheduled days off the first few months of the new year.

We will return often enough for you to stock up on winter veggies, Trickling Springs dairy products, and great-tasting and good-for-you meats for all those comfort ragouts, stews, and soups this winter. We will have country eggs all winter and baked goods and apples for quite a while, too. And Divine Wood-Fired Pizza and Uncle Fred’s BBQ will continue to show up to cook for you through cold and colder.

From the Market Master

Dear Shopper,

Since Smart Markets opened its first market on the grounds of a public school in June of this year, we have become even more involved with parents of young children who are vigorously committed to raising healthy children by increasing the real food that they eat, limiting the “snacks, seconds and sweets,” and eliminating the “edible food-like substances.” Those words in quotes are from the little book that I have quoted before by Michael Pollan, titled Food Rules.

This fall, I have been not advising so much as reinforcing two committees of parents at Piney Branch Elementary School in Bristow that are working to introduce their school population to ideas about what we should eat and why. I will be sitting in on another meeting soon where we will discuss plans for Food Week, which begins with Food Day on October 22. I thought I would look through Pollan’s book for “rules” that the elementary school-aged kids could relate to.

It was easy to come up with a representative sample of quotations that cry out for illustrative projects and displays that kids can create themselves. Just imagine what a group of children could do with these rules. I have done some of the work for you, but I am sure that every parent and every teacher can think of more projects.

For the youngest children:

“Avoid foods you see advertised on television.” Watch your favorite TV programs and make a list of the foods that are advertised.

“Eat only foods that will eventually rot.” They would have a ball with this one, but the classroom might become slightly if not seriously rank.

“If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.” Can’t you see a colorful chart of foods made in factories and an even more colorful chart of foods grown in the ground?

For older grades in elementary school:

“Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” A student could interview a great-grandmother or grandmother about what they recognize from the grocery store that they ate when they were growing up and what they don’t recognize.

“Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.” Create a project to determine the percentage of products on one shelf in the grocery store that meet this requirement. (Not all the products on store shelves that meet this criterion are healthy, but it is still important to learn how to recognize those that do.)

“Avoid products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.” This could lead to a classroom elocution lesson unlike any in a curriculum guide.

“Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.” This would put to good use basic science and interpretive skills -- looking for cheese that does not contain milk and other foods with fake rather than real sugars, real fats or real sweeteners. Remember when we were told that margarine was good for us? If we followed this rule, we would never have known what Imperial was. And we’d be healthier for it as a nation, too.

“Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.” This one would require some Web research, but what an eye-opener for fifth- or sixth-graders to learn how food is really made in a factory. It’s these processes that lead to salmonella in peanut butter, pretty much on a regular basis now.

“It’s not food if it is called the same thing in every language.” Another great project for an early introduction to food that is eaten in foreign countries.

And for all ages: “Buy your snacks at the farmers’ markets.” Even the treats have been made by hand and therefore can have less sugar and more fiber than just about any treat bought in the grocery store.

I may go through the remaining two sections of the book next week and suggest some other ideas. These are not just for the teachers but for you parents who are stepping up to the dinner plate and taking back some control over what your kids eat at home and at school. And make no mistake about this, it is a battle for control. We have lost control to Big Food. Our government, our schools and our grocery stores are all the proof we need of that.

These classroom projects will work just as well at home. Chuck game night and do a project together that means something and may win fame and fortune -- or at least extra credit -- for your child or your school. These are the kinds of rules and lessons that can save a life -- literally.

Many thanks to Michael Pollan for writing a book that we can use as well as read. I wish we could afford to give copies to classrooms across Northern Virginia.

See you at the market! P.S.: Bring your “homework” to the market, and we will display it at the Smart Markets tent.