This Week at Smart Markets Lorton Farmers' Market

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We are truly sorry to announce that we will close for this season next week. Halloween will be our last market this season, so please bring the kiddies in their costumes for all to enjoy, and we might just have some special healthy treats to hand out.

We apologize for not lasting through Thanksgiving as originally planned, but in all honesty the Workhouse has made that goal virtually impossible to reach. We have lost our signage, which has confused and discouraged many of you, as attendance has dropped precipitously. Even our regulars do not see the banners, so they just assume we are no longer open. Just as important to a weekly market, we have lost that subliminal reminder to all of you who pass by daily or even less often. Signage is very important to the success of a market, and I made that clear in the first meeting I had with staff at the Workhouse.

We do hope to return to your area next spring, though not necessarily to the Workhouse. If you are reading this, then you will be notified early next season where you can find us next year.

Until a month ago, we had been enjoying a great season with growth each week throughout, even into the fall. We have had wonderful customers. We saw them taking recipes, supporting our demo chef Annie and her classes, and enjoying live music. We feel strongly that we are beginning to pull together the disparate neighborhoods in the area around a shared love of good local food. We saw you interacting, talking about what you like to cook with others, and sharing your kitchen and dining experiences with our vendors, asking them about themselves and what they feed their animals, how they raise their vegetables, and how they manage to be such good cooks and bakers.

Our shoppers are inquisitive and curious to learn how better to feed themselves and their families, and we have often receive emails with such questions. You have also expressed your gratitude to our managers, volunteers, and vendors for our presence, and we are happy and proud to be here for you.

Come and enjoy these last two weeks with us — buy up what you need to can or freeze for the winter and make some soups to have on hand for lunch during the holiday rush. Or put together some casseroles to feed the teenagers one evening after a game. Make a gigantic batch of tomato sauce to pull out for any number of dishes when you want to remember what summer brings.

And if you are able, come visit us at our Springfield market, at least until December 21 (and maybe all winter long), or at our Oakton market all year long on Saturdays. You will find quite a few of your favorite vendors at these markets, and you will also be able to buy Trickling Springs Dairy products at them. We may get cold, but we have fun at our winter markets.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

The Farm Bill will soon come up for a vote, and we need to keep up the clamor for a bill that preserves, protects, and supports small struggling farmers and that enables us to continue buy fresh fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices at farmers’ markets. I cringed at a Washington Post headline the other day that referred to lobbyists gearing up for the next budget fight. Most lobbyists shouldn’t even have a role in the process, much less the kind of access that allows them to write the bills, which is exactly what has happened with large parts of the Farm Bill.

I was heartened, though, by another story in the paper this past weekend about grocery stores coming out against stocking and selling GMO salmon in opposition to the government’s permitting the sale without notification. These retailers are responding to a huge grass-roots groundswell of antagonism to the idea of eating these fish, and while our own government isn’t listening, the retailers are getting the message.

We can make a difference, and as in any battle, we just have to recruit and train the troops and provide them with the ammunition they need to argue a point and get it across. I will surely receive more emails from a variety of organizations over the next few weeks letting me know how to let our voices be heard on the Food Bill. Some go as far as to send prefab notes and emails and to provide a list of our representatives in Congress, as well as committee members who will vote on the language.

Having worked for my own congressman in a district office, I know that a call or a note can mean even more. The staffers who pass messages along will include your personal comments. You might even know more about the bill’s impact than your representatives do. Let them know, and share what you have learned. It will be a more credible comment than a computer-generated message. This is the way of the world of grass-roots lobbying now, but those messages that pour in from interest groups who have passed along their wording to thousands still do not carry the weight of a personal note, email, or call to your representative’s office.

I won’t comment on the Farm Bill again — there is too much other good and bad news to pass along — but I will continue to include links to updates. Thanks for caring and getting involved: this bill could make or break some of your favorite small farmers.