This Week at Smart Markets Fairfax Corner

Attention all County employees: We still have your free Live Well insulated shopping bags and the free gel-packs provided by Fairfax Corner shopping center. You may pick them up at the Smart Markets table at the market any Tuesday.

I also want to let you know that we are looking to change our hours for the winter market months. We always reduce our four-hour markets to three hours, and in this case we may actually move the market back to 1 p.m. and operate until 4 p.m. beginning in November through next April.  We have paid close attention to the traffic at the market and have analyzed the potential for growth, and we have determined that people on their way home from work in the cold darkness of winter will not stop by a farmers' market.  We need to promote our market to the young families who live, dine and shop at Fairfax Corner in the daytime already. We hope that all of you who are our regulars now will appreciate this decision, but if this creates a problem for you, please join us in Oakton on Saturdays; you may visit our website for details of all of our markets. 

Reminder:  You can order a free-range turkey from Heritage Farm and Kitchen and pick it up on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They have a sign-up sheet, but if you want to discuss this decision and sign up at your convenience, just visit our website for a description of your options, a price list and directions for ordering via email.  These turkeys are free-range birds, hand-fed with all-natural feed and have had no injections of any kind.  Their feed is free of arsenic, which is used to create rapid growth in commercially-raised turkeys.  Because of this, it is no longer advisable to use the carcass of your turkey for homemade stock as the arsenic is concentrated in the bones.  Unless, of course, it comes from Heritage Farm or another local grower.
 
New Vendor: We welcomed The Finger Buffet last week, and Nancy and Naz were so happy with their first-day experience. They are good, creative cooks who draw from their own native cuisines as well as others across Asia from the Mediterranean east to Southeast Asia.  Feel free to discuss with them what you like; I have suggested that spicy is good -- let them know if you agree.
 
Last but not least, Annie's recipes from all of her demos to date will be available at the Smart Markets table tomorrow.
 
See you at the market!
 
Jean