This Week at the Smart Markets Fairfax Corner Farmers' Market

Dear Shopper,

This is a reminder that we will be open all year long at Fairfax Corner and that our new winter hours hours begin this week. We will be at your service from noon until 3 p.m. through April.

I am also inviting you to bring a friend to market this week.  We rely heavily on our faithful shoppers to spread the word for us, and especially with new hours that may make us available to more people, we hope that you can encourage your friends and co-workers to come see what we have to offer you all winter long. Our vendors will spend many hours in the cold this winter to bring you local foods from their fields and kitchens, and anything you can do to help us reach more of your neighbors or co-workers will be greatly appreciated.   

If you work with a Scout troop or other groups of young people looking for volunteer projects, we can also provide flyers for them to distribute at community events, at school or church or within their neighborhoods.  And if one of your children needs to do a project on local farming, our farmers will be happy to speak with them, and we can provide some good Web resources and printed materials. We are also blessed to have wonderful cultural diversity among our vendors -- and all of our vendors have great stories to tell about how they came to cook and sell at markets. 

Smart Markets is committed to developing a community around our markets in each location. We want them to become centers of discussion and activism about local food, not just sources for the best local foods in the area.  But we need you to make that work. Bring us your ideas and we will be happy to work with you to turn them into action.   

We have two new vendors with us, and they have sent information about their menus. Celtic Pasties come in many guises, including beef with potatoes and carrots, chicken curry, cheese and onion, and the All Day Breakfast Pastie with bacon, egg, hash browns and cheese.  These handheld meat pies have a long and interesting history -- ask the vendor, Nyall Meredith, about it! 

Also, the lovely ladies at the Finger Buffet tent, Nancy and Naz, are sending sweets and savories from a variety of Asian cuisines. Sample their spinach and cheese puffs, mushroom puffs, vegetable samosas, and a fantastic potato flatbread.  They are also expanding their repertoire of eggless desserts with semolina cookies, semolina cakes and fresh date-filled cookies made with olive oil and no sugar. Healthy and exotic -- you can't beat that!   

Betty will have tamales and enchiladas in addition to her chips and salsas, and at Cavanna Pasta, you can buy the best handmade pasta in the area, made fresh and flash-frozen in Richmond and delivered weekly to Northern Virginia.  The raviolis and other filled pastas are superb, but you can also mix and match his cut pastas with his authentic sauces and feed three hearty eaters for $10. Add a winter salad or a side of broccoli and you have a healthy fast-food dinner at home for less than you would pay at your favorite take-out.  (Less fat, more flavor!)   

See you at the market!  

Jean