This Week’s Market Email – 9/3/10

Dear Market Goers, 

Just want to say THANK YOU for voting for PCM in the Americas Favorite Farmers Market Contest!  We ended up in 4th place (847 votes) in the US for markets with 16-30 vendors, and PCM just happen to be Virginia’s 3rd favorite market in all categories!!!!!!!  YAAAAHOOOO! 

If you voted for “The Best Little Market in Loudoun” and haven’t put your name in the hat for the cookbook drawing, please do so or e-mail me and I will do it.. The hat is located smack dab in the middle of the community/recipe table.  Everyone that e-mails, posts on facebook, or enters their name in the hat will be in the running for the 7 great cookbooks we are giving away because we want to encourage you to buy fresh food from our marvelous PCM vendors and then go home and use those cookbooks to make tasty, healthy, fresh food for yourselves and your family.  That will give you the energy to get up, get out, and make this world a better place to live!!!  Why tonight I cooked up some Liberty Hill chicken breasts, Gonzales corn on the cob, Community Garden’s salad and some chard with Lother’s bacon, Gonzales’ onion, and Community Garden’s
garlic on top of Organic quinoa from Costco for dinner!  And then I walked up to Gruto’s with Frankie for a soft serve cone….I was so full on the good stuff I just “borrowed” some of his cone…it seems that kids always have room for ice cream!!!

And thanks for all the recycling I see you doing!!!  I saw one couple bring back 5 berry flats and tons of berry containers..another customer brought a box of egg cartons.  Shoppers are using and reusing their “Purcellville Green” shopping bags.  It’s a beautiful thing!  

 Our beautiful celtic harp player, Ellen James, will be back this week.  Thank you Ellen, for making the market so peaceful and right in the early hours with your harp playing and ethereal vocals.   

On the guitar will be Matthew Bryce, a young, local, Loudoun County lad who has a band called Brothers Pony (currently putting together their first demo).  Matthew plays a mixture of sixties folk, country, and Appalachian sounds on guitar, banjo, and the mandolin.

Kilmer Orchards‘ still has peaches!  This week’s variety is called “Coral Star” and is very good…not “run down your chin” juicy like the last variety but with VERY good flavor.  Sample some and compare them to your grocery store peaches…hands down winner every time!    And so many people are discovering Kilmer’s Pluots!  I love it when people try foods that are unfamiliar to them.  For most people, unfamiliar foods are scary and they don’t want to spend money on them until they know whether or not they like them.  Well, Kilmer understands that and loves to give out samples because they believe in their product!!

Gonzales Produce is going to be bringing their usual selection of great veggies…I bought their corn on Saturday and just cooked some tonight (Thursday) and it was still sweet and full of flavor.

It was a treat to see Pamela, “The Cheese Lady” at the market…I got to see the cool scar on the back of her head!  Oak Spring Dairy will have many flavors of their spectacular raw, whole milk cheeses for you to sample.  Pamela’s lovely daughter, Grey, will most likely be tending the Cheese Tent this week.  

North Gate Vineyard will be at the market this week with Loudoun County’s best wines…my favorite being the North Gate Chardonnay….a great summer wine.  If you read my post last week about renaming their Chardonney “Summer Wine” ….check out these two fantastic you tube videos of the song “Summer Wine”….one is the original, by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQiDs9tKZv4), and the other is much more modern and polished, by Bono and the Corrs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxQN2E_FPM&feature=related)…. both unbelievably superb renditions for their time.. and I’m so glad I looked that up because I discovered “The Corrs”!

Here’s a message from 1st AVE Bakery, makers of extraordinary baked goods, right here in Loudoun County!:

This week we plan to have our Peanut Supreme Pie along with Coconut Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Chess Pie, Peach Pie, and Plum Pies. We also plan to have some of our Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Cakes and Coconut Cakes.  Stop by our tent to try some of our freshly baked selections. You can also look on our website to see what we’ll be offering each week at the Purcellville Community Market http://www.1stavebakery.com/markets.html 

Liberty Hill Farms has pastured-raised whole chickens, boneless chicken breasts, quarters, wings, liver, hearts, gizzards and feet as well as home-baked, whole wheat loaves. Really earthy bread…. great for toast and for sandwiches. I love it!!! 

The young and handsome John Cockerill of Fort Bacon will be there with his incredible tasting pork and farm fresh eggs, grown on his family’s farm that they have owned since the 1700’s.

As you all know, Chef Eloy’s Kickin’ Salsa’s has some pretty incredible salsas!  And I can’t wait until Sandra puts the finishing touches on the new dishes she has created for the market. 

 Here’s to Hardworking Hondo getting to the market on time!!!! We love his coffee, the pickles he sells…the pickled beets his mama makes…and we love how sweet, kind and helpful he is to all he meets.

Smiling Erica, of the Magnolia Girls, will be bringing lots of goodies to the market:   newer cookies like Oatmeal Raisin Pecan, Cinnamon and Nutmeg, and Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chip! They will also have their old favorites such as Ginger Cookies, Snicker Doodles, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Coconut Macaroons, and Chocolate Chip.  Scones this week are Blueberry, Cranberry, Raspberry, and Strawberry.  Pecan Bars, Pumpkin Bread, Apple Sauce Cakes and a selection of Pound Cakes will be available, too.  Be sure to stop for a chat and some free samples. Talk to Erica about special orders! 

Message from Lothar: the WORLD’S BEST German, Master, Artisan Butcher.

If you plan to grill over the Labor Day weekend, we have pretty much everything covered; from many kinds of Brats to meat cuts. We will have Beef Brisket: smoked ( Non-Nitrate ), Honey Glazed Ham with Rosemary Lavender (New Product ), and Sauerbraten ( Goes well with egg noodles ).

Please join us at the market for a great weather and great fun.

 Your local  Artisan Butcher Lothar and family ( June and Jack-Henry )

Check out our facebook page for funny and entertaining pictures of the grand opening of Lothar’s Home Store in Hamilton where you can go to get his goods mid-week…He also has a facebook page where you can see the hours of operation.

Betty of Betty’s Foods won’t be at the market this week as she just moved AND started a new job… Hopefully she will get settled in and be back next week.  We sure miss her products..I’m jonesn’ for some enchiladas!

F&V Farms is on vacation in Alaska for the next couple of weeks.  Can’t wait until they get back.

Meredith Kope and Lily from Singing Frog Farms will be at the market lots of beautiful flowers in $7 and $3 bunches.  Come by for a taste test of their delicious heirloom tomatoes and mouthwatering sweet basil.  They will also have some okra, herbs and sweet heirloom peppers.

Woodgrove Lavender Farm will be taking a break this week and will be back next week.

Rob Young of Community Gardens will be back tomorrow with the best greens in the tri-state area!!!!  He will also have arugula, homemade dressing, Swiss Chard and pesto.  We will have my very own greens recipe at his table which uses Lothar’s bacon…best chard you’ll ever have; just made some yesterday and spooned it over some quinoa I cooked with chicken stock…to die for!

Here’s a message from Soapmaker Judy of Liz Handcrafted Soaps:

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, as
proposed by the Central Labor Union. Various municipal ordinances and state legislation followed
beginning in 1885.  In 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each
year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

 All 50 states now observe Labor Day, which marks the end of summer for most of us and is celebrated
with parades, fireworks, picnics, and barbecues in honor of working people. Ken and I wish to thank
you for supporting our hard work each time you purchase a bar of our handcrafted soap. Please stop
by again this Saturday to choose from a selection of over 50 different Liz Handcrafted Soaps. Judy
will be in the soap kitchen (making Bergamot,Lavender with Buds and Berries & Twigs soaps), but
Ken will be at the market, as usual.

 Happy Labor Day weekend!

The fit, healthy, Mike Schreiber will be there with his fit, healthy, fresh fruit smoothies.  Those smoothies are sooooo good!   You can also find him at the Purcellville Sports Pavillion, at Mike’s Juice Bar. 

The cupcake lady, Joey Coburn, owner of Cornerstone Bakery is bringing her fantastic tasting cupcakes and “Pupcakes” week.   Don’t forget you can also find Cornerstone Cupcakes at Shoes, Cup, and Cork Club in downtown Leesburg, near Lightfoot.

Hope you are diggin’ our “Local Artist’s Tent”.  Dave Levinson, of Loudoun Landscape Photos and owner of Cranial Tap, will be at the market again this week with his beautiful photos of Loudoun County.  Deborah Morrow and Cowgirlsmiles:  Equine Images taken from around Loudoun County: photography, artwork, images transfered to stone and furniture.  Learn more about her at  www.cowgirlsmiles.com  540-338-9244, and www.cafepress.com/cowgirlsmiles. 

Linna the Locavore

Think Green!  The next few weeks I will be focusing on making your garden transition from summer to fall.  If you have never had a fall garden, you should try it out.  You can have an amazing harvest without as many�
the bugs, weeds and heat!  So withless weeding, and managing bugs- you can spend more time eating.  Last week I mentioned my love of Kale, but there are other greens that own my heart and make great fall vegetables:

Lettuce.  Like most winter salad crops, lettuce is hardier when grown not as heads, but in closely sown rows, cut at about three inches tall with a small serrated knife. Find the hardiest varieties among the oak leaf types,
and romaines such as Rouge d’Hiver and Winter Density. Sown in a cold frame, they’ll regrow for a second and third helping.

Spinach.  Bursting with folate, calcium, iron and even some protein, spinach is the ultimate winter tonic. Sown in rows eight inches apart, plants spaced four inches apart in the row, it may need no protection at all. Pick the outer leaves first.

 Arugula.  Not the biting, bolting, flea-beetle-ridden arugula of summer, but the bright-green, mild arugula of short, crisp days.

Tatsoi.  Most Asian greens thrive in winter, but tatsoi is my first choice. Sow it like spinach and pick at baby size, or space more widely and allow large, flat rosettes to grow. Either way, it’s mild and delicious, raw or cooked.  

For a great article on fall gardens, go here: http://www.gardeners.com/The-Vegetable-Garden-in-Autumn/8115,default,pg.html
–
Be vocal.  Eat, think, and buy local!
www.foodscaper.com
http://www.123foodgardening.blogpspot.com/
www.locavorechronicles.blogspot.com
www.linnasgarden.blogspot.com
www.locavoreliving.ning.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Loudoun_locavores 

And don’t forget, we are on www.loudounfarms.org and on Facebook where we post pictures of  happy customers and vendors each week! Especially babies! Last week’s pics are up and we definitely have the best looking customers….they grow ‘em well in the western part of the county.  Must be that clean country air, great local food and organic whiskey!!!  Check the market table for all kinds of info, cookbooks, recipes, community events, local businesses, health information and Flavor Magazine.

Don’t forget to RECYCLE YOUR EGG CARTONS, BERRY CONTAINERS, and WINE BAGS.  There’s a basket in the middle of the market where you can put those items and we will give them back to vendors.  Also, Meredith needs GLASS JARS to put her flowers in so customers can take them home in water.

So come out on Saturday, purchase some GREAT food, have a chat with your faithful vendors and happy neighbors, sip some fresh coffee, and/or drink a refreshing smoothie, and have a bite to eat. We will be there from 9 to 1 at the Town Hall Parking lot at 130 E. Main Street in beautiful, downtown Purcellville, VA.  Look for the cannon…it’s point’n right at us!!

Happy Eating and dang-it, DEM’S SOME MIGHT UGLY POWERLINES!

Juanita Tool
703.967.0431 

Kendra’s Pet Care

I am a self-owned business and I love animals. If you ever have to go out of town or just need someone to walk your dog I can take care of that. I will also take care of any other pets you have,like birds, cats, or gerbils. My prices range depending on what you need done. You can contactme at CheerSingDance@msn.com

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