Happy Easter from the Best Little Market in Loudoun!

Dear Market Goers,

Does life get any sweeter in good ole P’ville? It’s Easter Weekend and are we ever are ready for some good Saturday Market weather!  As usual, Purcellville Community Market Vendors will be bringing you the very best greens, local meats, baked goods, artisan breads, prepared foods, milk products, fresh eggs, chips and dips, cheeses, and now, Hickory Syrup!  Check out the specials Lothar is offering tomorrow.  And we will also have two special guests:  Hope Cather, of Fallen Mulberry Farm in Berryville, and one of her lambs!  So make sure you bring your kids by too so they can say hi and pet the lamb.  Kid’s reactions to baby lambs and goats always amazes me.

Yesterday, I took a day off of work, slept in, and walked downtown to buy a cuppa joe.  The weather was perfect as I walked down Main Street and the beauty of the Dogwoods and Cherry trees stopped me in my tracks.  I turned the cornor on to 21st Street and spied a bumper sticker on a pickup truck parked at Nichol’s Hardware that said “What Would Scooby Do?”!  Hmmmmmm, now that’s something to truly comtemplate…. Anyway, it made me smile.

At It’s Bazaar, Bill was his helpful, friendly, funny self and we had the best chat about everything under the sun.  From there, I moseyed on over to Re-Love It, a large, fantastic second-hand store, right across the street, and checked out the merchandise.  Boy was that fun!  I’m always so busy, I never get a chance to really look around in there.  While I was there, a number of  folks dropped in.  Mary Voskian, faithful market-goer (don’t you love her hair?), Pamela Schmidt, the former cheese lady, acquaintances I knew from kids, sports, etc.  Everyone in a Spring mood.  The owner was exceptionally pleasant and I noticed on the wall to the left, a picture of him and Keith Richards, with their arms around each other.  I inquired as to the circumstances and he regaled me with stories about the times he spent with a Rolling Stone.

It was a beautiful morning and I highly recommend taking a break from your busy life and stopping to appreciate the beauty that is found not just in nature, but all around your community.  And how I love that new diagonal parking downtown!

My favorite thought for the week from the Hazleden.org website:

We plant a garden with faith, never knowing exactly what the harvest will bring. We attend to those aspects of gardening, which we have some control over, planting good seeds in rich soil, in straight rows, the right distance apart. We weed and fertilize, and we tie up our tomato plants.

We may pray for rain, but we never know if we’ll get too much or too little. We can’t control the wind or rabbits or bugs or the strongest strains of weeds. Yet most of us don’t let these things keep us from planting.

With this same sort of faith we can tend to ourselves. Though we don’t know what each day will bring, we can plant the seeds in ourselves to meet most anything. We can rise each morning determined to give what we have. We can’t plant the seeds for others, and we can’t keep the storms from coming. The beauty is, we don’t have to.

Here’s some vendor tidbits….

North Gate and Fabbioli Cellars will be coming every other week to the market this summer.  That means we will get to see the Fabulous Fred once again!  Will keep you up to date on the progress of that arrangement.

Don’t forget about Meredith of Singing Frog Farms flower share program!!!Singing Frog Farms 2011 Flower Share Program

This year we are trying a new flower share program. Each week during our 15 week season, you will receive a large bouquet of our beautiful, fresh flowers ($15 market value) in a large mason jar. Our shares are priced at $180/season.  This year we are growing over 30 varieties of flowers so your bouquet will be different each week as the season progresses. We think they would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift!

You can pick up your share at the P-ville market or at King Street Coffee in downtown Leesburg or we will bring it to Saturday morning market for you! Please email (meredith@singingfrogfarm.com) or call (571-212-5625) to reserve a share.  Thanks so very much!!! I was also thinking they would also be fun for an office to go in on together!

Two little lambs from Fallen Mulberry Farm!

Everona Dairy, will be at the market this week! Try samples of these world-class cheeses; every bit as good as the artisinal European cheeses.

Wildwood’s Hickory Syrup…was a hit!!  The Miller’s gave our customers generous samples of their unique product and it sold, well, like hotcakes!  They will be back this week…

Lothar’s Gourmet Sausages is back this week…here’s their message to you….

Dear Valued Customers and Friends of Good Taste,

For Easter Feast, we will be offering Pork Loin Roast with 2 different stuffings (bacon & onions or sun-dried fruits soaked in Bourbon), Non-Nitrate Hams, and Virginia Hams. Thank you and we wish everyone a very Happy Easter.

Lothar, June and Jack Henry

Gonzales Produce will be back again with potted plants:  basil, oregano, thyme, chives, cilantro, parsley, catnip, rosemary, sage, tarragon, mint, rue, all in four inch pots,very healthy,and are pesticide free.  Fed with organic plant food, no chemicals, not certified but they are still as good as organic. Strawberry pots and hanging baskets, as well some potted tomato plants, swiss chard, and ornamentals.

Man, are we ever lucky to have Micaela, of Millstone Bakers, and her beautiful family at our market!!!  She will have a beautiful, heavenly tasting selection of artisan breads this week including baguettes, focaccia, ciabatta, challah, whole wheat bread and scones.  She also has a limited supply of an luscious Easter Bread with chunks of dried apricot in the shape of a dove.

Herban Avenues, will NOT be here this week but will be back next week.  They are going to come every other week until they can find more sales help.  If you know anybody who is not shy, loves to talk with folks, who wants to learn about herbs and teas and their health benefits, and wants to work at a market, let me know and I’ll pass the word on to her.

Joey, of Cornerstone Bakery, has a message:

Cupcake flavors this week include Lemon 3-Ways (lemon cake with lemon buttercream and a homemade lemon curd injection), Chocolate Ganache (chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache topping), Sticky Toffee Pudding (dense dark toffee soaked cake with sweet whipped cream topping), Vanilla Vanilla (decorated for Spring) and Espresso.

Whoopie pies continue to be popular. I will have them at the market this week. I will also have donuts at the market this week. They are baked cake donuts and the flavors include plain chocolate, plain vanilla, cinnamon sugar, chocolate covered vanilla, chocolate glazed and chocolate chocolate.

We will have our all-natural sugar free Doggie Delicious Cookies and Pupcakes at the market this week. I have a lot of repeat customers on my dog treats. The Pupcakes are a carrot and applesauce based dog cupcake and the cookies are peanut butter, chicken and parsley breath buster. A package has at least one of each cookie.

The Beauteous Betty, of Betty’s Salsa, will have her to-die-for corn chips, bean dip, and salsa.  Betty is working on expanding her business and adding more products….I, for one, am very happy to hear it!  Bring back the enchiladas…

The Magnolia Girls will be back this week with a variety of cookies that are perfect to fill your Easter baskets!  We will have Ginger Cookies, Chocolate Chip Coconut Macaroons, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip M&M, and Peanut Butter Cookies.  We will have our delicious Pecan Bars as well as a variety of scones this week.

Need to be bring dessert for Easter dinner? One of our Specialty Pound Cakes or Sweet Breads will work perfectly.  Stop by and try some samples and see what all we have to offer. Have a fantastic Easter and remember to take time to love on your family.  That’s what life is all about!!

Rob, the cutie farmer, (as the ladies call him) of Community Gardens, will be back this week.  Last week he had various herbs and some cooking greens as well as some beautiful spinach.

Hondo Coffee and Pickled Goods - He’s coming with his local and non-local pickled goods…tasty pickles, sauerkraut, pickled beets…..and coffee.  In fact, my friend Kim Nevin, owner of King Street Coffee, actually had a Saturday off from her kid’s sports and came out to visit our little market.  She mentioned that she loved Hondo’s Mom’s beets, and Betty’s Chips and….!!!  If you are in Leesburg, visit King Street Coffee…it’s the best coffee in Leesburg!!!!

Liberty Hill Farm provides pastured raised chicken, free range eggs and freshly ground whole wheat breads.

Our pasture-raised chickens are raised on fresh grass and non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) feed.    Fresh grass is extremely good for the chickens and contribute to a good taste and nutrition to the consumer.

Free range eggs are very healthy for you as they create the “perfect food”, providing a perfect balance of Omega 3 and 6.  Our chickens are enjoying the Springtime grass.

Our organic whole wheat products include:  freshly ground whole wheat bread, pizza crusts, apple cinnamon bread, cinnamon raisin bread and chocolate chip cookies.   We also provide apple cinnamon, cinnamon rolls and granola.      Our product provides a couple of characteristics that are beneficial to you:  organic and freshly ground.   Organic wheat can’t have pesticides used on them or in the ground where they grow.    The benefit to you is that you don’t have chemicals going into your organs which is obviously not good for you.  We freshly ground our wheat before we bake–thus preserving the best nutrition for you.   Any type of flour found in packages in stores have been robbed of 25 to 30 vitamins/minerals in order to allow the flour to last for a very long time.   This is good for the flour business but is extremely bad for you.

Visit our website at www.LibertyHillFarmVA.com to get more information about our products or to place orders for market pickup.   See you at the market!

The Matich Family:  Ken, Andrea, Samuel, Treasure

Liz Handcrafted Soaps will be here this week with a fresh batch of Goat’s Milk & Lemongrass, as well as Bug-Me-Not. We have just about everything you need, so come on out and get your natural, handmade (not to mention beautiful) soap and listen to your body say, “AHHHH”.

We hope you stop by North Gate Vineyard’s beautiful new tasting room.  Check out their facebook page to see the pics of their new, LEED Certified tasting room and their sweet, dedicated staff.

The Stifler Family of What’s for Dinner Now will NOT be at the market with their delicous, all-natural, pasture-raised, grain-finished beef.  They’re not comfortable leaving everything on the farm unattended during severe weather but will be at the market next weekend.

Chris Carey, of HarvestMarket, will be at the market this week..Here’s his blog posting:

Vegetables in the Main Role

For me, vegetables, fruits, and grains define flavor, texture, and seasonality in cooking. Looking back, I can see the changes in my menus. First, it was about the “center of the plate protein.” Vegetables and starch were just secondary players. But as I became more aware of the vegetables around me, they became the primary focus and the proteins slid to the second spot. I must confess, I am far from a vegetarian. I just love cooking with vegetables.

Vegetable cookery is one of the most interesting parts of cuisine. Vegetables provide an incredible depth and range of color, shapes, flavor, and texture that can not be matched by beef, chicken, or salmon. (yes, I know that there are many people out there that would wholeheartedly disagree with me) As a chef, I’m excited about “first of the season” vegetables. Just around the corner is asparagus, rhubarb, sorrel, garlic chives, strawberries, English peas, fava beans! And the list goes on.

It is also the fleeting nature of vegetables that inspires me as well. Optimum eating time can be so short that one has to take advantage before they gone. Local asparagus, artichokes and sorrel only last for a few weeks. The parsnips that I purchased for this week are all gone. The sign that winter has given up and spring is coming on strong.

So, lets enjoy our vegetables and all their glory!!!!

Menu for this week:

Pate de campagne (meat)

Roasted parsnips with local honey and ginger(vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free)

Parsnip salad with orange -yogurt dressing(vegetarian, gluten-free)

Sicilian style Swiss chard(vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free)

Radish and cabbage salad with honey-ginger vinaigrette(vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free)

Roasted radishes with sesame seeds(vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free)

Sorrel soup(vegetarian, gluten-free)

Limited supplies of:

Shredded duck salad with apple, sunchoke, and orange vinaigrette (meat)

Polenta cakes with mushroom ragout (vegetarian)

from www.harvestmarketdc.blogspot.com.  He’s also on Facebook:   HarvestMarketDC, and Twitter:   HarvestMarketDC/Twitter.

Samantha, of Holy Cow Delivery, will be selling her cousin’s (South Mountain Creamery) whole, cream top, 2%, skim, and chocolate milk, fantastic yogurt and yogurt drinks, to die-for cream cheeses, regular butter and honey butter. Here’s a message from Samantha:

HOLY COW !!!! We are having an EASTER SPECIAL!!

Buy 2 flavored butter or flavored cream cheese for $8.00 or mix and match and get one of each.  Dill and Garlic flavored cream cheese goes great on your mashed potatots and the brown sugar and cinnamon goes even better on sweet potatoes and who wouldn’t want our fantastic Honey Butter on your Easter biscuits.  Our flavored cream cheeses are Cajun Crab, Gourmet Vegetable, Apple Raisin and Cinnamon, Horseradish Cheddar, and Smoked Salmon.  They go great with crackers delicious appetizer.

TOATS, is a wheat, egg, and dairy-free cookie made right here in Loudoun County!  They have 0 trans fats and even the box is organic. Marisol won’t be here this week but will be back again next week (www.toatsorganic.com).

If you’re jonesin’ for one of  The Smoothie Guy’s (Mike Schreiber) fresh fruit smoothies, don’t forget he’s at the Purcellville Sports Pavilion in his Smoothie Hut.  I’m not kidding, it looks like an Island hut.  Just walk in, even if you’re not a member, and order one of those fantastic smoothies…he’ll be back at the Best Little Market in Loudoun when the weather gets warmer..

Linna the Locavore

The days are longer, the air is warmer, and the April rains are upon us.  Here are some ‘rules of thumb’ for planting this month:

Sow directly into your garden soil: beets, carrots, corn, dill, kohlrabi, lettuce, parsnips, kale, peas, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, potatoes

Transplant into the garden: beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, lettuce, onions, strawberries

Start seedlings indoors: cucumbers, eggplants, melons, new zealand spinach, okra, onions, peppers, squash, tomatoes

Happy planting!

——————–

‘Linna the Locavore’

Motivational Garden Speaker & Teacher

www.foodscaper.com

www.linnasgarden.blogspot.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Loudoun_locavores

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We really appreciate your support and hope that we have been a positive influence in your lives beyond providing great, healthy food for you and your families.  Check out our website at www.purcellvillecommunitymarket.com, our info on www.loudounfarms.org and on facebook, where we post pictures of happy customers and vendors almost every week! Check the market table for all kinds of info, cookbooks, recipes, community events, local businesses, and health information.

Don’t forget to try to remember to bring your Purcellville Green and Buy Fresh, Buy Local shopping bags…

So come out on Saturday, try all of our samples, purchase some GREAT, HEALTHY, LOCAL foods, have a chat with your faithful vendors, happy neighbors, and enlightened folks from other communities and sip some fresh coffee and have a bite to eat. We will be there from 10 am to 1 pm at the Town Hall parking lot in beautiful, downtown Purcellville.  We’re right across from the gunshop.  Just look for the Howitzer…it’s pointin’ right at us!

Enjoy!

Juanita Tool

703.967.0431

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