This Week at the Smart Markets Reston Farmers' Market

This Week at Our Reston Market
Wednesday 3–6 p.m.
12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.
Map

This Week at the Market

We’ve moved into a lovely new location with plenty of room to spread out and with lights that make it possible for us to stay open through December. Because you may not be used to shopping with us in the colder months, please look over our weather policy which explains how we handle closing the market when the weather is threatening.

Valley View Bakery will bring some of their signature soups and will introduce new varieties each week. They are looking for feedback, so let them know which you like the best. And ask them about pairing one of their delicious breads with the soups.

Atwater’s Bakery has dropped out of the market for now. They do markets only during the regular summer season and thought it best to move on with our move.

Special Events Coming Up

Next week we will host Tara Linhardt and a couple of her friends, who will play great old-time and bluegrass music.

Vendors With Us This Week

Most of our vendors will be moving with us and will have plenty of product to sell through Christmas. We may lose Jose after Thanksgiving, but if the weather stays warm, he will come as long as he has something to pick.

From the Market Master

Dear Shopper,

I was planning to talk about the great meals we enjoyed this past Sunday, all local and homemade. But I changed my mind after thinking a little more about a conversation I had with my 13-year-old granddaughter, Louisa.

Louisa had mentioned several weeks ago that at lunchtime at school one day, she was hassled about rarely eating fast food. She told her friends that she hadn’t eaten at most of the restaurants they had been to. While she did enjoy the occasional visit to McDonald’s when she was younger, she couldn’t comment on any other than Subway and Taco Bell. She said this past weekend that the subject of her eating habits came up a second time, but she felt proud to have held her own while reminding her friends that she will be healthier all her life because she knows what and how to eat.

Those of us who send kids to school with healthy lunches and a healthy attitude toward their own food choices are sending them to the front lines of this food fight. They need to make sure that they are not just feeding them well but preparing them to do battle.

We should discuss our menu choices openly and make sure that children are involved at an early age in the family’s commitment to a healthier lifestyle. If you have kids, take them shopping with you, to the market and to the grocery store, and let them help choose their favorites or even something new each trip to feel a part of the plan. And bring them into the kitchen, too. Even if you have overcome all the TV ads and peer pressure to raise kids who know what to eat and why, please spend a little extra time to educate them and help them feel proud of how they are living their lives so they can handle that peer pressure when it is brought to bear. Most children are still eating sugary cereal for breakfast, a high-calorie and heavily salted mishmash at lunch and takeout for dinner. And drinking sodas as if they were water.

Don’t just send kids out with an apple; send along a slingshot full of self-confidence. They’ll be healthy and happy about it, too.

More on eating local next week. See you at the market!