This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

This Week at the Smart Markets Reston Farmers' Market

We'll be getting new veggies at the market this week, including cucumbers, kohlrabi, and squash.

This Week at Our Reston Market
Wednesday 3–7 p.m.
12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.
Map

Now the fun begins! I am going to have take a vacation next week in order to map out all of our activities for this summer and to make sure we get the word out to you. We will be hosting canning demos throughout the season and at least one free-of-charge interactive canning class at a location where we will not be rained out. We have great music already lined up with jazz at the market June 12! And of course, our demo chef Annie Sidley will return at least once a month for a free cooking class on site with market ingredients, which usually involves a full menu.

I will give you a week’s notice about the big events, but you can always check out the event calendar on our website. If you want to catch a class with Annie at another market or bring guests to a concert, we would love to see you at a market other than the one you usually attend.

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Beginning this week, Maria Whimpop (as we call her) and her staff, who bring those amazing good-for-you popsicles, will host each week a 30-minute craft class for kids using popsicle sticks. While you shop, they will have fun and end up with something to decorate the refrigerator or their own rooms with. We’ll post the scheduled time on Facebook this week.

We will begin to see more variety in the market this week — sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, summer squash, and cucumbers. Can tomatoes be far behind?

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Stop by and sample the NoBull Burgers. They are not just for vegetarians; they taste just as good to meat-eaters! And they can be served with cheese on top in a bun like a “real” burger or served on the side or as part of a buffet as a vegetable dish. They are that good.

I also hear that Chef Bon’s cheesecake is just as tasty for people who are OK with gluten, though it is gluten-free as is everything else in her display.

The Taste of Local Food Truck and Fat and Happy BBQ will be open rain or shine. You can always take your food home to eat under cover. But if the weather is nice, please plan to join us for dinner in the market.

Celtic Pasties will have Beef & Guinness, Cottage Pie Style, Corned Beef, Mango Chicken, Chicken Alfredo, Spinach & Feta, and Cheese & Onion.

Fossil Rock will now be bringing to market locally milled flours and other products from Wade’s Mill. This selection will include Whole Wheat Flour, Corn Meal and Wheat Berries. Fossil Rock will also bring cut peonies, sugar snap and snow peas, strawberries, and rhubarb.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

It’s not a stretch for me to say that I learn something new every day; I work with so many different people on so many different projects, and I do read a lot. But last evening I learned in one article lots of things I did not know and which happen to directly inform all those things I do.

Michael Pollan is at it again, going where no writer has gone before to enlighten and inspire us to change our lives and, in small ways, to change the world. His most recent piece for the New York Times Magazine is another clearly laid-out indictment of our personal diets as they are dictated by “Big Food” and our personal health as dictated by “Big Pharma.” In the article he moves from the revelation that he had his gut analyzed for levels of good and bad bacteria to a discussion of the history and geography of our diet and how it has evolved to remove from our bodies many of the good bacteria that would normally keep asthma, allergies, and other autoimmune diseases out of our bodies. It would seem that the greatest threats to our daily health may not be the bad stuff out there but the lack of good stuff in our own bodies to fight off the bad stuff.

You need to read this to see how his argument develops. But his final point, once again, is that the “components of a microbiota-friendly diet are already on the supermarket shelves and in farmers’ markets.” He reminds us that “the less a food is processed, the more of it that gets safely through the gastrointestinal tract and into the eager clutches of the microbiota” (the collective microbes in our bodies). And as he often does, he explains in great detail why his major point is so important for us to understand: “This is at once a very old and a very new way of thinking about food: it suggests that all calories are not created equal and that the structure of food and how it is prepared may matter as much as its nutrient composition.”

Feed on that, folks — read more and learn more.

Photo by Sarah Sertic

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?