This Week at Smart Markets Reston Farmers' Market

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This week’s market has special hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And it’s our last of the season! Please follow your favorite vendors to our Saturday Oakton market all winter long, except for this coming Saturday, Nov. 30, when we will take a break to be with family. 

Also, Max Tyson at Tyson Farms will sell locally grown Christmas trees across the street in the parking lot of the Hartke Building starting Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

This will be the Martin family’s last day selling for Heritage Farm and Kitchen. They are retiring once again in order for Mr. Martin to preach to far-flung Mennonite communities and also to finally be able to spend more time with their large and growing family. They will be delighted to hear from you how much we all appreciate their devotion to duty over the last four years.

It’s also Turkey Day Wednesday, and we are all looking forward to having you stop by for a day of celebration. We’ll have recipes all throughout the market for your Thanksgiving Day and weekend of dining with friends.

Ken Newbraugh at Liz Soaps will encourage you to sniff through the soaps and make notes of which ones you might like to order later on for Christmas presents if you are not ready Wednesday. I stocked up last week, but you may want to wait to order online, and this is the perfect solution for remembering in two weeks what a particular soap smells like.

Ignacio will have a few extra pumpkin centerpieces, so come early if you did not order one in advance. They flew off the table Saturday at our Oakton market. Ignacio will also have most of what you have seen all fall. The cold weather may have taken out the tomatoes, leaf lettuces, and summer squash by Wednesday, but he will have plenty of crucifers, gorgeous carrots, turnips, winter squashes, and maybe green and yellow wax beans.

Shenadoah Seasonal will have lovely green leafy specimens including gorgeous chard, beet greens, baby beets, arugula, and hopefully broccoli rabe. And we have a great simple recipe for the rabe with white beans and lemon. You can get the best dried beans just down the way at Heritage Farm. Fossil Rock will bring whatever has survived this unseasonable cold and will have products from Wade’s Mill. Their grits are my new favorite brand.

Heritage Farm will have extra turkeys for those of you who did not preorder and turkey breasts and leg and thigh parts. Come early if you want one of those extra turkeys — they went fast at our Oakton market. Even if you do not normally purchase dairy from Heritage Farm, this is the week to try their egg nog and whipping cream. Both could be called the “cream of the crop.” Watch that whipping cream carefully — it whips into stiff peaks in about three minutes with an old-fashioned egg beater. An electric mixer might yield butter.

They have several ice-cream flavors that will go well with fall desserts. The Dutch Apple and Pumpkin are great with the Applesauce Cake recipe we hand out at the market.

Tyson Farms will be brimming with apples, pears, great greens, and winter squashes. They have cider made from their own apples and Max Sr.’s pickles and canned goods.

Shade Farm may have a few peppers left to bring, but what you want from Curt is Country Pear Butter, Red Pepper Jelly or Jalapeno Chutney. Curt has other Saturday obligations this winter and I could not entice him to join us at Oakton, so stock up.

Celtic Pasties will have a great selection of pasties for the freezer this weekend — pull them out and heat them up for a quick lunch and head back to the mall. And Flor will have empanadas, which are great with a salad or homemade slaw for a light dinner or lunch on the run. Her alfahores add a light, lovely bit of sweetness to a fall fruit cup.

Winfield Farm will have beef and pork to help hold off the deluge of turkey leftovers and hopefully some sweet and spicy microgreens for salads and sandwiches all weekend.

Valley View will have pumpkin pies, but they will go fast. That’s no surprise — everything they make is so good. Pick up cake pops or candies from Kylie for kids of all ages and Kettle Korn while you can. We won’t have that at Oakton either, so prepare yourself for Kettle Korn withdrawal. Postmodern Foods will post our specialties on the Facebook page before Wednesday afternoon.

See you at the market!