This Week at the Smart Markets Manassas Park Farmers' Market

This Week at Our Manassas Park Market
Friday 3–7 p.m.
One Park Center Court
(City Hall Parking Lot)
Manassas Park, VA 20111
Map

Thank you for an amazing opening day; it was great to see some old friends from Centreville and so many new faces from Manassas Park.  

And if you liked last week's market, then you will love this week's. We have new vendors to keep things interesting: Becky's Breads and Pastries, Les Mini Galettes (small french waffles with a variety of toppings), and our very own, home-grown food truck, Taste of Local, which features Doug Linton's Angelic Beef and lots of local ingredients as they come to market.

We will also have new items in the market: lovely radishes and salad greens, and Chef Bon has been baking up a storm for those of you who are committed to a gluten-free diet. Wicked Oak will have whole chickens and chicken parts this week as well as that wonderful pork and those sausages just begging to be thrown on a grill. And if you fall in love with a burger or that roast beef sandwich at Taste of Local, you can buy the same beef to take home.  

For Mother's Day, we have several options:

• Cakes by Shelby will have a full-on Mother's Day spread! Flower pot and other Mother's Day cupcakes, also available in Gluten Free.  Big cakes that look like a bonnet. Also cake cups, some with Ghirardelli chocolate espresso filling and some strawberry shortcake. Cake of the week will be vanilla with chocolate cream filling. Pies will be a surprise!

Hazel, our new face painter, wanted you to know that she had such a good time that she will be coming at least twice a month from now on. We will see her next week. And we will have lots of other interesting and exciting things for you throughout the summer.

See you at the market!

From the Market Master

As the new markets begin opening each year, I get questions about what “local” means in a farmers’ market that carries roasted coffee beans, Kettle Korn and other foods not necessarily sourced locally.

We do guarantee that our produce is grown locally, which in this area can include on farms located in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania in addition to Virginia. In fact, many of our farmers from outside of Virginia are actually closer to our markets than our Virginia farmers, especially those from the Northern Neck of Virginia who drive two hours each way to get to our markets.

But the U.S. and Virginia Departments of Agriculture recognize another product designation. “Value-added” applies to vendors, many of whom are cooks or bakers, who start with one or more raw ingredients and produce a product by adding skill, talent, or specialized expertise in order to render something palatable or edible. This is the category under which we accept Kettle Korn poppers and coffee roasters as well as bakers and short-order cooks. Many of these vendors are personally committed to using local ingredients when they can, and they buy from their fellow vendors as often as possible. Smart Markets encourages this but does not require it.

A significant element of our mission is to support the small food entrepreneur, which we believe is a good way to ensure that locally prepared foods will continue to be available in our communities. These foods are almost always healthier than fast foods. We therefore want to see these small businesses succeed, and if that means their buying of some ingredients wholesale for a while, then we accept that as part of their cost of doing business. We’d have no salsa in winter otherwise.

Most vendors are happy to tell you where their ingredients come from, and many actually make a big deal of it in their signage and printed materials. And if you want to support those vendors who are more committed to local sourcing, that is your choice. That too is what markets are about — giving you choices based on what is most important to you, your family, and its budget. While our mantra has always been that “food is cheaper than medicine,” we all know that our food budgets are a daily concern with immediate consequences.

Remember to ask what you want to know at the farmers’ market. Someone will have the answer!