Sunday, June 30, 2013

We've topped 10,000!

 
Ten thousand photos in our flickr group, covering Cheverly Community Market since 2008. Well, if you want to be technical about it, we're currently at 10,103. That is a lot of photos!
Thank you for making those 10,000 photos possible. To our vendors, volunteers, and customers, thank you for providing so many beautiful subjects over the years, and to the photographers who have contributed images over the history of Cheverly Community Market. We're looking forward to the next 10,000!

What a gorgeous morning...thanks for spending it with us!

SPECIAL MESSAGE: We have postponed our Annual Farm to Table Potluck and are currently reviewing possible dates for the Fall. If you've already purchased tickets, we will refund your money, or you may hold on to your ticket for the future date. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your continued support.
We had a wonderful morning at Cheverly Community Morning and hope you did, too. We lucked into gorgeous weather, and with so many friends and neighbors spending time together, it would have been a real challenge to not have a good time. As always, special thanks to our fantastic vendors and volunteers -- the Market couldn't happen without you! Also, a big thanks to the Eleanor Roosevelt Dixieland Jazz Combo...we love you!

We'll post photos on flickr soon, but for now, we're enjoying the first peaches of summer, delicious cherries, challah with homemade preserves, and farm-fresh eggs. We're looking forward to a Fourth of July with real local wine, thick, juicy steaks, wonderful seafood, local fruits and vegetables and delicious cupcakes, cookies, ice cream and more! We'll be posting recipes on Pinterest throughout the week to get you fired up for holiday cookouts and picnics!

Don't forget, you can buy tickets to our Annual Farm to Table Potluck (August 10) online or at the big green Market tent during any Market. It's going to be a great celebration of local food and cooking, and we're really looking forward to it! And, if you haven't already done so, please take a moment to vote for Cheverly Community Market in American Farm;and Trust's 2013 America's Favorite Farmer's Markets Contest.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Who's coming to Market this week? The Big Lineup (June 29 edition)



Are you ready for July? At Cheverly Community Market, we're welcoming it! Visit us this Saturday and find everything you'll need for  great meals on the 4th of July and throughout the week! We have wonderful entertainment -- a special storytime with our first kid reader...and who doesn't feel a bit patriotic when they listen to great  Dixieland jazz? Don't forget to stop by the big green Market tent to pick up your tickets for our Annual Farm to Table Potluck, get a Market sticker or calendar, learn more about the Buy Local Challenge, or vote for Cheverly Community Market in the American Farmland Trust "I Love My Market" contest. We're looking forward to sharing a great summer morning with you at Cheverly Community Market!

VENDORS
Azur Soleil & Golden Harvest Books
Benny's Fruit Stand/Rebert Farm
Cafe Ambrosia
Cakes by Ruthann
Cheverly Breadbasket
Classic & Carefree Bake Shoppe
Gigi's Quilts
Martha's Jams
Natural Nick's Produce
Natural-holic with Scents
Romano Winery
Shlagel Farms
Tasha's Cookies
Two Oceans Seafoods
Waltz Family Farm

COMMUNITY GROUPS
Frields of Lower Beavercreek Dam & Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee
Sons of the American Legion from Cheverly's Post 108

ENTERTAINMENT
CPRC Storytime (10am on the Community Center steps)
Eleanor Roosevelt High School Dixieland Jazz Combo


And don't forget, our friends at CheverlyExchange are holding their trivia contest: This Friday morning at 10am they will post another Cheverly Trivia question! The first person to answer the question correctly will receive a pound of sausage from Waltz Family Farm at the community market this Saturday, so keep an eye out for the question for your chance to win. Remember, you need to have your email set to get Individual Emails or be watching the Yahoo Group which can be found at www.CheverlyExchange.com to receive the question quickly!







This week at the Market: Waltz Family Farm

Is there any holiday more closely associated with grilling than the Fourth of July? Whether you're grilling hot dogs, chops, ribs, thick steaks, kabobs, or burgers, Waltz Family Farm has your meat needs covered. Laurie has just stocked up with a new supply of beef (they are totally sold out at the moment!)   so they'll be bringing a lot of great beef cuts to Cheverly on Saturday. This is very good news! Waltz Family Farm will many different steaks, brisket, ground beef, roasts, and some hard to find cuts, like flank and hanger steak (these go fast, so visit Laurie early). They have a nice variety of pork to get your palate excited, including pork chops and loin roasts – great on the grill -- and sausages, hot dogs, ribs, and kielbasa just to name a few. The Waltz's lamb selection is wonderful and they're very happy with how good it’s been this year. Pick up ground lamb and assorted cuts of lamb chops (cut a little thick so they are great on the grill), as well as leg of lamb and some shoulder roasts.

For recipe ideas and grilling techniques & tips, visit the Market on Pinterest!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

This week at the Market: Shlagel Farms

How many road trips do you take in the summer? Do you kick yourself for stopping at gas stations and rest stops and coming away with more junk food with ingredients you can't even pronounce...should you really eat that stuff? While we all rely on the occasional candy bar or chips to make it through the New Jersey Turnpike, we're here to recommend something else: pack a small cooler with cleaned, trimmed fresh fruits and vegetables. On a recent eight-hour drive, we had a sack of freshly cleaned green beans from Shlagel Farms, cheese crackers, and peanut butter packs. The favorite? The green beans. They were sweet and crunchy and really wonderful. 

This week, visit Shlagel Farms at Cheverly Community Market for perfect road trip snacks, as well as great produce for those holiday meals (and every other day, too!) Eileen will have kale, collard greens, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peppers, blueberries, green beans, cabbage, beets, and maybe -- just maybe -- a few surprises (cross your fingers!) It's the best time of the year to eat fresh and healthy -- and we want to help you do it!

This week at the Market: Classic & Carefree Bake Shoppe

We are so glad to welcome Market favorites Danielle and Laura (aka the Cupcake Girls to Market regulars) of Classic & Carefree Bake Shoppe back to the Market this Saturday! This is the first time they're with us in 2013 and we can't wait to catch up. Make sure to stop by and welcome Danielle and Laura. While you're at it, pick up some fantastic cupcakes and breads -- you'll thank yourself later!

Classic Cupcakes
Vanilla
Chocolate
Cookies and Cream
Lemon Poppyseed

They'll also have some special beach-themed variety boxes available to celebrate the summer season!

Carefree Items (gluten- and allergen-free!)
Pecan Raisin Bread
Paleo Sandwich Bread
Strawberry Cupcakes
Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes

Community at the Market: CPRC Storytime

Join CPRC on the Community Center steps at 10:00am this Saturday for the lively tale of a farming family racing to get to the farmer's market, Market Day, by Carol Foskett CordsenThe Benson family oversleeps. That’s too bad, because it’s market day, and the apples won’t pick themselves. The truck needs to be loaded, and in all the hubbub everyone forgets to feed the cow...and that's when the story really gets going! Children will love this madcap story (and what kid doesn't know about forgetting something important in the rush to get out the door in the morning?)

This is a special storytime, as CPRC's first kid reader, Maggie Andrews, will be doing the reading. Maggie, an alumna of many a CPRC playgroup, is a rising third grader and just had a story of her own performed by Story Pirates at a music and arts festival. She's very excited to share Market Day with younger kids this Saturday at the Market! 

Volunteers Needed!

Cheverly is a town that runs on a spirit of volunteerism, and Cheverly Community Market is no exception. We're always on the lookout for volunteers to help with setting up and breaking down the Market. If you can lend a hand, please contact volunteer coordinator Mike Callahan -- join this great crew of men and women at 7am to put out tables, tents, and chairs, or at 11:45 to put everything away.

It's another way you can support Cheverly Community Market -- and we certainly appreciate it!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

This week at the Market: Martha's Jams

Make sure to visit Martha's Jams at the Market this weekend! She's back from Colombia and has spent the week cooking up favorites that have been sold out, including fig, hot pepper, peach, and more! And remember, there's more to jam than just using it on toast...use a bit to liven up your favorite recipes!

Community at the Market: The Sons of the American Legion at Post 108

We are very pleased to welcome The Sons The Sons of the American Legion at Cheverly Post 108 to Cheverly Community Market this Saturday. The group is celebrating a renewal of its presence in the community and service to neighbors during 2013 and 2014. Members of the Sons of the American Legion and the American Legion will be at the Market to answer any questions, distribute literature, and, especially, to get the word out about the Legion’s Fourth of July Celebration on the evening of Friday, July 5, at the Legion.

This week at the Market: Natural Nick's Produce

Garlic has inspired great devotion over the centuries...

“Well loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes. And for to drinken strong wyn, reed as blood.”  Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 ? - 1400) ‘Canterbury Tales’ 
“Provençal cooking is based on garlic. The air in Provence is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it very healthful to breathe. Garlic is the main seasoning in bouillabaisse and in the principal sauces of the region. A sort of mayonnaise is made with it by crushing it in oil, and this is eaten with fish and snails. The lower classes in Provence often lunch on a crust of bread sprinkled with oil and rubbed with garlic.”   Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) ‘Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine’
“It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking.”   X. Marcel Boulestin (1878-1943) 
“To dream that you are eating garlic denotes that you will discover hidden secrets and meet with some domestic jar. To dream that there is garlic in the house is lucky.”   Richard Folkard in 'Plant Lore' (1884) 
“Without garlic I simply would not care to live.”   Louis Diat (1885-1958) 
"Garlic used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of cookery. The cook who can employ it successfully will be found to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of hand which go to the formation of a great artist."   Mrs. W. G. Waters in 'The Cook's Decameron,' 1920 
“No cook who has attained mastery over her craft ever apologizes for the presence of garlic in her productions.”   Ruth Gottfried, ‘The Questing Cook’ (1927) 
“A little garlic, judiciously used, won't seriously affect your social life and will tone up more dull dishes than any commodity discovered to date.”   Alexander Wright, ‘How to Live Without a Woman’ (1937) 
"There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is the most deserving."   Felice Leonardo (Leo) Buscaglia (1924-1998) 
“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.”   Alice May Brock (of ‘Alice's Restaurant’ fame) 
"Shallots are for babies; onions are for men; garlic is for heroes."   unknown 
This Saturday, visit Dominick of Natural Nick's Produce at Cheverly Community Market. He'll have Lorz Italian Heirloom Garlic, Polish White Heirloom Garlic, Natural Nick's Tomato Basil Sauce, Natural Nick's Biscotti Antoinetta, Natural Nick's Fruit Conserves: Strawberry and Threeberry (Combination of Blackberry, Blueberry and Raspberry) and Natural Nick's Baklava Alexandra. Natural Nick will be sampling Threeberry Conserve.  

All products are naturally grown and produced in the traditional organic method by Natural Nick's Produce "As nature intended."

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

This week at the Market: Natural-holic with Scents

She joined us for the first time at our June 15 Market: Wanda Butler and Natural-holic with Scents, of Upper Marlboro. We're very happy to have her back this Saturday. Wanda has been handcrafting bath and body products using the highest quality ingredients in small batches since 1998. These artisanal soaps are gorgeous and they'd make a very thoughtful gift or a lovely treat for your washroom this summer. Stop by and visit Wanda this weekend at Cheverly Communiy Market!

Community at the Market: Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek & Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee

image via Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan

Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek, together with the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee, will again host public input for the Town Park Master Plan amendment. This will be your final market opportunity to share your comments and suggestions. Make sure to visit the table and review the draft plan or review it online at www.greencheverly.org. Be part of the conversation. Make your voice heard and make a lasting contribution to your town, this weekend at Cheverly Community Market.

This week at the Market: Romano Winery


We are very excited to have  Romano Winery return to Cheverly Community Market this Saturday. We enjoyed having Jo-Ann Romano at the Market a few weeks ago -- you'll remember that she and our terrific wine ambassador, Cathy Wintermyer, were interviewed about new laws opening access to farmer's markets for Maryland wineries by NBC4 that morning. The spot was very brief (lots of breaking local news that day), and Cathy acquitted herself beautifully. We also had the pleasure of hearing Jo-Ann on WTOP a few weeks ago...there's a lot of excitement surrounding  Prince George's County's first and only winery!

Visit Romano Winery this Saturday at Cheverly Community Market and sample Prince George's County local, delicious Maryland wine! Then take home a few bottles for your holiday celebrations and other great meals. We particularly like their 
Chardonnay and Chambourcin for summer....find your favorites this weekend at the Market!

This week at the Market: Gigi's Quilts

We are fans of Gigi Lombardo's work -- she creates charming quilted, knitted, and crocheted items for the kitchen and the table, as well as cute things for people of all ages. Visit Quilts by Gigi this Saturday at Cheverly Community Market for wonderful baby gifts, cool bags, placemats, and more!

This week at the Market: Rebert Farm/Benny's Fruit Stand

We are so excited about what the Reberts are bringing to Cheverly this Saturday! Their growing season got off to a slow start because of the long, cold spring, but the recent heat has turned things around...they'll be bringing some of our favorite summer fruits to the Market this weekend! Stop by Rebert Farm/Benny's Fruit Stand and pick up strawberries, cherries, raspberries, apricots, blueberries, and the first peaches of the season! Whether you're eating them after a quick rinse, adding a fruit to a sangria or a Bellini, making a pie, preserving, or doing something else...this is your time to shine and we're sharing loads of recipes using the very best ingredients of summer on Pinterest!

This week at the Market: Cakes by Ruthann


June 24 through 30 is Caribbean Cuisine and Restaurant Week and Cakes by Ruthann is celebrating at Cheverly Community Market!

In honor of this event Cakes by Ruthann will have the following:

The Jammin’ Meal Deal -- $8 for jerk chicken, red beans & rice and plantains (YUM!) service starts at 10:30am

They'll also have their Signature Mini Caribbean black Rum Cake for $5 and many more authentic Caribbean and tropical-inspired desserts and beverages.

* Coconut Ginger Drops *
* Carrot Cake *
* Banana Bread *
* Cherry and Walnut Brownies with Marshmallow swirl *
* Cherry Brownies with Marshmallow swirl *
We love that many of our vendors work together to bring you wonderful products created with local ingredients, and we want to share this post from Cakes by Ruthann on Facebook:

The Skinny on Ruthann’s Strawberry Lemonade

That’s right, we don’t use store bought “Strawberry” juices or pre-made strawberry lemonade mix but the real thing, strawberries.

People have asked why our strawberry lemonade tastes so good. The secret is ………..

WE USE REAL STRAWBERRIES! I buy local! What I mean by that is, I buy my fresh strawberries from farmer’s that are at the farmer’s market that I serve. For example, I buy my strawberries from Shlagel Farms and Benny’s at Cheverly Market, and Musachio Produce and any farmer at Riverdale Park that has strawberries that week.

We think it's important for our customers to know that our vendors support each other -- please show your support!