Update: Great Deals on Leftovers from Today's Market

Thanks to everyone who called and visited Crystal -- I know she really appreciates the Market community pulling together. Hope you're all enjoying your bread and cheese and everything else! E-mail from Crystal received this afternoon: You are my Heroes! If it wasn't for Tia's Lemonade Stand, I would not have been reminded of the saying "When Life Give you Lemons...." (and the ending isn't you get a bottle of Tequila and salt). When I was stuck with all the leftovers, little did I realize that the community response to take them off my hands and ease the financial burden would be so immediate and great. A big THANK YOU to all who stopped by on Saturday and Sunday to buy bread, pasta, sauce, cheese, and tortillas. MANY of you had already been to the market on Saturday morning and bravely fought the intense heat. All that's left is about $50 of cheese (Ricotta and Monacacy Ash -- which I'm selling for $5 each) So instead of being discouraged, I am encouraged by those who took the extra effort to help. A million thanks. Crystal Original post: Attendance at today's Cheverly Community Market was far lighter than usual -- blame the soaring temperatures and humid air! If you missed it (or even if you didn't, but plowed through your purchases already), Crystal Lal is offering some great deals on leftovers from the Market:

• Fresh pasta is $6 a pound (Feeds 3 generously -- At pasta plus its $10 a plate)
• Pasta sauce $3.50 16 oz

GOAT CHEESE -- $6 per 8 oz. package. Has been kept at consistently cool temperatures so is still top-quality and bargain priced!!

• Chevre
• Ricotta
• Monocacy Ash
• Monocacy Silver

MOCTEC

• corn tortillas $2 doz
• hand strecheded white tortillas $3 DOZ
• wheat hand stretched tortilla $3.50 doz

UPTOWN BAKERS

• Lots of good pastries -- selling them for $1 apiece There are lots of almond croissants and maple pecan twists.
• Baguettes ($2.50)
• and the following items, which are priced at $5 each: PARKERHOUSE ROLLS, CHALLAH, JEWISH RYE, MARBLE RYE, SESAME SEMOLINA, FARM W/ ROLLED OATS AND FRENCH PEASANT

If you didn't make it to the market, you can come by the house while Crystal is home until it's all gone. Call first 301-773-0635 -- she'll give you her address.

Share your Market Story!

Today we begin another new Market tradition: share your Market story. See anything really great? Have a great conversation with a vendor or neighbor? Meet new people? Try something new? Please share your Market experiences and stories.

My personal favorite story of the day: the couple who requested a Beatles song from Charles and Kelly, then had a lovely dance. It was charming.

Okay, your turn.

Rain or Shine or... Heat Wave!

Please don't let the ugly weather forecasts deter you from coming to Saturday's Cheverly Community Market -- we'll be there rain or shine ... or heat wave! Eating locally -- and supporting our local farmers and tradespeople -- is especially valuable in the face of global warming and a weak economy: from www.environment.about.com Eat Locally Grown Food to Reduce Global Warming Eating locally grown food even helps in the fight against global warming. Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture reports that the average fresh food item on our dinner table travels 1,500 miles to get there. Buying locally produced food eliminates the need for all that fuel-guzzling transportation. Eat Locally Grown Food to Help the Economy Another benefit of eating locally is helping the local economy. Farmers on average receive only 20 cents of each food dollar spent, says Ikerd, the rest going for transportation, processing, packaging, refrigeration and marketing. Farmers who sell food to local customers “receive the full retail value, a dollar for each food dollar spent,” he says. Additionally, eating locally encourages the use of local farmland for farming, thus keeping development in check while preserving open space. So dress appropriately and come early. Many of the vendors will be under tents and there will be water and lemonade available.

Scott's Market Recipes for This Weekend

Our chef/educator/cookie master Scott Eichinger can't make it to the Market this weekend (I know, we'll miss him, too!) Since he's such a thoughtful guy, Scott has given us two recipes that use some of the great produce you can get at the Market this Saturday: Sweet Chili Cucumbers and Quick Strawberry Jam. Visit our recipes page for printable versions of these recipes, as well as other tasty treats. Saturday morning, make sure to stop by and get a 15-minute seated massage from Teresa Williams at the Market. Between a relaxing massage, great music, fantastic crafts, beautiful fresh flowers and -- of course -- the best in local food, you should be pretty relaxed by morning's end. See you Saturday at the Market!

Recipe for a perfect Saturday

After a restful night's sleep, arrive at the Cheverly Market at 9 am for fresh coffee and a delicious pastry. Be sure to wear a hat, comfortable shoes, and bring your reusable shopping bag. Leave Fido at home, but promise him a juicy bone that you will buy for him at the Clan Stewart Stand. As you patiently wait in line at the Jug Bay stand, introduce yourself to the nice folks in front or behind you. Most likely they are neighbors or friends you haven't yet met. If you are over 21, wander over to the Elk Run Winery stand and buy a local bottle of wine to pair with tonight's seasonal dinner. Options: Oysters, roasted beets, salad with fresh tomatoes and chevre, a crusty baguette and strawberries. Don't forget a bouquet of field-grown flowers for your centerpiece or as a hostess gift. Buy a pot of mint to plant and harvest throughout the summer for ice tea and maybe even juleps. Sit down and enjoy the music of the Cheverly Hot Noodle Concern. Dance. or not, Bump into someone you know and invite them to share dinner. AT MARKET ONLY THIS WEEK: ELK RUN WINERY and STANTONS MILL Stanton's Mill specializes in: Hushpuppy Mix Amish Funnel Cake Mix Buckwheat Pancake Mix Corn Muffin Mix Specialty Baking Mixes Custom Gift Baskets Stanton's Mill also specializes in: Unbleached flour Whole wheat flour White corn meal Yellow corn meal Buckwheat flour Grits Stanton's Mill uses only certified organic hard red winter wheat PRODUCE FROM JUG BAY: strawberries flowers beets summer squash cucumbers cabbage peas lettuce radishes green onions greenhouse tomatoes dates PLUS grass-fed beef and lamb, coffee, bread, tortillas and chips, cheese, oysters..... See you Saturday at the Market!

Show & Tell

Maybe it's my age, but I have trouble every week trying to get into a "blog" mode and post an entry for the market. After fretting for days, the answer has dawned on me. This is basically Show and Tell. In kindergarten, it was my favorite day of the week. Trot to the front of the class and share your treasure. So here I go. At least week's market, my favorite finds were simple: a bunch of Bachelor Buttons from Jug Bay, which I plopped in a galvanized bucket and kept on my back porch; a $2 medium dog bone for my old dog Shelby from Clan Stewart Farm. It's amazing how these two minor purchases had major impact. We adopted Shelby 10 years ago from an animal shelter. We think she is about 12 years old now. The old girl spends an majority of her day snoozing and the highlight of her day is chasing after a rawhide chew strip that we toss to her, which takes her about 3 minutes to chew, and then back to sleep. I gave her the Clan Stewart Bone on Saturday afternoon and she spent nearly two hours gnawing and working at it. The whole family stopped what we were doing to watch her enjoy it. We have not seen her so engaged in years. I guess that proves that natural, unprocessed, and preservative free improves the quality of life for our pets too. As for the flowers, what a refreshing departure from the usual selection at the supermarket. No need for a strangely green fern frond or a cliche' spray of baby's breath. And they weren't grown somewhere outside the continent and shipped an ungodly distance under refrigeration. Now it's your turn. This blog is really an opportunity for you all to share your discoveries. Please, let us know what you did with that goat cheese, those shell peas, or rhubarb jam. Or tell us your story or share your advice. This is your turn to be part of the market "Show and Tell."

See you at the Market this weekend!

Crystal

Meet Our Market Vendors...

This week, we begin a regular feature on this blog: Meet Our Market Vendors. We hope this encourages you to chat with the farmers and vendors and learn a little more about the Market community. Jug Bay Market Garden's Scott Hertzberg is an interesting guy...one of those people you want to hang out and chat with. He's passionate about local farming and sustaining the traditions of farming in a way that benefits both farmers and customers. In fact, he's so interesting to listen to that, when a group of us first met about the market this winter, Scott had a room of about 20 hanging on his words. As I wandered the market this weekend, I stopped by the Jug Bay tent several times (and it was packed most of the time!) and was impressed with the way Scott really interacts with his customers -- it was wonderful to overhear snippets of conversation with many, many people. In the few minutes I could get with Scott when he wasn't working with a customer (but he was arranging produce and gorgeous flowers) I asked Scott a few questions:

How long have you been farming? Seven years.

What did you do before you became a farmer? I was a librarian. In fact, I still work as a librarian two days a week. I really need about 90 hours in every week.

So now you know. Scott Herzberg: Farmer and librarian. That is so cool. Stop by and say hi (and buy some of those lovely flowers) at the next Market, June 7. In the meantime, keep visiting the website and this blog -- we continue to add and update all the time.