The Bristow market will be open tomorrow - without the band and BBQ but with new vendors and all the other good produce - including that ASPARAGUS and those STRAWBERRIES, both of which are very tasty - and other products. We want you to know that we are a "rain or shine" market and that you can count on most vendors to show up in just about any weather. However, if it becomes impossible to do business - we worry most about the wind - we will bug out early. We will open on time and hope to see you there.
It's Earth Week and how do we know that? Because so many groups and organizations and employers (private and public) have invited us to participate in their educational events. It is great to see those requests grow each year, because it does speak to the growing grass roots effort to get the word out.
We do as many as we can, and next year I will begin recruiting more volunteers to meet the demand. Each year we also have access to more informational literature about how farmers markets can help promote and support environmental health in addition to promoting healthy bodies and contributing to a healthy local economy. Small farmers who participate in markets are much more likely to practice sustainable farming, and even when the weather or soil conditions require some nourishment or preventive spraying, the quantities and the frequency are considerably reduced. Supporting those farmers also contributes to preserving farmland - your support of the farmers who drive many miles from the Northern Neck of Virginia are helping to preserve some of the best farmland in Virginia which would certainly become massive waterfront developments otherwise. Some will argue that hauling produce to farmers' markets is not much more efficient that hauling massive amounts of it across the country, but look at what is saved in refrigeration and packing materials among other collateral costs to the environment. Not to mention the environmental impact of the use of massive equipment to harvest, sort and pack produce that comes from thousands of miles away. Most of what you buy at a local farmers' market is picked by hand. And this is not just about the environmental cost of growing produce - some of the worst environmental offenders are the major slaughterhouses in the country. Four large firms control over 80 percent of beef processing, 59 percent of port packing and 50 percent of broiler chicken production. It is the cleanup and disposal of the residue of these operations that is a major environmental threat to the communities that surround these facilities. That "residue" is always part of the process, but the waste from meat that is processed locally is not going to be returning toxins and antibiotics and hormones to our water and out soil, because animals on small farms don't bring that to the processing plant to begin with. So enjoy those Earth Day celebrations - we hope to see you at one or more of them - and take pride in the fact that if you have made a commitment to buy local food, that footprint you leave on the way to market is a lot smaller than it once was. Rain or shine, our weekend markets will be open - but we will have to update you on the band, West On 66, which we have scheduled for our Sunday market at Bristow. Please follow us on Twitter or on Facebook to receive regular updates on product availability and scheduled events, but you should always check the web site for what's happening on market day.
By Jean Janssen
