Del Ray Farmers' Market in Fall -- A Feast of Rich Colors, and Flavors

Love your neighborhood farmers' market. I am quite a lucky duck that this one is right in my neighborhood.

Hot Royal Black Peppers -- could they be more beautiful?  Too hot for me to eat, though.

Some peppers I (my mouth) can handle (maybe)!  Such a gorgeous fall mix of them.

Heirloom tomatoes, San Marzanos in the basket, and heirloom peppers.

All of the above photographed at the Vine Ripe Farm area at the Del Ray Farmers' Market:

Then over to Three Way Farms:

Little hands picking tomatoes.

Friendly help at Three Way Farm. Picking out heirloom "chocolate" cherry tomatoes for me! So called because of the coloring.  Have a wonderful deep tomato taste.  If they tasted like chocolate, that would have been just fine, too.

Friendly folk at Three Way Farm!  Thank you!

Radishes, green beans, and onions, all just begging me to be roasted and used in silky fall soup.

Another fab vendor at the Del Ray Farmers' Market, Toigo Orchards ... 

mmmm tomatoes as far as the eye can see:

One last caramel apple with fall sprinkles at Ashbank.

Weekend macaron flavors at Mariannas Macarons. Two each of rose, vanilla and Nutella...heaven!

Time for some easy, delish fall recipes that look beautiful, too, friends!

 Hope you're having wonderful weather this weekend in your neighborhood.

Love,

JPV

My #1 Blog Fan, Mom, Visits from Boston and Attempts to Clean Out Marianna's Macarons at Del Ray Farmers' Market

Had a great visit from Mom this weekend, down from Boston. She wanted to visit the Farmers' Markets and specifically try the macarons she had seen in an earlier post.  She bought three dozen to take home for friends and family, and a dozen or two for herself.  Note the all lemon box at the bottom.

On our way to my haircut, we dug into a mixed box ... below is mom's happy face, and a tell-tale sprinkle from the "birthday cake" flavor:

Below is mom holding the chocolate & banana peanut butter. Whoa that was soooo good.

Yup, see that face, THAT is how crazy good these things are! (below)

Mom and Marianna

(Below) Vera's Bakery's RIDICULOUS fresh berry coffee cake.

  Mom pointing out the crustless piece she wanted. 

It is gluten free and I think the gluten is replaced with many sticks of butter.  And that is a beautiful thing.

We hit the big Old Town Alexandria Farmer's Market, too ... fresh breads, new wreaths from my favorite floral artist, Anne (see earlier blog entry of my gorgeous front door wreath made by Anne), coming in the next installment!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Much love,

xoxo JPV

Last Call For Fresh Peaches! From My Blog to Your Belly: What The Farmers Say To Buy This Week

Every time I hit the grocery store, I wonder what exactly fruits and veggies are "in season" and when. Prices (high when I buy what must be out of season) are my one indicator.  Now that I frequent the farmers market (mostly my favorite, in my hood, the Del Ray Farmers Market), I thought I would go straight to the source, and ask the farmers. Duh, could have thought of that one sooner.

I thought you might like to know, too.  So here is the first installment of what to buy this week farmers market or grocery store.  I live in Northern Virginia/Metro DC area, so I expect this will be different in other climates.  Cheat sheet below the pics for you to cut and paste.

LAST CALL:  Peaches! 

This is really the last week.  After this, it'll be those nice little frozen ones for your smoothie til next summer.

Below, here's what's new, from Golden Goose Farm & Bakery "Everything Good Under the Sun."  From Roy, working the table, and owner/baker/chef Mary Ann Corvin.  (I love that the Golden goose website calls itself "a family owned agricultural adventure.")   

UP AND COMERS:  Fall squashes!

Acorn squashes looked beautiful and had been mostly scooped up when I arrived

And the butternut squashed went so fast I only got a photo of the empty basket. Totally sold out.
No worries, many more months to come of those beauties to come!

Over at Schlagel Farms, all the melons were still looking great.
I'll find out this weekend how much longer we've got for fresh melon!

One of the nice guys at the Shlagel Farms counter ringing up my corn told me told me to expect corn until the first frost.  Trying not to sound like the gardening dunce I asked, "That would be when?"
"November," he answered, politely. Their motto is, "From our farm to your family."

My motto is, "From my blog to your belly!"

CHEAT SHEET
LAST CALL:  Peaches
STILL STRONG: Melons, corn, tomatoes
OPENING SEASON:  Fall squashes;  acorn, butternut, grapes
ALWAYS IN SEASON: Mariana's Macarons, Vera's Bakery (the coffeecake ... omg! scones, and presently fresh o.j.)
Have fun, eat yummy,
xoxox JPV

Here is an article from Whole Living on how buying what's in season means it is fresher, tastier,and more nutritious, and you avoid the exorbitant prices that you pay, for example, for tomatoes from in the middle of winter from who knows where.

(I Am) Awash is Squash

It is rare that my garden gets ahead of me.  But it has happened.

I spent an hour clearing away the dead tomato plants, and then the bad leaves on the squash and zucchini plants. A few months ago, my husband put up a miniature white picket fence to try to pen in the sprawling veggie plants. They were having none of it. They grew right over his one foot fence and have kept growing new squashes right onto his wooden walkway. (Technically it is our walkway, but he did build it himself -- though, I think, mostly, so I didn't walk on the/his grass)

Removing the leaves revealed at least five more fully grown squash.  I can't figure out what to do with them as fast as they produce. 

Brought some inside before I started the clearing:

Because I already had the four above, I decided to ignore the others for a few days, even though they are getting large.  Like this one:

I kinda had no choice, because I could not ignore these monsters:

Chop chop.  Below, You can't even see that big green zuke sliced up because it is completely buried at the bottom of the pyrex dish beneath the gigantic squash slices.  

These were on their way out to the grill. 

Now they are grilled and packed into glass containers in the fridge to eat all week.  Mmmmm!

 

Speaking of yellow deliciousness ... and with no disrespect to the yummy grilled veggies ... the macarons harvested at Saturday's Del Ray Farmers' Market (see recent posts about these beauties) do disappear a little faster than the squash.  

Behold, the Mariana's lemon macaron: 

Starfish and a Wreath of Barley: Old Town Alexandria Farmers' Market Finds

Our new front door wreath of barley and straw flowers.

As you may have noticed from my photos, I hit the Del Ray Farmers' Market whenever I can on Saturdays. Del Ray is my super cute neighborhood located in the Northernmost part of Alexandria, Virginia. That market is where I get the gorgeous and mouthwatering Mariana's Macarons (new flavors today ... will takes pics and taste test them, for you, of course) - ake a look at my last post for photos from last Saturday's picks.

There is a larger market with similar vegetables and and produce, but also some other types of vendors - more artists - in the square in Old Town Alexandria.  But I have to drive to that one and I can just hoof it to the one in my hood.  I do hit the big one every few weeks, though.

  About two months ago I bought a beautiful wreath of wheat from this amazing gardener at the big market. It is sitting in brown paper because I still haven't decided where to hang it.  Then two weeks ago I walked by and saw the wreath above. I thought it was just beautiful, perfect for our front door.  It is sunny and summery, but will also look great as the fall rolls around. (With this heat, it seems like that might never happen). 

 European florist Anne Krieg of Natural Designs is the gardener and creator and now I can't wait to see what new creations she brings to the Saturday market.  Another recent Saturday I could not pass up this exquisite encrusted starfish.

Anne told me she had seven starfish hanging in her bathroom and thought, "hmm, what if I add shells to the starfish?"  Then she brought them to market and they sold out, I bought the last one. It hangs on the wall just inside my front door.

 Hanging the starfish was an easier sell with the hubby than a dried wreath.  We don't have any dried flowers.  Hubby is an OCD neat nick and has a cow when live flowers (that he brings to me - so sweet) start to keel over and drop a few petals or leaves in the house.  So can you imagine what the flaking and breaking of a dried arrangement would do him? I couldn't bear to do that to him. He was opposed to the wreath but I reasoned that on the front door it is technically outside of the house.  After one week, the cats were overly interested in figuring out how to get into the box and turn the wreath into a toy.  Turns out it was easier for wonderful husband to hang it up after all!

The Old Town farmers' market has been around since 1753 and George Washington used to have produce sent from Mount Vernon to be sold there, so the sellers come with good creds.

Happy half weekend!  Hugs, JPV (Hi Mom!)

Gorgeous Haul From the Del Ray Farmers Market -- Tastes As Great As it All Looks, Too!

I wasn't planning to hit the farmer's market Saturday. I was heading to the ATM.  I parked a block away so I just HAD to walk through the market to get to the ATM.  It was so worth it!

As I headed toward the tomatoes, to compare them to what my garden has been trying hard to produce in this blistering heat, happily I ran into my bff, who was looking like the very cute pregnant lady that she is, and then made a round of the market with her.  I should have pictures of the berry scone(s) but I had one for breakfast and brought the other to the super-cool Kellee, hairstylist extraordinaire; she of the KILLER cut and color (those little grays showed up when I was 26!).  Kellee always gives me a huge cup of delicious tea (excellent for scone dunking, handily enough). The unbelievable coffee-ish cake-like blackberry cobbler-esque thing, which I told myself  I was buying as a treat for later, well, that thingy barely made it home.  Holy cow, it was crazy good!  Clearly, it is VITAL that I get back to the market soon to I buy another piece so I can photograph it for you.  It's only fair.  It's a big job but I can handle it.

And now on to the macarons. This week I tried  Vanilla Bean (a gorgeous blue with a light and very clear vanilla flavor), Nutella (no explanation needed), Lemon-Lime (more lemon than lime, just perfect) and rose (light and aromatic like a rose tea). I love macarons. They are difficult to make. Ok, they look like triple-black-diamond-difficult to make so I haven't bothered trying.  And now I don't have to because of Mariana's Macarons.  Amazing, perfect, delicious little bites of heaven.  On her website, macarons are defined this way:

The Macaron is a sweet confectionery consisting of two meringue cookies made from a blend of finely ground almond flour, sugar, and egg whites with a buttercream, jam, or ganache filling.   They are lightly crisp on the outside and smooth and creamy in the center.  These naturally gluten-free desserts are available in an assortment of stunning colors and delicious flavors.

Above:  Blue = vanilla bean, cream colored with powdered chocolate = Nutella, swirled yellow & green = lemon-lime, pretty pink = rose flavor