Hot Days at the Farmers' Markets

This Week at Our Centreville Market
Friday 3:30–6:30pm
5875 Trinity Pkwy.
Map

Please note that this week’s market will be open only from 4-6pm. We are adopting these hours for the safety and comfort of vendors, shoppers and products. As you can imagine, our parking lot at Trinity Centre heats up considerably during any summer day, and tomorrow it will be scorching. So please come out and shop fast to support those vendors who make the trip and set up just for you.

If you want to pre-order from Virginia Crabs or Uncle Fred, I encourage you to do so as both may bring less product tomorrow. You can order from Uncle Fred by calling him at (540) 313-2222 — his menu is here in case you need it. To order steamed crabs or crab cakes from Virginia Crabs, just reply to this email.

You should find a nearly full house tomorrow — so no need to go without wine, pasta, hot sauce (hot sauce?), chips and salsas, or any of the other delicacies throughout the market.

Jacob will have dairy and meats — but remember, no Angelic Beef this week. We are trying hard not to think about Doug sitting on the beach in North Carolina.

Take care and stay cool, and we hope to see you, even for a quick trip.

From the Market Master

Who let the dogs out? Again already? Those proverbial dog days are becoming a little too common this season, and it sure is tough on the farmers’ markets. Who wants to pile their children in a hot car in plastic car seats and then into plastic strollers to meet this kind of day? Check your sources for the markets you attend to make sure they will be open; Smart Markets may decide to close early on one or two days and as those decisions are made, we will post them on our website and Facebook pages, send it out to weekly newsletter lists, and tweet about it too.

Making a weather-related decision about the market is always a tough call, and we do have a stated weather policy. We always encourage shoppers to check our website before heading out the door if they have doubts. We do not operate “rain or shine” with no exceptions — there are too many risks to shoppers and vendors alike in being out there in the wide open spaces during bad weather. My vendors know that I am only going to call off a market if things look pretty dangerous for us — those of us who will be exposed for up to five hours or longer.

That means I sometimes err on the side of caution but not often. Last Wednesday in Reston, most of us waited out two large and violent thunderstorms because our radar watchers back at home and in offices were telling us that the storms would pass quickly and that would be the end for the afternoon. Still, we left it up to the vendors, and some left in the midst of the storms. But those who stayed saw the sun come out for the rest of the afternoon at about 3:30pm and hustled to get set up, and we had a good market thanks to all of you. But it could very easily have been too much hard rain and lightening for too long — and we would have scattered then without setting up at all. And at 3:30pm it would have been on our website that we had.

We want you to take care too as you decide whether to come support us — we will be very grateful as always for the business, even more so this week in the heat. We will understand if you decide to move through quickly and not linger. Watch this space too — we will post on Patch if we make any changes as the heat rises toward the end of the week. We almost had T-shirts made last summer for the Oakton market after we “survived” a 4-degree market in January and then a 104-degree market in July. We may have to reconsider that this year!

See you at the market!