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Health & Fitness

Smart Markets Fall/Winter Schedule, and Happy Thanksgiving

We at Smart Markets give thanks for the farmers who bring food to our tables and the shoppers who make our markets possible.

Our Markets

Fairfax Corner: Open year-round, Tuesdays noon-3 p.m.

Reston: Special Holiday Market Wednesday, Nov. 23, 3-5 p.m. Then closed until next spring.

Oakton: Year-round Saturdays 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., but closed Saturday, Nov. 26

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Gainesville: Open with a full complement of vendors Sunday, Nov. 27, 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., and every Sunday year-round

From the Market Master

Dear Shopper,

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On this Thanksgiving Day, Smart Markets and all of the vendors and workers we represent would like to thank all of you for your support throughout the year, whether you attend faithfully every week or just when you think of it. We are thankful for you as shoppers, and I am thankful to you for the great feedback and support you give me.

I hope that we can all take a minute at the groaning board this Thursday to thank the farmers and graziers who put life and limb and the bottom line at risk every year so that we can be a part of the small percentage of our country’s population that actually has access to locally grown food. And we should also thank the field hands, many of them immigrants, who do the back-breaking work on those farms, very often alongside the farmers themselves. If you have only one item on your table that was grown locally, or if you are moving toward an all-local Thanksgiving, then you are benefitting from all that hard work. And in many cases you know the farmer and can thank him in person. How many people can do that?

I am including here a link to a quiet video testimonial to those farmers and the people who work so hard to create markets for them. If you can take the twelve minutes with your family and friends to watch it, you will learn something, you will be touched and you will give thanks not just for the food but the people who grow it for you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all — we will see you in December if not before!

Jean

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