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Health & Fitness

Words from Joel Salatin

A Virginia farmer shares his insights about the state of our food system.

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

I’ve got good news and bad news: Uncle Fred is out of commission again for a little while. He is having back problems and will return to the markets next week if the treatments work. I know you will miss him as we have. Not to replace but to offer an alternative, we will host the Bratwurst King food truck for the evening. He will arrive at 4pm, so plan accordingly if you like good German sausages. I am trying to hook Wolf (the King himself) up with Lothar, but in the meantime he buys all of his sauages from a well-respected sausage-maker in Baltimore.

Also, you can preorder steamed crabs from Igor and Virginia Crabs anytime before Thursday morning to have them hot and ready to “pick” when you arrive at the market. If you want them for your Sunday football extravaganza, you can pick them up at our Gainesville Sunday market, or you might even be able to prevail upon Igor to deliver to you on the way to that market. His ability to do so depends on where you live relative to his route to market, but he has done just that for several customers in recent weeks.

The weather has indeed damaged a number of crops that our vendors are growing — vegetables in the Northern Neck, apples in West Virginia, and even the grapes that go into the fine wines you can buy at the market. You will notice, though, that in most cases the vendors are trying to hold the line on their prices in spite of my encouragement to raise them a little. If you lose 20-30 percent of your major crop in a year or have one whole planting wiped out, that is money that you lose even if you sell all you have left. Even the graziers and dairymen have been affected, especially those who usually grow their own feed — they now have to buy it to get their animals through the winter. Just a little word to the wise on what happens at ground level when the sun and rain combine to take on the farmers.

And one more note, thanks to Betty’s generosity this past Tuesday, my husband and I dined on her chicken enchiladas with black beans and brown rice with a little salsa and guacamole on the side — and what a lovely and filling meal for the two of us from just one of her “meals.” I know she is working on some other items to get us through the winter, but you need to try the enchiladas before she moves on to something else!

From the Market Master

Here is a short video interview with Virginia’s own Joel Salatin, who has come out with a book that all of you who are interested in knowing more about why we should be buying local and what we can do to maximize and optimize our options for doing so should read.

Michael Pollan’s books are great as motivational education, but I think this book will reach us at a different level, because we know Salatin has lived what he believes and that he has done much for other farmers in southwest Virginia along the way.

It’s always invigorating to learn from someone who is actually sharing what he has learned on the field of play — or in the fields of work, as the case may be.

Joel is pleasantly strident because he knows how far removed we are from growing real food and getting it to our tables in good time and with little processing. And I hope his indignant and incredulous wonder at what we have wrought is contagious.

Here in our own little community there is activity on all levels promoting local producers and improving our opportunities for buying local. There are efforts to educate us about how to eat healthy all of our lives to minimize so many of the chronic illnesses that are now afflicting our children, no longer waiting for middle or old age to catch up with us.

I would like to see more attention paid to these subjects in our schools as part of the larger curriculum, not just the one semester of health that children get in elementary or middle school. This is an issue of lifestyle that has major ramifications for our economy and our health system, and who would argue that these are not issues to be discussed in school if not at home? And most important of all, there are facts out there that can inform the personal issue of eating for health.

I am never tempted to throw anything at the TV, but even the Orioles’ long and easily repaired history of losing does not upset me as do the news stories and ads provided by the drug companies that encourage us to ingest supplements to overcome deficiencies in our diets.

If our bodies are not getting the nutrients we need to live long and healthy lives, then we need to eat the foods that will correct that — not eat like idiots and then make up for it with expensive pills. I haven’t quoted my girlfriend’s mom lately, but it never hurts to remember her saying that “food is cheaper than medicine” when even the most expensive apples, collards, good-quality meat or free-range eggs will never cost as much as the supplements and medicines we will need later on in life if we eat junk or poison ourselves slowly with the toxins in much of the food we buy and eat now.

So listen to Joel and get excited about doing something, and then get in touch with me. I will be happy to refer you to one or more of the groups working on these issues in our area. I also look forward to greeting the droves who come to the market this week.

See you at the market!

Jean

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