Chef Demo from The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm on August 22!

Leesburg Farmers Market Saturdays 8am-noon Virginia Village Shopping Center Catoctin Circle.

The Loudoun Valley HomeGrown Markets Association announces that Chef Christopher Edwards from The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm will present a Cooking Demonstration at the Leesburg Farmers Market on Saturday, August 22 starting at 9:30 am. The restaurant is well known for it's emphasis on fresh, seasonal fare and has won numerous awards including Northern Virginia Magazine's 3rd best restaurant for 2008. Chef Christopher's focus is on technique and flavor and he will be sharing ideas for cooking local food items from the Farmers Market including Sirloin tip roast, yellow squash, zucchini and potatoes. We guarantee that you will take away some amazing new ideas that you can use in your everyday cooking!

Chef Christopher will begin cooking at 9:30 and will continue until 11:30 (or until he runs out of materials to sample). Information on The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm can be found at http://www.patowmackfarm.com

This Week on the LVHMA Farms

Each week we try to let all of the friends of the Farmers Markets in on what is happening on our Member's farms and businesses.

Karen Gaylord of Winding Woods Farm in Lovettsville, (Leesburg Market) didn't get to rest after taking her daughter, Erin, to the Loudoun County Fair to show their goats. A few days after the Fair, their Nigerian Dwarf doe, Piper, survived a rough labor to add a new doeling and a new buckling to the family! These little babies weighed just about 2 1/2 pounds each at birth, but were up and walking around just a few hours after being born. The babies have been named Elmer (because he's the color of glue) and Autumn and just love to follow the kids or the dog around. In fact, they have already visited both the Purcellville and Leesburg Markets, where they were quite a hit! Another birth means more milking for Karen, so look for more goats milk soap and goats milk fudge at her booth!

Did Tremaine Hatch look tired when he was running his uncle Chris Hatch's Mill Road Farm (Leesburg & Cascades Markets) booth in Cascades on August 9? Not just because the temperature was hovering in the upper nineties with wilting humidity, but he had just run in the Leesburg YMCA 10k! Conditions were so bad that the officials at the race issued warnings to forget about personal records and concentrate on survival for the 1300 racers who participated in both the 10k and 20k that morning. Congratulations, Tre, on your "Ironman" performance!

Check back next week for more news from the LVHMA Farms!

New at the Market: Peaches!

A fresh, juicy peach is a sure sign that summer has arrived! One of the most popular fruits found at a Farmers Market, the peach originated in China, was brought by the Persians to Europe and was possibly brought to the US in the seventeenth century by an English Horticulturist, George Minifie, who planted them at his estate in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson grew peach trees as a novelty at Monticello, but peaches were not commercially produced in the US until the nineteenth century. Peaches are known as stone fruit or drupe, which means that the soft outer flesh surrounds a large, single seed. Peaches can be categorized as either "freestone" or "clingstone", depending upon how tightly the flesh adheres to the seed. There are many peach cultivars available, with either yellow or white flesh, round or donut shaped. The white fleshed peaches typically are sweeter and don't have the sweet-acid tang of the yellow fleshed peaches. A medium sized fresh, raw peach has about 66 calories and is a good source of Vitamin C, A, dietary fiber, niacin and potassium. They can be eaten raw, dried, canned or made into jams, jellies, fillings or desserts. Peaches can be made into salsa, or made into a yummy Peach Curry Sauce by dicing two fresh peaches and mixing it in a saucepan with about 1/4 cup of honey. Add a teaspoon (or more) of curry powder, salt and pepper to taste and simmer until the peaches break down and thicken. Wonderful served over salmon or chicken, or a great vegetarian sauce for dipping or stir fry vegetables.

Earth Day Every Day Tip:

Try to buy organic cotton clothing. Conventionally grown cotton uses 22.5% of the world's insecticides and 10% of the world's pesticides, all while being grown on just 2.5% of the world's argicultural land. Organically grown cotton uses low-impact production methods and generates less than a fifth of the greenhouse gases the standard cotton does.

Products in season for the month of August

Apples * Basil Beef Beets Blackberries Blueberries Bok Choy Breads Cabbage Celery Celery Root Cheese Chicken Cider * Cilantro Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Eggs Figs Flowers Garlic * Goat Green Beans Jams & Jellies Kohlrabi Lamb Lettuce Lima Beans Melons Mint Nectarines Okra Onions * Pastries Peaches Pears * Peppers Pies Plants Plums Pork Potatoes * Radishes Raspberries Sage Salsa Shallots * Soaps Soups Summer Squash Sweet Potatoes Tarragon Tat Soi Thyme Tomatoes Turkey Wine Wool & Products Yogurt