Thursday Ramble: Saturday Morning Routine

It is habit, a routine, it is what I do about 40 Saturday mornings a year. When I wake up, I click the button to start the coffee, settle in and read blogs, then dress and go down to the car and drive a couple of miles to Alexandria city hall.  I park in the garage under market square, parking is free on Saturday mornings. Take the elevator to street level and work my way through the farmers market. There has been a market on that square since colonial times. I should do it more often, but I wimp out in winter. 

My favorite vendors are Maribeth's Bakery, Chocolate Inc also known on this blog as Pastry Boy, and Spring Valley Farm. The two bakeries are local.  

Maribeth's is a commercial bakery that provisions the best restaurants in the local area, their only retail is the Saturday morning market. Maribeth got her start on the market, with breads, and cookies baked in her home kitchen and then in a restaurant kitchen after the restaurant closed on Friday night - baking through the night. As she expanded, her first employees were recent immigrants, refugees.  Today, almost all of the staff are not from around here, talented and hard working. She is often at the market, at easter in a bunny suit, at Christmas dressed as an elf or Ms Claus. Maribeth's is a local success story. And they make the best bread in town. You can order from them and pick up at the bakery, but they don't really do retail other than the Saturday morning market. 

Chocolate Inc, is a family run pastry shop a couple of miles south of us. Mom is now doing the overnight bakery shift, son - aka Pastry Boy - and his grandfather work the Saturday market.  They have retail shop, they open at sunrise and close when they sell out. I have never made it there before they sell out for the day.  Pastry Boy is studying engineering at a local university. Granddad is retired from the Navy. Tuesday afternoon I was waiting for the elevator here in the building and an older man looked at me and said, where do I know you from? Turns out granddad owns an apartment here in the building, he has for several years. He was living with his daughter and her family as a family caregiver, and is in the process of moving into the apartment he bought four years ago. He will be one of my neighbors. 

Spring Valley Farm is located in West Virginia, probably 100 miles from Alexandria. The farm is run by a young couple who turned a failing family farm into a thriving business by focussing on high value, high labor fruits and veggies. They only sell what they grow. They have a couple of permanent markets, and are a year around vendor at my local Saturday market. Why do they drive 100 miles, because good quality sells for a premium price in Alexandria. Using polytunnels they grow some things year around, and often have the earliest local tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. The market staff is young farmers, often farm fresh farmboys. 

There are other vendors, a farm that sells frozen meats raised on a family farm and eggs. A pasta maker that sells interesting stuffed pastas (suckling goat filled ravioli?) A small organic farm run by two brothers, one tall and skinny, the other short with the curliest mustache you will ever see. An Amish vendor that sells dairy and cheese. A new goat cheese vendor. A couple of flower vendors. 

We lost the Chicken Man to Covid, he was always fun, always had a corny poultry joke. He introduced me to duck eggs, something no one else seems to sell. I miss him.  

I return home with a bag filled with local goodness to nourish our bodies and our souls. A Saturday morning well spent. Then I write a couple of blog posts for the coming week, including this one.