The Remnants Of The Market

The rain had finally left us.  It was a beautiful cool mid October morning, an absolutely perfect day to visit the Occoquan Farmer's Market.  I've been trying to get to Occoquan on Saturday morning for weeks, but there was always something going on to prevent me from getting there.  Today, the boys were busy doing scout stuff.  So, my stepdaughter and I saw an opportunity to have some girl time.  I guess I was expecting the Farmer's Market to be like the craft fairs they have...stretching up and down crowded streets as far as the eye can see..some folks with strollers, some walking their dogs, and some just out to enjoy the weather and sample local vendor's wares.
Unfortunately for us, the season was near an end.  Most of the usual vendors had packed up.  Just our luck.

Still, there were a few hanging on.
We were greeted by a very nice Mary Kay representative sitting at the entrance. She was raising money for "Soldier's Angels".  Her project was called "Operation Sunscreen", an effort to send Mary Kay sunscreen products to our military stationed in Iraq.  http://www.soldiersangels.org/
At the next table, we met up with the folks from the Great Harvest Bread Company.  We'd met them once before at an earlier Farmer's Market closer to home.  http://www.greatharvestburke.com/aboutus.html
This time, we bought pumpkin bread with chocolate chips.  Mmmm....They never let us down.  At another vendor, we bought gluten free chocolate chip cookies.   http://www.anderssonskitchen.com/  Gluten free?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet  No, we aren't sensitive to gluten products.  I honestly just wanted to try the cookies.  They looked really good.  My teenager couldn't tell the difference and my husband said they were about the best he's had.  Of course, I'm sure he's excluding his own homemade chocolate chip cookies.  What can I say?  The man can make some excellent "from scratch" cookies.  Mom always said I should marry a man that could cook.  
Well, in addition to the bread and cookies, I picked up fresh green peppers, red peppers, and eggplant.  Couldn't do much more as there were only three vendors selling today.  But, all in all, we left pretty happy.  The pumpkin bread and cookies are already half gone and I haven't touched them.  I only wish I could have gotten more.  I enjoy buying locally grown produce.  I guess its just too late in the season.  All that is left now are remnants of what once was.  One one hand, its a little sad.  On the other, I can now focus my efforts on finding indoor Farmer's Markets.  Let's see...Wegman's carries locally grown produce.  Yeah, right...like I need a reason to go there.