New farmers market in Bristow

The smells draw you in: seasoned potatoes and onions frying in a skillet. It’s the aroma of warm comfort food that you might find in your mother’s kitchen on a Sunday morning.

But this Sunday morning, the scents come from a pitched tent in a school’s parking lot during freezing temperatures.

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Annie Sidley — affectionately known as the Demo Diva — uses her portable butane stove and electric skillet to prepare her first cooking demonstration at Smart Market’s new Prince William County location.

The market opened Jan. 8 at Bristow Montessori School, where it had moved from the Virginia Gateway shopping center. It employs Sidley to demonstrate how to turn vegetables into delicious dishes.

Generally, farmers markets don’t stay open year-round. To change locations mid-winter might seem like a risky move.

But, maybe not.

A little after 10:30 a.m., shoppers milled around the vendors’ tents, sampling apples and cupcakes, and talking about organic dark chocolate and gluten-free bread, while waiting for the market to officially open. The market, devoted to local farmer, uses Sidley to serve as its culinary advocate. Her job is not only to promote the market and its vendors but also demonstrate cooking techniques.

A personal chef trained at L’Academie de Cuisine, Sidley, 44, has been working for Smart Market for about two years. The Bethesda resident began as a musician, playing at the market’s other locations in Oakton, Fairfax, Reston and Centreville. When Jean Janssen, the market’s founder, discovered that Sidley was also a chef, “her little light bulb went off,” Sidley said, and the Demo Diva was formed.

Sidley was already committed to buying local and comfortable with cooking in less-than-ideal conditions, having spent “half of my life living on a boat.” So, cooking outside under a tent didn’t faze her.

“I like the idea of being challenged,” she said.

She plans a menu, usually incorporating a vegetarian dish, knowing that she’ll have to adapt the recipe. Flexibility and creativity are especially important this time of year. It’s the middle of January, and produce is thin.

Sidley picks up eggs from Rainbow Acres Farm in Nokesville; onions, apples and three types of potatoes from Max Tyson’s Farm; guacamole from Betty’s Chips and Salsas; and pork sausage from Lothar’s Gourmet Sausages.

She’s making an egg and potato-based Spanish tortilla and a stir fry of sausage, apples and onions.

In her makeshift kitchen, she thinly slices potatoes and places them in an oiled pan.

She checks the temperature of the electric skillet and realizes it’s not working. After several attempts, she finds a solid electrical outet.

“The hardest thing is to keep the heat sources going,” she said.

(Janssen later confirms that the owners of the school are having a dedicated outdoor electrical outlet installed for the market. That will be one challenge averted.)

As she works, Sidley is quick to point out the ingredients she’s using from the market and sends shoppers in the direction of the vendors’ tent.

“It’s not hard to market when it’s something you believe in,” she said.

She also answers questions and offers cooking tips.

She explains, for example, that you could use a mandolin to cut the potatoes. She doesn’t bring gadgets with her, however, because “I want people to know they can do this without all the fancy equipment,” she said.

As Andra Morton and her husband, Greg, sample the tortilla, she says that they shop almost every week at the market. “We like to shop local. . . . Most markets don’t stay year-round, and we want it to stay.”

The Smart Market farmers market, at Bristow Montessori School, 9050 Devlin Rd., Bristow, is open all year from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays. For information about Smart Market, demonstrations and special events, visit www.
smartmarkets.org. To find out more about Annie Sidley, visit Annies
NirvanaCuisine.com.