'An excellent way to do lunch.' (Part II)

 

The Brunswick Stew Festival 2012 was held at

17th Street Farmers' Market in Shockoe Bottom.

If you want "old" in American terms (& I've made Sarah laugh before with my historical perspective: 

   Sarah: "That building was built in the thirties."

    Me:       "1830?"  - It was mock-Georgian...)

then the Market certainly delivers: a public gathering     place since 1737 & a public market from 1779.

It does most business now at a weekend with stalls set up selling fresh fruit & vegetables,

... (the nearest I'm going to get to a Marchmont-style greengrocer's, I think - I might visit on the occasional Saturday after Pay Day when I feel particularly flush with cash & ready to go organic, escaping the limitations of K.Roger's produce aisles) ...

locally-made arts & crafts, vendor food stalls & so on, such as were around & amongst the Stew competitor stalls on our Saturday.

But allow me to explain about Brunswick Stew:


It's a Southern dish (not quite Lauren-Southern as she hadn't heard of it) but more Virginia vs. Georgia as they have an eponymous county & town a-piece respectively. It's made up of tomatoes, lima beans (yes, the humble broad bean goes fancy on us!), additional vegetables & meat, usually predominately chicken for the Virginian stews (although Sarah had teased me that there might be some squirrel lurking around too.)


Red, White & Blue Stew Crew proudly displayed their ingredient list rather than keeping a trade secret: 

The stallholders get there early ahead of the Festival beginning to get their stews cooking & underway. 

Impressive paddle-wielders that they are!

 So we started out with (1) MacPennell Stew Team's. As an introduction, it was pretty tasty. 

Introducing "Greg" & "John"

We followed that up by

(2) Grey Swamp Hunt Club Masters, where the line was long - a good sign!
... with a good kick of chilli to boot

(3) Danieltown Stew Crew
... more tomatoey than the rest

(4) Red, White & Blue Crew for S&J. 
.... crunchier veggies, which had been added later on in the cooking process


I hit upon my favourite early on with my second sample from the Grey Swamp stall; I'm all about the heat. The others couldn't really compete after that. No surprises from their line to be served that they were also last year's winners. 

Working the "Fall" theme

Amongst the Arts & Crafts stalls, one dedicated entirely to hats. 

(Tet, I managed to restrain myself from buying this one. Just. )

And my "Dog of the Day" award goes to this enthusiastic bundle, who couldn't quite figure out the textures of the stew - backing away from the pot before dashing back in to try again. Joyous to watch!