There’s a natural food store and café in Frederick, MD, called Common Market that has been there since 1974. It’s similar to Whole Foods except more focused on small local farms, reasonably priced, and it’s a co-op. If you’re not an “owner” you can still shop there, you just have to be barefoot (not really). It’s a friendly and healthy place to get all of the food and household items that you can’t get at farm stands closer to your house. They have prepared foods and a bakery and deli too.
Kids’ (and my) favorite part of going to Common Market is, if you take your own shopping bags, for each bag you get a token. On the way out of the store you drop the token into this maze game, and wherever the token ends up, the market gives five cents to that program. According to their website, since 2007, they’ve given $72,328 to local non-profits (and saved 682,046 plastic bags).
I picked up some dates at Common Market and made these bars, which are very similar to my raspberry bars. Dates are naturally very sweet. I recommend getting fresh medjool dates and if there’s a pit in them, just squeeze them a little and the pit pulls out very easily. If you can only find the deglet dates, that’s fine but they are extra sweet (naturally). You only need one half pound box which is under $4. Here are before and after picture of the dates (after 10 min simmering).
Date Bars
½ lb container of fresh dates
½ C water
1 t vanilla
1 ½ C flour
¼ C brown sugar
1/3 C oil
1 egg
½ C chopped pecans (optional)
2 T flax seeds (optional)
Preheat oven to 400. Simmer dates in water and vanilla for 8-10 minutes and stir once in a while until they break down. Meanwhile mix the flour and sugar. Beat the egg, add the oil, and pour into the flour mixture. Mix well; it takes a couple minutes to combine.
You’ll have about 2 (unpacked) cups of mix. Save about half and press the rest into a sprayed 8” square baking dish to make a crust. Spread the dates on top. Mix in flax seeds or chopped pecans into the topping if you want, and sprinkle it over the dates. Bake 20 minutes. Cool in the pan before cutting.
