| Sweet Springtime The weather promises to be lovely and the market is full of beautiful fresh locally-grown food. If you haven't been to the market in a while, you owe it to yourself to come see how much we've grown. We've expanded to a second aisle, so come check it out. And if you by chance have trouble finding a parking space, feel free to use the parking lot across the street behind Enterprise Bank. It's also owned by Cameron Management, who generously provides our market site. What's Fresh at the Market The seasons are changing, as you can tell by the changing roster of produce at the market. The cold season crops are still available--broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages--but the quantities drop a bit each week. Around here, lettuce is a winter crop, so enjoy your salads now. We also have new items appear--look for green garlic, parsnips, pea shoots, and snow peas. We'll also have beets, turnips, fresh herbs, carrots, radishes, spring onions, arugula, asian greens, hothouse tomatoes and cucumbers, and more. And of course strawberries continue to be plentiful--buy them in quantity and freeze them for later, you locavores. Of course we'll have the staples you rely on, like yard eggs, goat cheese, grass-fed beef, whole pastured chicken, Gulf shrimp, honey and beeswax products, fresh-baked breads, fair trade organic coffees, shelled pecans, cut flowers, knife sharpening while you shop, and a big variety of prepared foods and baked goods. Not this week: Belly Rub Bakery (gourmet dog treats) had such a successful market last week that Jennifer needs to rest up, but we hope to see her back at the market soon. Music: Tallcotten Tallcotten will be featured musicians at the market
this Saturday, playing homegrown acoustic bluegrass,
blues, folk, and contra-dance fiddle tunes. It is completely safe for small children to get up
close to and feed the fiddler, as long as they don't
get too close to his tip jar. We Need a Music Coordinator! This person schedules the musicians, composes the blurb about them that we include in this email newsletter, and keeps the music calendar for the market. The job can be done mainly via email and telephone, although an interest in and familiarity with the city's musicians is helpful. Honestly, don't you need an excuse to hang out with cool musicians? You'll have their phone numbers! A Note on Growing Practices and Boxes As you know, we are a producers-only market, with products grown or produced within 150 miles of Houston. We've put out easel signs on the main aisle to let you, our customers, know that a wide variety of growing practices are used by our farmers--you should pay attention to each vendor's signs, but the very best way to understand what the farmers are doing is to ask them. They are standing right there and they are happy to answer. Lots of you prefer organic growing methods, and some of our products are organic, but most of them are not, at least in the sense that they are not certified organic by the government. (And if you are not certified organic, you are not permitted to use the term organic.) Nevertheless, even our "conventional" farmers are using much less pesticides than the standard large-scale industrial farms. It's expensive and troublesome to spray, and they don't do it unless they have to. They are also living and working on the land, so they have a vested interest in keeping it in the best shape possible. We are working on improving our signage so that every booth and every product is labeled clearly and accurately as to the growing practices, but this is tricky, since most farms do not fall neatly into one category or the other but are somewhere in between. If something is not labeled "organic" it's probably best to assume that it is not organic. Still, we urge you to ask each farmer--it might be the start of a nice conversation. And some of you are concerned when you see produce boxes labeled "California" or "Timbuktu" that these vendors are selling products that are not locally grown. Don't worry! Those waxed boxes are expensive and hard to come by, and the ones preprinted with somebody else's name in California or wherever are cheaper and easier to get. The vegetables that you see coming out of them are grown here in southeast Texas--we do farm visits to see what each of our farmers is up to and make sure of it. And we thank you for supporting locally-grown food! Thanks Cameron Management graciously permits us to use their parking lot for our market and we wish to express our deep and abiding gratitude for their generosity. Visit their website, www.cameronmanagement.com to find our more about their excellent company. Also, Croxson Design has provided our very beautiful logo as well as ongoing design assistance. Check them out at www.croxsondesign.com. Jacquie Miller Market Manager 832-656-2819 cell jacquie@urbanharvest.org www.urbanharvest.org | 
No comments:
Post a Comment