What’s Fresh at the Market

Vine-ripened tomatoes are beginning to appear in quantity, as well as blueberries, peaches, and blackberries. We'll have green beans, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, new potatoes, spring onions, zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan squash, lettuces, microgreens, cabbages, asian greens, fennel, kale, green garlic, and probably even some peppers.

Of course we'll have the staples you need every week, including yard eggs, goat cheese, fair trade organic coffee, grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, wild-caught Gulf shrimp, fresh cut flowers, fresh-baked breads, shelled pecans, knife sharpening while you shop, ornamental plants, vegetable and herb starts, handmade soaps and lotions, honey and beeswax products, and many choices of prepared foods and baked goods: Mexican, Indian, healthy, and just plain good.

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

Get to know your local growers and vendors. Their success depends on your support.

2Dull4You -
Bob Nagode
Animal Farm -
Gita VanWoerden
Belly Rub Bakery -
Jennifer Gillaspie
The Center/Willow River Farms - Gingersnaps ETC
Claybury Products -
Richard Cole
Cuts of Color -
Rita Anders
Fir Forest Harvest -
Tom and Maxine Yunker
Garden of Eden -
Ray Sher
Gundermann’s Peachland Farm -
Joan Gundermann
Hattermann Poultry Farms -
Leon Hattermann
The Herbal Goat -
Debbie Tubb
Homestead Gardens -
Jim Bundscho
J.D.’s Organic Farm -
Jackie Bass
Katz Coffee -
Mickey Morales
Marian Bell’s Healthy Kitchen -
Marian Bell
Olde World Farms -
John & Karla McLaughlin
Reed Family Honey -
Wendy and Kenny Reed
Texas Select Seasonings -
Billy Powell
Village Botanica - 
Rick & Georgia Bost
Wood Duck Farm -
Van & Morgan Weldon
Words and Food -
Janice Schindeler
Yaya’s Raw Rah -
Patricia Greer

The Bayou City Farmers’ Market is a project of Urban Harvest and is a Certified Texas Farmers’ Market.

Urban Harvest
P.O. Box 980460
Phone:713-880-5540
www.urbanharvest.org