Farmers Market Excursion

If you live in the “H” then you've heard about the Urban Market Farmers markets right? Believe it or not, there are four of them during the week and weekend, every week, rain or shine.. YES, I said FOUR!.. It peeked my absolute interest when I heard about them a while back I wanted to see what each one had to offer, but normally I'm in school during the weekday hours. Now that I'm on summer break I've decided to go to all of them and share my findings with you.. (see you KNEW there was a reason for visiting this blog often ;)

Here's how it went down...

Wednesday - Downtown Farmers Market

To be fair, it rained.. 

raindrops falling on my head

The first rain in like forever, so that meant slick streets, crazy drivers, and not so many people at the market. I had the foresight to call ahead and make sure they would still be out there and sure enough they were.. So I trekked to the other side of town to pick up my partner in culinary crime Marchelly and we were on our way in the rain..

Let me just say I don't like Downtown’s', they're ALWAYS confusing, with their one way, turn a whole block to get the the other side type of style, all the tall buildings ALL look the same, so am I going the right way? I digress, we finally find the blue tents and park. The market is right in front of city hall (Marshelly was all to happy about that) so you can't miss it if you know where that is, further more there is a succession of cop cars aligning the street. 
 As soon as we pull up, I'm a little disappointed I clearly see that, well it's looking a lil' anorexic here.. 

 Our first booth was Nisha's they sell Naan bread and different curry chutneys and sauces, samosas and such. Marchelly bought some their yogurt dip, I choose to pass, ( I mean really I am from the Islands, these flavors and chutneys are things I can make at home)

and move on to the next booth..

Unfortunately I didn't take as many pics as I wanted, holding an umbrella and non waterproof camera is not so easy, and I didn't gather cards, because take- away where sparse due to wind and rain there was this one lady. Not sure what her booth was but She was a vegan. I asked her, "What can I use as an vegan adhesive for bread crumbs and panko, as if I was making say an eggplant parm" Her response was "flax seed", ground flax seed to be exact over at Fields we used a slurry to adhere panko to the eggplant, but flax seed? Use it the same way you would flour in a SBP (standard breading procedure) 

Then we came across this guy

A literal farmer bwoy, cute no??.. I had to capture his excellent display of corn.. See there he cut a lil window in the husk so you can see the quality of the kernels..

Overall talking with.. and seeing the windows was the highlight of this endeavor. This week is the last week for this market till next season. I will revisit it again then, hopefully it won't be raining.

Oh and I have to make a special mention to Marchelly's AWESOME rain boots..

Saturday - Midtown Market
A Hint GET THERE EARLY it starts at 8 am we got there at 9 am and had  to look for parking.. I got excited as soon as I pulled up, because it reminded me of the Sunday Hollywood market. Roxie Poxie and I used to go every other Sunday with J and her son Carlos. Blocks and blocks of every orange, apple, plum, grape, honey, flowers, herbs, meat, cheese, honey, you can possibly think of, songs, drum circles for kids, food, juices on and on and on... I used to buy a humongous bag of kettle corn and take it into the office.. I wonder if he is still there? This was waaay before the actors and paparazzi types actually caught on to it, it was in its purest form back then.. So when I drive up and hear the music and see the booths and the wicker grocery bags I get antsy. I meet up with my food twin Verlonsky we squealed in delight (no really we did) and was on our way..

Our first stop in, I see fresh figs.. YUM.. I don't try one (yet) but I LOVE figs.. 

  There was the most colorful vibrant yellow squash I had ever seen..

Next up Grateful Bread. 

This guy was at the Downtown market on Wednesday he had awesome sauces on Wednesday but on Saturday he brought out the big guns, bacon, confit chicken, which by the way I purchased after he explained every ingredient he used to brine, the process and ingredients he used to confit this heavenly chicken breast, he had his home make sausages, 100 % super pure vanilla, mustard, salts and dips. He was SOO informative and see sweet, I was not going to miss taking his picture again OR purchasing the loverly confit from him. Check out his site Grateful Bread.com for a complete listing of his products, but to honest meeting him in person is wayyyy better..

Then we came across a tent only selling a plant called “Air Plants”Verlonsky seemed smitten by them. So much so he took a pic with it..

Not really my cup of tea, I would've loved to see flowers.

Next we came across these.. Super squash..

and came the array of loverly colors.. baby root carrots, burgundy, white, orange

  We didn’t notice the soup nazi like line, we literally bum rushed the place taking these pics...

I was so completely entranced just absorbing it all in I was completely oblivious to the organization of this tent. When Verlonsky and I came to, we shuffled out to get out the way of those patrons who where waiting patiently to speak to the farmer guy and purchase their delicious veggies. Nevertheless he had all of these fantastic things in there I was drawn “like a moth to the flame”

Moving on we came across natures splendor.. I mean take a look really.. this is a yellow oyster mushroom..  The way to cook this is roast it.. Foil basket, v.oil, citrus (lemon, orange vinegars) salt and pepper some herbs for about 5 mins. By cooking it this way it will preserve the yellow.. I can wait to use this.. soo pretty..

The camera does these beets no justice. They were HUGE.. hum.. perfect for a ravioli...

After absorbing what has got to be a sensation overload (and that’s putting it mildly) we came across family owned..Knopp Branch Farms

where they had samples of their figs.. I picked one up put it in my mouth annnd....

It was complete heaven.. Like literally.. so super perfect soft and sweet. These are NOT the figs from your grandmothers/uncle/aunties backyard, these figs are amazing, these figs need nothing but to put on a plate (with a lil port reduction, maybe) and then proceed into your mouth. 

Next up was Steve Borne, of Premier Sharpening  He sharpens knives..

Verlonsky and I immediately thought (being twins and all) the same thing when we came across his tent “Knives in car, YES!” So we checked  how busy he was and ran back to our cars to get our knives. He taught us how to correctly sharpen our knives on our stones..How to hold it, how to look at them and tell where the imperfections are... Thanks to Steve my knives are kung fu.. He's extra special for culinary students, if you get my drift (wink wink ) you can find  him here

Thankfully Texas Hill Country Olive Company was here on Saturday. They where also out in the rain on Wednesday and I tried their three different oils with some bread.. DELICIOUS.. Who knew that there are olive oil farms right here in Texas.. Danny the owner was fantastic.. Check them out here

Overall, there was a lot to choose from fresh, local, sustainable meat, cheese, desserts, vegan, vegetarian, fruits, veggies, bread, music, sun, fun, I definitely will recommend it to not just my fellow chefs but to everyone who has a Saturday morning open, and has an appreciation for fresh, sustainable local foods.

Sunday

Sunday has two markets. I choose to go to the Discovery Green one after church.. This is what greeted us we we walked in.. 

  There where a lot of people there, but you walk a little further, catch a “piece of art” or two

and you make to the farmers market.. 

Dismal.. (Prices of Right loser song plays) There was maybe 5 tents out there.. Texas Olive Oil was there as was Nisha's.. Can't knock the hustle..I'm not giving up on this one.. I will try it out again..

Of all the markets thus far as I still have one more Sunday market to check out in Highland Village the star is Saturday in Midtown there is pretty good parking, great selections, and a friendly atmosphere. I left there super inspired, and so excited to come back.. More adventures to come...

For more  on Urban Markets visit there site here