Iris T.
Yelp
I love farmers markets and I've been to a few in the Midwest, East/West Coast, and Europe, but I prefer fresh produce over already made food, baked goods aside, because I can usually buy produce instead of the premade foods.
I've been to this Farmer's Market when it was in the old HEB parking lot and I finally persuaded Hubby to go again. Now, it's in the parking lot of a church. Easy to get in and out and though the parking lot had a good amount of cars, it still had room for more. No fighting for parking - yay!
It's one straight line with vendors on both sides. It was, admittedly, on the small side with a mix of fresh produce, meat vendors, non-edible products, baked goods, and prepared food/drinks. It seemed to have less than my last time, but perhaps it's due to the storm rolling in; I'm sure some vendors aren't that close.
I love food! But being a no allium vegetarian (we don't eat onions, garlic, leeks, chives, etc, in addition to animals) PLUS a kid below the age of 2 with multiple food allergies... let's say I don't always go to the farmers market here (or eat at new places unless traveling) because I often watch the vendors who watch me pass their booth. It's a little awkward.
I was interested in greens (the micro green stand wasn't there), maybe fresh eggs (didn't see it but I could have missed it), and some food. I especially missed the amazing croissants from Honeycomb Croissants (also not there) that often sells out within an hour and I finally wanted to try some goodies from the middle eastern baked goods/sweets stand (not there either). I must say I saw some of the sexiest looking lettuce leaves, though.
Anyway, I got to try some delicious looking avocado sauces with Serrano peppers. Well, I smelled it. Asked if they contained onion and garlic and they said the red sauce did so I got to try their avocado sauce on a tortilla chip - but as soon as it got to my mouth, my senses were ASSAULTED and the one tiny drop that got on my tongue lingered for the LONGEST time. Ick. I sadly couldn't taste much other than what was likely garlic powder (I assume the red sauce contains the fresh version of alliums). For the record: powdered spices count. Sad, since I love sauces and it would be awesome not to make most of my own.
I ended up getting some ricotta-spinach empanadas (2 for $9) from Avila's and gluten-free cheese empanadas (frozen) for my youngest. I had arepa con queso before at a farmers market (literally just flat bread stuffed with cheese... the beauty of simplicity) so I had hopes that theirs would be what they said it was. It was good! But packaged with what looked like chimichurri in little plastic sauce containers (I didn't see her putting them in) - those reeked - which made the empanadas smell off. My already suspicious Hubby adopted an air of intense distrust (I'm a little more optimistic). I sucked it up and ate the empanada. It looked fine, but the "ricotta" is not the same ricotta you're used to for lasagna. It has a savory-salty taste to it, which made Hubby even more suspicious. Good news once at the center, I finally escaped the allium smell-taste and I finally tasted the ingredients themselves, so I'm hoping it was the fact that it was "smoked" in the chimichurri air in an enclosed take out container and not that it had any contaminants.
Hubby loves coffee, but with the heat and the fact that there was a line there, we just headed home to eat and he could make his own.
And that concluded my return trip to the local farmers market and nicely sums up why we don't often go to these things. I feel like I should make a shirt that boldly states all our dietary restrictions to wear at these types of places so they understand why I'm passing them (and maybe they could tell me if they have something we can have), haha. As it is, I'll try to come back again and take a closer look at the veggies and the drinks I got a glimpse of. And maybe there will be more vendors!
I'm glad we have a local farmers market. If only I could support more!