I have been bummed for years that I don't have a local farmer's market in the area. As a child, I remember my mother always taking me to the gigantic farmer's market up in the Dallas area. It was amazing. There were literally 4 or 5 huge open warehouses full of produce vendors. Pretty much anything you could every want in the way of fresh food was there. We would buys tons of fresh fruit and veggies that seemed to taste so much better than the produce purchased in the grocery store. What made it even better was that I got to spend some great time with my mom.
When I moved to suburbia-Houston I wanted to take my own kiddos to a farmer's market, so I started investigating. Houston-proper has a few big farmer's markets which are noteworthy. There are also several country farmer's markets located in some of the surrounding towns, like Hempstead and Brenham. While these did sound appealing at first I soon found that these farmer's markets are just a little too "out-of-the-way" for my busy life. So, for many years I have resorted to shopping at the local HEB grocery store.
However, through my efforts to become more green I have found a small, local gem - a farmer's market located about five miles from my own house! Amazing, huh? I must have been blind all these years. Regardless, I am thoroughly impressed with my find. The market is called, Debbie's Garden & Farmer's Market. It is a very small operation run near the intersection of highway 290 and Huffmeister Road. The shop offers fresh local produce, farm-fresh eggs, as well as some honey and jar-goods that are local as well.
I am most impressed with their fresh local produce CO-OP offer, which I have taken advantage of 3 times so far. For $20, you get 10 produce items in quantities for a family of four. So, for example, I have ordered apples and oranges from Debbie's and received a total of four apples and four oranges. Or, I have ordered lettuce and received one over sized stalk of lettuce which feeds my family salad for more then three nights. The best part about this CO-OP is there is no contractual obligation! You just arrive and order by Sunday evening, then pick up you items the following Friday. Voila!
You might be wondering how this supports the "green" movement. Well from a individual perspective, you are minimizing your plastic usage. While the CO-OP packaging comes in a box and plastic produce bags, you can request on your order forms that your items not be bagged. I have been bringing my own reusable grocery bags to pick up orders, and I recently purchased some breathable, reusable 3B Bags produce sacks to store my items in once I return home if they happen to need refrigeration. From a global perspective, buying produce local means you are reducing transportation pollution. If a farm can sell their items local, then there is no need to ship them elsewhere. Less transportation = less environmental pollution from truck, etc. that would otherwise have to haul the produce to another, farther location. Plus, less transportation equals cost savings for the final consumer, as well, since the farmers' price to produce produce (ha, ha!) is less. So, it is a win-win situation for all parties.
In case you are interested in other farmer's markets in the Houston area, I have located several others through a Houston Chronicle article written in 2008.
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