Consistent spring weather brings great news for market attendees. All the regular produce farmers are now back at the market, broadening the produce selection greatly. Farmers bring what they find ready to pick on Friday so there may be some surprises. Some produce is raised organically, others sustainably but not organic, some use conventional practices. Ask the farmer if this is important to your family.
Larken Farms has peaches that can be smelled from afar they are so ripe and ready to eat. They also will soon have white fleshed peaches and Texas cherries. Fisher Family Farm is offfering pickling and slicing cucumbers and pinto beans. This farm also plants vegetables used in Thai cooking so check in with them to see what will be forthcoming for Asian cuisine.
Several farms have squash: yellow, zucchini, patty pan, and eight ball zucchini. David Fisher and Mike Powell report that their tomatoes are close to arriving in abundance. Dead End Farm also has red tomatoes and some green ones. Pure Land Organic posted on Facebook that tomatoes are ripening on the vine.
Shop the earlier part of the morning the next week or two to get red tomatoes, then expect an explosion of tomato offerings lasting later into the morning within a couple of weeks.
Blueberries and blackberries should arrive anytime and strawberries should be in increasing supply.
Some lettuces continue and cruciferous vegetables may include cabbage, broccoli, kale, arugula, bok choy, and Swiss chard. Also find fennel, dill, tatsoi, sprouts, spinach, mizuna, wheat grass, and mixed salad greens plus homemade dressings and spices.
Spinach, sweet potatoes, cilantro, and garlic scapes are at the end of their season with the warming weather. Root vegetables include red potatoes, radishes, carrots, kohlrabi, onions, spring onions, garlic, turnips, and beets.
Ranchers bring pastured, grass raised and finished beef and lamb, pastured pork, free range chicken and eggs, goat and cow artisan cheeses, and Texas Gulf seafood.
Artisan bakeries bring pies, breads, rolls, cookies. Other artisan producers bring a wide spectrum of honey, pasta, granola and other grains, chips, salsa, tamales, lemonade, coffee, chocolate truffles, small batch prepared foods and mixes, relishes, Texas olive oil, dressings, and more.
Doggie biscuits, soaps and lotions from natural ingredients add to the artisan mix. Herb, vegetable, and sun and shade color plants round out the offerings.