Before you read this post, please take some time and read this thought-provoking, insightful and worrisome Op-Ed piece from this weekend’s edition of the New York Times, My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables), and remember one thing: the moment that you start taking money from a governmental organization, you’ve given up a small piece of your freedom. Farm subsidies and the ensuing restrictions are just one of the many problems associated with allowing the government to manage and interfere with peoples’ lives on such an intrusive level.
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Okay, that said, on to the pictures:
“Please don’t squeeze the avocados!” Augh! But they’re so squeezable!
My mother and I went to the giant Farmers’ Market on Airline this past Saturday. We stocked up on produce for the week, she for her clients (my mother is a professional chef, but cooks for private clients only) and me for my bewildered husband and I to eat. Husband: “What’s a pomelo? Did you really buy five pounds of oranges??”
It’s true!
Needless to say, speaking Spanish is very useful if you’re shopping at the market on Airline. However, for those Spanish-challenged Houstonians, some of the signs are helpfully translated for you.
Want to make some pozole? Start here.
The sheer quantity of dried goods sold at the market could fill the Goodyear Blimp twice over. They even sell real cinnamon, not just dried cassia.
Hot, hot, hot.
Every stand had at least one enormous box of habañero peppers for sale. They looked like little nuggets of gold panned from a stream.
Mole!
Don’t have time to make mole from scratch? Don’t fret; you can buy it premade here. And it’s good.
Egads!
The market also sells some of the largest, beefiest carrots known to man. They make your storebought carrots look puny and sad by comparison.
I like the brown ones.
In the mood for fresh eggs? You can find any size, shape and color egg that your little heart desires at the market’s Egg House. It’s a giant, walk-in cooler the size of a mobile home that houses beautiful, fresh eggs from floor to ceiling. Just grab a carton and fill it up.
After walking around for a good hour, and purchasing three giant boxes of food and produce for paltry $45, total (including beets, watercress, potatoes, 10-15 onions, cornmeal, avocados, bananas, pineapple, pears, apples, leeks, spinach, cabbage, okra, dill, various oranges, eggplant, spaghetti squash, honey, strawberries, etc.) we headed next door to El Bolillo, a panaderia that’s just as popular as el gran mercado on Saturday mornings. Continue reading Farmers’ Market
So, fellow Texans, what ice cream flavor do you think would best represent our fair state? It doesn’t have to be an ice cream flavor that anyone — even Blue Bell — currently makes. Be adventurous!
she eats. 