Guest Post: by Kensey Goebel, Contributing author
Welcome Kensey Goebel to the Kids Kitchen Team! Kensey will be instructing cooking classes and birthday parties and also contributing to the blog on occasion. Read more about Kensey here.
Driving through the Texas hill country, we found a farmers market that was open so we decided to stop and see what we could find. I’m so glad we did!
The farmers were really friendly and they are able to teach you a lot about their food. They had everything from edible flowers, to fresh greens, fresh-baked cookies, and even meat.
Let’s start with the flowers. They let me try the blooms from garlic plants. You can use the light purple pods for garnish on plates or flavor on salads or sides. It tasted spicy but it was really good.
They had fresh, grass-fed meat too. The farmer raised pigs, lamb and cows. He sold fresh bacon, steaks and chops and was able to tell you everything about how it was raised and where it came from.
Floating Star Cookie Company was there with some yummy looking fresh-baked cookies. She had all flavors of cookies and even had a gluten-free version made from rice flour that almost sold out! Next the lady from Eieio (pronounced just like the old Mac Donald song) was there with her delicious garlic mayo. She said she has a local organic farm in Wimberley complete with 100 chickens, lots of bees and even pecan trees. She was hit hard by the Halloween floods last year but the community came together to help her get back on her feet. She uses less than 5 ingredients in all of her products and makes her grandmothers recipe. She sells the product to natural grocers such as In.gedients, Wheatsville Coop and Natural Grocers. There are farmers markets all throughout central Texas.
Yesterday we found fresh eggs, meat, veggies and flowers. Their products will vary from season to season but they are a great way to support local farmers and you know exactly where your food is coming from. You may even learn a few things.
To find a market near you go to localharvest.org and type in your location.
