Farm/Ranch
Valley’s organic farmers market kicks off new season Saturday
By Rod Santa Ana, Texas A&M
Nov 22, 2008

SAN JUAN -- The return of cool weather to subtropical South Texas brings with it the return of the area’s only organic farmers market, said Barbara Storz, a Texas AgriLife Extension Service horticultural agent in Hidalgo County.

The first monthly farmers market of the season will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 22 at North San Juan Park.

North San Juan Park is located at 511 E. Earling (the Nolana extension), between Raul Longoria and Cesar Chavez roads, some two miles east of U.S. 281. Admission is free.

“We will have all organically produced vegetables and herbs for sale, including lettuce, greens, citrus, tomatoes, peppers and radishes,” Storz said. “We’ll also have some potted herbs that can easily be transferred to home gardens. These include basil, fennel and borage. We’ll even have one grower there selling luffa, the gourd that is dried and used as a bathing sponge.”

Storz organized Grow’n Growers, an AgriLife Extension program that teaches low-income residents how to grow vegetables without the use of chemicals, then sell them to the public at the area’s only organic farmers market.

Fifteen families joined the program last year and organized a farmers’ cooperative known as Familias Productores del Valle, or Family Producers of the Valley.

Demand for the first chemically-free vegetables produced earlier this year was outstanding, Storz said.

“We had people driving from as far away as Brownsville and Zapata to buy these fresh, homegrown vegetables,” she said. “We had to take a break during the summer because nighttime temperatures here in South Texas are so hot and oppressive that table vegetable plants can’t produce a flower, let alone fruit. It all has to do with our proximity to the equator.”

Despite rain-delayed planting this past summer, Storz said their bins will be filled Saturday with organic products harvested only hours before they go on sale.

“Based on the huge demand we had this spring, I’d encourage everyone to come early,” she said.

Storz encourages any organic producers in the area who would like to join the market to contact her office at 956-383-1026. There is a booth fee of $5.

“This program has succeeded far beyond our wildest dreams,” Storz said. “We knew there was a demand for organic produce here in the Valley, but this has been outstanding. Everybody wins; low-income families become productive and self-sustaining while consumers gain the healthful benefits of consuming tasty, fresh and chemically-free vegetables.”

Dates and times of future markets will be announced as the winter vegetable harvest proceeds, she said.