The first official day of summer is Friday meaning that many fruits and vegetables are in or reaching their peak season. Keep a lookout for fresh tomatoes, peaches, and berries. A few other highlights for this weekend: a hydroponics (the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid without soil) class and one that can teach you how to pickle some of the produce you gather this weekend. Oh, and dessert tamales at the Frisco Farmers Market. Take a minute to review (or drool over) this list. You won’t regret it.
You may already know this, but the Dallas Farmers Market is undergoing some major changes.
Coppell Farmers Market:
One of the vendors, Steve Elliott of Elliott Grows, will be teaching a hydroponics class at 10:30 a.m. at the W.T. Cozby Library in Coppell. “Farmers are wonderful resources for sustainable living…learn from them.”
Back at the market, Coppell will be welcoming Pure Land Organic for the first time. They will bring a fresh picked variety of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, summer squash, and more. Other natural growers this weekend are Elliott Grows, Larken Farms, Fisher Farm, Good Earth Organic, Hiram Farm, and Weathertop Farm with plenty of goods.
793 S. Coppell Rd.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Frisco Farmers Market:
The star of the market is tomatoes – plenty of good ones to choose from including purple heirloom tomatoes from Double D Farms.
Debuting this weekend is Along Came Tamale (cute) with homemade dessert tamales filled with fruit, chocolate, and more to satisfy your sweet tooth. Basic Foodism is bringing back its natural barbeque sauce.
6048 Frisco Square Blvd.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Four Seasons Market:
The market will welcome Bonterra Wines to tell visitors about their organic vineyards and free sample giveaways. Four Seasons is expecting 25 vendors including Gilbert-Pruett Family Farms, La Esperanza Farm, Empire Baking (fresh bread), Florine Bowman Pastries (mini cakes), AP Apiary (local honey), Tena’s Tamales, Texas Olive Oil Company, and more. Look for special discounts from Terra Sienna Grass-Fed Beef.
677 W. Campbell Rd.
Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Grand Prairie Farmers Market:
The feature for this weekend is a basket gardening demonstration with city horticulturist Susan Henson.
120 W. Main St.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Rockwall Farmers Market:
After the festivities of Just for Kids last weekend, this will be a regular Saturday market with 28 vendors. A couple of the vendors include Just Pie and Hog Wild BBQ with dry rubs and sauces. There will be four major vegetable and fruit vendors.
Rick Donaldson, an ex-hippie gardener (as he calls himself), is Rockwall’s market character. He will have beautiful raised garden beds with complete organic gardening.
Even the animals are invited to this market. Rockwall Pets will have adoptions with animals from the local shelter. Bring your pet so it can make new friends, or adopt one and get some homemade dog treats for ‘em while you’re there, too.
325 South Goliad
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
St. Michaels Farmers Market:
There will be 26 food vendors and of those, you won’t want to miss Peachy Page with fresh peaches and blackberries. JJ &B Jellies and Jams will have handcrafted jams, jellies, and fruit butters. Mozzarella Company will bring their award-winning handmade cheese. Le Gourmet Valet will have short bread cookies and spicy Texas pecan halves. Las Esperanza Farms and Sachse Heritage Farms are bringing produce like tomatoes, squash, and melons. Mesquite Hill Farm and Hudspeth Farm will provide your protein with farm-fresh eggs, pasture-raised chicken, chicken sausage, and grass-fed beef. Texas Hill Country Olive Oil with be offering extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Becerra’s Tex-Mex Salsas and Mother Shuckers Tamales will be back with lard-free fresh and frozen tamales, casseroles, chili salsa, and chips. New this weekend: Lovie’s Gourmet Treats with all natural beef jerky and liver pet treats.
8011 Douglas
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church (OLUMC) Farmers Market:
This Uptown neighborhood market launched two weekends ago at the Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. There are varieties of heirloom tomatoes from Baugh Farms of Canton and much more. Byron Proutt, market creator, has confirmed that Baugh Farms will be a regular vendor at the market. Other past and current vendors include Bear Bait Honey Farm (bringing honey from local beehives in the Oak Lawn area), Sweetly Recycled (wind chimes made from liquor bottles), and Mr. BBQ Express (a customer favorite from the past two weekends).
3014 Oak Lawn Ave
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Cowtown Farmers Market:
Although there aren’t any events going on this weekend in particular, here is some info about upcoming happenings: Harvest festivals are the third Saturday of the month and Ball Jar’s Discover You Can home preserving demonstrations are on July 6, August 3, and August 17.
3821 Southwest Blvd
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
White Rock Local Market:
It’s a food and artisan market at the Green Spot this weekend.
Speaking of volunteers, they are still needed for “You Can Pickle That!” Some seats are available for this presentation by Kathy Neumuller (JJ&B Jams and Jellies) and Karen Phelps (In a Pickle). The duo will walk you through the process of canning and pickling summer’s offerings. They will demonstrate hot bath canning, brine and spice for quick pickling and shelf safe pickling. Students will pickle their own vegetables and preserves. It costs $50 per person and $40 for WRLM members (light lunch included). Reservations are required. Visit www.dallasuu.org, call 214-797-4989, or sign up at the WRLM information desk on market day.
If you missed this information last week: White Rock Local Garden has begun its growing process and the first Love Your Farmer volunteer day is this weekend. Read this to get the details.
9150 Garland Rd.
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Downtown Arlington Farmers Market:
Other than the normal routine, Arlington will be giving away hula-hoops to the first 250 customers. Get there early and you can hula your way through the market while picking up the fresh produce. You might want to watch this so you can get a little practice in before.
215 Front Street
Friday and Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Marley Dablo is a D Magazine intern and will be an online journalism senior at the University of Oklahoma. She plans to attend culinary school upon graduation in hopes of combining her writing and culinary skills to ultimately have her own cooking show one day.
