One more reason to LOVE your local Farmer's Markets!
If you live in cool or cold climates than you may not have access to something as amazing as the Yellow Green Market which is open YEAR-ROUND. With over 300 "under-roof" booths, this 100,000 square foot facility is THE place to be on Saturday and Sunday in South Florida.
The Yellow Green Farmer's Market is IMHO the Mecca of "slow foods" and small businesses.
One of my favorite booths is Rawpertion. They offer RAW energy bites made with cacao, nuts, seeds and maybe a bit of coconut or agave. My favorite so far is the Vegan Coconut Pie!!!
The next stop on my journey takes me to the cheese guy. Locally made, no added chemicals and
Oh-So-Fresh cheeses. This weekend I decided to buy 2 mozzarella containers. One large ball and one with small balls for appetizers. I also had a taste of the Burrata...YUM!
Fresh Produce? Absolutely!
There are so many to choose from that sometimes a buy a little bit from each!
There are so many shops to choose from. There are fresh honey booths, raw honey booths, Non-GMO foodies, a caricature artist and even specialty clothing booths. Whatever you do, don't leave with out sampling (and buying) from Dr. Pickle.
While I was walking around the huge facility I received a text from a friend in Ft. Lauderdale. She wanted to know if the Organic Shea Butter booth was still open. YES! My friend makes natural and organic health and beauty products so she hopped into her car and made it to the market just in time to buy her goodies.
Since I had plans to meet my husband I didn't stop for a bite to eat in one of the many food vendors. There's something for everyone to eat at the market. The organic outdoor restaurant (Chillbar), several Argentinian booths, the Non-GMO guy on the west side is my favorite...And there are 2 NEW places out on the back patio that I'll be stopping by new week. One is a appetizer bar and another, authentic Mexican food (I hear they make the tortillas fresh with your order).
Before I left I had to stop by Pepe's for a little chat. He is so knowledgeable about plants and soil conditions.
Whether you live in South Florida or you're just visiting, make your way over to the Yellow Green Farmer's Market. They're open Saturday and Sunday from 8am-4pm. If you have a small business or you'd like to start one, the YGFM is a great place to set-up shop!
3 comments:
Gee I wish they had something like this near where I lived. We do have a health food store and farmers market but nothing near this great especially in the winter months. thanks for sharing.
I have to say that I was extremely disappointed when I went to the Yellow Green Market...or really all "farmer's markets" I've visited in Broward County. In Austin, we have multiple farmer's markets that are actual year round farmer's markets. In other words, there are numerous local farmers that actually sell their homegrown veggies. There is a plethora of variety of veggies as well as locally grown meats. I got to know the actual farmers as they attended themselves! Usually, the same farmers would rotate to different farmers markets different days of the week. The farmer's markets were usually one day affairs, usually only lasting a couple of hours (so that the farmer was not away for to long, and the produce didn't spoil). I really fell in love with the different farmers and their specialties. There were the cottage industry stands, but they were always balanced by actual farmers stands. That is probably because they had quotas where only a certain number of non-farmer stands were allowed per actual farmer stands. Also, the markets were usually very strict that you had to have grown everything or made everything yourself to even apply for the market.
As soon as I explain how different the farmers markets were there, I am always met with excuses from Floridians. Oh, but it's easy to grow stuff in Texas year round right? Ha, ha... Having grown in Texas, no it's not easy. We don't have the perfect desired loamy soil. We have rocky, clay which can be hard to deal with. We also have extreme conditions such as one summer that was 100 plus temps for over 90 days. It also gets cold too. I know our soils aren't the greatest, and it does get slightly hot, but I really feel that South Florida could do better.
The real problem is there are so little actual farms in Broward. I wonder if the only solution is an upbirth of actual urban farms. The lovely Paige in Texas is starting a movement of urban farms in Austin. It would be cool if we had something similar where yards were turned into mini farms. http://www.urbanpatchwork.org/
Just some thoughts...
But anyways, maybe I should give Yellow Green a second try. Even if it is not what I am used to, I'm sure it has a lot of cool things.
Hi Kristin,
Usually I would remove your comment because it includes a link to another site but I have chosen to leave it for now.
You make a great point, there aren't many farms here is Broward County. In Texas you can buy 5 acres of land for $5,000...I know because I have looked. While searching for "land" in Florida I found an Organic farm in south Florida for about $1 million!!!
I am originally from California where we have lots of little farmer's markets everywhere and it's all locally grown so I do understand where you're coming from. However, the alternative here in South Florida is Whole Foods and I REALLY don't like them. They knowingly sell GMOs to the public and call it "organic"
We're all about supporting local, small businesses. Even though some of the produce isn't grown locally, the business owners (and their kids) that sell the produce are. Definitely give the Yellow Green Farmer's Market another shot. January and February are GREAT months to stop by!
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