21st November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I saw that Brenton Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Backyard Garden, an Austin based CSA, was interviewed by the Huffington Post. Through a CSA (community shared agriculture), the consumer pays in advance for a share of the upcoming harvest. The consumer gets local fresh food, and the farmer is ensured a consistent market. My husband and I have gotten a box of veggies each week from Johnson’s Backyard Garden for the past 9 months, and we both really enjoy it and it forces us to eat less meat. So it was interesting to learn more about Johnson and read about some of the recent farming challenges he has faced, although most of the article is a reminder about the benefits of buying local organic food. Below is an excerpt (I’ve highlighted some portions I thought were most interesting), but check out the whole article.
Johnson and his crew grow organic produce for over a thousand community shared agriculture members on the 200 acres he converted from a historic dairy farm. On the day we spoke last week, Johnson and his crew were out there building a barn. Barnraising is a time-honored community-builder, where everyone comes together for a central purpose. It’s a time of both work and party, and you end up with something solid and real at the end of the day. It’s a nice metaphor for organic farming.
At a time when we’re all trying to find signs of economic life and bemoan the dearth of green jobs, organic farming is what we’ve been waiting for. In addition to growing the food we eat in ethical, sustainable ways and without chemicals and environmental toxins, organic farmers like Johnson help grow the economy and the community. According to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, farmers markets are the fastest growing job opportunites in communities and municipalities, and organic farming has grown in this sluggish job market by eight percent.
Maureen Wilmot is “an organic believer.” The executive director of Organic Farmers Research Foundation, Wilmot has a background in biology and ocean conservation, but “you don’t have to have dirt under the fingernails to really appreciate organic farmers,” she says.
When she became part of OFRF three years ago, Wilmot applied her background in policy and research to organic farming “and had a real aha moment. I support ocean conservation — I didn’t know organic produce is helping the ocean. If we converted every acre along the Mississippi basin to organic farming, we would reduce nitrogen runoff by fifty percent and clean up the dead zone. My son has asthma; I’m working for cleaner air. I didn’t realize organic farming leads to cleaner air,” she says. “It’s all interwoven.”
It’s true — many positive things spring from the same fertile, organic soil. If you care about your health or the health of the planet, you will have an organic awakening. In the same way, at some point, you’re going to have to come to terms with how much meat you eat. Even Mayo Clinic, not exactly the bastion of woo-woo new age stuff, is touting the health benefits of a meatless diet. And if you’re into protecting the planet, the fact that raising livestock takes up more than double the acreage and consumes double the resources plus pumping out a lot of environmental nasties is going to make you question cow. It will, I hope, encourage you to eat food that’s luscious, real, unprocessed, organic, healthy, and good for you, your karma and all of mankind.
9th November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out the events for the 5th Annual Edible Austin Eat Drink Local week here. Most of the events require the purchase of a ticket, but below is one event on December 7th that’s free:
Better Bites of Austin presents Local Food Holiday Gift Fair, hosted at The Domain II. Sample products from our best local food and beverage artisans and buy locally made treats for holiday gift giving. 4–9 pm.
20th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman today has an article about how the drought has been affecting local farmers and will continue to affect those consumers who try to support locally grown food. For example, the article says that “The Del Valle farm is selling Wheatsville about nine dozen eggs per week, compared with the normal 75 to 100 dozen” and that “Boggy Creek Farms has provided produce to Whole Foods since 1991, but this year they couldn’t grow enough vegetables to do so” as they had to commit what they were able to grow this year to their farm stand.
And with a shortage of local food, the concern is that prices for consumers will go up and drive some consumers away. Says Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery on South Congress, “When calories are so cheap, people aren’t willing or able to spend more for local food.”
Hopefully Austin has enough of a base dedicated to locally grown food that these farmers will still be able to make something off what they are able to grow in these conditions.
5th August, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 3 Comments
As expected, Austin City Council voted yesterday to move forward with efforts to ban plastic bags by directing staffers to prepare a plan to present to the council in November. Here’s an exerpt from the Statesman:
Council members also asked staffers to gather information about a possible ban on paper bags, as well as plastic ones, and about possibly charging fees for so-called single-use bags instead of banning them outright.
Details such as whether small stores should be exempt and the penalties for not complying with a ban will be worked out during the four-month process.
Austin would be the first large Texas city to enact such a ban; Brownsville already has one.
Council members say plastic bags are an environmental scourge – polluting waterways, clogging drainage systems and taking up landfill space, where they don’t biodegrade.
Austinites use 263 million plastic bags a year, and they cost the city and taxpayers about $850,000 a year to clean up as litter and put in landfills, according to city estimates.
A voluntary effort by large Austin retailers, including Walmart and Target, to cut plastic bag use was not effective enough, city officials have said.
On Thursday , the nonprofit Texas Campaign for the Environment called on the city to ban both plastic and paper bags, saying that would achieve the larger goal of helping consumers get in the habit of using reusable bags instead of single-use bags.
Mark Daniels , vice president of sustainability at Hilex , a large manufacturer and recycler of plastic bags with locations in the Dallas area and across the country, said Thursday that the bags pose no environmental threat because they are fully reusable and recyclable.
It will be interesting to see what City Council staff find. This is certainly turning out to be a pretty controversial topic, looking at the angry comments on this Statesman article.
I”ll be on vacation for the next 2 weeks! Stay green while I’m gone!
13th April, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Austin Chronicle has this recent article that’s really well written and detailed discussing the proposed light rail system in Austin. It gives a lot of background, the pros and cons, and a comparision with a better bus system. It’s all very interesting and you should read the whole article, but this section in particular caught my eye:
One big problem with the bus option: Buses, say many transit mavens, have a bad image. People who won’t get on the bus, they say, will opt for nice rail cars. The reasons are multiple. For some, it’s classism – buses are seen as a service for poor people. For others, it’s mode of travel – the General Accounting Office report said “the public sees rail as faster, quieter, and less polluting than buses, even though Bus Rapid Transit is designed to overcome those problems.”
The Central Austin Transit Study projected that better bus would attract only 9,000 boardings per weekday by 2030, compared with 27,600 on urban rail. But maybe “better bus” is the problem – by offering that limited concept, rather than full-fledged BRT*, as the only alternative to rail, perhaps URS** gave short shrift to the potential of bus. What if Austin created BRT that approached the quality of rail?
(*The article earlier explains “BRT” as “bus rapid transit” – a loosely defined term that usually means high-quality buses running on busy corridors at greater frequencies and with fewer stops. Beyond that, however, BRT systems vary widely in quality, ranging from buses that simply have traffic signal-changing technology (currently being considered by Cap Metro) to buses running in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes or even on exclusive bus highways, with fancy stops resembling rail stations.” **Also URS is an Austin company the city paid to do the Central Austin Transit Study.)
The article goes on to talk about the costs of better bus versus urban rail, quoting former Tracor CEO Jim Skaggs:
“Fort Worth just went through this consideration in December and decided against rail as being the solution,” says Skaggs. “They decided that buses, which they could do for 10 percent of what the rail cost was, were perfectly adequate to do what they wanted to do, and give them more flexibility. They had $25 million in their pocket from the feds already and had to give it back, because they decided that [with the remaining costs], they couldn’t justify it.” (Actually, the Fort Worth City Council’s discussions of a downtown streetcar aren’t completely dead and buried, but it did halt a streetcar study in December over cost concerns.) Austin’s “alternatives studies from the very beginning have been based on rail,” Skaggs says. “[They've asked only] ‘What alternative rail are we going to use?’ They have really given lip service to alternative studies and haven’t really looked at the differences.”
I can see both sides of the debate of bus v. rail and it will be very interesting to see how this plays out as the election draws closer.
1st April, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
My husband took this pic of our first little tomoato of the season! It’s not too late to plant veggies in Austin that like hot weather like okra and peppers, and possibly not too late to put in tomato transplants if you’re interesting in starting a garden this year.
14th March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Johnson’s Backyard Garden, an organic garden in Austin, recently started distributing weekly boxes of organic fruits and vegetables at my husband’s work place, so we decided to sign up to get a box for the next 4 weeks (however, when my husband paid for 4 weeks, the people at Johnson’s emailed him and said he would get a 5th week for free.) You can read about my previous experience trying the Greenling box here - Greenling is another local company that distributes boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables in Austin. I think the JBG box is similar in quantity and price to the Greenling box, but at the time I tried out the Greenling box maybe I had too high of expectations and that’s why I didn’t have as good of an experience. Anyway, so far we’re enjoying getting the JBG box (although we’ve only gotten one so far) and we’re not finding it super hard to use up the contents of the box. (I gave up meat and seafood for lent though, so that’s probably making it easier to go through all the fruits and veggies.)
Here’s a pic of the contents of the box (a cost of $32):
It came with 5 or 6 small turnips, probably 15 very sweet carrots, a small bag of lettuce mix, cilantro, parsley, 2 grapefruit, 4 oranges, a small bunch of spinach and rainbow chard, brussel sprouts, and scallions.
The grapefruit was really good. I don’t think I had ever eaten a whole grapefruit before, but I’m trying to be healthier and I don’t want to waste any of the food. It was a messy but delicious experience. I used the cilantro in chicken tikka masala I made for my husband, and then made a couple of Indian side dishes -one with the carrots and one with the turnips. One night we sauteed the spinach and it turned out well. And my husband made this dish with the brussels sprout greens (we still have the actual brussels sprouts left over):
1 bunch brussel sprout greens (or any greens)
2 T butter
salt, pepper, pinch nutmeg
2 T flour
1 c milk
4 oz (about) cream cheese
1 c orzo, uncooked
Cook orzo according to package directions. While it’s cooking, bring about 4 c salted water to a boil. Roughly chop the greens, add to the boiling water, and cook until tender (about 2-4 minutes). Immediately transfer cooked greens to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. When the greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze the water out by hand. Puree greens in a food processor.
Melt butter in a large saucepan (the one used to boil greens, cleaned). Add pureed greens. Sprinkle with flour and stir to keep from sticking. Slowly add milk, stirring the entire time. This should leave a thick green mixture. Add cream cheese and stir over low heat until melted. Add orzo. Top with bacon crumbs or Parmesan.
It looks a little funny but it was good!
One really nice thing about JBG is their website. My husband found the above recipe on their website – prior to this we didn’t know that brussels sprouts had greens or that you could eat them, but here was a recipe that made use of the greens. Plus every Tuesday they post a picture of what will be included in your box (pretty accurate quantity depiction of what you will get) which is very very helpful, and you can click on each item in the box you are going to get and find tips on how to wash/prepare/store that item and how to cook it. It’s a very well designed website
17th February, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article about local food. The article explains that increasingly, restaurants and grocery stores may describe their food as “local” or “sustainable” more as a branding plan to increase revenues and not so much based on a business philosophy of really trying to support locally grown food, in which case “local” may mean anything grown within the state of Texas, not necessarily foods grown near Austin. This caused members of Growers Alliance of Central Texas, a coalition of farmers and ranchers within 150 miles of Austin, to ask Central Texas farmers to compile a list of restaurants that buy directly from their farms or from the farmers at farmers’ markets in and around Austin. You can see the full results here, but here are the top 10:
| Odd Duck Farm to Trailer | 1 |
| Eastside Showroom | 2 |
| Texas French Bread | 3 |
| Somnio’s | 4 |
| Jack Allen’s Kitchen | 5 |
| Olivia’s | 6 |
| Trace at the W Hotel | 7 |
| La Condesa | 8 |
| Peche | 9 |
| East Side Pies | 10 |
Some of the delicious food I purchased last November at Odd Duck on South Lamar (across from the Alamo)- check it out!
16th February, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article today about a new partnership between Greenling ( a company that will deliver local and organic food to your door) and Whole Foods:
Starting today , Whole Foods customers can sign up for Greenling via electronic kiosks in the Austin and San Antonio stores.
Both companies say the partnership is a way to help strengthen the local food supply — a core mission they share.
For Whole Foods, the initiative is a way to support local growers, giving them another avenue to sell their goods, said Chris Romano , produce and floral coordinator for Whole Foods’ Southwest region.
Small farms that can’t supply enough to stock a Whole Foods store could sell that smaller amount to Greenling, Romano said.
“If we make the local food economy stronger, that benefits all of us as a community,” Romano said.
This is the first time Whole Foods has partnered with a local home delivery service, although it has other programs to help local food providers, such as a loan program.
It’s also a way for Whole Foods to tap into Greenling’s network of local farms. Although Greenling doesn’t exclusively stock local produce, it gets produce and other goods from about 40 to 50 local farms throughout the year.
Through the partnership, Greenling co-founder Mason Arnold said his company can now commit to purchasing certain quantities of goods and then sell the excess to Whole Foods.
So basically, it sounds like Greenling will still buy from the same farmers as it has been, but Greenling can now place larger orders from those farmers with the safety net of knowing that if they buy too much and can’t sell it all through their own business, Whole Foods will take the excess.
To learn more about Greenling, click here.
27th October, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I made some shrimp gumbo with all of the okra I’ve been getting from my garden. I had to buy all of the other ingredients I used, so it was only a slightly “local” dish, but still exciting since usually I don’t get enough from my garden to make much.
30th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
Last weekend I visited Boggy Creek Farm for the first time. If you’ve never been there, it’s a fairly large farm considering it’s in the middle of the city, on the east side on Lyons road. All of the food the farm produces is organic, and you can see what’s for sale every Saturday and Wednesday. I went on Saturday, and got there shortly after it opened at 9AM – I’ve heard that they can run out of food quickly so you should get there early. They have a nice selection of peas, squash, herbs, salad, okra, peppers, cucumber, and eggplant, as well as some fresh bread, eggs, and dairy products. It’s fun to just walk around and look at the gardens and chickens and then pick up some fresh produce.
I didn’t take pictures of the stand area where they were selling food, but I bought some zucchini that were really good quality – not dented all over with a dry aging skin like the ones at HEB – the ones I picked up were really plump with no signs of rough handling, and the skin was taught like they had just been picked and not sitting around very long.
Here are some pics of the farm:
fields in the back
fields in the front
chickens!
12th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I got an email from the Sustainable Food Center about the 2010 Fall Citizen Gardener Sessions. You can get more infor here, but basically there’s a choice of 4 different sessions, each that in a 10 hour class spread over 3 days will teach you about site design, making a raised bed, planting a square-foot garden, building a compost pile, learning about Austin climate, soil, planting times; building a mulch bed, turning compost, rain water collection, and more.
The cost is $30 due on the first day of class (cash or check made out to “Sustainable Food Center”). $10 dollars will be refunded if you complete 10 volunteer hours at one of their partner gardens.
Here are all of the session choices from their website:
-CG #15:
August 14 & 21 (Saturday mornings): 8:00am – 12:00pm, at Festival Beach Community Garden: Waller & Flores, Austin 78702
August 17 (Tuesday evening): 7:00pm – 8:30pm, at Terrazas Public Library: 1105 East Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, TX 78702
Instructors: Dick Peterson (Lead) & Sandy Brazwell (Assistant)
-CG #16:
August 28 & September 4 (Saturdays mornings): 8:00am – 12:00pm, at Kipp Academy in East Austin, FM 969/MLK, past 183; right just before Decker Lake Rd; follow signs to Kipp and baloons to garden
Sept 1 (Wednesday evening) – 7:00pm – 8:30pm, location TBD
Instructor: Dick Pierce
-CG #17:
September 11 & 18 (Saturday mornings): 8:30am – 12:30pm
September 15 (Wednesday evening): 7:00pm – 8:30pm
All classes are held at The Rock Methodist Church: 2001 W. New Hope Road, Cedar Park
Instructor: Leslie Keller
-CG #18:
September 25 & October 2 (Saturday mornings): 8:30am – 12:30pm, location TBD
September 29 (Wednesday evening): 7:00pm – 8:30pm, location TBD
Instructor: Khaled Jafar
Check out their website to register for a session – it sounds like a great deal!
5th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last weekend I checked out the Cedar Park Farmer’s Market. Located at the Lakeline Mall, it’s a great famer’s market for those of us who live in North Austin. I thought there were about 50 stands there, and there was a nice variety of fruits and vegetables as well as hot food stands and specialty stands. I bought some watermelon, okra, and organic hand soap. I got there at about 11:30, and there was still a great selection of produce. I definitely recommend checking it out if you live in the area!
27th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
My friend Melissa sent me the link to this healthy recipe from the New York Times. I like quinoa recipes (see here and here), and I love pretty much anything with avocado, so I knew this would be a winner. This was a very easy recipe with simple, seasonal ingredients–I found the tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapeno at the farmer’s market! I didn’t use the onion or cilantro, but the vinegar, jalapeno, and lime juice provided enough flavor to go around. This is a nice summery dish, served hot or cold.
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water
Salt to taste
2 cups diced cucumber
1 small red onion, finely minced (optional)
2 cups finely diced tomatoes
1 to 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers (to taste), seeded if desired and finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus several sprigs for garnish
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 avocado, sliced, for garnish
1. Place the quinoa in a bowl, and cover with cold water. Let sit for five minutes. Drain through a strainer, and rinse until the water runs clear. Bring the 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add salt (1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) and the quinoa. Bring back to a boil, and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until the quinoa is tender and translucent; each grain should have a little thread. Drain off the water in the pan through a strainer, and return the quinoa to the pan. Cover the pan with a clean dishtowel, replace the lid and allow to sit for 10 minutes. If making for the freezer, uncover and allow to cool, then place in plastic bags. Flatten the bags and seal.
2. Meanwhile, place the finely diced cucumber in a colander, and sprinkle with salt. Toss and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Rinse the cucumber with cold water, and drain on paper towels. If using the onion, place in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let sit for five minutes, then drain, rinse with cold water and drain on paper towels.
3. Combine the tomatoes, chiles, cilantro, vinegar, lime juice and olive oil in a bowl. Add the cucumber and onion, season to taste with salt, and add the quinoa and cilantro. Toss together, and taste and adjust seasonings. Serve garnished with sliced avocado and cilantro sprigs.
19th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
This morning, I heard two interesting local-food-related stories on NPR. The first was about the health benefits of honey and the increase in popularity of beekeeping. Beekeeping has become more popular recently in urban areas as more and more people become interested in growing their own food. The story went on to discuss the importance of bees in our agricultural system and how honey can provide antibacterial properties, although the allergy-preventing claims are mostly unfounded.
The second story was about the debate about raw milk. Raw milk is also seeing a rise in popularity due to the local and natural food movement. Proponents claim that raw milk is more nutrient-dense than pasteurized milk, and the woman interviewed for the story claims her kids no longer have allergies after making the switch to raw milk. However, critics of raw milk point to the increase in likelihood of the presence of bacteria in raw milk versus pasteurized milk, and they believe that the nutritional benefits don’t outweigh the risks.
16th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
My birthday is this weekend, and to celebrate I decided I would like to go to a restaurant that serves local, ethical meat and give myself a one-day break from the vegetarian thing. I decided on East Side Show Room because I’ve heard great things about the food and their specialty cocktails, if not the service, from yelp and several of my friends.
Once inside, I immediately loved the 20′s decor. Old silent films playing on the wall, rose petals in the women’s restroom, ornamental red wallpaper, old-timey lightbulbs, etc. Just lovely. And unlike the many horror stories I read on yelp, our waitress was very nice and helpful. She recommended a sweet and fruity gin drink for me, which was delicious and summery and served with some blackberries. My boyfriend and I ordered the venison appetizer, which came wrapped in bacon and served with fried okra and jalapeno cheese grits.
This was my first bite of meat in over seven months, and I gotta say, it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it’d be. It had a nice flavor and wasn’t too chewy, but the barely cooked bacon kinda threw me off. The okra and grits, though, were to die for. I want that grits recipe–yum! Then for the main dish I had the coq a vin:
This dish was so comforting–it reminded me of a chicken pot pie but with a much more intense flavor. The croissant was nice and flaky and the summer herb butter served with it was mouth watering. That’s another recipe I would like to have! My boyfriend ordered the prime rib and seemed moderately happy with it, although he noted that it was a bit chewy.
I would definitely recommend this place as an ideal spot for a special occasion, but before you go check it out, it’s probably good to know going into it that things are going to get a bit pricey. The drinks and food and atmosphere are excellent, but I think the trendiness plays a factor in how much you’re paying. Overall, though, I’m glad I got to try out some local meat and enjoy a beautiful atmosphere for my birthday dinner.
16th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 4 Comments
A few months ago, Carsi and I tried to review several farmer’s markets in Austin – we were able to go to 3, but since then we’ve become aware of several that we’ve never been to (for example, one at the Barton Creek Mall, one in South Austin). One farmer’s market that I’ve never been to but would love to try out one of these weekends (since it’s probably the closest farmer’s market to my house) is the Cedar Park farmer’s market. Starting this Saturday, the Cedar Park farmer’s market is relocating from its former location to the Lakeline Mall, located at the intersection of 183 and 620.
Here’s some info about the market from its website:
“F2M’s Cedar Park Farms to Market is an outdoor market where you can not only
meet the farmers and producers; you have the opportunity to ask them how they grow
and produce this wonderfully fresh food. The relationship with the producers is quite
a bond,” said Carla Jenkins, Organizer and Founder of Cedar Park Farms to Market
Texas. “Lakeline Mall, with its accessibility to Central Texas and large space, is the
perfect setting to relocate Cedar Park Farms to Market.”Approximately 45-60 vendors will be onsite including:
Amador Farms, Bush Farm, Cowan’s Farm, Fruitful Hill Farm, Green Valley
Farms, Hairston Creek Farm (organic), Hillside Farms, Manheim Market Gardens,
Orange Blossom Farm (organic), Schwegmann Orchard, Star Farmers Market, Tecolote
Farm (organic) and Two Happy Children Farm.In addition to offering sustainably grown fruits and vegetables, the market also
features meat (pork, lamb, beef), poultry, eggs, dairy (goats and cow milk products),
seafood, many fabulous prepared foods to take home or eat there.
12th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Eating locally and seasonally is very green because it takes less traveling for the food to get to your plate, but it also has the added benefits of making the summertime heat, bugs, sun, and allergies more bearable. This article from the Statesman discusses how eating local, seasonal food can provide all sorts of benefits, from repelling bugs to preventing allergies. Here are some of the suggestions:
- To cool down: tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe and other melons, cucumber, okra, spicy peppers, and cooling herbs like mint
-To protect your skin: summer squash, cantaloupe, tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, broccoli, spinach, green peppers, and aloe
-To repel bugs: basil, rosemary, lemongrass, foods rich in garlic and vitamins B1 and B12
-To prevent allergies: okra and local honey
18th June, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
NPR has a story today about Walmart’s Heritage Agriculture program through which the company seeks to increase the amount of local produce sold in Walmart stores. The idea behind the prgram is that food is fresher for customers and saves Walmart money in freight costs. Here’s an excerpt:
“When you’ve got a private organization the size of Wal-Mart, anything they do in a positive direction for the environment, if they can find a better business model, then the ripple effects are huge,” says Michelle Harvey of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Harvey notes, for example, that Wal-Mart now grows cilantro for Eastern stores in Florida rather than California. Costs are lower, and the herbs are fresher for customers.
Wal-Mart won’t say what its long-term goal is for the Heritage Agriculture program, but it says as of today, 6 percent of its produce is grown in the same state it’s sold.
Read the whole article here. The comments to the NPR story are pretty interesting. Is it just a PR move for Walmart? Are they trying to take business from farmer’s markets? Or is any “green” move by such a large company a good move?
25th May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
The Sustainable Food Center, the organization responsible for running the downtown, Triangle, and Sunset Valley farmers’ markets, announced today that they will be operating four Neighborhood Farm Markets in traditionally underserved neighborhoods. WIC vouchers and Food Stamps will be accepted at all locations. The neighborhood markets will run through July, providing more people access to fresh, local food and allowing local farmers more opportunities to sell the abundant produce of the summer. Here are the locations and times:
Monday, 8am-11am
Northeast WIC Clinic
In partnership with H-E-B
7112 Ed Bluestein Blvd
Austin 78758
Monday, 12pm-2 pm
St. John WIC Clinic/Virginia L. Brown Rec Center
7500 Blessing
Austin 78752
Wednesday, 9am-11am
Rosewood-Zaragosa WIC Clinic
2800 Webberville Road
Austin 78702
Wednesday, 11am-1pm
Montopolis WIC Clinic
1416 Montopolis Dr.
Austin 78741
