At the historic Pearl Brewery building in San Antonio, Texas, there's a 1933 smokestack emblazoned with the word "Pride" (for Texas Pride beer). Although alcohol is no longer produced here, Pride seems an appropriate slogan for the farmers' market that now takes place in the old brewery's shadow. Local pride is abundant at the market, and it's amply justified by the array of high-quality seasonal produce, meat, and artisanal food available here every Saturday morning.
Started in 2009, the Pearl Farmers Market is part of the eco-friendly, mixed-use Pearl Brewery complex. On Saturdays year round (rain or shine), around 20-30 vendors set up shop behind the Full Goods Building, which was once the brewery warehouse. A recently revitalized stretch of the San Antonio River flows just steps away, and local bands add to the market's festive atmosphere.
All of the market's vendors come from within a 150-mile radius of San Antonio, and they are eager to share and discuss their products, which include seasonal and organic fruits and vegetables, herbs, grass-fed bison, lamb, and beef, farm-raised fish, free-range eggs, baked goods, olive oil, pecans, corn meal, honey, preserves, salsa, spices, and more. Our favorites include cheeses from San Antonio's Humble House Foods, olive products from Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard located south of San Antonio, and lavender products from the Hill Country's Imagine Lavender farm.
Although San Antonio has a handful of other farmers' markets, the location and number of vendors at Pearl make it a premier destination for local food lovers and tourists. (The Pearl complex also houses the Culinary Institute of America, Texas Farm to Table Café, and Chef Andrew Weissman's Il Sogno.) Pearl is the farmers' market that a large and culturally-rich city like San Antonio has always deserved, and its presence makes this writer, a native San Antonian, even more proud of her home town.
(Images: Emily Ho)
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Comments (2)
holy cow! i have lived in san antonio for 6 years now and never knew this was there! i knew they re-did the whole thing with the beauty school and everything but a farmers market! amazing! i was just talking to my M-I-L today about trying to find a farmers market!
Hey, I love that Farmers market. the location is perfect. the vendors are good, They have handwash stations and doggie friendly waterbowls. Not to Mention their frequent chef presentations etc. Here is their Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Antonio-TX/Pearl-Farmers-Market-San-Antonio-TX/61940585937?ref=mf</A>
I did have some general questions of you guys who have experienced farmer markets in other cities and states:
1. Do you know/think that your vendors engage in price fixing? I heard a disgruntled vendor with an abundance of tomatoes not being able to set their own price because every week they meet all together and decide what prices to charge for what produce so that vendors with smaller crops don't get shortchanged that week. I found that to be a little unfair to the customer.. after all they do have price fixing laws in the real world. My suggestion for this is to work directly with a farm and develop a relationship there, so you don't have to shop from them at the farmers market.
2. We purchased some produce without inspecting it thoroughly, namely corn and watermelon, and it was all unusable! Have you guys even encountered sub-par produce from local vendors?
3. What are other places policies on selling prepared items. Such as Peach cobbler, this peach vendor was not allowed to sell pre-made cobbler to customers, they had to order it a week in advance so it could be a prearranged exchange.
Anyways. All in all a nice place.. But nothing beats growing your own vegetables! Everyone should learn/try.