Montrose Farmers Market – The Beginning

The Montrose Farmers Market is located in the parking lot of La Strata on Westheimer and is open from 9 -2 every Saturday. Today was their first day. Katharine Shilcutt Gleave wrote up a nice description of what was to come last Friday on Houstonist. Keep in mind it is their first week.

Here is what I found at about 9:30 this morning.

After driving into the side parking lot of La Strata:

322 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 523-1014
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I was starving because I had come straight from my exercise class and had not eaten. Lucky for me there were plenty of samples of the preparded foods.

The first vendor I saw was Affordable Organic Produce, which had a small but nice selection of organic produce. They also sell shares.

Opposite them was this vendor that sold beef, honey and vegetables.


Next I saw Pampered Sisters who sell soaps and candles and adjancent to them was Café Netties’ seasoning and sauces, which I seen at other markets, but have never tried because I am a devoted fan of Penzeys Spices.

By the way, Penzey's has a retail store on 19^th Street in the Heights. If you haven't gone there, I strongly suggest a visit.

As you can see, both ladies had wonderful welcoming smiles.

Across the way was Shirley Ann selling sweets. If the rest of her baked goods taste like the carrot cake I sampled, you are in for a treat. It was moist and just sweet enough with a wonderful spicy overtone.

Inside of La Strada were prepared foods.

The first vendor I went to was Vanille. I sampled their toasted almonds dipped in chocolate and covered with powdered sugar, wow is all I can say, you will just have to try it yourself. Then I tried the cheese crackers, which were crunchy with a nice spicy bite to them. Lastly I tasted their sandwich cookies with dulce de leche filling, verdict - sweet and satisfying. I would recommend everything I sampled.

Freshly made aromatic soaps. Okay technically not a preparded food.



Freshly prepared and frozen Indian Food - I have seen this vendor at the Bayou City Market and the one on Shepard on Sunday afternoons. I like everything I taste of theirs.


In the front of this table you can see three different types homemade pastas. I bought the homemade jalapeno fettuccine, but they did have two other less spicy but equally interesting sounding pastas for sale.

Behind the pastas are three salads made by Sage Salads. There were three salads today two quinoa (the ancient Inca grain that is an excellent protein source) and one kale.

One of the quinoa salads was made in a Chinesey style and the other had avocados in it, the third salad was made with kale. (I need to start cooking with kale.) They were a different style than then the ones I have tasted and enjoyed at Bayou City Farmers Market from Marian Bell’s Healthy Kitchen and Yaya's RAW Rah, which you maybe familar with already.

The market has potential and the location is good, we will just have to wait and see how things progress. I remember when Bayou City Farmers Market was this tiny and now look it. I definitely recommend you make this part of your farmers markets rounds, as it has enough unique things to offer with none of the crowds yet, to make it worth your while. It is also between the Bayou City Farmers Market and Midtown Farmers Market at T'afia.

Postscript

This is a photo of the jalapeno fettuccine I made with scallops and a cream sauce. The jalapeno pasta with its somewhat subtle peppery taste worked well with the scallops.