A friend paid for half the gasoline to pick up a workbench at Harbor Freight and we finally got to check out the Henderson farmers market on Water.
It was very easy to find and we even had easy street parking for our dually.
It’s unfortunate that there was only ONE produce vendor and it wasn’t locally grown food, but imported from Southern California. However, the selection and prices were good and we bought quite a bit.
We sampled some strawberries and they definitely tasted better than the strawberries we used to get at the supermarkets (we don’t buy them anymore):
We got a small basket and had the strawberries with a banana drink after we got home and it was a delicious dessert. We saw some Giant boxes, so that’s “probably” what they were. From the Giant site about pesticide use:
Does California Giant use pesticides growing strawberries?
California Giant growers control pest damage by working with nature. Growers rely on natural pest enemies, pest resistant varieties, pest monitoring, cultural practices and other methods to minimize the need for pesticides. Working closely with scientists at the University of California, growers use models of pest and disease life cycles to determine the best times for applications so pesticides or insecticides are used only when necessary to protect the survival of the plants. We encourage you to visit safefruitsandveggies.com to get more information on pesticide use, exposure and potential risk. We also suggest you review the calculator on that site to determine real risk for adults and children. If you are still concerned about these practices, we do produce organic berries as an alternative.
Very cleverly worded to say, YES, we use pesticides.
Strawberries are on top of the list of foods to avoid unless grown organically.
Since the strawberries were much better than what we’d get at the supermarkets last year, I suppose they used fewer pesticides. But the few strawberries we harvested in our garden last year tasted INCREDIBLE. This year we’ll fence them in so the lizards won’t get most berries and we have about four different varieties in our new hoophouse. Strawberries and tomatoes are so worth growing yourself as the taste is FAR superior even compared to organic store bought berries and tomatoes.
We also bought a couple large red peppers.
And that’s a good deal on zucchini, so we got three of those.
We had a HUGE salad yesterday and I forgot to make the cucumber salad. Maybe tomorrow.
The lemons are as big as the oranges to the right. We haven’t tried them yet.
We already ate the tangelos and they were DELICIOUS.
Not exactly a huge crowd, but there were definitely buying customers.
We didn’t have time to take a picture of every vendor, but you get the idea — all kinds of stuff.
NO organics, no plants, no seedlings, no herbs, no local free range eggs … but the produce was definitely better than buying at the supermarket and they had some really good deals too.
I’ll definitely shop there again if I get to Vegas on a market day.
I was hoping to meet market manager Dave Star, but he had just left for an hour and we had lots of errands to run. Bought another 22 shrubs and trees at the Nevada State Nursery, got “desert” tomato seeds, more organic mulch, … the truck was FULL.
I don’t understand why nobody grows any food for sale in Southern NV.
At one of the nurseries I asked about that and the guy said that you can’t grow food in Vegas. Why do people say that?
Vegas and Henderson have numerous community gardens. We can grow salad year round and while we’re colder at 4,000 feet, our biggest problem is that it’s TOO cold and the salad grows very slow with freezing temps at night.
Last summer the Armenian cucumbers and even some of our tomatoes did GREAT in our greenhouse with temps above 120 F just about every day.
If it wasn’t so cold here, we’d be growing tomatoes year round in the greenhouse. Vegas and Henderson have the PERFECT climate to grow through winter.
We’ve been in Las Vegas areas that were unexpectedly rural. Horses and chickens everywhere. Yet, nobody sold local eggs at the farmers market.
Of course it makes no sense to pay the market fee to sell a few dozen eggs. But it does make sense to split the fee among several people with chickens, produce and maybe even crafts. And that’s what we are trying to do with our gardening club — share resources and make it worthwhile for home gardeners to grow some extra food for sale.
This really should have been the first picture, going down into the Vegas smog:
The smog is one downside to growing food in the valley, but it’s no different than growing food in many areas in Southern California.
It sure makes us appreciate living many miles from the nearest city and two driving hours from Vegas – but also unfortunately too far for us to sell at the market.
It would be great if we could share the ride with other vendors and we could at least occasionally sell some herbs and seedlings at the market and encourage others to grow their own food and a little extra for sale.
Wow! Making me very hungry for yummy stuff.
I think that blurb about the strawberries from GIANT may refer to Bacillus thuringensis (BT, as they call it), a GMO bacteria used by big strawberry growers for several years that many organic gardeners think is potentially dangerous. I eat them, but then look at me, not very healthy I would say!
Rebecca, once you’re out here and settled in you’ll have a lot less stress and that in itself will make you much healthier.
We already started on a strawberry “pole” as we recently watched on DVD at a gardening club meeting and I just can’t wait to get our home grown berries. I’ve been pinching off flowers as they say you should do on the smaller plants. It won’t be long until we have at least a few berries occasionally.