Organic Farmers Market Reaps Huge Rewards
For 18 years, Maria Saldaña of San Juan worked at a plant in McAllen that produced military MREs, or meals ready to eat.
She'd planned to work there until retirement. But then in summer 2006, the company announced it was re-locating to another state.
Suddenly, Maria and her co-workers were unemployed.
"I got so depressed," Maria said. "And at my age, it's not easy finding a job. I stayed home and I worried a lot. I got sick and ended up in the hospital."
Then Maria heard about a program run by Texas AgriLife Extension Service that teaches colonia residents like her to grow organic vegetables in their back yards and sell them at a farmers market.
"It changed my life," she said. "I didn't know anything about gardening, but I liked what they were teaching. It got me out of the house and I started meeting new people in my classes.
"Pretty soon I was planting organic vegetables in my yard and tending to them every day. This may sound too dramatic, but this program saved my life."
The program is called Grow'n Growers, the brainchild of Barbara Storz, an Extension horticulture agent in Hidalgo County. It's been so successful, it was recently named recipient of two environmental awards from Gov. Rick Perry's office.
"We started with 14 families in the San Juan area in September," Storz said. "They learned everything they needed to start a co-op to produce and sell chemically free, organic vegetables to the public: diet and nutrition, food safety, horticulture, insect control, media relations, marketing and finance, to name a few."
By February, the co-op, Familias Productores del Valle, was ready to sell their products at their first organic farmers market. It was held on a windy Saturday morning at North San Juan Park on Earling Road (the Nolana extension). Customer turnout for the event was overwhelming.
"People came from all over the Valley to buy their organic vegetables," Storz said. "And they never stopped. We quit counting (customers) at 400. We sold out of everything and could have sold more had we grown more. It was just amazing. There's a huge demand for organic vegetables here in the Valley."
"We'll have the standard fare of vegetables, including spinach, several types of lettuce, Swiss chard, radish, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, celery and herbs, plus other products used in various ethnic cuisines. There aren't many places where people can buy fresh, homegrown organic vegetables, so we're expecting another heavy turnout," Storz said.
Two more farmers markets are scheduled on May 17 and 31), and will resume again in the fall.
Storz said the group is developing a database of loyal customers to remind them, either by phone or email, about other upcoming dates.
For more information, contact her at (956) 383-1026.
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Rod Santa Ana III is a communications specialist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Weslaco.
