Wednesdays in 2012 - downtown at City Hall!
Feb. 22 to Jun. 27 and Sep. 12 to Dec. 19
from 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
City Hall Farmers Market has more than 30 vendors and four food trucks.
After a successful pilot program started in October 2010, the City of Houston now permanently hosts the City Hall Farmers Market, a member of Urban Harvest’s family of farmers markets, on Wednesdays along both sides of City Hall’s reflection pool. The public can enjoy lunch and pick up groceries while supporting local, fresh and sustainable food amidst Houston’s dramatic downtown urban setting. The market showcases more than 35 “micro businesses,” including produce farmers, cheesemakers, coffee roasters and baristas, bakers, prepared food vendors & food trucks, olive oil producers and more. The market also boasts live music, a Community Table, and My Table magazine Chef’s Corner which hosts Houston’s top culinary talent preparing and serving samples of dishes made with market products.
City Hall Farmers Market, made possible through a community partnership between the City of Houston and Urban Harvest, is part of Mayor Annise Parker’s local food initiative. In June 2010, the City’s first vegetable container garden was built at the Bob Lanier Public Works Building, highlighting local produce and educating Houstonians about the ease of maintaining a vegetable garden in any type of environment. Employees on each floor of the building “adopted” individual containers and lovingly maintain them to create a wonderful touch of green within the cityscape. And, on September 30, 2010, Mayor Parker along with representatives from project partners, broke ground on the City Hall Victory Garden in Tranquillity Park to promote nutrition, health, sustainability and self-reliance. The victory garden not only has health, environmental and economic benefits, but the vegetable gardens also create community.
The City Hall Farmers Market runs from February 22 to June 27 and then breaks for the summer months, and reopens September to December and breaks for the holidays.
Downtown dwellers and employees are encouraged to walk to the market. Those coming from outside of downtown can select metered street parking; or garage parking at the Tranquillity Park garage (400 Rusk) – $3 for up to one hour, $6 for 1 to 2 hours) or Hobby Center (800 Bagby) – $2 per hour (with max of $10) on days without Hobby Center events.
The City Hall Farmers Market is wheelchair-accessible, and an ATM machine is conveniently located on-site. For more information on the market or to apply to be a vendor, contact Urban Harvest at 713.880.5540 or visit UrbanHarvest.org.
ABOUT URBAN HARVEST: Urban Harvest promotes healthy communities, sound nutrition and respect for the environment by educating children and adults and facilitating harvest and habitat gardens. Urban Harvest Farmers Markets help educate the public about the benefits of eating local produce in season and provides the local agricultural community with a direct outlet for their products. For more information, visit www.urbanharvest.org.
For more information please visit www.greenhoustontx.gov or follow Green Houston TX on Facebook www.facebook.com/greenhoustontx and Twitter www.twitter.com/greenhoustontx.
The City Hall Victory Gardens, modeled after gardens popularized by former United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II to promote local food production, are another part of the city's local food initiative to encourage the building of vegetable and rain gardens throughout Houston. The vegetable container gardens join the 30 container gardens outside the 611 Walker Bob Lanier Public Works Building, in making downtown a vegetable garden destination, and demonstrating how easy and affordable it can be to build a vegetable container garden anywhere in Houston. Check out how easy it is to build your own vegetable container garden and save money at www.greenhoustontx.gov.
