Rice Village Lands Its Own New Farmers Market With Help From Heights Food Blogger Extraordinaire

Keeping It Fresh

By Shelby Hodge // Nov 23, 2020

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Walkable Rice Village welcomes a farmers market launching December 6 and continuing each first and third Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm.

Chef Tony Luhrman, familiar to Heights Mercantile Farmers Market fans, is sharing his tasty goods with the Rice Village Farmers Market.

Home grown flowers are among offerings from the 60 vendors who join the Rice Village Farmers Market, held the first and third Sunday of the month.

Casey Barbles of The Informal Grub is the nutritional force behind the Rice Village Farmers Market and Heights Mercantile Farmers Market.

Look to the area between Amherst and Times (between Mecox and Beautique) for some 40 vendors selling their wares in the new Rice Village Farmers Market, sister of Heights Mercantile Farmers Market.

Scotty's Stout Sauerkraut with his offerings of kimchi, kombucha, garlic, jalapenos and more will be tempting the tastebuds.

The Rice Village Farmers Market is ready to roll with its logo in place and the launch scheduled for December 6.

Heights Mercantile Farmers Market was launched by Casey Barbles in 2019, a precursor to a successful career in curating markets.

With the thriving success of Heights Mercantile Farmers Market under her belt, nutritionist and food blogger Casey Barbles is expanding her oeuvre to Rice Village by introducing her own healthful, well-curated farmers market. Beginning December 6, Barbles and Rice Village throw open the gates to an open-air affair featuring more than 40 vendors.

The first and third Sunday of each month, shoppers will find the parking area between Beautique on Times Boulevard and Mecox on Amherst bustling with local farmers, chocolate artisans, vendors of sustainable products, flower growers, cheese makers and more. The concept echoes that of the Heights market, which is open on the second and fourth Sunday of each month.

Barbles of The Informal Grub website and Instagram account is also the force behind the M-K-T Sunset Market (Family Night Done Right) that takes place every the third Thursday of the month at 600 N. Shepherd.

“Shopping at a farmers market means you don’t have to go to a grocery store and get products shipped from Costa Rica or farther,” Barbles told PaperCity shortly after opening in The Heights. “The farther your food is coming from, the more pesticides and preservatives have been used. That’s the number one reason you want to eat as locally as possible.”

The Rice Village Farmers Market is just the latest in a movement that seems to be sweeping the city. The Houston Farmers Market, under construction, is scheduled to be the largest when it’s fully open in late 2021, while the nonprofit Urban Harvest is one of the state’s largest farmers market with 70 local Houston vendors.

Thus, just as at the two other farmers markets, vendors for Rice Village are hand-selected to bring diverse, certified organic and locally owned grocer items.

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Regulars at the Heights Mercantile will find familiar faces in Rice Village including Chef Tony Luhrman noted for his delish dishes ready for street-side consumption or take home. Scotty’s Stout Sauerkraut with his offerings of kimchi, kombucha, garlic, jalapenos and more will be tempting the tastebuds.

This latest addition to the Rice Village landscape is part of an on-going redevelopment of the neighborhood from humble but quaint beginnings into a chic shopping/dining/beauty arena.