The City’s Glowing Pearl Farmers Markets
By Luna Infante
Just north of the heart of downtown San Antonio lives the shining Pearl Brewery Complex, a popular historic area home to cuisine, shops, and entertainment. The Pearl hosts many weekly events, including their weekend markets.
Every Saturday, rain or shine, the Pearl fills with local farmers, ranchers, and creatives from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the Farmer’s Market. The Pearl assures sustainability and the local food movement by ensuring all its vendors are located within a 150-mile radius of the Alamo City. Every Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Pearl holds their Maker’s Market for local artisans to sell goods such as pottery, wood crafts, and more.
When walking into the Pearl from the corner of Pearl Parkway and Avenue A — between the local shops and cafés — local shoppers will be met with rows of booths selling goods. The booths, set up by local and small businesses, offer a variety of goods from fresh produce, pastries, and beverages, to crafts and personal care. On sunny days, the fresh breeze kisses shoppers, carrying sweet scents from the baker’s booths, and in a dance, guides them to the colorful-tented booths charmed with smiling vendors.
Harmony Market Garden from Floresville, Texas sets a simple display of neutral colors and woods to accentuate their greens, veggies, and honeys. This booth sells scallions, dino kale beets, watermelon radishes, and more. Family business Deep River Specialty Foods offers patrons award-winning, locally sourced barbecue sauces, mustards, and jams — perfect complements for the refreshing produce offered at other booths. For those peckish for bites and sips on the go, other stalls offer mouthwatering, fluffy, French-style beignets, crunchy kettle corn, freshly squeezed lemonade, and wine samples.
Patrons in search of all-natural personal care or handmade crafts are in luck. Crowds form at Byccombe Natural Solution, which offers smooth-smelling, moisturizing goat milk soap, lip balms, salves, body scrubs, beard balms, and candles. Several customers praise this business, claiming the products make their lips “feel like pillows,” make them smell like a “unicorn,” and have a smoothing effect on scars. Imagine Lavender Farm vends lavender goods for personal care, pet care, and culinary purposes.
For the artsy bunch, many friendly creatives share their crafts: handmade jewelry, city skyline-marked pottery, and colorful, ceramic plant hangers stand delicately at several booths. For those who prefer personalized creations, Austin Typerwriter Poets Collective welcomes readers to walk up to their eccentric poets and ask for poems. These poems are made in real-time on antique typewriters, a pleasant gift to local aesthetes.
The Pearl’s weekend markets support local businesses and charm the Alamo City with a multitude of locally sourced produce, baked goods, services, and artisanal works. For those looking for organic products or simply seeking a family-friendly weekend activity, the shining Pearl is the place to be.
