The Market @ McAllen
The Market @ McAllen
After two years of calling Alhambra Restaurant home, the Farmers’ Market is now setting new roots at the McAllen Public Library. Formerly known as the Market @ Alhambra our new home and new season required a fitting new name, The Market @ McAllen. It all started when Alhambra Restaurant, an independently owned local business, opened their doors in 2009. They wanted to introduce to the Valley a new style of cuisine, one based off of locally sourced fresh products. They knew that to get the best tasting dishes you had to start with the best ingredients. They also knew that these can only be found through local farmers and ranchers where the products are harvested at their peak of freshness. By doing this the restaurant was cutting its carbon footprint, providing the best tasting dishes possible, and supporting local business. Most of the “fresh” products you find at a super market are shipped from far distances, in fact on average thousands of miles, all the while losing freshness and key nutrients. At one point Alhambra was even receiving their shipment of tomatoes by bicycle, essentially creating a carbon neutral supply chain.
In order to produce these fresh dishes they needed farmers. The question was how? No restaurant was attempting to buy from local producers, so a network of farmers and ranchers had to be created from scratch. Slowly they built a network large enough to provide for the restaurants needs. It didn’t take them long to realize this network had to be shared with the community.
And thus in October of 2010 The Market @ Alhambra was born. Since then the network has grown even larger and The Market has seen the frequenting of many loyal customers. Now with the move to McAllen Public Library we hope to broaden our reach even further. We want to spread our message of eating right and living healthy. Every Saturday the community will now have access to local farmers, ranchers, chefs, and artisans each contributing to the healthy life style changes our community desperately needs.
Every SATURDAY | 10am – 1pm
Location: McAllen Public Library (4001 North 23rd Street McAllen, TX 78504) Start date Nov 17th
Contact name: Juan Carlos Zapata (market manager)
Contact info: 956-821-9173 -info@rgvfarmersmarket.com
FREE to the public
