Waco Farmers Market and New Grocery March 2013

Saturday the 2nd was a pretty chilly morning, but my frozen hands were still worth the trip to the Waco Downtown Farmers Market.  I came away with a new stash of pork and beef.  There was an olive oil vendor from the Dripping Springs area, Texas Hill Country Olive Company, an artisanal organic olive orchard.  In addition to wonderful olive oils, they had flavored balsamic vinegars.   I love fig balsamic, but they were out, and they convinced me to taste the peach.  I bet you already know the end of this story – I left with a bottle of the Peach Balsamic Vinegar.  One of the ladies I was traveling with that morning, bought a bottle of the peach to marinate some pork tenderloin.  Doesn’t that sound delicious?

The tamale vendor, that makes the yummy tamales with olive oil instead of lard, was there.  Several dozen ended up in our bags.  They pack the tamales in 2 packs for easy freezing and cooking.

The only thing that was disappointing about the market was, I wanted gold beets.  I had bought another bunch at Sprouts in Round Rock recently (the day I went to Jack Allen’s).  Gold beets are so delicious and sweet.  They can be used raw in salads or roasted, then peeled, and put in salads or used as a side.  I’ve bought them at Natural Grocer in Temple also.  Sprouts is on the NW corner of 35 and 620, just south of Jack Allen’s.  If you can go on Wednesdays, it’s the best time.  They honor their previous and present week’s grocery ads.

Later that day, I made my way to the new grocery store in Waco, ALDI.  It’s on the corner of Wooded Acres and Valley Mills.  ALDI stores are opening in Temple and Killeen also.  This store reminds me very much of the Sack and Save grocery in the Dallas area, only it’s much smaller.  It will not be a regular stop for me, but they have a few things that were interesting, like 25 cent avocados, and some good chocolate.  It is very crowded right now, because it just opened.