entrepreneur, Malinda has added cheese-mak-
ing classes to the activities at their farm.
For many years at the market we have been
lucky to feature SW Heritage Beef provided by
Bobby and Jane Crockett. Following in the
footsteps of her great grandfather, Luke Brite,
and four generations of family ranchers, Jane
and her husband Bobby raise range-fed cattle.
“Here we are in the heart of ranching country,
yet you can’t get local beef,” says Jane.
Jane and I have despaired over this frustrating
irony since we met, first as
neighbors then as market
vendors. Local ranchers
have been grappling with
Marfa’s sustained drought
and uncertain rainfall for
decades. “We had decent
rain last year,” she tells me,
“but it takes several years to
recover from drought. If you
don’t have grass you have to
buy feed.”
Drought is not the only
challenge facing small beef
producers. The absence of
federally inspected processing
plants in West Texas makes it
virtually impossible to sell
local beef or for that matter
any locally raised meat. The inspection plant in
Fredericksburg, a five-and-a-half-hour drive to
the east, is scheduled a year in advance. In the
past the Crocketts have driven 300 miles north-
west to Post, between Lubbock and Big Spring,
to process their cattle. Quickly the rancher’s tiny
profit margin is shaved away.
The solution for small-scale local meat pro-
ducers would be to introduce a USDA federally
inspected “mobile slaughter unit,” an abattoir
on wheels. Fewer than a dozen of these units
exist across the entire country, and the mobile
slaughter unit in Texas processes and inspects
wild animals only.
The market is in full swing after its winter
break. Vendors are bringing their fresh-picked
greens, something you don’t see much of in this
part of Texas. Bob and Leslie arrange their table
of Asian greens and chard and kale.
Consummate gardeners, they have been supply-
ing the market since its first summer. The
Taylors, Eleanor and Gregg, come over from
Fort Davis and bring beets and beans, endive,
parsley and spinach, and flowers in the summer.
Wilborn Elliott, who grew up on the Rio Grande
in a family of beekeepers, brings mesquite and
catclaw honey, and jars of whitebrush after the
late summer rains. Jackie Oliver makes peanut
brittle and chocolates and decorates cookies to
look like the Marfa courthouse. Later in the sea-
son she’ll make peach preserves. Ganka and
Alicia are in their regular spots, their husbands
Kosta and Ben always at their sides. A variety of
goat cheeses are arrayed at Malinda’s table.
Linneas will show you how to exercise with his
handmade leather medicine balls. Utilitarian
objects of great beauty, the medicine balls are
made with the finest chrome tanned leather, the
kind of leather used to make baseball gloves.
They sit in various shapes and sizes on his table,
all of them the same muted gold color that dark-
ens with oiling and use.
In May, Padre Mel drives up from the border
town of Redford where he grows blackberries in
his backyard. When I visited him one summer,
his front porch was piled
high with winter squash
before my seedlings had yet
to put out their true leaves.
The season starts earlier
along the border.
There are always sur-
prises at the market –
maybe there will be desert
plants or cupcakes. A
welder might bring outdoor
grills he made in his shop.
Don’t fret if you’re not
growing your own toma-
toes. Last summer at the
market we drooled over
Valerie and Robert’s toma-
toes. They harvested
bushels of red, yellow,
orange and green heirlooms.
Sadly we will miss Julie Mitchell. She passed
away in December. In late November I visited
with her at the last market of 2013. I had been
enjoying her habanero and jalapeno jellies at the
market for nearly a decade. Her table was
always a cheerful collection of bright red and
green jars catching the morning light. They were
irresistible. She kept tiny crackers on a small
plate. When you sampled the jellies it was like
you were at a party. A longtime member of the
Cattle Women’s Association, she sold packages
of their distinctive paper napkins imprinted with
the ranching brands of the region. She will be
remembered warmly as a steadfast supporter
and unfailing contributor to the Marfa market.
Too much wind, too little water, hail that
pummels our gardens and late freezes that take
our fruit. We live in the desert. We love its
extremes. The night sky astonishes. So do the
smells of the desert plants, and the sight of the
pale golds and greens of the landscape.
Pronghorns dart away at the edge of your vision.
The mountains are low on the horizon, framing
the canyons and dry creek beds.
Not too many people. Not too many cars. We
stop in at the market on Saturdays, in that small-
town Farm Stand Marfa West Texas way.
Come visit.
Farm Stand Marfa: open mid-March through
November, 9AM-11AM, sometimes until 11:30 Where:
South Highland and El Paso along the RR tracks.
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Second Quarter 2014