Stores & Markets in Austin

The Georgetown Farmers Market Association unites more than 50 growers from 11 nearby counties to treat shoppers to a bounty of wholesome produce, free-range eggs, artisanal breads, and canned goods. Not only does the bumper crop of fresh greens, fruits, and veggies keep clients eating healthily, but it also connects consumers to their surrounding land and agriculture industry. While perusing bushels of onions, tomatoes, peppers, and melons, visitors can mingle with local farmers to shake the very hands that harvest the crops and learn the secret fifth verse of the Green Acres theme song.

Beverly Crock and her daughters, Lauren and Shannon, are the family behind For Goodness Sake Natural Food Store. They stock familiar items such as bacon, as well as lesser-known products such as bioflavonoids—plant compounds believed to improve the skin's appearance. But if visitors aren't familiar with such items, it's not a problem. “We educate people,” Shannon explained to The NB Scene. “That comes naturally to me because I grew up this way and it is my lifestyle as well.”

Although the store's representatives happily guide patrons through their inventory, many of the store's products need no introduction. Rainbow-hued carrots and crisp sugar-snap peas beckon from their perches, and organic eggs come from Vital Farms, where chickens roam in pastures and take European vacations whenever they want. Additionally, at the juice bar patrons sip on nectars squeezed from the store’s organic produce.

Hoping to revive the culture of the neighborhood butcher shop, with its personalized service, attention to detail, and artful products, restaurant-industry veterans Justin Rosberg and Jason Parent took a gamble on their first New Hampshire butcher shop in 2003. Dubbed The Meat House, their store quickly earned a foodie following, spawning additional franchise locations across the country. Today, The Meat House stocks fine cheeses, prepared side dishes, other gourmet grocery items, and hundreds of wines alongside the usual selection of traditional and exotic meats. Butchers also explain how to prepare each hand-carved cut of meat, sharing recipes, best slicing practices, and cooking techniques for giving pork chops the flavor of justice.

The Gambini and Mensik families shared a vision—to create an olive orchard based on a public tree-adoption system similar to the sharecropping systems in Italy, where families could harvest olives and olive oils whenever their trees bore fruit. Breaking ground on 18 acres in the Texas Hill Country—home to numerous vineyards and organic farms—the clans' USDA-compliant organic farming methods soon produced yields that would claim multiple awards, including a gold medal from The Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition.

Today, the growers at Texas Hill Country Olive Company tend five kinds of olive trees, which bear harvests that are handpicked, cold-processed, and bottled within 24 hours as artisanal extra virgin olive oils. The farmers also produce traditional and fruit-infused balsamic vinegars on the territory. The grounds encompass a 6,000-square-foot tasting room and an indoor demo kitchen that hosts events such as cooking classes amid eco-friendly touches such as nontoxic paints and teak furniture. An outdoor demo kitchen and an indoor café are also on their way, where small-plate fare made from ingredients sourced from other Hill Country farms will take center stage. Texas Hill Country’s adopt an olive tree program continues to thrive, as each bottle of oil produced by an adopted tree comes with a personalized label and regular reports about the tree's accomplishments at tree school.