For the hands that grow it

Hello Live Oak Farmers Market,

Welcome to Field Notes — the weekly letter for the farmers, growers, and chefs of Farm2Chef and Travel Villa Kitchen. This is the farmer edition: field notes, farm news, and harvest-pricing ideas for the people who grow what our chefs cook. Once a week, never more. No noise — just value worth forwarding.

From the field

Late October in Houston is a generous table: oyster mushrooms are fruiting (Benjamin & Farris is growing them for the Houston Botanic Garden luncheon), and sweet potatoes, yard-long beans, and arugula are on the seasonal list. On Saturday, October 31, Harlem River Farms leads The Greening of Third Ward & Beyond at Emancipation Park, and the Farm2Chef demo board has chef demo slots open this season — farmers' produce, cooked live by our chefs in front of the neighborhood. Your market already hosts a monthly Farm2Chef chef demo on third Saturdays; this is the same table, set bigger.

A note to carry with you

Dough needs rest to rise. So do I. I honor my rest without guilt — it's where my flavors deepen and my fire rebuilds. A rested grower decides better, harvests better, loves better. Today, I let myself rise.

Pricing your harvest — ideas chefs respect

Price in the units chefs menu against — by the bunch, the pound, the case — so a chef can cost a plate in seconds, not guess. Put your availability out before the week starts: chefs write menus days ahead, and the farms whose lists arrive early get written in. Let them taste it first: a Farm2Chef demo puts your produce on a chef's stove in front of a crowd (demo chefs cook with a $5 produce credit from the program) — and a tasted ingredient becomes a standing order far more often than a listed one.

Follow along where the days happen: @travelvillakitchen on Instagram and Threads — farm availability, demo calls, and what's fresh.

P.S. — the coffee

Six Rows Coffee is our farm-to-cup coffeehouse — single-origin beans sourced straight from small farms, no mystery supply chains. Find the café pouring at Live Oak Farmers Market on third Saturdays, follow @sixrowscoffee, or browse the shop at sixrowshouston.com.

With appreciation,
— Rio Moses
Operations & Marketing, VK Capital Ventures / Travel Villa Kitchen · Farm2Chef
[email protected]