Even as some San Antonio retailers scale back or slow down, new concepts are popping up all over town.
Asian supermarket chains like 99 Ranch Market and independents like Asia Market and San Antonio Korean Market are picking up steam with new locations around the city.
Of course, longstanding Hispanic markets such as Chico Boys Fruit Market, Las Americas Latin Market, and La Michoacana (with stores across the state), continue to enjoy a boom in popularity.
New to the scene, however, are community-supported agriculture (CSA) delivery services like Imperfect Produce, which gained its first foothold in the Texas market last summer.
This particular CSA aims to reduce food waste by boxing up less-than-perfect-looking fruits and vegetables, selling the boxes at discount prices, and delivering them to customers.
Hopefully this will put a tiny dent in the fruits and vegetables deemed unsuitable for mainstream retail sales—which reportedly reaches as high as 20 percent of all fresh produce in the United States. Foodservice, of course, is not as concerned about perfection, but every little bit helps.
Local Sprout has taken the same approach to growing. The urban farming group boasts a Food Hub, a building in which food businesses collaborate to create a “unique food ecosystem,” which includes an outdoor farm in downtown San Antonio and a shipping container that serves as a hydroponic growing center.
Moreover, the Local Sprout also grows crops at the San Antonio Food Bank and works with restaurants across the city in its quest to build and maintain gardens and edible landscapes for “hyperlocal” access to produce and herbs.
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full version.
Even as some San Antonio retailers scale back or slow down, new concepts are popping up all over town.
Asian supermarket chains like 99 Ranch Market and independents like Asia Market and San Antonio Korean Market are picking up steam with new locations around the city.
Of course, longstanding Hispanic markets such as Chico Boys Fruit Market, Las Americas Latin Market, and La Michoacana (with stores across the state), continue to enjoy a boom in popularity.
New to the scene, however, are community-supported agriculture (CSA) delivery services like Imperfect Produce, which gained its first foothold in the Texas market last summer.
This particular CSA aims to reduce food waste by boxing up less-than-perfect-looking fruits and vegetables, selling the boxes at discount prices, and delivering them to customers.
Hopefully this will put a tiny dent in the fruits and vegetables deemed unsuitable for mainstream retail sales—which reportedly reaches as high as 20 percent of all fresh produce in the United States. Foodservice, of course, is not as concerned about perfection, but every little bit helps.
Local Sprout has taken the same approach to growing. The urban farming group boasts a Food Hub, a building in which food businesses collaborate to create a “unique food ecosystem,” which includes an outdoor farm in downtown San Antonio and a shipping container that serves as a hydroponic growing center.
Moreover, the Local Sprout also grows crops at the San Antonio Food Bank and works with restaurants across the city in its quest to build and maintain gardens and edible landscapes for “hyperlocal” access to produce and herbs.
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full version.
