This week my friend and I headed over to Canino Produce (UPDATE:  changed to Junior’s Produce in 2019) often referred to as “the Mexican farmers market,” located at 2520 Airline Drive.

Canino’s has been around since 1958.  Unlike the local farmers markets around town offering local — often organic — produce and locally-produced products, Canino’s carries a wide variety of produce and other items not only from Texas, but “all over the United States and the world.”  In the fall, shoppers are greeted by mountains of fresh “new crop” pecans — huge meaty pecans — most of which come from the Austin area, which their 15 nut-cracking machines will crack for you for 35 cents per pound.

Walking around the market, it is quite possible to briefly forget you’re in Houston.  And in August, that’s a good thing.  Because if you’re going to be walking around with rivers of sweat running down your face, you may as well pretend you’re somewhere more exotic.

Inside, Canino’s has neatly arranged tables displaying the fresh produce, as well as beans, rice, stone-ground flour and cornmeal, and dried fruit.

You’ll probably want to grab a bottle of Mexican vanilla while you’re there:

If you’re one of those folks who believes that size matters, these baseball bat-sized cucuzza squashes might interest you:

But the real fun of the Mexican farmers market is the open-air market located behind Canino’s.  There are several rows of stalls, where the rainbow of produce is buffed to a shine and decoratively arranged.  There’s always a thing or two I’ve never seen before.  To make shopping in this section easier, bring a wallet full of small bills, because most of the baskets of produce are $2.

 Prettiest produce around

 Can you say “salsa”?

In addition to produce, you can also find cooking utensils, spices, strings of dried chiles, and bins of herb blends.

Look close — there’s an herb blend for pretty much anything that ails you.  Got cramps? Got asthma?  There’s a blend for that!

A popular snack sold at the open air market is fruit — slices of papaya, mango, coconut, melon — sprinkled with a chile/lime mixture.  At the market, the spice mix is sometimes referred to as “chile for fruit,” but you can find a similar mix by Fiesta called “Pico de Gallo con Limon” at the grocery store:

Fiesta brand Pico de Gallo con Limon

Several of the vendors had these clever peeled mangos, cut to look like flowers, and sprinkled with the chile mixture:

We left hot and happy, loaded down with several sacks of goodies each.

But wait — there’s more!

Just a few blocks down the street, at 2201 Airline, is the Houston Dairymaids’ warehouse, which is open to the public every day except Monday for cheese sampling and retail purchases.  Seeing as it wasn’t Monday, we popped in.

The Houston Dairymaids was started by owner Lindsey Schechter, a “seasoned cheese professional,” in 2006.  If you have ever had a cheese plate at a Houston restaurant, chances are good the cheese came from the Houston Dairymaids.  They carry approximately 150 handmade cheeses — unpasteurized when possible — from around the United States (with an occasional imported cheese), with a handful coming from Texas.  Every day they offer a sampling of 5 or 6 selected cheeses, progressing from mild to more pungent.

Owner Lindsey Schechter and a cheese sampling tray

In addition to cheese, the retail storefront also has a small but interesting selection of wines, breads from Slow Dough Bread Company, outrageously good cookies from Wackym’s Kitchen, olives, crackers, and other cheese accompaniments.   It was really hard (almost impossible, actually) to narrow down our cheese choices, but we finally settled on two each to bring home, along with some bread and cookies.

There’s also a Mexican bakery, El Bolillo, at 2517 Airline, and a spice market, Lone Star Culinary, at 2520 Airline, but we were too pooped from the heat to party any longer, so those will have to wait for a future visit.

I found a recipe on Canino’s [now defunct] website for “Not So” Spicy Sweet Potato Soup, which intrigued me with its peanut butter and lime juice.  Coincidentally, I had just purchased two large sweet potatoes at Canino’s.  I adapted the recipe slightly, using almond butter instead of peanut butter, and half the amount of ginger called for.   It only takes about 30 minutes to make, and is very good and quite satisfying.

 Simmer until sweet potatoes are soft

Spicy enough for me!