by WES FERGUSON
The cayenne is a mistreated pepper, according to Thomas Hayes. People think it must be crushed, mashed or dried. But Hayes learned different from his grandmother in Jamaica.
It’s hard to find fresh cayenne in Kyle, so Hayes – one of several vendors who have set up shop at the new 150 Market in Kyle – grows it himself. He seeds the peppers, slices them into quarter rings and stirs them into a sweet and spicy concoction that he calls pineapple-cayenne lemonade.
“The cayenne is subtle. It brightens the flavor,” he said. “You drink, and a few seconds later, there’s a slight tingle in the back of your throat.”
Pepper rings, chunks of pineapple and yellow lemon slices were all swimming in Hayes’ pitcher of lemonade this past Saturday as he served up cups at the 150 Market. Situated in the hill country just west of Kyle, a short drive across a cattle guard on the historic Michaelis Ranch, the market boasts some dozen vendors who gather every Saturday afternoon in a big, breezy open-air shed.
There, the traders offer fresh produce, artisanal foods and more than a few stories. This past Saturday, for instance, Tim P. Miller arrived at the market with an unusual potted sapling. Miller, a mustachioed farmer from Kyle, had grown the tree on his organic farm, and he suspected that it was a variety of fig developed in Hays County more than 100 years ago.
“This is a yellow fig,” Miller said, “and it might be a Haupt fig. You don’t know who Haupt is, do you?”
It turns out that William Haupt was a Hays County Renaissance man of the latter 1800s. He settled in Mountain City shortly before the Civil War. A farmer, rancher and inveterate experimenter, he built the first steam-powered cotton gin in the area and also served as postmaster and county surveyor.
Haupt also invented a seed planter and a couple of other farm implements, which he held patents. Over the years he bred horses, studied tree rings, crossed dewberries and blackberries and developed new varieties of corn, peaches and plums, before he died in 1907.
Today, at Millberg Farms in Kyle, Miller grows Haupt blackberries and plums, and quite possibly Haupt fig trees.
SAN MARCOS TILAPIA
Across the shed from Miller, Adam Harwood was selling tilapia filets and verdant basil plants, roots and all. The fish and herbs had been raised under interesting circumstances at the Lily Pad Farm in San Marcos, where Harwood said he operates the largest aquaponic system within 1,000 miles.
In aquaponic systems, fish and plants work together to recycle water and reduce agricultural waste. Put simply, when the fish poop and pee, they fertilize the plants growing on the water’s surface. Those plants’ roots, meanwhile, along with helpful bacteria, absorb the waste matter and return oxygen to the water, benefitting the fish. And the circle of life goes on and on.
Harwood calls Lily Pad Farm a “farm to fork” operation that bypasses traditional grocery stores.
“My motto is to put food in the hands of people,” he said. “A lot of farmers think they’ve made it when they’re on the shelves at H-E-B, and that isn’t it. A lot of (chain grocers) have asked me for fish, and I’ve turned them down.”
Not all the 150 Market vendors are farmers like Harwood and Miller. At the table next to Harwood, Pam Krug from All Mom’s Cookies and Coffee was offering baskets of sweet treats. She sells plenty of cookies but is just as willing to barter them off with her fellow vendors.
“Look, I traded for this basil,” she said. “I have tomatoes here and this pumpkin plant, and all that was traded.”
FUNKY TOMATOES AND KIDS’ CHICKENS
At the back of the shed, college student Brian Bayer was selling funky heirloom tomatoes, salad greens and other colorful produce. With the help of his self-described sidekick, his wife Holly, Bayer grows his veggies and shrubbery in a plot on site at the Michaelis Ranch. He is graduating from Texas State University in August with a horticulture degree, and he hopes to one day open a retail nursery where he’ll offer free classes to other budding farmers in the Kyle area.
“There are a lot of farmers markets but not as many farmers,” he said. “We need more farmers.”
Indeed, markets have sprung up in several cities around Hays County, including Buda, Kyle and San Marcos. Bayer said business has been steady at 150 Market, which opened in April. (The owner of 150 Market declined to be interviewed for this story.)
Mingling with the vendors on Saturday, admiring their entrepreneurial pluck, a visitor eventually came to a pair of young brothers who were sitting beside a big ice chest. Inside the cooler was a pile of chickens the boys had plucked, dressed and shrink-wrapped. Caleb North, 14, and his brother Tanner, 12, are both students in the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, and they raise the birds as a 4H project.
A poultry operation is a lot of fun and a lot of work, they said.
“You have to wake up the chickens every three hours or so,” Caleb said. “If you don’t, they won’t eat as much. Wake them up, and they go eat.”
In addition to selling chickens, the North brothers encourage passersby to sample a cup of Hayes’ oddly refreshing lemonade. Hayes was born in Jamaica, grew up in New York, and now works for the Texas Pie Company in Kyle. In a faint Jamaican accent, he touted his tropical marinades and rubs, which he blends for his Island Boy brand.
Hayes was also peddling a friend’s homemade salsas, selling pies made by his employer, and talking about uses for his favored pepper, the cayenne. The cayenne is a natural aphrodisiac, he said, and it’s good for sore throats and the occasional head rush.
“Eat a fresh pepper and you get light-headed, a little giggly,” he said. “It’s a good buzz.”
