Barton Creek Farmers Market — Attraction in Austin

Vendor rules state that no one leave the market until 1:15. At 1:10 Salila, the owner, walked near our booth, noticed our neighbor’s duly was on, waiting to leave the market, “who’s vehicle is this, it can’t be on, it’s causing pollution in the market”, she walked over to his truck, opened the door, got inside of it, as he sat in the passenger seat, and she pulled the keys out of the ignition, to turn it off herself. This instead of kindly asking him to turn it off. My car was sitting next to his with my 1 year old child inside taking a nap with the heater on as it was 40 degrees out. She noticed this after the other vehicle, and I kindly advised her that we would be leaving in literal minutes and I wanted to be sure my 1 year old was not cold as we packed up. She told me that it’s not even cold out that I should roll down the windows and turn my vehicle off. She let us know that the rules state we cannot turn vehicles on until we are driving out, for which we advised they did not state that, and that is why we hadn’t worried about turning it on. She banned us very loudly and publicly for advising her of this and as we pleaded with her to listen to our situation, she then apologized for being rude and accepted us back to the market. Next week, she was at setup and grouped everyone in our spot, for which we’ve occupied for all of the 3 years we have been there, and told me to get to the end of the market where my vehicle could be parked 10ft away from our booth space to allow us to turn our vehicle on for the baby. This was all a surprise to us, we have been in the same spot, our customers would have a difficult time finding us, and we would lose sales for a few weeks because of this. We have experience with this and know this would be a result of moving at such a large market. I tried to explain this to her and ask why she wouldn’t have told us first, so we could make an attempt at notifying our customer of the move, but she said “you’re arguing with me about this your banned!” And walked off. As I sat in my car in disbelief for a moment our vendor friend came to my window to console me, and Salila walked back up to my car grabbed his arm and aggressively toted him away saying that she didn’t want him talking to me because she’s banning me. Out of frustration I told her that he is our friend and she didn’t have the right to not allow him to talk to me. She walked around my car, beat on my driver side window and sarcastically told me to roll my window down with her hands, for then she leaned into my window, and aggressively told me in my face that she owned this market and she could do anything she pleased, yelled that we were banned again and walked away. I drove out of the parking area, and to my husband to tell him we wouldn’t be setting up, and he said he would go speak with her to try to reason with her, As we had $1,000 worth of perishable product in our vehicles to sell that day. She told him we could set up at the end of the parking lot as she’d told me, proceeded to direct him to the spot and then told him that we could setup today but we would be banned next week anyways. We left to avoid any more confrontation with this unstable person. A few days later she wrote to say we could return if we followed the rules, and we replied with, “ok thank you”, she asked if we would attend, and we replied that we would. We attended that Saturday, she walked passed our booth multiple times, where our car was parked 15ft away from our tent, next to our neighbors who have two generators running directly behind their booths, without saying a word to us. Next morning she emailed to say we were not welcome at the market any longer because she had told the other Microgreens vendor they needed to increase supply as we would be gone soon. We have lost a couple thousand dollars because of her erratic behavior. Everyone at this market has a story of her outlandish attitude and rude...

Update to her reply: Everybody definitely felt the same way that I felt. I don't know how you can wave off you bad behavior like you did nothing wrong. I apologize to the Farmer after you left, I felt so bad. They said that’s a common thing here the other two vendors beside the Farmer said they normally put their head down so they don’t have to speak with you. If you look at all the other one star reviews they’re all about her too. Looks like a duck, act’s an quacks like a duck you might just be a duck lady. One person ok maybe but the handfuls on here an all the other stories not one here.

You definitely charge those farmers I asked them but good try with more of your lie’s, you talk about respecting the farmers yet you lie and lie on these replies. Like I said I’m here to call you out cause they can’t.

The owner of this farmers market is atrocious mind you I'm just a customer not vendor, I don't even deal with her but I feel they can't speak out so I will.. I'm waiting in line, She's buying green from a small farmer an she give them a hard time about not giving her a discount at first I thought it was playful, but she was serious and persistent getting a discount on a 6 dollar bag of greens. It's sad because that farmer is paying her money to be there and she asking for a discount?? .. it gets better she then ask if she can pay her next week. I'm not a farmer so I don't know but I can barely make it with 40 hour weeks I couldn't imagine trying to make a living farming in 2024. They have two or three kids and she over here complaining about a dollar after she making money from them be there. The ladies like a parasite or a leech and it's sad because there's tons of amazing small businesses and they've all got to pay her at the end of the day and if any of them stand up or say anything she'll just ban them n won't allow there small business to have a place to sell so the vendors are stuck in between say something n losing for there family or just allowing her to teach vendors and customers with sure blatant disrespect. I'll be a voice of reason for those vendors and speak out and say that it's wrong. I'll get five stars to the small businesses and vendors, but I'd have to give zero stars...

This is a substantial Farmers Market situated just 5 miles from Downtown Austin with a vast variety of vendors. I popped in for a quick look on my way to see Shrek 2's 20th Anniversary at AMC and was glad to see a great turn out here. Since the market is in a mall parking lot, parking was really easy. (I typically avoid downtown farmers markets simply because of parking.) For my first visit to Austin on a quick weekend trip, I couldn't endulge, but did try a couple of places. First, Jeany's Caribbean Elixirs. I had a Soursop and Tamarindo juice with lite agave. It was nice, freshing, and reasonably priced. She has a lot of nice juices but I chose elixirs that have rare and hard to comeby ingredients. She offered samples for all of them and seemingly you can't go wrong with choosing any of them. Next, I stopped at Big Brazos, for some pecans, in honor of my quick visit to The Monkey Tree yesterday, which is a magnificent pecan tree. Mr. David, the owner, was very helpful and friendly, he allowed me to sample his selection of Honey, Cinnamon, Raw, Hot, Coconut, and Dulce de Leche pecans. I chose a package of Honey for sweetness and a package of Hot since I like things spicy. Both were very nice and fresh, not too sweet and smooth mild heat. His jars of honey also seems to be a very popular item amongst the locals as a few people stopped by asking specifically for it. Overall all, a great vendor. I enjoyed my conversation with Mr. David, he broke the ice by wondering if I was shy by my soft spoken nature, and he ended up giving me an inspirational introduction to Austin. I don't plan on moving to Texas but I enjoyed hearing his story of how he and his significant other (rest beautiful soul Rachel) purchased an abundance of land to live off of. I'm glad to see farmers and natural producers...