Serious Eats
Houston's Lettuce Lady Moves On
Peggy Grodinsky of the Houston Chronicle and other area foodies bid farewell to their Lettuce Lady, a.k.a. sustainable gardening pioneer Camille Waters, who is moving to Mexico to start a new life:
"She opened the door for a lot of people who are doing farmers markets today, (for) bringing great product to your back door,'" chef Mark Cox said. "She got the ball going on (eating) local. She was one of the first to say, "I can grow the product here in Houston."
While Houston is no San Francisco - a city where headlining exquisite regional produce on fine-restaurant menus is de rigueur - a small network of "boutique farmers'' supply Houston's best chefs with locally grown produce and sell directly to consumers at public markets. This reflects a national movement toward eating locally, organically, seasonally and sustainably. Here in Houston, Waters was a pioneer, if not the pioneer; her ideas and example have helped the growers who have followed her down the garden path.