Location

The 2023 Railyards Holiday Market is an annual event held in the Barelas Neighboohood at the Location of the historic former Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Locomotive Servicing Shops, 707 1st Avenue Southwest, Albuquerque, New Mexico just south of the Albuquerque Depot for Amtrak, the NM RailRunner, and Greyhound Motor Coaches.

Holiday Market Historicity

The Railyards Holiday Market was successful and brisk ( like Lipton Teas, but I sell coffee). The management at The Railyards placed me “inside” the old Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Albuquerque New Mexico Railroad Shops Brake Building, by an open door. The AT&SF Shops were active for almost 100 years! The complex covers many acres and has many interesting structures showing off American Industrial Architecture at its finest.

Number of Vendors

The Brake Building had about sixty vendors the other building probably about the same , but the outdoor vendors seemed to number around 100. Foods included potatoes, apples , chili ( red and ristras ) prepared goodies such as green chili stew , cakes, cookies and pies. There were close to 20 taco trucks and mobile vendors included in the mix.

Brisk Sales

Both days were brisk, and sales were good too. I think I mostly do these “Dog and Pony Shows ” as a public service and to entertain the public with my humor or lack of humor. Thank you if you attended , and many thanks if you purchased my beans! I had to give away my samples of brewed coffee, and the coffee had to be cold – brewed.

Cold-Brewed Coffee

I used my ” Aeropress XL (c) ” to cold brew my samples and Saturday was my learning curve. Sunday I came close to perfect. Took me 35 minutes from start to finish. I poured about 35 grams of fine ground coffee ( hand ground in a Hario Skerton (c) hand grinder ) into a compostable coffee cup ( 12 ounces capacity) and added about 5 ounces of water, stirred once and let it sit for ten minutes, covered. Then I stirred it again to attempt to get the grounds to accept water ( the grounds were ‘gassing-off’ ) then set my cell phone timer for another ten minutes .

After the initial 20 minutes in the paper cup I stirred the grounds thoroughly and then dumped the water grounds mixture into my XL. I then added at least 7 more ounces of water to the Aeropress filling it to the ‘3’ mark on the cylinder. I stirred furiously then placed the plunger into the cylinder and let the grounds saturate for another ten minutes , then pressed out the cold brew. Voila! The Peru Organic came out a bit ‘woodsy” on day 2, the Yemen on Day 1 was tea-like , the Yemen on Day 2 was nearly perfect in color, flavor and mouth feel.

Coffees featured

I sold out of my Peru Organic, Honduras Organic and had one 12 ounce bag of Yemen, one bag of the Colombia Double Macerated Huila Honey Process (8 oz.) and a partial bag of Peru taken from stock as a sampler bag ( 8 oz) to bring home.

So, four coffees-

*Columbia Double Macerated Huila Honey ( Honey Process) ( bright apple-y),

* Honduras Organic Paca Vita ( Dark roast full body),

*Peru Organic( both washed process ) ( woodsy, rich), and:

*Yemen Mokka – Sa’anani ( dried-in-cherry or natural process) ( chocolate-y , well-rounded ) were available as whole bean coffees only.

Future Events

My next Railyards Market (https://railyardsmarket.org) I am planning for is the Valentines Day Weekend Market in February. Other wise I hope to see you at any of the Socorro Farmers winter Market (https://socorrofarmersmarket.org) Saturdays at the Socorro Teen Center at 1001 Ake Street ( just off Bullock Avenue behind the laundromat) coming up and the Saturday December 16th Fiesta de Navidad Market at the Macy Center 909 Olive Lane, Socorro, NM (https://nmt.edu/macey) at the Tech Campus at 6:00 pm.

Please keep an eye on these pages for more event info as I go. Please do not forget to comment on my processes. I hope for good Holidays for you and yours.