Curly brackets spanning multiple lines (no math env)

For language learning purposes I would like to use curly brackets with an selection of objects (multiple lines of text, no math environment like this).

But the code

\documentclass[12pt]{extarticle}
\usepackage[a4paper,verbose]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{empheq}

\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Gentium Plus}

\begin{document}

\begin{empheq}[left=\empheqlbrace,right=\empheqrbrace]{align*}
tomatoes \\
onions \\
cucumbers
\end{empheq}
in the market.

\end{document}


produces

In addition the words within the brackets should be left aligned.

• To expand on David's answer: you need an alignment environment that aligns to the left (align* alternates between right and left alignment). You also need something to switch to text mode, like \text{tomatoes}. David used a tabular environment to perform both of these functions. – Dan Nov 18 '14 at 20:57
• Thank you for this clarification, Dan. I use a math environment but within that I switch to a text environment. – Hannes Nov 19 '14 at 14:46

\documentclass[12pt]{extarticle}
$\left\{ \begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}} tomatoes \\ onions \\ cucumbers \end{tabular} \right\}$