<p>Gear Up for GiveNOLA!</p> | May 6, 2024

Fresh & Local:

Gear Up for GiveNOLA!

Join us tomorrow, May 7th, at the Tuesday Uptown Market to celebrate GiveNOLA Day 2024! Your favorite CCFM vendors will have fresh, local produce and delicacies to stock up on, including bluebs, which have officially hit the market! We’ll have vendor demos with NOLA Botanical Tea and La Vie en Rose Café, seasonal tastings at the Education in the Market tent, and a prize wheel to spin with GiveNOLA Day donations of $20+. While you’re at the market, learn more about our efforts to increase food access and community health – and how you can help.

Headlining the day is the exciting CCFM Chopped Chef Challenge - Three local chefs go head-to-head in a cooking challenge using market ingredients found in the rotating weekly CCFM Top Box! Battling it out, we have Chef Kim of K.D.'s NOLA Treats, Chef Maya of the Black Roux Culinary Collective, and Chef Rob from Wood Duck. Come watch, taste, and vote for your favorite!

Join us in growing a stronger, healthier and more resilient community. Can’t make it to market? You can donate now by visiting the Market Umbrella GiveNOLA Day page.

Picks of the Week:

Wednesday at the Square: May 8th

YLC’s Wednesday at the Square is a free concert series in Lafayette Square, from 5-8pm and is open to the public. For the second to last Wednesday of the 2024 series, Market Umbrella will be tabling as the featured non-profit! This free concert features the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Victor Campbell y la Timba Swamp. It’s going to be a beautiful evening full of music, food, drinks, and good vibes. And some of your favorite CCFM vendors will be there including Paw Paw’s Donuts, Paella NOLA, Que Pasta NOLA, Fresh Fruit Sensations, and KD’s Nola Treats. Be sure to swing by the Market Umbrella table and say hi! 

Shrimp! Shrimp! Shrimp!

While crawfish is rightfully iconic to New Orleans, let us not forget about our other favorite Louisiana seafood - shrimp! This Friday, May 10th marks National Shrimp Day and you better believe we have a number of suggestions for how you can celebrate. As an important part of our region's cuisine, shrimp is a staple of many Cajun and Creole dishes. They can be boiled, fried, stewed in a Creole sauce or an étouffée, stuffed with breadcrumbs and rice, and found in gumbos and jambalayas. Shrimping has a long history in South Louisiana and we are proud to offer the “fruit of the sea” at each of our markets, but just like any fruit you’re likely not going to see it all year round. This time of year you’ll find brown shrimp available, as opposed to white shrimp in the fall. Brown shrimp have a strong flavor that goes great with robust dishes like gumbo and jambalaya, whereas white shrimp can be a little sweeter. No matter how you choose to celebrate this special day, just be sure not to skimp on locally caught shrimp, available in various sizes, whole or peeled and deveined at any CCFM! For vendors, check out Pete & Clara’s Seafood and Anna Marie Seafood.

Spring Harvest

Get ready for a whole new cornucopia of warm-weather crops, including green beans, sugar and snow peas, potatoes, and cucumbers! Keep an eye out for blueberries on the horizon -- Johndale Farm has already managed to sneak in an early pint or so, and J&D Blueberry will soon come online with plenty of the bluebs. With a final flush, we’ll bid farewell to cabbage, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, and as we progress into summer, welcome creole tomatoes, okra, eggplant, peaches, and melons.

Stock up with your favorite producers at Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday markets for the last of the winter harvest and to whet your appetite for a colorful spring plate! Perrilloux Farms is back at the Thursday and Sunday markets with a first-time-ever product - artichokes! Poché Family Farm has already busted out the cukes on Tuesdays and Sunday. Amorphous Gardens returns with garlic galore. You can feel the season in our Top Box home delivery box as well, chock full of arugula, spicy greens, zucchini and so much more!

Flowers for Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day! Come start the day with your loved ones at the Sunday City Park Market. Grab a bouquet for the mother figures in your life from Cicada Calling Farm, who will be popping up at this Sunday market, in addition to the lovely specialty flowers from White Oaks Farms, Amorphous Gardens, the Monicas, or VEGGI Co-Op. Swing by Paw Paw’s Donuts for breakfast sandwiches and donuts, Coffee Science and Riverboat Coffee Company for a morning beverage, and so much more! 

Vendor of the Week:

Anna Marie Seafood

As a third-generation fisherman, Lance Nacio, owner of Anna Marie Seafood, is proud to have served the Crescent City farmers market community for the last 20 years. Building a legacy where tradition meets innovation, Anna Marie has been in operation since 1997 and has since then prioritized producing “good, clean, and wholesome food”. Lance grew up an hour outside the city in Lafourche Parish, where he learned from his grandfather and father how to make a living from the land and sustainably fish and hunt. Since then, Lance has made it his lifelong goal to produce premium seafood, and now his nephew, Lane, joins in his family’s legacy. Anna Marie, named after Lance’s two daughters, offers a wide variety of products, including snapper, grouper, shrimp, and now, tenderized alligator meat! Find Anna Marie Seafood weekly at the Sunday City Park market!

Recipe of the Week:

Fresh Blueberry Crisp

With blueberries hitting the market this month, try this sweet and crunchy dessert! This recipe is great for a dinner party - serve it hot from the oven over some vanilla ice cream after the meal! Save the leftovers to have over greek yogurt in the morning.