<p>Market Proud</p> | June 3, 2024

Fresh & Local:

Market Proud

This Saturday, June 8th is the annual pride parade in New Orleans! In honor of Pride Month, the Crescent City Farmers Market is celebrating the LGBTQ+ farmers and makers at our farmers markets, each one creating a more just, sustainable, and nourishing world. They care for the people, animals, and the land through their activism and craft, and we care for them! While there is still much work to do in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and liberation, particularly for farmers in rural communities and for transgender community members, there are also many victories to celebrate and stories to share, like how Queer Farmers Are Changing the Landscape.

Here’s how you can eat the rainbow this month at the market!

• Pink - peaches, radish
• Red - Creole tomatoes, radish, new potatoes, peppers, watermelon, beets
• Orange - carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe
  Yellow - summer squash, peppers
• Green - zucchini, peppers, basil, onions, cucumber, mustard greens
• Blue - blueberries
• Violet - eggplant, peppers, onions, radicchio, plums, mulberries, turnips

Good Food Word of the Week:

While Market Umbrella is known for our farmers markets and fresh food access programs, food systems work touches on many social, economic, and environmental issues. The Good Food Word of the Week seeks to shed some light on these parts of our work and the way we talk – demystifying the jargon.

Good Food

Food that is picked when ripe and yields maximum nutritional value, grown locally, which limits carbon emissions as the result of transportation and keeps foods fresh and nutritionally intact, produced by small farmers whose methods are in many ways more environmentally sustainable than conventional agriculture, for which the farmer and their employees get paid fairly and can make a decent living, and is affordable and accessible for all eaters.  For shorthand, we often define good food as healthy, green, fair and affordable.  When you’re shopping at the farmers market, you are supporting good food!

Picks of the Week:

Eat Local Bike Tour Rescheduled

Since this past weekend was extra rainy, the Eat Local Bike Tour has been rescheduled for next Sunday, June 16th. Thanks to all who were planning on attending, we hope that you can still join us on the rescheduled date. Make sure to tell your friends who might be able to come now! We’ll be kicking off the morning at the Sunday City Park Market with coffee and hitting the road to: 

• Grow Dat Youth Farm!
• Porgy's Seafood Market!
• Sprout Nola!
• Skeeta Hawk Brewing!

You might be on your bike, but we’ll have coolers for all of your shopping and hydration needs! And bike repair capabilities to keep you rolling.

Market Umbrella Staff Education Day

The Market Umbrella staff had a wonderful learning retreat out east last Friday. Thanks to VEGGI Co-op for taking us on an educational tour of their urban farm in Village de L’Est, a Vietnamese-American community in New Orleans East. We learned all about how the co-op started with backyard greenhouses and hydroponic systems and how it’s grown to feed all three of the CCFM markets and the community at large. Thank you VEGGI for the tour - be sure to catch them at all three of the markets!

June: Music at the Market!

Ok summer kickoff! Check out the rockin' lineup of local musicians performing at each of the June markets.

June 4th (Tuesday Uptown Market) - Ashley Beach

June 9th (Sunday City Park Market) - Hex Windham

June 13th (Thursday Mid-City Market) - Shark Attack!!

June 23rd (Sunday City Park Market) - Jake Gartenstein & Max Sanders 

June 27th (Thursday Mid-City Market) - The New Orleans Rug Cutters

Are you a musician interested in performing at the Crescent City Farmers Market? We are looking for bands of one to three musicians to perform at one of our three weekly markets! Visit Music at the Market to learn more and apply.

Vendor of the Week:

Sam Sprouts

Sam Sprouts is a small farm that produces a variety of cleaned, dehulled, spin dried and carefully packaged hydroponic sprouts, fresh cut varieties of microgreens, and seasonal produce. Sam started growing sprouts in his kitchen 15 years ago and fell in love with the process of growing and harvesting. He has now been in business for a decade and grows at least an acre or two of gardens every year. With a passion for helping others, Sam aims to inspire new young farmers in the industry. You can find Sam Sprouts at the Sunday City Park market. Be sure to stop by!

Recipe of the Week:

Poche Family Farms Roasted Delicata Squash

While we might not think of winter squash like delicata when we think summer produce, cucurbits, the family that brings us cucumbers, melons and squash, are all producing now. Winter squash, so called because its thicker skin allows it to be stored through the winter, is no exception to this cucurbit rule. Winter squash are chock full of vitamins and fiber, and also highly shelf stable, so if you’ve gone overboard at market and have an abundance of perishables on hand, you could save these for next week - or next month! Here’s a super simple recipe from long-time vendor Poche Family Farms. It’s a great preparation for any winter squash, like butternut, acorn or spaghetti squash, but cooking times may vary depending on the size/thickness of the squash.