Fall Harvest Fest at the French Market | October 30, 2023

Fresh & Local:

Fall Harvest Fest at the French Market

With the arrival of cool weather this past week, it sure feels like fall is here. Harvest time is a special time of year, with the arrival of fall crops like leafy greens, citrus and the beginning of root vegetables and broccoli. Join us for Fall Harvest Fest in partnership with the French Market and Eat Local NOLA on Saturday, November 4 from 11 am - 4 pm at 1100 N Peters Street to celebrate the bounty of our region!

The festival will feature CCFM vendors selling fresh produce, local seafood and meats, prepared food, and more! There will also be activities for kids, and live music! Bands playing include Joe Lastie’s New Orleans Sound, NPS Arrowhead Jazz Band with special guests, Creole String Beans, and Jose Fermin & Merengue4FOUR. It’s sure to be a delicious and abundant gathering. The Fall Harvest Fest put on by the same people that do the wildly popular Creole Tomato Fest, is free and open to the public––we hope to see you there!

Picks of the Week:

Winter Hours at Thursday Mid-City Market

On Sunday, November 4, the clocks will fall back an hour with the end of Daylight Savings. Beginning on November 9, the Thursday market will change to winter hours of 3-6 pm due to the loss of an hour of light. We’ll return to the 3-7 pm schedule in March when Daylight Savings starts again and the days are longer!

National Seafood Month at CCFM

Did you know that October is National Seafood Month? It’s a pretty big deal at CCFM, with a seafood vendor at each market! At the Sunday City Park Market, you can find Anna Marie Seafood. As a third-generation fishing family and a proud CCFM vendor for over 20 years, Anna Marie prioritizes “good, clean, and wholesome food.” They carry a wide variety of products, including snapper, grouper, shrimp, and now, tenderized alligator meat! At the Tuesday Uptown and Thursday Mid-City Markets, make sure to get there early to get the freshest catch from Pete and Clara’s Seafood. Everything they sell was caught the previous day, be sure to swing by early to ensure you get the freshest whole shrimp, finfish fillets including catfish, drum and sheephead, picked crab and frozen peeled and deveined shrimp - super convenient for quick weeknight meals.

November Marketeers Meetup

It’s time for the November Marketeers meetup! Join CCFM and all your Marketeer friends on Sunday, November 5, from 8 am to noon for a build-your-own zucchini cart activity. There will also be prizes for costume wearers! Meet us at the More Than a Market Tent. Marketeers Club is a free membership program for market goers 12 years old and under. To learn more about the program and enroll your kids in the Marketeers Club, please complete this brief membership form.

Vendor of the Week:

Pete and Clara’s Seafood

As a founding vendor of the Tuesday market, Pete & Clara’s Seafood is an essential part of the CCFM community! Everything they sell is the freshest, healthiest, most local, and sustainable seafood you can get anywhere in New Orleans — some might say it's shrimply the best around! Pete does the fishing, mostly in Lakes Pontchartrain and Borne, while his daughter, Christina, does the processing and selling. Find them both at market Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Recipe of the Week:

Seafood and Okra Gumbo

October is National Seafood Month! It's also time to use the last of summer’s veggies in a cozy fall meal—cue Seafood and Okra Gumbo. The okra’s natural mucilage gives the gumbo its rich thickness and deep flavor. This is a great recipe for that bounty of summer’s okra in your freezer, or pick up some late-season okra from VEGGI Co-op or River Queen Greens, be sure to pick some up before they sell out! Tomatoes can still be found on many tables at market, the Monica’s, the Isabel's, Fekete and Faust Family Farms, just to name a few. Be sure to shop CCFM for your seafood too, shrimp and crab are in season and at market. See the article above for which seafood vendors will be at which market. Don’t be shellfish, this recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen serves 8, so gather your ingredients and friends to show off this truly so-fish-ticated comfy fall dish.