Heart-Warming Holidays at CCFM | November 13, 2023

Fresh & Local:

Heart-Warming Holidays at CCFM

As the holidays approach, stop by the Crescent City Farmers Market to stock up on local produce for all of your favorite recipes! After a difficult year for farmers in our region with a late-season freeze, extreme heat, and drought, now more than ever, local food producers could use your support. Whether you need sweet potatoes for your signature holiday baked goods, cheese for a hearty casserole, or a bunch of greens to make a heart-warming side dish, CCFM vendors are coming into the fall harvest season and have brought plenty to the markets for you to enjoy! Make sure you keep CCFM in mind as you plan your holiday shopping list. Our Tuesday market before Thanksgiving Day is one of our most robust markets of the year and will be filled with a bounty of vendors to meet all your holiday ingredients and gift-giving needs!

Picks of the Week:

Upcoming Holiday Market Schedule

The holidays are upon us and we can’t wait to celebrate one of our favorite foodie days, Thanksgiving, which is coming up next week! Have you done your planning yet? If not check, out our latest recipe ideas here to add to your meal. Remember that Thursday market on Thanksgiving Day will be closed, so come visit us soon and stock up on the freshest and specialty items for your farm to table holiday celebration.

Holiday Market Closures:
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Sunday, December 24, 2023
Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Tabling at the American Heart Association 2023 New Orleans Heart Walk

Catch Market Umbrella (MU) at the American Heart Association's 2023 New Orleans Heart Walk on November 18, 2023! Giveaways, a community nutrition activity, and resources to raise awareness of MU and Greaux the Good (GTG) programs can all be found at our tent. The Heart Walk is the American Heart Association's premiere fundraising event to help save lives from the USA's #1 and #5 killers: heart disease and stroke. Funds raised from this event support the AHA’s life-saving research, training, and medical breakthroughs. Come on out to walk your way to better heart health, and be sure to stop by the MU tent to say hello! We hope to see you soon!

Garden on Mars Closes and Free Purple Sweet Potatoes at Tuesday Market

Living in a cold climate for most of her life, Jeanette Bell struggled to grow flowers year-round. But when she moved to New Orleans, she started growing all 12 months of the year! New Orleans is as close to heaven as a gardener can get. The most magnificent zinnias grow in the summer heat, not to mention enough basil for a lifetime supply of pesto. Garden on Mars began in 2003, when Ms. Jeanette bought a trash-filled vacant lot in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. She transformed it into an organic garden filled with brilliant roses, citrus, and vegetables she grew all by herself. She then replicated the same model in the Lower 9th Ward, where there are still hundreds of blighted lots post-Katrina. After Katrina, there was a great need for fresh food in New Orleans, so her focus moved from flowers to veggies. The time has come for Garden on Mars to close, but Ms. Jeanette is still working in urban agriculture. Stop by the Tuesday Uptown Markets to pick up information and a purple sweet potato plant from a partnership between Ms. Jeanette and Tulane Service Learning Students.

Your Support Means Everything to Us

By supporting vendors at the Crescent City Farmers Market, you make a difference in the lives of more than 70 local food producing families and the thousands they feed each week.

Your support empowers us to build stronger connections between families and local food businesses. Market Mommas Club, our support group for nursing mothers, introduces new parents to the farmers market. Marketeers Club, an activity group for children, instills a love for fresh, local food in the hearts and tummies of the next generation. Our Market Match program offers a cash match on groceries purchased using SNAP so that families can enjoy even more fresh, local food.

Market Umbrella depends on the collective impact of the market community. Donors like you make it possible for food producers to thrive. Please consider making a further investment in local food by donating to Market Umbrella. You may donate online at marketumbrella.org, or through your phone by texting CCFM to 44-321.

Vendor of the Week:

Chickadee Natives

Owner Charlsie Shaver began growing native plants in 2016 when she had her own landscaping business that focused on natives and pollinator habitats. Six years later, Charlsie decided to focus solely on the nursery side of the business and began Chickadee Natives in yet another New Orleans backyard. These days, she spends her time combing the city and countryside, collecting seeds from imperiled populations, then propagating them to bring customers a diverse array of locally adapted native plants. Focusing on local genetics helps preserve the genetic diversity of species and ensures that they will remain resilient in the face of change. Charlsie believes in the power of the home gardener to have a positive impact on the health of local ecosystems, and she looks forward to expanding her offerings in the coming year.

Recipe of the Week:

Root Vegetable Hash Egg Skillet

This hearty recipe from “Naturally Ella” features many fall vegetables and can be served on its own for breakfast or as a side dish in a larger meal. Nearly every ingredient can be sourced from market. The Isabels and the Monicas have potatoes, sweet potatoes, and turnips, as do River Queen Greens. Star Nursery has garlic, and herbs can be bought from The Sprout Truckstop table and Mizell Farm. There are five vendors that sell eggs: VEGGI Co-Op, Pearl River Pastures, Indian Springs, Sprout, and White Sands Farms. Try out goat feta cheese from Huckleberry Farms to round out your market-approved meal; check which vendors will be at market by clicking here.