Shrimp Season! | August 23, 2021

Fresh & Local:

Shrimp Season!

It is shrimp season again! While shrimp can be caught year-round offshore in the Gulf, inshore shrimping has seasons. August 9th marked the opening of white shrimp season this year but CCFM vendors anticipate having lake shrimp available in late September/October.

It is Louisiana’s nutrient-rich estuaries that provide the unique habit for shrimp to flourish. In the shallow depths where the sweet fresh water of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers meet the salty waters of the Gulf of Mexico, you will find the best shrimp in the world! There are two dominant shrimp species, brown and white, that can be found inshore. White shrimp can be found year round, and Brown shrimp come inshore during the spring and summer but with prevalent issues in water management, rarely get to a marketable size, so we don’t often see them at market.

Gerica’s Seafood and Anna Marie Seafood are CCFM’s shrimp vendors, and we look forward to the return of Mrs. Kay and Four Winds Seafood slated for fall. From fresh and whole to frozen, peeled and deveined, you’ll find the shrimp you need at any of the weekly CCFM markets.

Picks of the Week:

Covid - Stay Safe - Please Mask Up

The health and safety of shoppers, vendors, and staff is our top priority. Masking outdoors is not currently mandated, but you don’t need a mandate to do the right thing. We appreciate seeing all of the support in masking as we work to best protect our community, as we have been doing for the last 18 months. While outside and in the fresh air, CCFM markets are a public gathering space, bringing hundreds of people from many households, including young children who can’t access COVID-19 vaccines, into close proximity with one another as we browse and handle sales and only 54.3% of New Orleanians are fully vaccinated as of this writing. Small businesses like those of CCFM vendors struggle when they miss markets due to illness, and the costs of hospital stays can quickly add up, even with the best insurance. We all look forward to being on the other side of this, but for now, with transmission of the delta variant very high in our area, we’re requiring staff to wear masks and encouraging other market visitors to do so as well.

P-EBT Eligible for Market Match

P-EBT, or Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, is a program to provide food assistance to children eligible for free or reduced price lunch who might not be getting their meals through the school due to pandemic disruptions. P-EBT benefits are now automatically issued to eligible families onto an EBT card for each child in the household, and are used like SNAP benefits to purchase groceries. Over 80% of students in Orleans Parish public schools are eligible, so this affects many families.

P-EBT dollars are eligible for the dollar for dollar Market Match at all CCFM locations and participating partners (Top Box Foods, ReFresh Farmers Market, River Queen Greens and Grow Dat Youth Farm) so for every P-EBT dollar spent in any of these locations, we’ll match it with another dollar, cutting the customer price in half and stretching that food dollar.

Market Mommas Club is Back!

Our Market Mommas Club is now enrolling for the 2021 cohort. Thanks to the generous support of LA Healthcare Connection, Market Umbrella is providing qualifying mothers with $60 per month until the end of the calendar year that can be spent at the market. To join this breastfeeding nutrition incentive program you must be WIC or Medicaid eligible, attend a lactation support class with one of our community partners, and register online by following the link HERE or register at market. Contact us with any questions at mmc@marketumbrella.org. This is a one-time opportunity for qualifying mothers, we kindly ask that participants of previous cohorts keep spots available for new participants.

See you at the Crescent City Farmers Market!

Vendor of the Week:

Anna Marie Seafood

As a 3rd 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 of 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. Anna Marie offers a wide variety of products including snapper, grouper, and of course, shrimp! Find Anna Marie Seafood weekly at the Sunday City Park market to find one of Lance’s favorites - golden tilefish, a flaky, tender white fleshed fish!

Recipes of the Week:

Auntie C’s Shrimp Pasta

This recipe comes from staffer Ardice Cotter’s family recipes and has been enjoyed by her family for many years. She hopes your family will enjoy it too!

What’s your favorite dish to make after visiting the Crescent City Farmers Market? Share your recipes with us on Instagram or Facebook or even Twitter and it might be featured in our weekly newsletter!