A sobering reality for underserved areas.
Sterling Farms grocery, co-owned by Wendell Pierce, closes after just one year | NOLA.com.
Sterling Farms grocery, co-owned by Wendell Pierce, closes after just one year | NOLA.com
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New Orleans
Tomorrow is another holiday in the New Orleans area and in many other Italian-American areas- St. Joseph’s Day. St. Joseph is the patron saint of the island of Sicily and it’s said during the famines of the Middle Ages, residents prayed to St. Joseph to deliver them, and the altars are built in thanks on his feast day, March 19.In the late 19th century, New Orleans was a major port of immigration for Italians from Sicily. Many settled in the French Quarter, nicknamed “Little Palermo” at the time. Devout Catholics promise altars for answered prayers and favors granted, such as healing or safe delivery.The food on an altar is supposed to be donated, or “begged.” Countless people work on the altars: Altar societies, church members, Catholic and non-Catholic spend untold hours, starting at the beginning of the year. Many New Orleaniains try to make a “pilgrimage” to a number of altars on the feast day, to churches, store and even to private homes.
and for those of you looking, those who secretly steal a lemon from a St. Joseph’s Day altar will get a husband. For those not in the search, you can just ask for a fava bean: Legend has it that you will never be broke as long as you carry a fava bean.
St. Joseph’s Day Altar
A Koi-Fueled Nursery in New Orleans Yields Tasty Profits
Thanks to Sanjay for sharing this; I have followed VEGGI’s emergence and believe that their efforts are one of the best examples of entrepreneurial farming combined with technology solutions and will benefit many farmers, rural and urban alike. The VEGGI cooperative and cooperatives like it are one of the best ways that small lot farmers can truly become economically sustainable and avoid the burnout of a one-farmer endeavor and how urban initiatives can learn quickly enough to benefit the region.
A Koi-Fueled Nursery in New Orleans Yields Tasty Profits – Wired Science.
The Idea Village Launches “Food Challenge” for New Orleans Entrepreneurs
The Idea Village announces that New Orleans-based entrepreneurs Creole Crackers, Feed Me Eat Pretty, Garden District Bloody Marys, NOLA Pie Guy (DBA Sugah), and Taryn’s Crab Cakes Factory have been selected to participate in its inaugural New Orleans Food Challenge. The Food Challenge, a pilot program which will take place during the 2014 Entrepreneur Season, is an effort to boost entrepreneurial activity in the food and beverage industry, in partnership with Reily Foods and Rouses Markets.
“Each year, The Idea Village hosts a variety of Strategic Challenges in an effort to elevate key local industries and strengthen partnerships across the entrepreneurial community,” said Tim Williamson, Co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village. “New to the Challenge lineup this year, the Food Challenge will mirror other successful vertical challenges, including Water and Education, providing access to unbelievable networks and strategic business consulting.”
“When it comes to innovation within the food and beverage industry, New Orleans has a longstanding competitive advantage,” said David Darragh, CEO of Reily Foods Company and Chairman of The Idea Village Board of Directors. “The Food Challenge will help us sustain this reputation by identifying and supporting some of the industry’s emerging businesses.”
“Rouses is one of the largest independent grocers in the United States and we are fully committed to supporting local farmers, fisherman, and food entrepreneurs.” said Allison Rouse, Rouses Markets. “The Food Challenge aligns perfectly with our buy local focus and we are a proud supporter of this initiative.”
The Food Challenge will be led by Idea Village Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Lisa Lloyd and J. Anthony Miguez, who have a combined 30+ years of experience working with early stage companies. Lisa and J. will provide customized coaching and manage the program’s mentor and advisor networks in order to accelerate the growth of participating companies.
Mentors include: Billy Bosch (Iconic), Erik Frank (Your Nutrition Delivered), Sal LaMartina (Cordina), and Lovey Wakefield (NOLAcajun.com). Advisors include: David Darragh (Reily Foods Company), John Elstrott (Whole Foods), Ti Martin (Commander’s Palace), Marcy Nathan (Advertising and PR), Allison Rouse (Rouses Markets), Robbie Vitrano (Naked Pizza), and Sandy Whann (Leidenheimer Baking Company).
During this nine-week program, entrepreneurs will receive over 40 hours of strategic consulting across customer development, risk mitigation, product validation, and business model optimization, along with the opportunity to network with other emerging local food ventures and local industry authorities. The program will culminate in a ‘Demo Day’ on December 17th, when two entrepreneurs will be selected to present during the 6th annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), March 22-28, 2014, the culmination of The Idea Village’s annual Entrepreneur Season.
To learn more about The Idea Village, The Idea Village’s 2014 Entrepreneur Season, and the inaugural New Orleans Food Challenge, visit http://www.ideavillage.org.
Grazing with goats in the Crescent City
Goats for grazing is a super idea for the many open, untended sites we have in New Orleans and throughout the U.S. This is a simple fundraising idea for an New Orleans entrepreneur that wants to use goats to graze public and private green space. She has already been contracted to use goats on a park in the city (Brechtel Park) starting in 2014 and needs support to get her business prepared for the work ahead.
I see she also sees this as public art, which I’d have to hear more about to understand I guess, but the goat grazing is by itself an idea that I can certainly support. Maybe you can too?
…To comment further on the public art point, I’d rather this be seen chiefly as a serious farming and open space issue that helps urban people see that livestock can safely serve many roles in the larger natural survival loop, even in our ordered urban environment.
New Market Umbrella Director hired
Since Richard McCarthy left in January to take over as Slow Food USA director, the board has been diligently searching for a new executive director for the New Orleans-based farmers market organization. They have found a new director who has long worked in the public health sector in the city on food access, pedestrian and bicycling issues, among many other healthy living projects.
It’s always interesting when a market moves from its founder to the next generation; the market community will certainly be working for a smooth transition and I am sure the new leadership will be very attuned to that fact.
Let the new day begin!
http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2013/11/new_executive_director_is_name.html
“Granular Resilience”
This excellent essay by my friend Mary Rowe, Managing Director of the Municipal Art Society of New York, gives some excellent language for communities to consider and adopt when talking about their own recovery or just their own plans for a human-scaled future for their food system. Just replace “New Orleans” with farmers markets or food systems and see how well it adapts.
“In post-Katrina New Orleans, informal, improvised approaches became the new normal. Part of the fragility in New Orleans continues to be how to support a transition to more reliably funded and scaled approaches, while still protecting the vibrant and informal, and not stifling new approaches with the rules of formality. The process of building urban resilience, like the cities in which it is being cultivated, is an organic, dynamic one, dependent on the creativity and resourcefulness of the people that live it.
Connecting Markets to Other Civic Activity
Take a look at the pic on the left-see the red square? Within that square, the 18-year old Crescent City Farmers Market sets up every Saturday from 8-12, rain or shine. I can personally attest to the traffic snarl this morning before 10 am on the streets around there, with most people unaware that their usual leisurely drive to this mostly Monday-Friday neighborhood would be upended by another superimposed civic activity, namely this race which has been run for only the last five years. No up-to-date information is shared with the market organization more than a day or two prior to this race being run (and that is only found through media sites posting it), which limits the market’s ability to tell its vendors or shoppers ahead of time about what to expect. Yet interestingly, the race supports an extremely worthy cause- The Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.
Since this race begins at 7 am (with fast runners, then slower runners and finally walkers) it’s over mostly by 10:30 am. Therefore, it might be sensible to move the start time of the market for just this week. The market does change its hours for the last Saturday of the Carnival Season, as much of that day’s activities are centered a few blocks away and so the market closes early to allow its vendors to make it out before the nearby streets are closed for hours of parades.
Or, it might be sensible for the race organizers to simply move the beginning of the race from the long street along the top of the course map that is Poydras and instead run it along the river over there on the right. Or maybe run it on Sundays. There may be other answers to this annual conundrum that should be discussed since there are other events that often impede traffic to this 4-hour market.
The main issue is that the race organizers, the city and the business district do nothing to accommodate the market at this point and ignore its very long and important economic, social and civic role. Why?
Why indeed. Certainly this market organization is adept at working with its city and neighborhoods; MarketUmbrella is a recognized leader in making the case for why farmers and markets are important. So why the cold shoulder when it comes to events?
The issue may very well be in its actual history. This market sits in this area partly because when the founders searched for the best location, this area was not yet a defined neighborhood. The founders have often shared the fact that they chose it for the first of their four (post Katrina, 3) weekly markets partly to not have neighborhood opposition back in those early days of the mid 1990s, when markets were much less understood and so they expected some pushback on a weekly event from other potential areas.
It may also be within the way that the organization has worked with its city-very cordially and with some transparency-but since all of the markets have always operated on private property, with some distance between them.
It may have nothing to do at all with the market’s willingness to work with the civic leaders, but an inability in the city to understand the importance of this weekly activity and to see its role as encouraging it to grow and to sustain itself.
My gut tells me it is a bit of all of these, but maybe a lot of the last. Well maybe its more than just my gut, since I served this market as Deputy Director for a number of years and then as its Marketshare Director. Here’s what I know.
Making the case for your market is a full time job and will be on the to-do list for as long as your market exists. New events will pop up in previously barren areas, new mayors and other leaders will decide to ask for parking fees on Saturdays, developers will build grocery stores and restaurants next to your market and assume that using your empty lot for parking is their right. How markets become “beloved institutions” in their community has something to do with how well they play with others. How they deal with external pressures also says a great deal about market organizations’ resilience and professionalism. The way that you can accomplish that goal is varied. You may create a feedback loop so as to activate your shopping base to be constantly making your case for you, or you may begin to work more closely with your elected officials over time to help them understand why they need you or you might simply move to another location that needs your market to anchor that area’s renaissance. In all these and more possible scenarios, the main actor should be the entity that runs the market since its the one that must handle situations like these in a way that allows sales to continue and mitigates the uncertainty for its community. By the way, I have written about markets and municipalities before here.
Food Day
Check out the “Big Easy Peel” event, a satsuma-peeling event starting at 11:30am on Oct. 24th at the Washington Artillery Park across from Jackson Square! Dr. DeSalvo, the health commissioner of New Orleans, will be there to speak and endorse Food Day. There’s more information about the event here: We’re looking to invite as many people as possible, so please spread the word!
Richard McCarthy and Poppy Tooker at CCFM event circa 2003 or 2004
A fascinating interview with Richard McCarthy, one of the founders and the first Executive Director of Market Umbrella and therefore of the Crescent City Farmers Market, Festivus (the fair trade holiday market), Market Match, Marketshare and so many other initiatives devised and run by this disciplined little NGO in New Orleans. This interview was done as McCarthy was leaving for Brooklyn for his new job as Executive Director of Slow Food USA and so is important as a record of the people and ideas that were in place when he devised the groundbreaking work that many of us proudly did under his direction.
Poppy Tooker has been a deep supporter of the organization and as she says, remains a close friend of Richard’s. There is so much detail in this interview about the history of the organization in those days when we existed as a project of Loyola University’s social justice center Twomey Center.
To hear a market founder talk about the plans and dreams of his work and how it was put together seems useful to anyone embarking on their own version.
Book Review: Louisiana Eats
Full disclosure: Poppy is my pal. She is someone who calls me up and then shows up, with a gift, thoughtful questions and always hilarious stories.
What made me a fan of hers early on was her razor-sharp take on people and situations, sometimes devastatingly so. Yet she is enormously kind and open to those people who ring true. No one that receives her wrath is ever underserving. If they get it, they usually have made one of two unforgivable sins: either they underestimated HER or they underestimated her city, her state or her people.
Another disclosure: I believe Poppy deserves as much credit as anyone in my region for rebuilding the New Orleans food system after the federal levee breaks in 2005. Too many stories to tell here, but come on over and if you care, I’ll tell you some of them over a drink. Or two. There are a lot of them to tell. Some of them are funny, some are sweet, some even a bit crazy.
These two points are linked since her life’s work is to actively promote entrepreneurs and real ideas that will build (or rebuild when necessary) the culture of her place, Louisiana. In doing that work, she extended her range to all authentic food systems across the globe through her Slow Food International connection that meant that New Orleans gained the Slow Food vibe from the mid 1990s on.
Let me also say that most of the SFUSA folks understand her range, giving her much early credit for shaping the U.S. work that she built with others-that is, until she had to unleash her wrath on previous Slow Food leadership over the (mis) direction of a crucial program that she had helped shepherd. Luckily, she and SF made up.
Remember, I warned you that she is a fierce opponent when she feels it’s necessary.
When she started the Louisiana Eats show, she had already done a great deal of writing and television. Her talents really came to light when she began this show; her intense enjoyment and knowledge of the people and history of food and culture through one-on-one conversations on our local NPR station and now in this book. I remember a glorious Saturday morning on Louisiana Eats when she and Rien Fertel talked about praline sellers and another when she talked with Miss Linda Green, The Yakamein lady, and another when she talked with French bread baker John Gendusa among many others. Each time, I would stop what I was doing and literally stand there and listen intently to her intricate questions and always learn something. And her interaction with the dean of New Orleans Creole food, Leah Chase which is always touching and amazing since you get to hear two chefs with great respect for each other just banter and share stories. And when she has on young activists or farmers (like Nick Usner who is in the book), you can hear the hope in her voice for the new energy coming along…
So this book is a reminder of many lovely Saturdays and is indicative of the tone that I myself have adopted for much of my food activism: wild enthusiasm, critical assessment and a deep appreciation of the stories and background of those unique people that tell of our culture and food. Because of her, I know to seek them out, and maybe I’ll find some new folks from those Poppy has brought to us on her show and in this book. The book itself (lovely photos and recipes) is informative and a great companion to her show and I know that it will stand the test of time as a true record of some of the people that we have in our world. And of my pal who contributes so much to our place.
<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/635646-blue-collar-mind”>View all my reviews</a>
On Being a Boss: Kristen Essig Takes Over at Sainte Marie – Eater Interviews – Eater NOLA
Below, is a link to an interview with a New Orleans chef who has embedded local purchasing into the very DNA of her kitchen.
The day I met Kristen was the day (2002? 2003?) that she interviewed to be our Crescent City Farmers Market (CCFM) Tuesday/Thursday market manager. She came to the interview with a slate of ideas and opinions backed up with a vitality that could not be denied. We were surprised that someone with her fine dining experience (and obvious ambition) wanted to work for our little organization, but she explained that she wanted to know all facets of the food system.
During her tenure, she can be credited with building our Green Plate Special program, which allows restaurants to come for a full month of Tuesdays to sell plate lunches to the shoppers at the CCFM and, of course, allows those chefs to understand the farmers and fishers better and to have long stretches to watch market vending in person.
As a chef, she came with a “shoot from the hip” framework and never stopped running the entire time she worked with us. Like anyone who has worked on the line at top restaurants, she was intimidating to some but we knew that she always led with what was in the best interest of our farmers and fishers. Through her, we understood the psyche of the chef better and started to realize that we should get to know the sous chefs and line cooks that were more often at the market and were on their way to the top position. Many of those have now become leaders of their own restaurant (why, like our friend Kristen Essig!) and almost all have become fierce supporters of those markets.
“As a line cook, you develop a relationship with vendors as they come in the back door, but actually working with the vendors at the market was a totally different thing. You’re working, really, with 20 small businesses, and they’re all trying to make certain quotas, and they all have certain amounts of product that they have to move. You develop strong relationships with these people—you learn that they have bills to pay, whose kid needs braces, etc.”
On Being a Boss: Kristen Essig Takes Over at Sainte Marie – Eater Interviews – Eater NOLA.
Cleaver & Co. New Orleans
I just visited the newest member of the New Orleans localvore family, Cleaver & Co. a no-frills, full-service butcher shop. The posted educational information at this store is easily understood but when necessary, the staff is quite knowledgeable when it comes to more in-depth questions. It makes me think about how we communicate livestock issues and value within farmers markets; has the consumer education gone as deeply as it has for fruit and vegetable production? Should market managers explain the regulation and production issues in more detail than we have? Really, how much do market managers actually know about what unique issues these producers face, such as amount of land needed for grazing, treating animal illnesses naturally, finding healthy feed, selecting the right USDA processor when applicable and so on…
New Orleans Localvore Market
Not a farmers market, but it has the same values of local sourcing, direct sales/education between producers and shoppers, educational activities and fun as the longtime farmers markets in the city. These folks have spread the gospel of sourcing locally with this and with their Eat Local Challenge each June. A great sister project to the Crescent City Farmers Markets, with which they work closely.
Locavore (sic) Market in New Orleans, held during this neighborhood’s Eat Local Challenge Month
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 