Local farmers markets take root

The farm-to-table and organic movement has spread like wildfire across the country and with good reason. More and more people are concerned about where their food comes from and how it is grown. The demand for locally grown healthier food has provided an opportunity for unprecedented growth in the local farmers market arena.

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Donna Curtis, the executive director of Shreveport Green, said she is excited about the growing popularity of farmers markets and how it will help people in North Louisiana to live healthier lifestyles.

“Shreveport Green is eager to promote our local farmers and to create an economic atmosphere for them to thrive in,” Curtis said.

Shreveport Green’s involvement in grassroots gardening has evolved right alongside the modern farm movement. “We’ve helped with community gardens for 23 years, but only recently have they become successful,” Curtis said. “Our work in the community gardens naturally led to our forming a Mobile Market. We realized that there are many food deserts in Shreveport that don’t have access to fresh produce or even the knowledge to prepare it in a healthy manner.”

Curtis said the term food desert means an area is lacking in three accesses. “First is geographical access with a fresh market within one mile,” she said. “Second is financial access because fresh, local produce is generally more expensive; and third is healthy preparation access where the fresh food is cooked in healthy ways instead of always frying.”

Curtis said Shreveport Green’s Mobile Market was designed to help people cross those barriers. The staff and volunteers work with local farmers to buy produce at a slightly lower price that is then passed on to residents at accessible locations. Food demonstrations are also offered onsite. The need for food education isn’t just a problem in low income areas, either.

“Louisiana and Shreveport in particular have a very high obesity rate,” Curtis said, “and subsequently, a high diabetes rate. One of the ways to combat this is through healthy eating and exercise. Getting homegrown food is the best way to ensure that the food you are putting into your body is the best it can be.”

FEAST! is Shreveport Green’s fundraiser designed to increase awareness of the importance of healthy fresh food and how delicious and satisfying it is when brought to the table. FEAST! will be held June 11 at Greenleaf Park in the Provenance community.

“Both previous FEASTs have been successful due to the collaboration of the chefs and farmers and the style that we use,” Curtis said. “Everyone sits at a long table – 70 yards long. The food is served family-style and everyone gets to talk with whoever is sitting next to them and to the farmers who are also sitting at the table. And people talk food. It’s been very exciting and enlightening.”

The goal of any farm-to-table feast is to use locally grown seasonal food as much as possible. “The FEAST! chefs designed the menu according to what was locally available at that time,” Curtis said. “In our first feast, the only things imported from out of the region were avocados and crabmeat, which were used in a salsa topping for the cold soup course.”

Proceeds from FEAST! will help Shreveport Green continue its Mobile Market services as well as establish a sustainable garden to help fuel it and keep it going. “But people can also help us through volunteering and getting information to us if they know of gardeners with extra produce,” Curtis said.

Provenance Homegrown

The Provenance Homegrown Farmers Market is a great place to host FEAST! It is a true neighborhood market that is open to the general public 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, May 14 – June 25 and 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Provenance is located in South Shreveport, just minutes from the Southern Loop exit off Interstate 49 South. Homegrown Farmers Market offers fresh produce and meats from farmers all around Louisiana, East Texas and Southern Arkansas, along with handmade crafts, local art and ready-to-eat food. The Provenance Farmers’ Market & Concert Series will feature free live concerts by such bands as Windstorm, Beau Atkins, HWY Lions, Haley Brooke, Christina Langston Band and Ukulele Gumbo.

South Highland

Another neighborhood market that is already growing in popularity in only its second year is Mall St. Vincent’s South Highland Summer Market, which is open through July 24. The South Highland Summer Market offers easy access and convenient parking with the market itself held under a large tent outside the mall in the parking lots adjacent to the historic St. Vincent Academy. The 2015 market will feature over 20 of the area’s most talented chefs, gardeners, artists and handcrafters, and it also offers live music in a family and pet friendly environment that is free and open to the public.

Bonné Summers with Apex Events said the market has grown and diversified since its first event last year.

“We try to focus on our dynamic: healthyat-home chefs or the take-and-bake market,” Summer said. “We’ve had quite a few chefs come on board this year. We offer a combo of fresh produce, healthy lifestyle products and art.”

The South Highland Summer Market will feature eat-on-site or take-home choices, such as chef-prepared vegan and organic foods from Go Greeenly, custom meats from Wild Thang and My Spa My Way’s zen garden wine smoothie. Other delicious offerings will include The Chubby Biscuit, which will introduce a new drop biscuit from Chef Michelle Everett from Channing Tatum’s “Saints and Sinners” New Orleans restaurant.

There will be plenty of fresh farm-grown produce alongside vendors such as Drake Catering with its Drake Dog Biscuits made from hops from Great Raft Brewery and BGoods, which offers honey and hive products made from honey and beeswax. Gumdrops and Lollipops will offer its wellknown and nostalgic candy brands, and Blossoms will offer convenient bundles of fresh flowers to go.

This year marks a new collaboration between the Mall St. Vincent South Highland Summer Market and the longtime Shreveport House Concert Series and kicked off opening night May 15 with a performance by Buddy Flett.

Summers said the South Highland Summer Market’s vibe is a fun thing to do on a Friday night. “I can’t tell you how many people came up to me every Friday night, last year,” Summers said. “They said things like, ‘This is just wonderful,’ and children got a kick out of it. They were eating fruit instead of hamburgers. It was just a chance to experience live music, dance and hang out with their parents.”

Shreveport Farmers Market

Some say it was the Shreveport Farmers Market that paved the way for the new markets that have sprung up around the area.

“The sheer number of farmers involved this year really drove home the idea that if you make it they will come,” Noma Fowler- Sandlin, manager of the Shreveport Farmers Market, said. “It’s nice to see such a big audience that is appreciative about the hard work they do in growing food. And we’re really happy about all the chefs and local restaurant owners shopping there.” Fowler- Sandlin said it is a big commitment to grow food today.

“It’s always challenging to be a farmer,” she said. “But it’s also a good time to be a farmer. More people are wanting to know how and where their food is grown. The farmers market provides a two-way street where consumers can share their concerns and farmers can respond. It sets up a dialogue. And people are more excited about the food when they have a relationship with its grower.”

“The thing I’m most excited about is the younger farmers really putting a lot of gusto into it,” Fowler-Sandlin said. “We try very hard to promote the craft of farming and make a place where those local small farmers can have a market for their goods.”

Judy Williams, president of Williams Creative Group, is a regular at the Shreveport Farmers Market where she loves the choices available for fresh and local food. “But really, it’s as much the people,” she said. “It’s the diversity of a crowd whose common bond is appreciation of fresh, locally-grown fare. I love seeing my friends and people I don’t know sharing in that passion.”

Shreveport Artists’ Market

Liz Swaine, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, said she is also excited about the area farmers markets and the opportunity they are bringing to the community.

“There’s such amazing growth in the local/ slow/organic/small farm movements locally,” she said. “Our farmers market ranks as one of the top in the nation and thousands of people flock to it twice a week to stock up on an ever-growing array of fresh fruits, vegetables and other edibles.”

In fact, that demand from local farmers seeking space has the Shreveport Farmers Market busting at the seams. Rather than turn away farmers who are looking for space, market organizers reluctantly turned away area artists for the first time in the history of the market. Thankfully, the Red River District has created an opportunity for area artists to grow another market, Shreveport Artists’ Market, designed to meet the needs of Shreveport’s vibrant growing art community. The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays May 30-Aug. 22. This market evolution is moving downtown Shreveport one step closer to economic and tourism vibrancy.

“The city has stepped in and offered the Red River District for the art village,” Swaine said, “and it is a wonderful location. It is shaded, with places to sit and nice bathrooms. It will allow the art market to grow in its own space and expand as needed.”

Transportation will be offered to those who want to market-jump. “People will be able to jump on a golf cart ‘limousine’ and ride between Festival Plaza and the Red River District,” Swaine said. “But the walk is easy – just a block and a half. What I hope happens is that the art market develops a distinct and wonderful personality all its own and encourages people to come, shop, eat, listen to music, and shop some more!” Fowler-Sandlin is thrilled about the art market and about all the other farmers markets springing up around North Louisiana. “Shreveport Green and the local markets ... it’s all a great interconnected thing,” she said, “to do something proactive about our food and our environment and our economy. So many new farmers markets are springing up. The bottom line is it’s getting food to the people who need it.”

Want to go?

• Shreveport Green’s FEAST! fundraiser will be held with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. June 11 in Greenleaf Park at the Provenance Homegrown Farmers Market. Tickets for FEAST! can be purchased at shreveportgreen.org/ support-us/feast.cfm.

• The Provenance Homegrown Farmers Market is open to the general public 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through June 25 and 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

• Mall St. Vincent’s South Highland Summer Market is open every Friday evening 5 to 9 p.m. through July 24 at the Mall St. Vincent’s parking lot.

• The Shreveport Farmers Market will be open 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays starting May 30-Aug. 29 and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. from June 2 – July 14. More information can be found at www.shreveportfarmersmarket.com.

• Shreveport Artists’ Market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays May 30-Aug. 22 in the Red River District.

Also check out:

• The Benton Farmers Market opens noon to 4 p.m. Sundays May 31-July 26 at Simpson St. Park, 495 Simpson Street, Benton. For more information, visit www.bentonlafarmersmarket.com.