Thanks for sticking with us! | December 14, 2020

Fresh & Local:

Thanks for sticking with us!

Thanks for sticking with us! We don’t have to explain to you the challenges we’ve faced in 2020. You, and your families, colleagues and friends have faced them as well. Instead, we’d like to share what the results of your trust and loyalty to Market Umbrella and the Crescent City Farmers Market have been.

During 2020, thanks to your support, we were able to maintain market operations by devising systems to keep you and the CCFM vendors safe, including drive thru, home delivery boxes, and modified walk up markets with curbside pick up options.

By the end of the year, investments from donors like YOU will have allowed us to distribute incentives in the form of fresh food or dollars to purchase fresh food totalling over $75,000 to SNAP shoppers, Market Mommas, senior citizens, and school children and their families.

Today, nearly 60 local food growers and producers are able to generate income sorely needed to feed their own families and support their small businesses and employees because of your dedication.

Market Umbrella depends on contributions from generous donors like YOU to help keep our markets open and to mitigate the effects of continuously increasing poverty and food insecurity in our community. New and additional costs associated with the pandemic coupled with limitations on the ways in which we can raise new funds mean we need your support now more than ever! For instance, 2020 will be our first year without a fundraising event, which not only typically generates 25% of our total fundraising each year, but where we are able to gather with supporters like you to celebrate farmers and local producers along with the best fresh food Louisiana has to offer. While we anxiously await the time in which we can gather and celebrate again, we need your help.

Please join us by making an investment in the future of our local food system and the health and prosperity of our regional economy by taking a minute to visit our website or text CCFM to 44-321 to make a donation today!

Good Food Concept of the Week:

In addition to running farmers markets, a critical component of Market Umbrella’s work is to enhance food and nutrition access and awareness in our community. The Good Food Concept of the Week seeks to shed some light on this part of our work and also to demystify the jargon.

Holiday Food Traditions

This week’s Good Food Concept is Holiday Food Traditions – We all know how much Santa loves his milk and cookies. But there are many holiday food traditions taking place all over the world tied to year end holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, and Festivus to name a few. British family members gather on the last Sunday before Christmas to stir fruit pudding while making wishes on their turn. In Mexico, Christmas Eve is celebrated with festive radish carvings, rightly named the Night of the Radish Festival. Sweden’s holiday menu includes potato casserole, a great addition to the traditional smorgasbord. Christmas in Sicily and Southern Italy means the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Traditionally, Roman Catholics in the region fast on Christmas Eve, so a feast of seven (or even more) seafood dishes at the end of the day is a true celebration of the area’s bounty. With the holiday season in full swing, we are happy to share many more holiday food traditions, the ingredients for many of which you can grab at the market in the coming weeks!

Picks of the Week:

CCFM is back in Mid-City on Thursdays

In case you didn’t hear - CCFM is back in Mid-City on Thursdays, in a new location! You can now make your groceries in the fresh air, directly from growers, at the Lafitte Greenway Plaza on Thursdays from 3-7pm. We are excited to celebrate our return with Friends of Lafitte Greenway during SUPERNOVA on the Greenway - a luminary art exhibit bringing light and life to celebrate the Greenway’s 5th birthday and introduce the new and improved Plaza.

We encourage you to order ahead. Like all CCFM markets, online pre-ordering is open for in-person pick up. Contactless curbside pick-up will be available starting in January! Pre-order for Thursday market from Monday through Wednesday using WhatsGood.

Just a note: With the winter holidays falling on Thursdays this year, this market will be closed on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve later this month.

Shop Small for the Holidays

For most of the year, most of the Crescent City Farmers Markets are food only markets. We make an exception in December however, to expand the range of items you can purchase at the farmers market, so you can continue to support local agriculture and local small businesses, and get your holiday shopping done at the same time. For the entire month of December, current CCFM vendors are invited to bring handmade non-food items to the market (on-site AND drive-thru), so long as they meet at least one of the following criteria.

• Composed of materials or ingredients that support local agriculture
• Intended for use in food production, preparation, storage or consumption
• Food themed
• Plant based or plant themed (not necessarily food plants)
• Vendor merch

Make your groceries AND your holiday shopping with Crescent City Farmers Market!

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil that lasted for eight days when the Maccabees defeated the Syrian-Greek army and re-dedicated the holy temple in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. Miracles are great and all, but the real reason to get excited that it’s Hanukkah time is for the food. It is traditional to eat foods cooked in oil to celebrate. Cue the latkes and jelly-filled doughnuts. While we don’t regularly advise it, this is the time of year when it’s perfectly acceptable to eat fried potatoes smothered in applesauce or sour cream eight days in a row. If you find yourself tiring of your bubbe’s recipe, fear not, there are dozens of alternative latkes to try out . What you’ll definitely need are some ingredients from the market to inspire you: sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, beets, and so much more. Not feeling like cooking? Pick some up from Marjie’s Grill during the 7 Nights of Latkes!

Pictured: Lillie Ledet and Steve Gleason during a Meet Me at the Market field trip to the Uptown market in February 2020.

Vendor of the Week:

Cajun Growers

Tomayto. Tomahto. However you prefer to say it, Cajun Growers knows what you’re talking about. Long-time CCFM vendors, Tad and Lillie Ledet, make their return to the Tuesday market this week. In tow, they’ll have a selection of vine-ripened tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, and crisp cukes all the way from Cutoff, LA. Dedicated Saints fans, their tent is hard to miss. Just look for the ol’ black and gold! Don’t dilly-dally though, they sell out quickly!

Recipes of the Week:

Carrot-Apple Latkes

The holidays are here! And as the Festival of Lights begins, it’s time to break out that frying pan and get to making latkes again! Traditionally made with potatoes and fried in oil, latkes celebrate the lasting of the holy light, symbolizing hope. Carrots are in season right now and we’re hoping you’ll like this savoury and slightly sweet carrot and apple latke recipe from Edible Mosaic. Chag Urim Sameach!

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!