Celebrate CCFM's Birthday with Local Food at a Coolinary Restaurant | August 14, 2023

Fresh & Local:

Celebrate CCFM's Birthday with
Local Food at a Coolinary Restaurant

Thank you to all who came out to support the Crescent City Farmers Market during National Farmers Market Week! Thank you to the farmers, producers, musicians, and volunteers for your hard work! The Second Annual Kitchenware Sale raised almost $1,200. Nearly double the amount raised last year; thank you everyone who donated and shopped! There's already another reason to celebrate: it’s Market Umbrella’s birthday month! The Crescent City Farmers Market began in 1995 and has blossomed into three weekly rain-or-shine markets that host more than 70 farmers, fishers, ranchers, florists, beekeepers, and food businesses. Want to give us a birthday gift? Market Umbrella depends on contributions from generous donors like you to help keep our markets open and programs running. Invest in our local food system by taking a minute to visit our website and make a donation today!

Celebrate Market Umbrella’s birthday by dining at restaurants that participate in Coolinary and that support CCFM and local vendors! Get ready to plan your meals; these restaurants include Atchafalaya, Carmo, Central City BBQ, Commander’s Palace, Gianna Restaurant, GW Fins, Josephine Estelle, Maypop Restaurant, Palm & Pine, Patois, Seafood Sally’s, Shaya, and Toups Meatery. These Restaurants uplift the regional food system and local farmers by prioritizing fresh, high quality, seasonal ingredients in their menus. Bon appétit, y'all!

Picks of the Week:

Summer P-EBT Benefits are Market Match Eligible

Summer Pandemic EBT, or Summer P-EBT, provides food benefits to children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) who aren’t getting meals at school during the summer months. Eligible students will receive $120 to cover both June and July 2023. DCFS will issue benefits in a single payment in late summer. Students do not need to apply. School systems will submit eligibility information. Eligible families receive benefits automatically.

P-EBT cards work like any LA SNAP card and P-EBT funds can be matched dollar-for-dollar at the CCFM markets or with any of our Market Match partners (Top Box Foods, Grow Dat Youth Farms, River Queen Greens, and the New Orleans Food Co-op). For every P-EBT dollar spent at these locations, we’ll match it with another dollar, cutting the customer price in half. For more information about Summer P-EBT, visit the DCFS website.

National Breastfeeding Month Highlight

Did you know that August marks National Breastfeeding Month(NBM)?! Breastfeeding is beneficial for both parents and children! According to the USBC, human milk reduces the risk of infections, sudden unexplained infant death, obesity, diabetes, asthma, and childhood leukemia in babies while also reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and breast and ovarian cancers in nursing parents. Throughout NBM and into the first week of September there are weekly observances including Indigenous Milk Medicine Week, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Black, and Latina/x Breastfeeding Weeks. The Crescent City Farmers Market offers a breastfeeding incentive program called the Market Mommas Club. More information on this program can be found on the Market Mommas Page of the CCFM website under “Our Work”.

Thank You Market Momma’s Club Partners

CCFM supports and celebrates moms who breastfeed! The CCFM Market Mommas Club provides lactating mommas with incentives to purchase fresh produce that will provide those extra healthy calories needed to keep baby’s belly full. Being a mom to a new baby or young child is a multi-faceted experience that requires body, mind, and soul. And, despite the common perception that breastfeeding is easy and comes naturally, it can be a giant hurdle in early motherhood. Market Momma’s Club brings nursing parents together to share resources and support each other through the first months with their new baby. This program would not be possible without our Market Momma’s Club partners: The New Orleans Breastfeeding Center, NOLA Baby Café, My Training Grounds NOLA, Café Con Leche, Birthmark Doula Collective, the Junior League of New Orleans and Louisiana Healthcare Connections.

Thank you LA Healthcare Connections

Thank you to Louisiana Healthcare Connections for their sponsorship of this year’s Moonlight Market! We applaud the work they do to identify and remove systemic barriers to good health. Their commitment to create sustainable solutions that reduce health disparities and create health equity helps make our work at Market Umbrella more impactful. In addition to their sponsorship of Moonlight Market back in April, Louisiana Healthcare Connections awarded Market Umbrella a grant to fund the Market Mommas Club. This program increases the amount of fresh, local fruits and veggies eaten by families and introduces them to a breastfeeding peer group for support. Louisiana Healthcare Connections is a vital partner in our mission to promote community health. Thank you!

Vendor of the Week:

NOLA Botanical Tea

Introducing Portia Cooper, owner of Nola Botanical Tea and one of our newest additions to the Thursday Mid-City Market! Portia started the company out of her own personal testimonials. After struggling with bloating and lack of energy, Portia researched the benefits of tea and discovered that ginger root tea is known to help aid bloating and increase energy. However, the way that it’s sold in stores affects its medical properties. It was out of this very research that Nola Botanical Tea was created. Nola Botanical Tea offers quali-tea loose/bottled teas as well as unbleached tea filters and wooden spoons. Their tea blends include bottled/loose Hibiscus tea in addition to Elderberry, Chamomile, and Ginger Root tea. Each tea serves a unique purpose in helping you with different needs, and their unbleached tea filters/wooden spoons allow you to maintain the medicinal benefits of the tea without the unwanted toxins. If unsweetened tea is not your cup of tea, then NBT also offers organic blue agave sweetener! You can find Nola Botanical Tea weekly at the Thursday Mid-City Market. Be sure to swing by and give Portia a warm welcome!

Recipe of the Week:

Hibiscus Quesadillas
(Quesadilla con Flor de Jamaica)

Dried hibiscus tea leaves are bright, beautiful, and available from Ms. Portia at NOLA Botanical Tea! The flower has lately been marketed as a health food and meat substitute. In this recipe from the New York Times, the hibiscus flowers are rehydrated and fragrantly sautéed with onion and jalapeños or cayenne. Pick your peppers from Poche Family Farms or Isabel’s Tamales and Produce. Substitute quesillo and Monterey cheeses with mozzarella or cheddar from T&R Dairy Farm. This quick, delicious meal uses up the entire hibiscus tea flower and is a great vegetarian alternative!