CCFM Market Morsels - April 30, 2018

Rivertown Farmers Market joins the CCFM family! | April 30, 2018

Fresh & Local: Rivertown Farmers Market joins the CCFM family! We are excited to announce the Rivertown Farmers Market in Kenner is joining the Market Umbrella family! This weekend, the City of Kenner will host a ribbon cutting ceremony for a grand re-opening of the Rivertown Market located at LaSalle’s Landing (at the intersection of Williams Blvd. and Reverend Wilson Drive, right at the river). The Rivertown Farmers Market, newly under CCFM management, will be host to several vendors you may know from our other markets including Mayhew Made, Our Family Farm, Baking 504, A&K Produce, Cherry Creek Orchards, Southbound Gardens and Tomott’s Cajun Farm as well as some new to our network but not to the Rivertown Farmers Market like Things ‘n Stuff (jams, jellies and pickles) and Varino’s Italian Sausage. And we are excited to continue to grow the local food system, adding vendors new to both markets like the Louisiana Growers Co-Op and St. Bernard Parish shrimper, Charlie Robin. Needless to say, it will be jam packed with produce, in a quaint location in historic Rivertown amongst the planetarium and Heritage Park. If you’re a later riser, bring the kids out and join us from 9-1. We’ll have live music, and family friendly activities. This market runs weekly on Saturdays with a summer break for the months of August and September.

Picks of the Week: GiveNOLA! GiveNOLA day is tomorrow, May 1st - the perfect day for a farmers market! Join us at the Uptown market for live music and all of your favorite CCFM vendors. Your donation will support dozens of farmers and food producers through support of our market and give future eaters and program participants access to fresh, healthy food! Learn more about Market Umbrella's work and get ready to GiveNOLA!

Beans, beans. The magical fruit, or vegetable, or legume? Spring is green bean time, but why do they have so many different names? Green beans are also sometimes called bush or pole beans. This is a reference to the way the plant grows. Look in a seed catalog for any familiar produce item and unlike in the grocery store where you see one kind, there are dozens of varieties, each with their unique attributes and differences, sometimes subtle but sometimes significant. Some green beans grow on a little shrub, short and self supporting - that’s a bush bean. And some grow on long vines that need poles or a trellis to support them - that’s a pole bean. Both yield a green bean, or a yellow bean which is often called a wax bean, or even a purple bean. And of course, the farmers market is a great place to look for less common heirlooms, like the dragon’s tongue bean, available at the Veggi Co-Op tent.

When we’re eating them like this, we’re eating the tender, immature pods as a vegetable. If we were to leave those same pods on the plant, the tiny little beans inside would continue to grow, and the edible outer shell would turn thin and fibrous. If we picked and shelled them then, we’d have the creamy, incredible fresh beans of early summer. And if we left them on the plant even longer, both the pod and the bean would totally dry out. You can harvest those and shell them and then you’d have a supply of dried beans, legumes for sure. Kind of the bean equivalent of sweet corn as a vegetable, but dried corn as a grain used for grits or popcorn.

Vendor of the Week: Baking 504 We were excited to bring her on almost two years ago and that feeling hasn’t faded. Jessica Ragan-Williams of Baking 504 brings her premium selection of full-sized and miniature pies, cakes, cupcakes, hand pies, king cakes, cobblers and upside down cakes and other sweet and savory treats to CCFM. Originally from the north shore, she attended the Cambridge School of Culinary Art in Massachusetts, and returned to New Orleans and positions as pastry chef at both Breads on Oak and Susan Spicer’s Bayona. She left the establishments of others to focus on her own unique recipes featuring high quality ingredients, locally sourced when possible. Try her favorite, the strawberry banana pie using Johndale Farms strawberries at the Tuesday market or find a new fave from her ever changing and always inspired offerings.

Tuesday’s Green Plate Special: La Monita Simple, delicious Colombian-inspired food made from locally sourced ingredients, La Monita (Colombian slang for blond girl) returns to the market for another stint as the Green Plate Special on Tuesdays. Incredible arepas, tropical salads, a Colombian goodness bowl and plantains are on the menu amongst a weekly changing cast of other dishes for the month of May and we can’t wait!

Recipe of the Week: Peas and Green beans with arugula mint pesto This recipe makes the most of what here in climate zone 9 is classic springtime selection. All of the main ingredients are available now, and if you wanted to keep it totally local (think of it as Eat Local Challenge prep for June), you could swap in pecans for the almonds in the pesto. Double the pesto recipe and have some on hand for pasta, eggs or soup topping -it freezes for months. Or, simplify the whole thing by picking up some ready made pesto from Paul’s Palate or Our Family Farm. This recipe invites endless riffing by using different varieties or colors of beans or peas, or different pestos. Think purple and wax beans, snap peas, and a vibrant parsley pesto for a classic New Orleans purple, green and gold. Or dragon’s tongue, snow peas and a cilantro pesto for a more asian spin. We’d love to see what you come up with -share your pics to our Instagram.

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!

UPTOWN Tuesday May 1, 2018 | 9 am - 1 pm 200 Broadway Street near the River FRENCH QUARTER Wednesday May 2, 2018 | 1 pm - 5 pm 1235 N. Peters St. in the French Market MID-CITY Thursday May 3, 2018 | 3 pm - 7 pm 3700 Orleans Avenue near the Bayou DOWNTOWN Saturday May 5, 2018 | 8 am - 12 noon 750 Carondelet Street at Julia Street RIVERTOWN Saturday May 5, 2018 | 9 am - 1 pm LaSalle’s Landing at Williams Boulevard and the Mississippi River

Healing Waters: Reflecting on the Lessons of Survivorship

When I contemplate this latest benchmark in my life, my 15th year surviving stage 3b breast cancer, I confess there are times when I feel like it was just yesterday the Trickster Coyote – the Native American mythical creature of evil and bad omen – blindsided me, bent on taking me down in the one sacred place I felt I could take refuge from the world: my home.

BY Carolyn Choate

PUBLISHED April 30, 2018

Carolyn Choate recently retired from the TV production industry to write full-time. Diagnosed at 45 with stage 3 estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in 2003, she underwent two radical mastectomies - in 2003 and 2012 - without reconstruction. Carolyn credits Angela Brodie, Ph.D., and her discovery of the aromatase inhibitor, for saving her life and those of millions of women globally. In the summer of 2017, Carolyn and her older daughter kayaked from New Hampshire to Baltimore in tribute to Dr. Brodie. When not informing others about Dr. Brodie and the "living flat" movement, Carolyn enjoys gardening, cooking and RVing with her family and dog.

I marked my 15th year of cancer survivorship far from my New Hampshire home, soaking, once again, in the healing, hot mineral springs of New Mexico’s Ojo Caliente – the sacred and storied land of the Pueblo peoples. Miles from civilization, the Georgia O’Keeffe-esque red canyons reached for the clouds, while I was dwarfed in their shadow, up to my neck in the hand-wrought stone pools brimming with the medicinal iron, arsenic, lithia and soda-laced waters. I was keenly aware of life and again reminded of the unexpected detour mine took on April 17, 2003.

Fifteen years. What to say?

In Native American story-telling, concepts of time and space are so different from how we see them in Western culture. Something that occurred long ago in tribal history may be referenced as happening yesterday to have immediate impact on listeners as they seek to make sense of a traumatic and/or confusing event or situation.
Time can be circular, not linear, as we traditionally construe it. While we think of the past as a natural, rational route in molding and understanding the future, Native Americans strongly believe the future is a valuable route in molding and understanding the past. It’s a two-way street.

Read More: Reflecting on the Lessons of Survivorship

Tip of the Day:- Sane old garden salad

Same old garden salad? Add some banana slices, almonds, or whole grain cracker pieces for a new flavor twist. Liven Up Meals with Vegetables & Fruits Recipe: Apple Banana Salad with Peanuts

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Aliens, Dumplings and 'The Business'

Writing helped me duck out on cancer.

BY Ryan Hamner

PUBLISHED April 27, 2018

Ryan Hamner is a four-time survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma, a musician and a writer. In 2011, he wrote and recorded, "Where Hope Lives" for the American Cancer Society and the song for survivors, "Survivors Survive" used in 2015 for #WorldCancerDay. Currently, he operates his website for those affected by cancer, 2surviveonline.com and drinks a ridiculous amount of coffee per day.

When you are going through the quandary of cancer, cancer treatment and its unpredictable aftermath, life can get pretty stressful. It can be hard for you to focus, stay organized and even find joy in the day-to-day life you knew before, if you remember it at all. So, what do you do? What can you do to feel alive again? Well, sometimes you try your hand at aliens – yes aliens.
As a kid, I had a thing for aliens. I also had a thing for writing … kind of. Not that I was any good at it, I just liked to do it.

My first "book" was called, The Mornz. It was, of course, about an alien - and it only made sense that the sequel was entitled, Maro the Martian (the Mornz' brother, I think). Surprisingly though, neither of the books were ever picked up. Not one bite.

Read More: Aliens, Dumplings and 'The Business' 

Mental Health Healing

Compare it to needing chemo for cancer or a cast for a broken arm. You wouldn't say no to either of those, but why are people hesitant to try care for mental health?

BY Justin Birckbichler

PUBLISHED April 27, 2018

Justin Birckbichler is a fourth grade teacher, testicular cancer survivor and the founder of aBallsySenseofTumor.com. From being diagnosed in November 2016 at the age of 25, to finishing chemo in January 2017, to being cleared in remission in March, he has been passionate about sharing his story to spread awareness and promote open conversation about men's health. Connect with him on Instagram @aballsysenseoftumor, on Twitter @absotTC, on Facebook or via email justin@aballsysenseoftumor.com.

In December 2017, I had another follow-up scan after a successful treatment of testicular cancer and met with my oncologist to go over the results. I got to the office and checked in with the friendly receptionist team who greeted me every day last year. After being taken into the exam room and having my blood pressure checked (which wasn’t very high, surprisingly), I was told Dr. Maurer was coming from the hospital and would be a few minutes late. That was fine, as I needed time to collect myself.

As I waited, I noticed that the touch screen billboard in the office said, “Treating cancer doesn’t have to be stressful.” I agree. Treating it wasn’t too stressful. Surviving it is.

Eventually, Dr. Maurer came in, clad in a green shirt and red tie. The first words out of his mouth were, “The scan looked good. You’re still in remission.” He must have known I needed to hear that.

The result of the scan was only one of the main reasons I was anxiously awaiting the meeting. While my physical healing has more or less completed ended, my emotional healing still has a long way to go.

Read More - Mental Health Healing