Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 49)

refrigeration was common, simply had to make the daily trek to the local market for the day’s requirements. (A flourishing street-vendor trade supplemented the markets and brought items to local streets and alleyways.) Cooks of important houses would enter the market with baskets on their arms or carried by a subaltern scurrying in their wake, strolling down the central aisles with the imposing stature of the empresses of the stew pot and skillet into Uncle Bill’s filé that he sells in baby food jars. Perhaps it’s the lady selling the frozen popsicles made from fresh fruit juices. Maybe it’s the honey man with his selection, or the lavender vendors. It might be overall-wearing Justin from Mississippi with his splendid selection of heirloom meats, or someone new. A trip on Saturday morning or Tuesday offers a hint of what the French Market must have been like in its heyday. Not simply an opportunity to shop, but a chance to socialize with neighbors and catch up on local doings. They are market in the sense of agora, the name of the ancient Athenian market that has come to mean gathering place or assembly. It is market in this sense that has become what we are looking for in the city at this time — a place to gather and see each other and catch up and yes, purchase the freshest and best ingredients around. Other areas of the city are catching on to the trend as well. A new Farmers Market has begun in the Marigny on St. Claude Avenue and there’s one springing up in the Lower 9th Ward on St. David and St. Claude, all the work of local activists who understand that nothing knits a The French Market was a veritable United Nations of tongues and tastes and the place where the foods of the Americas, Africa and Europe came together as they would on the city’s tables. that they were. Vendors knew to reserve the best for them. Markets have always been a part of the Crescent City’s growth and its ethos. It’s not surprising therefore that at this time in the city’s post-Katrina development, markets are being re-established and reclaimed like beachheads on Omaha Beach — signals of a return to normalcy. The city’s farmers markets have become fixtures in the lives of anyone who loves the fresh and local. Markets are flourishing with their seasonal round of fabulous produce ranging from Pontchatoula strawberries through blueberries and Creole tomatoes on into the crawfish and shrimp seasons to end at the holiday season with Meyer lemons, blood oranges, and satsumas. There’s usually someone selling fresh flowers and okra and greens and I’m a fixture at the plant and herb vendor, much to my gardener’s dismay. Lionel Keyes may be there punctuating the shopping with the sound of his maul as he pounds sassafras neighborhood together quite like a market. And, in early June with the beginning of the Creole tomato festival, there’s once again food in the French Market. Things have come full circle and the Farmers Market is back. I hope that the ghosts of the Sicilian produce vendors and the Choctaw filé sellers are celebrating on high along with the coffee vendors and the fishmongers. I know I’ll be celebrating down here. I’ll be at the market; you’ll be able to find me with my straw hat on and my big old basket over my arm filled with garlic chains, gumbo peppers, and okra topped with a few Creole tomatoes. I’ll be picking and poking and prodding with the best of them. You won’t have to look too hard to find me; I’ll be the one with the full basket and a big smile on my face. Jessica B. Harris, Ph.D., is the author of eight books documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora. Now you can take the LEH everywhere you go — on your lapel, shirt collar, handbag . . . wherever. Show your support for the humanities in Louisiana by wearing this new commemorative pin designed by acclaimed artist Francis X Pavy of Lafayette. They are available for $8, plus postage. Bulk purchases of 10 or more are $6 each, plus postage. To order, call the LEH in New Orleans at (504) 620-2630, or toll-free from within Louisiana at 1 (800) 909-7990, ext. 110. Fall 2008/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 49 http://www.leh.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities New Orleans Immortelle The Historic New Orleans Collection Highland-Fairfield: The Historic Heart of Shreveport The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Perils of the Mississippi River Louisiana Foodways Harvest of Life King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz Louisiana Architecture Jazz Notes Louisiana State Museum Eye of the Storm Louisiana Association of Museums Soul Resin Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

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