Libation, prayer and wild gulf shrimp
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OK, granted that when visiting New Orleans, farmers markets do not rank high on most tourists’ list of ‘must-dos.’ (My cab from the airport was stenciled with ‘Libation and Prayer Solve All Problems,’ and judging from the crowds in the French Quarter, most folks were putting their faith in the first option.) But still, a sunny Saturday morning and having taken on board a fresh load of debris and grits and meat biscuits from Mothers, it seemed like a fine thing to do.
It’s still a little early in the growing season in Louisiana and the Crescent City Farmers Market at Magazine and Girod streets was pretty tiny. But it was packed with happy people who didn’t seem to mind at all that the selection might have been a little limited. There were tomatoes, chard, beautiful spring onions labeled ‘Vidalia-like’ and even fava beans and some navel oranges from Plaquemines Parish. But the big draw was strawberries. Louisiana strawberries have a legendary reputation, but a food snob couldn’t help but notice that these were Camarosas, the standard commercial variety for California. They were pretty sweet, though, even if fairly firm.
The highlights of the market for me were the things we can’t get in California -- foremost among them pristine wild-caught white shrimp, heads on and fresh from the gulf. Heck, I would have settled for that beautifully briny water they’d been transported in. Silky Creole cream cheese also had people lined up. And there was even a guy selling beef. What breed, one woman asked. ‘Oh you know, it’s just some old piney woods cow,’ was the answer. Thus persuaded, she bought some.
-- Russ Parsons
