The Red Stick Farmers Market will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Saturday, an impressive feat given the culinary climate in which it was established, 225 details in a feature from the current issue.
“A lot of this stuff is common now, but in the mid-’90s it was kind of a new idea,” says Christopher Campany, the local farmers market’s first director.
Campany was a graduate student at the LSU School of Landscape Architecture when an urban design course inspired him to research installing a public market in Baton Rouge.
His master’s thesis provided additional research on the idea, and by 1996, he, along with LSU professor emerita Suzanne Turner and a handful of community leaders, moved forward with the idea. They formed a nonprofit then named the Baton Rouge Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance, or BREADA, which would operate the farmers market.
The market was located in a surface parking lot at 300 North Blvd. The 19th Judicial District Courthouse now occupies the block.
Campany says one of the biggest challenges then was educating farmers on the idea of a producer-only market where the only items sold are those produced or grown by the vendors themselves.
Opening in November 1996 with just a few farmers, the market didn’t have the variety it’s known for today. “We got nervous that all we were going to have was greens,” Campany says.
Very quickly, farmers who were running their own farm stands, including New Roads-based Glaser’s Produce Farm and Chenier Farms from Opelousas, joined the market and began bringing a range of vegetables. Other farmers followed, along with vendors selling fresh eggs, baked goods, cheese, fruit wines and other items.
In those early days, the market began to whet the appetite of health-conscious shoppers and gourmet foods enthusiasts. It also helped farmers and consumers get to know each other and was building a local following.
“We have regulars today who have been coming for 20 years,” says Copper Alvarez, BREADA executive director. “We see them arrive early right when the market opens so they can visit with us and talk to the farmers. A lot of them come week in and week out, and they’re a big part of our market family.”
