NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
The entrance to Hollygrove Market and Farm in New Orleans doesn’t look like your typical urban farm. Instead of the haphazard, utilitarian structures that often occupy agricultural lots, Hollygrove’s walkway is lined with a set of clean, modern pavilions, which lead to a marigold-yellow house with red-rimmed windows. The structures were designed by architecture students at Tulane University, and their orderly appearance reflects the organization’s mission to provide mentorship and support to local food growers who need assistance getting their produce to market.
The polished property is also a symbol of recovery in a neighborhood hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. The Hollygrove and adjoining Carrollton neighborhoods were both severely flooded and subsequently lost many residents. But this area was also one of the earliest to bounce back, driven in part by motivated cadres of local volunteers, as well as small grants from charitable foundations.
The Hollygrove Market and Farm was part of that rebuilding, constructed in 2008 on the site of a former nursery that was totaled in the storm. Founded by Paul Baricos and Kevin Fitzwilliam, the original impetus for the project was to serve nearby residents with affordable, sustainable produce grown within the neighborhood. The added benefit, of course, was economic—the farm was a local revenue generator not only for Hollygrove Market itself, but also for individuals who aspired to grow and sell their own food but needed the financial safety net of a supporting organization.
Hollygrove Market and Farm was developed through a collaboration between the Carrollton-Hollygrove Community Development Corporation and the New Orleans Food and Farm Network (NOFFN), a local nonprofit that supports numerous small-scale agricultural projects citywide. One of the first things NOFFN does when helping to establish a new farm is to test the property’s soil for lead and other contaminants. Ariel Wallick Dorfman, the urban agriculture educator at NOFFN and an active Hollygrove farmer, says that after Katrina, there were elevated concerns around hazardous ground pollution, but for the most part, lead levels were equivalent before and after the storm—often too high to safely grow food directly in the ground.
At Hollygrove, raised beds were built on about half of the land, where soil tests showed unsafe pollution levels. With about twenty small individual plots, this side of the farm is designated for individual community farmers who might be learning to grow food for the first time in a relatively small and manageable area. On the other side, where the soil was not contaminated, long beds run at ground level, tended by just two farmers who earn their livelihoods from their harvest.
One of these loamy production plots is cultivated by a local character affectionately known as “Macon Fry, the Lettuce Guy.” Fry is a veteran gardener whose vibrant crop of green and red lettuces has become a fixture on many restaurant menus around town. The weathered, almost waifish southerner can be found every day squatting beside his beds, deftly beheading lettuce plants and nestling them into boxes for delivery.
After several decades teaching in the New Orleans public school system, Fry turned his attention exclusively to growing food and discovered that “if you’re willing to work hard enough, you will succeed. Farming is an avocation that yields to labor.” In this way, he adds, “it is the opposite of public school education.” But while he left the classroom behind, Fry continues to be an educator. Ask any of the young farmers throughout New Orleans who has inspired and guided them, and Fry’s name will come up.
Because there are full-time farmers working at Hollygrove, the site is always active, but it comes alive on market days, when the main building opens its doors to shoppers. The market, which is accessible twice a week, sells vegetables grown on-site by members of the community, as well as produce grown around New Orleans by other small farm organizations and individuals. The market manager’s sourcing radius also extends outside the city, partly to support nearby rural farmers but also to round out and diversify the market’s year-round offerings. Hollygrove also runs several smaller, off-site markets around town, including one at Tulane and another in the French Quarter, where tourists have a chance to see local agriculture in action.
Hollygrove’s business model is one of its most unique characteristics. The market manager purchases inventory from the farmers up front, then sells it at a markup to the public, absorbing any financial burden that comes back on unsold goods. For the individual growers, this service provides financial security that they wouldn’t have by selling directly to consumers and removes some of the logistical demands and time commitment generally required to run a market stall. Though consumers pay a slight premium, they gain the advantage of having a single, well-maintained, indoor destination where they can always expect a wide variety of fresh, locally grown produce.
