New Market Hours!

Monday-Friday
7:00 AM ~ 6:00 PM

Farmers Market Saturday
8 AM ~ Noon
  
Phone  225.336.9730
Fax 225.336.9739

Farmers market, Spanish Town offer sights and delights to please 

By REBECCA BREEDEN
rbreeden@theadvocate.com 
2theadvocate.com staff writer 

Pink flamingos, crepes, sidewalks and satsumas are some of the ingredients for a breakfast date with friends in downtown Baton Rouge.
Coupling the Red Stick Farmers' Market/Main Street Market with a stroll through the historic Spanish Town neighborhood has become a Saturday morning ritual that deserves to be called a "must see" in Baton Rouge.

Shoppers flock to the Red Stick Farmers' Market, set up in the street in front of the Main Street Market at Fifth and Main. This is a growers' market, where all the vegetables and fruits sold are grown by the farmers selling them. The fruits and vegetables are displayed on tables set up in each farmer's booth.

There are also artisan-produced food products such as sausages, whole grain breads, jams and jellies, pies and dairy products.

The Red Stick Farmers' Market is open 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Adjacent to the farmers' market is the Main Street Market, on the ground floor of the state parking garage on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The Main Street Market is a retail market with restaurants; gift shops selling soaps postcards, stained glass, pink flamingo ornaments, paintings by local artists; and retail food purveyors offering bags of pecans, pralines, ice cream, chocolate candies and more.

A group of French women recently accompanied me to the market to get a bag of Louisiana satsumas, the tasty, seedless, easy-to-peel oranges. They scoffed at a sidewalk sign promoting breakfast crepes made at the Capital Corner Market on the Main Street side of the market. Thinking no one in Baton Rouge could recreate the French treat, my giddy guests wailed ooh-la-las when I placed on their table a bananas foster crepe – drowned in caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream ($5.95). They barely finished their plate of happiness.

The Downtown Arts Market also sets up crafts tables in the parking lot of St. Joseph's Cathedral on the first Saturday of each month. Look for the local craftsmen and artists this Saturday.

Pink flamingos are a mascot for the nearby Spanish Town neighborhood, the setting for the city's most popular and irreverent Mardi Gras parade.

Spanish Town is just a block north of the market, the sidewalks take you through an area of charming homes, colorful people roaming from porch to porch, chatting about state politics and watchful neighbors.

This Saturday, some residents will open their restored houses to the public for Restoration Renaissance, part of Spanish Town's bicentennial celebration. Included on the tour is the Capitol Grocery, a store on Spanish Town Road that recently converted its front space into a miniature vintage shop.

Restoration Renaissance will also include the historic Beauregard Town neighborhood, south of North Boulevard, on the tour of restored homes. The Restoration Renaissance celebration stretches over four days, and details are online.

The markets and Spanish Town seem to be a symbol of Baton Rouge's social character. I always bump into old friends, or get chatty with new friends when I go.

No. 5 'Must See' Red Stick Farmers' Market, Main Street Market, Downtown Arts Market

WHERE: In the Galvez Garage on Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets in downtown Baton Rouge and in the street in front of the garage on Saturdays.
HOURS: 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays; Main Street Market remains open until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
PARKING: Free inside the Galvez Parking Garage and parallel parking along the streets.
LAGNIAPPE MUST SEE: Spanish Town historic neighborhood.
WHERE: Fourth Street to Ninth Street, from North Street to Lakeland Street

 site maintained by DominoRouge.com phone 225-279-0680