LSU AgCenter's Weekly Message

How to Find Locally Grown Fruits and Vegetable

Many of you already know of local growers, farmers’ markets, roadside stands, or grocery stores where you can buy local produce. There are also websites that can help you find it.

The Louisiana MarketMaker site (la.foodmarketmaker.com) allows you to search for a particular product. For example, if you want to search for blueberries nearby, you can enter “blueberries” in the search bar and then scroll through listings that mention blueberries.

LocalHarvest (www.localharvest.org) is a nationwide site that provides information in a similar way as the MarketMaker site.

For strawberries in particular, you can go to the Louisiana Strawberry Marketing Board site (louisianastrawberries.com) and click on “Find Louisiana Strawberries.”

To find growers who are part of LDAF’s Louisiana Grown program, you can go to louisianagrown.com and choose “Where to Buy.” There, choose among “Fruit & Veggie Producers,” “Horticultural,” “Sod Producers,” and “Farmers’ Market.”

For those specifically interested in a pick-your-own experience, PickYourOwn.org provides information about u-pick farms. First, select Louisiana, either from the list of states or on the map. Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes are both listed in the “New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana” category.

Louisiana’s Office of Tourism website (www.explorelouisiana.com) lists pick-your-own farms and other farm-related attractions under the Agritourism category. Also check individual parishes’ tourism websites.

If you’re thinking of visiting a u-pick farm, please visit their website or contact them first to make sure they will be open when you plan to go.

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Dr. Mary Helen Ferguson is an Extension Agent with the LSU AgCenter, with horticulture responsibilities in Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. Contact Mary Helen at mhferguson@agcenter.lsu.edu or 985-277-1850 (Hammond) or 985-839-7855 (Franklinton).