You know, one of the benefits of open-air farmers markets is their flexibility and mobility. By contrast, brick and mortar retail is land-locked, and thus unable to respond to changes in neighborhoods. Farmers markets are nimble. They can pack up and relocate to sunnier spots.
One market that has tested this theory of itinerant living is the Ninth Ward’s Sankofa Farmers Market. It began life in 2007 as a monthly free-for-all market in Lower Nine. In 2010, it reinvented itself as a weekly farmers market. In 2011, it moved upriver to Holy Angels on St. Claude. And this summer, it has finally found its home at the Arise Academy, located at St. Claude Avenue and Alvar Street.
I encourage you to check out Sankofa’s new home and taste how change does one good. For the WWNO Farmers Market Minute, this is Richard McCarthy.