Features
MAY 2021 28
F R E S H - O F F -T H E - G R O U N D
ACADIANA
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FARMERS
FIGHTING
P O ST- P A N D E M I C , N O L A
PASSION
FOOD
I N S E C U R I T Y // 3 0
PROJECTS
N E W FA R M S , N E W I D E A S
Fightinville Fresh
ARE
LIVING LEAUXCAL MOMENTUM
THRIVING
IN
THE
HEART OF
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From left to right: Kimberly Culotta, Kevin Ardoin, and Nicole Johnson met during the LSU AgCenter’s Grow Louisiana Program in 2019. They wanted to support other beginner farmers like themselves while also doing something to benefit a community in need. Thus, the Fightinville Fresh Market was born.
THREE LOCAL GROWERS UNITE IN BRINGING FRESH PRODUCE TO THE LAPLACE NEIGHBORHOOD Story by Jonathan Olivier • Photos by Olivia Perillo
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n 2019, three beginner farmers in Acadiana convened at the early workshops for the LSU AgCenter’s Grow Louisiana program—an initiative designed to train growers with fewer than ten years of experience. Looking for ways to expand their individual operations, Kevin Ardoin, Kimberly Culotta, and Nicole Johnson started to brainstorm. One of the ideas that stuck was starting a new farmers’ market in the Lafayette area—one that would be easy for beginner farmers like themselves to join, and that could also
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benefit a community in need. Ardoin immediately thought of his old neighborhood of LaPlace. The very first subdivision developed adjacent to Lafayette’s downtown district, “La Place des Creoles” was established in 1876. The historic neighborhood was home to the first African American Catholic church in town, as well as the first school offering classes to the area’s Black population. Then, it grew into a hub of social life that residents dubbed “The Block.” Ardoin remembers The Block full of night clubs, bustling with activity on
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the weekends. But most of all, he said he cherishes the community that welcomed him with open arms. “Everyone in the neighborhood accepted me,” he recalled. Over the years, the neighborhood has gone by several different names, including Monroe, West End Heights, and Mills Addition. But Ardoin knows it as Fightinville (sometimes referred to as Fightingville), a title that likely originated in the nineteenth century when the neighborhood was positioned outside of the Lafayette city limits. As legend has it, back in the day, residents resolved disputes on the city limit line, by way of fist fights. In the nineties, Ardoin observed an economic downturn in his neighborhood. He said the bustling activity in The Block started to wane, and he noticed more businesses began to shut their doors. “Everything went into decline,” he said. “It was like a ghost town. Today, there aren’t grocery stores and people can’t even buy fresh food.” Many of the residents Ardoin knew didn’t have vehicles, he said, amplifying the difficulties for many in the neighborhood to access fresh food. “When you get home from work and you’re trying to cook a meal, and you’re missing something—I can just jump in
a car and go get it,” he said. “But in that neighborhood, for some people, they go without.” Ardoin began Zydeco Farms on his property near Ville Platte in 2019. He started by experimenting with plant varieties, a novice in a complicated profession. But he wasn’t starting from scratch. As a boy, he had helped his grandfather Oban Ardoin tend to his market garden, growing watermelon, purple hull peas, and more. “You learn when you do something,” he said. “We would plow two acres with a little rototiller.” Later that year, Zydeco Farms was seeing some significant success, producing cucumbers, okra and tomatoes. But hoping to acquire more knowledge about market gardening and to grow his business, Ardoin signed up for the LSU AgCenter’s Grow Louisiana program, where he met Culotta and Johnson. Johnson and her boyfriend Travonic Lively began gardening in their Lafayette backyard about six years ago. When they filled up all the space in their backyard, they began growing in the yards of neighbors and family. “We had a vision of growing fresh produce and providing that for our families,” Johnson said.
