What’s fresh at Baton Rouge farmers markets in May

The month of May brings many changes to southern Louisiana, from flowers in full bloom to lovebug season. Baton Rouge farmers markets join in on these spring changes and become a lot fuller and brighter.

Here’s a look at what’s fresh at the markets this month:

New produce
May will bring plenty of fresh new produce, including yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, blueberries, snap beans, peaches, nectarines and tomatoes, as well as hot peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, sweet corn, blackberries and bell peppers. Fresh-cut flowers will also be available at the Red Stick Farmers Market with sunflowers, zinnias and sweet peas on offer. As for meat options, pasture-raised whole chickens are back from Iverstine Family Farms, as well as grass-fed pork and beef from Gonsoulin Land and Cattle.

Midseason produce
Onions and garlic are in the prime of their seasons this month. Crisp asparagus, artichokes, collards, mustard greens and sweet potatoes are also still available this month.

End-season produce
Unfortunately for Louisiana strawberry lovers, the fruit is phasing out in May, so get them while you still can. Spinach, radish, lettuce, kale, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli also phase out this month.

In addition to May bringing all this fresh produce, it’s Garden Month at the Red Stick Farmers Market. To celebrate, the market will be doing green garden giveaways at the Market Information Booth all month. The East Baton Rouge Master Gardeners will also be on hand this Saturday to answer all of your spring gardening questions. Children can enjoy face painting and all shoppers can groove to zydeco music by Mel Chavis this weekend. Inside Main Street Market, Cong Nguyen from Umami Japanese Bistro comes to the demonstration kitchen to showcase his unique flavors with fresh produce.

The Red Stick Farmers Market sets up shop every Saturday, 8 a.m.-noon, on the corner of Main and Fifth streets, and every Thursday, 8 a.m.-noon, at Pennington Biomedical Research Center on Perkins Road.

See the full list of vendors at this Saturday’s market here. The list is updated weekly.