Fightinville Fresh
Three local growers unite in bringing fresh produce to the Laplace neighborhood
In 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 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.”
“When I see the guy from around the corner come by and get tomatoes to go home and make dinner, that’s what motivates me.” —Kevin Ardoin
Ardoin remembers The Block full of night clubs, bustling with activity on 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.
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“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 roto-tiller.”
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. “That was our first passion. When we started growing, we realized that we could grow and preserve it all, too. We began getting the bulk of our produce from the garden.”
Johnson and Lively dubbed their operation L4S Farm, which stands for Living for Success Farm. By the time Johnson began courses in the Grow Louisiana program in late 2019, she felt ready to take on a bigger project
They eventually secured a spot to expand their operation at Earthshare Gardens, a community supported agriculture organization north of town, where Culotta also spent time learning about sustainable farming practices. Around six months later, in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, she, Johnson, and Ardoin hosted their very first market together, calling it The Fightinville Fresh Market, in the LaPlace neighborhood.
“Food security should be in that neighborhood,” Ardoin said. “That should be available for everybody.” One of the most important tenets of the Fightinville Fresh Market is to offer fresh produce to an area without easy access to grocery stores. “We want to nurture the mind, body, and soul through our market,” said Johnson. “We want to be whatever the neighborhood needs us to be. We started out with an idea to be open-minded and flexible, and to be the hub the neighborhood needs.”
The trio began by supplying the bulk of the produce at the market, which runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Over the course of the summer, other vendors began signing on. Johnson said they now have artisans selling crafts, jam, and sauces, and offering lemonade.
Another of the market’s goals, explained Johnson, is to offer a low-barrier to entry so that new farmers can easily take part. The market organizers recently began an initiative called the Fightinville Fresh Growers Collective, which is a way to invite small or beginning farmers to get involved. Currently, the collective includes about a dozen people, ranging from hobbyist gardeners with backyards full of plants to those with just a few extra cucumbers. The collective helps these folks sell their produce on consignment, which Johnson explained is a way to encourage gardening while growing the economy.
Ardoin, who supplies a plethora of vegetables at the market, said he couldn’t be happier with the result of the project he helped create. Each week, he feels like he’s nurturing the community that welcomed him all those years ago.
“When I see the guy from around the corner come by and get tomatoes to go home and make dinner,” he said, “that’s what motivates me.”
The Fightinville Fresh Market takes place from 3 pm–5 pm on Tuesdays and noon–3 pm on Saturdays at 315 W Simcoe St. in Lafayette.