Laughing Buddha Nursery

Today was a very good day because apples arrived!

These are Gala apples from and we expect several more varieties from them and from as the season goes on.

More Asian pears came in, too, and the peaches just keep coming, too. Also, not pictured some sugar baby watermelons!

While we are all used to being able to buy a variety of apples year round in the grocery store, those aren’t technically the freshest.

They’re stored in warehouses under refrigeration as well as low levels of oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide to slow the apples’ natural production of ethylene and its ripening/rotting effects. Sometimes fungicides must be applied, too, to avoid fungal rot.

While I’m not really sure there’s much wrong with oxygen and CO2 manipulation inherently, I’d still rather just wait til apple season to get fresh ones, wouldn’t you?

You can order some for our remaining hubs and home deliveries this week (tomorrow in Mandeville and Covington, Thursday in Algiers Point and Friday in Irish Channel) or place an order for pick up at the stop in Metairie, or just come in and shop with us.

Happy apple season! It’s usually a long one and we are here for that! 🍏🍎

Lots of good local groceries for you to start the week!

Because I was out sick last week, I didn’t do a freezer restock like I planned, so we’re low on pork variety, out of a few beef items (namely ground beef!) and chicken, too, but don’t worry, we’re fixing that on Wednesday.

And we’re expecting the first apples of the season tomorrow, too!

Along with more summer veggies and our usual weekly dairy orders.

Hubs this week will be in Mid-City tomorrow, Mandeville and Covington on Wednesday, Algiers Point on Thursday and Irish Channel on Friday.

Hope you have a great week! Stay healthy!

And… some of our team is still under the weather, so we’re bringing in a very special alumni staffer as a reinforcement tomorrow! 😉

(And very lucky to have a wonderful new staffer who is healthy and stepping up, too!).

We were scheduled to do home deliveries around Uptown tomorrow in lieu of our Carrollton Hub but we saw the writing on the wall earlier in the week when it was time to open orders for it and didn’t.

So we’ll be open tomorrow in Metairie only for store orders and shopping and we have lots of fresh bread, summer produce, meats and eggs, Gulf seafood, goat dairy products, ferments and pickles and lots more.

So go see Ella Rose and Madison at the shop tomorrow and we’ll aim to be back to our usual hub and delivery schedule and a healthy crew next week!!

About half of Team Laughing Buddha is feeling a little under the weather this week, but we’ve still got you covered with all the best local food nonetheless!

Headed to our Uptown Hub at tomorrow with home deliveries in a bunch of zip codes spanning from the Warehouse District to Uptown and Broadmoor beforehand.

Then on Thursday we’ll be in Bywater at our biweekly hub at , with home deliveries beforehand in 70116 and 70117.

Or come see us in Metairie.

Besides what’s pictured, we got a new goat cheese spread in from this week, plus there’s lots of frozen biscuits to bake at home, restocked granola and popcorn, peaches, summer veggies, grassfed and pastured meats and dairy, Gulf seafood and more!

Here’s some highlights of summer goodness we’ve been cooking lately!

And now our weekly “What’s Cooking” feature in our email newsletter is on our website, so you can check that out whether you subscribe to our newsletter or not!

1. Caveman Meatballs with Roasted Eggplant & Cherry Tomato Sauce. Over canestri pasta, topped with goat cheese and basil.

2. Homemade Paneer Korma with Summer Veggies and Sea Island Pea Dal. What I do with extra milk — easy cheeses and yogurt!

3. Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream Sauce & Mashed Potatoes.

4. That dish went perfectly with a Marinated Beet Salad with Pistachios and Fresh Mozzarella. This beet salad is on repeat all summer for us!

5. All the different elements that make up this Eggplant & Potato Moussaka: Meat sauce with caveman ground beef, onions, sweet peppers and tomatoes, roasted potatoes and eggplant and bechamel sauce with egg yolks.

6. Moussaka assembly! First the potatoes, then eggplant, then meat sauce, then bechamel and topped with crumbled chèvre.

7. Grilled Pork Chops & Okra with Sweet Corn and Pepper Polenta.

8. Roasted Baba Ganoush with Za’atar Sheepshead Filets (and squash and tomato cucumber salad).

9. Overnight Oat & Chia Blueberry Pancakes with Pecan Butter.

10. Banana-Zucchini Bread with Pistachios and Coconut.

Each of the weekly blogs has a few other recipes I didn’t have space to include here, so check those out if you need even more ideas!

And almost all of these ingredients came from our store, grown and produced by farmers, fishers and makers in our local food shed!

This week is looking a little quiet as people fit in last vacations before school starts, so come see us if you are in town!

Biscuits are back!

These are the loveliest, butteriest nuggets of goodness made by and frozen for you to bake at home, one a time or all at once.

Besides Classic and Gluten Free Classic, the seasonal flavors are Blueberry, Red River Cheddar and Jalapeño and Zesty Cheese!

We are heading to Algiers Point tomorrow and Irish Channel on Friday and besides biscuits, popcorn is back, too and there’s lots of summer veggies, peaches, grassfed and pastured meats, Gulf seafood, fresh dairy, pickles and ferments, jams and jellies, coffee and teas and more.

Or come see us at the shop! 😎

Planting guide for the last… checks calendar… one week of July!

Promise we will post the August one sooner! 😉 And, they’re not *all* that different.

Even though it is so hot and rainy and just peak summer, July is the first month you can start fall crops, actually! (And seedlings inside to plant out later).

So do it if you dare… or wait until August or September. Fall gardens are the best and you’ve got plenty of time to start!

Check out what to plant in July (or any month of the year) on our website.

We’re getting ready for another great week of local food!

It’s that time of year when heat loving veggies like okra, eggplant and peppers really become the star of the show, but we are lucky to still have peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, sweet corn, beets and radishes to add some variety to the mix, too!

And there’s plenty of variety in the protein department with lots of grassfed beef and goat meat, pastured pork and chicken, Gulf seafood, tofu and tempeh.

dairy is restocked and more Feliciana’s Best is coming tomorrow by midday.

Plus there’s hummus and pesto, rice and grits and heirloom grains and stone-milled flours, salts and seasonings, jams and jellies, coffee, cold brew, chai and herbal teas, pickles and ferments, granola and more!

Starting the week with our Mid-City Hub at and home deliveries beforehand, then heading to Mandeville (at ) and Covington (at ) on Wednesday, Algiers Point (at ) on Thursday and Irish Channel (at ) in Friday.

Have a great week. Eat local! 💞

Here’s nine of our favorite products this week!

Snag them tomorrow 10-6 (order online in advance or come in and shop!) or get home delivery in a bunch of zip codes spanning from the Warehouse District, Uptown, all the way to Old Jefferson and Old Metairie.

There’s these beautiful sea island pea from , silver queen sweet corn, restocked smokey shiitake & black garlic seasoning from , the return of 2 lb packs ground beef from , beautiful beefsteak, cherry and heirloom tomatoes from , goat leg roasts joining our summer meat sale items, various goat fetas from , yellow bell peppers and more cold brew from !

Plus there’s something like 300 local and regional products so you have plenty to choose from. Shop our online storefront tonight or come see us tomorrow! ✌️

🍉 BIG watermelons this week! Plus peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet corn in their prime!

We also restocked Gulf seafood from yesterday and cold brew, chai, some syrups and vinaigrette late last week, plus there’s fresh dairy, hummus, pasta and so much more!

Headed to our Bywater Farm Hub at tomorrow and also doing home deliveries in surrounding zip codes beforehand.

Then in lieu of our Carrollton Hub on Saturday, we’re doing home delivery in a bunch of zip codes spanning from the Warehouse District to Uptown and Broadmoor all the way to Old Metairie and Old Jefferson.

Place your orders now! 👍

Tomorrow is a bread (and bun) day!

That means there’s a bunch of beautiful loaves of bread and brioche buns proofing right now and the intrepid bakers at will be up early to bake them and send them our way.

You can go ahead and order them now in our online storefront or come in to the shop tomorrow to snag one.

We have our Uptown hub at the tomorrow afternoon, too, and if we have extras I will bring some there, too.

We have been working with Bellegarde for something like six years now and let me tell you, once you have their bread in your life, it’s hard to go back to anything else. 🤩

We’ve got an absolute abundance (and borderline overflowing table 🤪) of local food for you for the weekend!

Lots of grassfed and pastured meats and eggs and dairy, fresh produce, ferments and preserves and jams and jellies, fresh pasta and bread, hummus, rice and grits and beans and so much more!

We also got a restock this week so there’s more cold brew, chai concentrate and simple syrups for your coffee or tea, desserts or cocktails!

Open 10-6 today in Metairie. Hubs and deliveries next week will be in Lakeview, Uptown, Bywater and Carrollton.

Need some cooking ideas for the weekend?

We moved our weekly What’s Cooking round up of recipes to a blog on our website!

This week there’s:

🍆 Goat and Eggplant Kebabs with Homemade Naan

🍤 Rainbow Veggie Shrimp Fried Rice

🥑 Blackened Red Snapper Sandwiches with Remoulade Slaw

🥩🌽 Sirloin Fajitas with Sweet Corn Salsa

🫑🥓 Roasted Padron Pepper and Bacon Dip

🍅🌿 Farro with Tomatoes, Beans, Tuna & Pesto

🥒 Fermented Bread & Butter Pickle Relish

🥜🫐 Peanut Butter & Berry Crisp

Check it out here: https://www.laughingbuddhanursery.com/blog-1/whats-cooking-july-7

We’re open 10-6 tomorrow with so many ingredients to make these meals including the meats and seafood, eggs, produce, farro, stone-milled flour, butter and goat cheeses and more!

🚨 Last call for Algiers Point and Irish Channel hub and delivery orders!

We’ll be at in the Point this evening from 5-6 pm and the order deadline is noon. Also doing home delivery in 70114 beforehand.

And we’ll be at tomorrow from 10 am to noon and the order deadline is 4 pm. Also doing home delivery afterwards in a bunch of zip codes spanning from the Warehouse District to Carrollton and Broadmoor.

Or, you can come pick up an order or shop in person in Metairie today, tomorrow or Saturday.

We are expecting more figs, cantaloupe, cucumbers, Italian eggplant, peaches, sweet corn, tomatoes (beefsteak, cherry and heirloom), okra and summer squash, along with fresh pasta, on our deliveries today.

Hope to see you! 🙏

🌈 Thank you for keeping us so busy yesterday!!

We were a little slower after Fourth of July last week, but man did y’all make up for it yesterday. Summer can be really hard on small businesses and we appreciate you going out of your way to shop with us more than you know!

Because I didn’t think it would be as busy as it was, we also managed to fit in a meat restock from our freezer warehouse, so there is now more:

🥩 Ribeyes, filet, flank, skirt, hanger and flat iron steaks, Teres Major roasts, chuck roasts, short ribs and osso bucco shanks

🥓 Bacon, pork stir fry strips, chops, ground pork and Boston butts

🍗 Whole chickens, limited breasts (likely the last we have til the fall! 😫), leg quarters and feet

There’s still a small window to order from our Northshore farm hubs today (deadline is 9 am), or our Algiers Point or Irish Channel Farm Hubs tomorrow and Friday.

Hope to see all of you that we didn’t see yesterday! 😅 🙏

Beautiful melons, figs, blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and more to start our week today!

We recently started shifting content that used to only be in our email newsletters to our website, so you can now go read about everything we have in stock and expect to be delivered this week on our blog (go to www.laughingbuddhanursery.com and scroll down to the bottom of the home page for most recent posts).

There’s still time to get your orders in for our Mid-City Hub and home deliveries today or our Mandeville and Covington hubs and home deliveries tomorrow.

And ordering is now open for our Algiers Point Hub on Thursday and we’ll end the week with our Irish Channel Hub on Friday.

Aside from what’s currently available, we are expected fresh dairy, more figs, tomatoes and okra as well as more beef, pork and chicken today.

We are going into the toughest time of year for small businesses and we appreciate your support more than you know! 🙏

https://www.laughingbuddhanursery.com/blog-1/weekly-availability-july-8

🤩 It’s still such a beautiful time of year for local food! 🍅

If you’re back in town after vacation or just resetting after the holiday, we’ve got you covered in the local grocery department!

We restocked drinks and pecan butter and glazed pecans this week, plus we are still rich in summer fruits like figs and melons (plus plenty of peaches and some of the last of the blackberries and blueberries for the year).

There’s a variety of beautiful peppers and heirloom tomatoes (along with a bunch more summer veggies), Gulf seafood and a continued sale on some of our meat cuts like goat shanks and stew meat/kebabs.

Finally, we kept selling out of milk so I ordered a bit more last night, momentarily blanking about the holiday! So we have a few extra gallons on sale from last week. My goof up is your gain. 😉🥛

Ordering is open for hubs and deliveries in Mid-City on Tuesday at and Mandeville and Covington on Wednesday at and .

Later in the week, we’ll be in Algiers Point (Thursday at ) and Irish Channel (Friday at ).

And of course you can come to Metairie any Tuesday-Saturday to pick up an order or shop in person.

Last call for local food for your Fourth of July eats!

We will be open today, 10-6, in Metairie with figs, berries, melons, tons of veggies, restocked ground beef, dairy, fresh bread and buns and lots more.

And there’s still time to get your orders in for our Uptown Hub at the this afternoon!

We will also bring extras as usual (mainly fruit, hummus, goat cheese, pickles, jams and jellies and beef burger patties!), but it’s best to order so you can definitely get what you want!

Then we’ll be closed tomorrow and back open Friday, with our usual Thursday Bywater Hub on Friday afternoon at .

Have a great Fourth of we don’t see you! 🙏💙❤️

Ground beef is back in stock at long last! 🙌🍔

Grant went to one of our USDA butchers in Summit, Miss. yesterday to pick up a bunch of beef so we have plain ground beef in one or two pound packs back in stock, plus Caveman ground beef blend (roughly 5 percent heart and 5 percent liver in the grind) as well as hamburger and slider patties!

We also have frozen brioche buns to go with them and more fresh buns are coming tomorrow morning!

Order on our website for a store pick up order or a hub or home delivery this week or just come in and shop!

We will be open normal hours except closed Thursday for the Fourth! ✌️

🥩🫐🍑It’s gonna be another great week for local food! 🍉🥕🥒

It’s still peak fruit season and in addition to peaches, blackberries, blueberries and cantaloupe, we expect more sugar baby watermelons and possibly Galia (honeydew type) melons tomorrow.

There’s a ton of vegetable variety right now and we’ve got a special on some steaks, pork shoulder roasts, bacon ends and goat ribs, shanks and stew/kebab pieces that could be great for the Fourth!

There’s also tons of hamburger and slider patties and Grant is heading to our beef butcher today, so by tomorrow we will finally have more ground beef and Caveman ground beef back in stock!

Plus there’s all the usual other staples like dairy, pasta, rice and grits, hummus, eggs, pickles, fermented, jams and jellies, coffee and more.

Schedule this week:

Open in Metairie normal hours (10-6) on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, closed Thursday.

Hubs in Lakeview tomorrow (), Uptown on Wednesday (), Bywater on Friday () and Carrollton on Saturday (Faith Church).

Have a great week!

My Laughing Buddha ride or die right here!! 👭

As we’ve been a little short staffed the past few months with people leaving for new things, training new staff and also fitting in staff time off for occasions and vacations and things, I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have Hunter as my right hand person.

Endless gratitude for her constant problem solving and improving things and the care and creativity and heart she puts into everything she does. 😘

We are both holding down the fort today, open 10-6 with lots of delicious local food (including figs!) for your weekend cooking!

We got sugar baby watermelons, cantaloupe and Galia melons today and we’re expecting figs tomorrow so now we’re really in peak fruit season!

Plus we have lots of beautiful veggies, some bountiful cuts of beef, pork and goat meat on summer sale, our are back in stock, plus fresh dairy and pasta, Gulf seafood, tofu and tempeh, bread coming tomorrow morning and more!

Place your orders for our remaining hubs this week — Mandeville at and Covington at tomorrow, Algiers Point at on Thursday and Irish Channel at on Friday — or come see us in Metairie!

🍓🫐🍑When the summer fruits are this good, you can eat dessert first, right?

I have never actually done that but leading off our June cooking ideas post with dessert though! 😉

So on that front, we’ve had a lovely Strawberry Basil Cobbler with strawberry biscuits as the topping, Strawberry White Chocolate Pistachio Cookies, a Peach Berry Crisp (with Creole cream cheese) and finally, a Fig Berry Galette with some of the first figs of the season!

(And yes, strawberry season has been over for a bit, but that’s what the freezer and dehydrator are for — to make em last all year!).

And a quick list of some other things we’ve been making this month:

🌮 Shredded Chicken Tacos, Beans and Elote Slaw.

🍤 Shrimp Pesto Pasta with Cauliflower, Squash, Chestnut Mushrooms & Heirloom Tomatoes.

🥚 Scrambled Egg Migas with Pan Fried Cheese and Pickled Radishes.

🥒 Seared Salmon with Black Rice & Creamt Cucumber Beet Salad.

🍖 Pulled Pork Tacos with Pesto Crusted Cauliflower and Roasted Squash.

🌽 Corn & Chanterelle Risotto, Pan Fried Chicken Cutlets & Basil Ceasar Green Bean Salad.

🔥 Smoked Brisket, Mashed Cauliflower, Sweet Potato Fries & Broccoli Slaw.

🍜 Szechuan Pork Noodles with Cauliflower and Scallions.

🌶️ Garlic Pepper & Squash Tofu Stir Fry.

What are you making lately?! 👩‍🍳

It’s another great week for local produce with okra, Italian eggplant and cherry tomatoes joining the party, along with more peaches, berries, squash, heirloom tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, radishes, potatoes, onions, garlic and more!

Plus we’re pretty well stocked up on pastured meats and dairy with more eggs coming tomorrow.

Our remaining hubs this week are Uptown at tomorrow and Carrollton at Faith Church on Saturday. Or come pick up or shop in Metairie, tomorrow through Saturday. Hope to see you!

Ok, so I know it’s early in the week, but if you’re heading to a pool party (or any summer gathering) soon, we’ve got a whole bunch of local snacky goodness to bring with you!

Summer berries, heirloom tomatoes, black garlic fresh bread, goat cheese, pecan oil and bourbon balsamic vinegar, creole cream cheese and pepper jelly, yum!

We are swapping our Bywater () and Uptown () hubs and home deliveries this week so Bywater folks, get your orders in for pick up or delivery tomorrow and Uptown for Thursday! ✌️

(Also I did not mean to wait til 10 pm to post this, hopefully some of your are still awake! 😂😴)

Y’all, sweet corn and chanterelles are here!

And now that we added Arborio rice, I feel like chanterelle risotto and maybe a pizza with corn and basil are in my future this weekend! 😎

We also have plenty of pastured meats, Gulf seafood, dairy, tons of veggies (all kinds of beautiful peppers!), berries and peaches, a bunch of other mushrooms, eggs, fresh bread and pasta and lots more.

Come see us today or tomorrow, 10-6! ✌️🌽🍄‍🟫

So we had a little hectic start to our week yesterday and today, but we have lots of beautiful local groceries like usual!

There’s new Arborio and sushi rice from and the sushi rice is called… Missisushi! 🤣🫶

Plus unicorn grits from , bountiful peaches (they’re so good, I just ate three in a row for dessert), the last salad greens of the season, gorgeous ribeye steaks, new sausages, purple cauliflower, tofu and more.

There’s still plenty of time to order for our Algiers Point Farm Hub tomorrow at or our Irish Channel Hub on Friday at .

Or come see us in Metairie! ✌️

The local food forecast is looking really good this week! 🤗

We did a big meat restock on Friday so there’s more chicken, beef and pork, including new Cajun and Hot Pork sausages. (Chicken breasts are already almost sold out and we’re still sold out of regular ground beef, but have Caveman and hamburger or slider patties!).

Plus we have lots of plant-based protein with four types of tempeh and three flavors of tofu. And plenty of summer fruit and veggies, hummus, pasta, goat cheese, rice, grits, kombucha, veggie ferments, coffee and more!

Headed to our Mid-City Farm Hub tomorrow at and then our Mandeville and Covington Hubs at and on Wednesday!

Come see us!

Come see us today and fill one of these bad boys up with all of our local meats, seafood, eggs, produce, goat cheese, preserves, ferments, kombucha, hummus, tofu, tempeh, pasta and more!

More fresh bread and buns being delivered shortly and a pork, beef and chicken restock coming this afternoon!

There’s also still time to order for our Carrollton Farm Hub or home deliveries around Uptown, Broadmoor and Old Metairie tomorrow.

Have a great weekend! Eat local! ✌️