We’re Farmers and We Offer Goods from Other Farms Too
In 2016, when we had our first products from our farm — refrigerated eggs and frozen pork — available for sale, we decided that with farmer’s market vendor fees, our region’s unpredictable weather and the fact that we already had a brick and mortar retail store, it made more sense to offer our products from our shop than haul meat and eggs that needed to be kept very cold to a market and not know how much we’d sell (and risk hauling it all right back!).
As we began to build awareness that people could buy our farm products from our garden shop, we thought that maybe by adding produce and honey from a friend’s farm to go alongside our eggs and pork, we’d start to be seen as a market and more of a one-stop shop for local goods.
That turned out to be true and it was also really satisfying to be offering more and more local products — that we certainly were proud to buy and eat ourselves!
A Local Grocery Was Born
Needless to say, when Grant started Laughing Buddha in 2003, or even when Kate joined the business in 2016, neither of them imagined that eventually more than half of the 850 square foot store would become a small local grocery and packing center for delivering local food around New Orleans, but here we are.
With a bank of freezers and refrigerators, we stock all of our farm products – eggs, pork, beef and goat, when in season – at the shop. And our offerings from partner farms and producers have grown exponentially and today we source from upwards of 30 farms and small value-added producers, mainly in Louisiana and Mississippi, with some further afield in Alabama and Texas.
Through these partnerships, we’re able to offer poultry, plant-based protein like tofu and tempeh, dairy, a wide array of seasonal produce, fermented items like krauts, kimchi and kombucha, jams, jellies, pickles and preserves, raw honey, cane syrup, fresh pasta, rice, locally roasted coffee, teas, sauces and salad dressing and more.
Early on, we also carried this one-stop shop model to our neighborhood delivery hubs, where you can pre order for pick up at one of seven locations around New Orleans on a biweekly basis. We also offer delivery hubs in Covington and Mandeville.
All About Ala Carte!
We are your local grocery “un-box” option. Meaning you don’t have to commit to a whole box or bag or share, you can just select as many or as few items as you’d like and order or come shop our store as often or as infrequently as you’d like. It’s that simple!
It’s taken us several years of basing our orders with our fellow farmers and vendors off of pre orders to dial in our ordering and be able to offer this system to you. But we strongly believe that you’ll be happier and longer term customers if you’re not obligated to sign up for a share or a box or get items that you don’t like or don’t know how to cook.
There is no minimum order requirement -- start with one item or 20, it’s up to you.
