If you moved to Old Metairie any time before 2020 and mentally filed the farmers market under "Tuesday evening errand," update the file. It hasn't run on a weeknight in years. What started as an after-work pop-up has become a once-a-month Saturday morning fixture, and the reason behind that shift says more about how this neighborhood actually spends its weekends than any brochure ever will.
From Evening Errand to Morning Ritual
The market's origin story starts in the spring of 2018, when the Old Metairie Garden Club launched what it called the Farmers Arts Metairie Market, or FAMM, at Bayou Metairie Park. The inaugural event ran on a Tuesday from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., timed for people heading home from work rather than people already out and about. The club recruited more than two dozen vendors for that first market, everything from local honey and goat cheese to farm eggs and handmade art, with live music from a local group called Memory Theory and a plan to keep the event going monthly.
Board member Kellyn Elmer Queyrouze is credited as the idea's driving force, with then-club president Carmen Waring helping carry it from concept to opening day, according to Metairie Bank's community blog. The pitch at the time was simple: give the neighborhood a small, boutique market of its own, something residents could walk to rather than drive across the parish for.
That version of the market, the after-work Tuesday version, doesn't exist anymore.
What Changed With the Park
The turning point tracks closely with what happened to the park itself. Bayou Metairie Park underwent a renovation, and when it reopened, the market that had launched three years earlier as an evening event was the one chosen to host the celebration. The grand reopening landed on a Saturday, August 7, 2021, running from 3:30 to 7:30 in the afternoon.
That single scheduling choice looks less like a coincidence and more like an early signal. A newly rebuilt park with a real walking trail and picnic shelters doesn't get most of its foot traffic after 5 p.m. It gets it in the morning, from people already moving through the space before the day heats up. Somewhere between that 2021 reopening and today, the market's calendar caught up to that reality. It stopped trying to intercept people on their way home and started meeting them where they already were: outside, early, and on a Saturday.
The Second Saturday Now
Today the Old Metairie Farmers Market runs every second Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Bayou Metairie Park, 2713 Metairie Road. This fall's dates are set for September 12, October 10, and November 14, 2026.
Bayou Metairie Park itself, per Jefferson Parish's own parks and recreation page, is a relatively recent addition to Old Metairie's public spaces, built around a walking trail, picnic tables, and an open event space at Metairie Road and Metairie Lawn Drive. That description reads plainly, but it explains the market's current logic better than any marketing copy could. The park was designed for morning use. The market simply moved to match it.
That morning window also lines up with the rest of the park system around it. The Linear Park Walking & Biking Trail runs alongside Metairie Road as a tree-lined route for strolls, jogs, and bike rides, which means walkers and joggers already have a reason to be on that stretch of road on a Saturday morning, market or no market. The event isn't drawing a new crowd out of the house. It's landing on top of one that was already there.
The Loop That Makes the Morning
If you've never made a full morning of it, the geography does most of the planning for you. Bayou Metairie Park sits roughly in the middle of the Metairie Road corridor, which means the market works as a starting point or a midpoint depending on which direction you're headed.
- Start at Bayou Metairie Park. Park near Metairie Lawn Drive and browse the stalls while the produce table is still full.
- Walk a stretch of the Linear Park trail. The path runs directly alongside Metairie Road, so there's no need to get in the car between the market and the next stop.
- Head toward Walley Pontiff Jr. Playground if you've got kids in tow, or continue up Metairie Road toward the Old Metairie Village shopping center at Severn Avenue if you're after coffee, a boutique stop, or a slower brunch.
None of this requires a car until you're ready to head home, which is part of what makes the Second Saturday version of the market feel different from a typical errand. It's less a stop and more a loop.
What Actually Shows Up
The market has always leaned into a mix of food and craft rather than a single specialty, and that format has held since the 2018 launch. Expect a rotating table of:
- Local honey, goat cheese, and farm eggs
- Fresh seasonal produce
- Handmade art and local crafts
- Kids' activities and live music
The specific vendor lineup shifts month to month, since it's run by a volunteer garden club rather than a commercial market operator, but the category mix has stayed consistent since the market's earliest days.
The market's own calendar only runs three dates deep at any given time. Right now that means September 12, October 10, and November 14, 2026, with nothing published past that yet. Put the next one on your calendar before it scrolls off the page.
Why the Schedule Is the Real Story
It would be easy to write this as a straightforward "here's a fun local market" post, and on the surface, that's exactly what it is. But the more interesting fact isn't that Old Metairie has a farmers market. Most established neighborhoods in Jefferson Parish do. The more interesting fact is that this one moved, quietly, from an after-work Tuesday event to a Saturday morning fixture, and that the shift happened around the same time the park itself was rebuilt for daytime use.
That's a small data point, but it's a real one, and it says something about how Old Metairie actually functions day to day. This isn't a neighborhood where public life clusters around evening happy hours or late dinners out. It clusters in the mornings, on a trail, around a playground, at a market run by neighbors rather than a commercial vendor. If you're trying to get a feel for what a Saturday actually looks like here, the market's own calendar has been telling you for years.
Whether you've lived on Metairie Road for twenty years or you're still learning which Saturday is the right one, Kara Lashley knows this stretch of Old Metairie block by block, market schedule included. If a question about the neighborhood ever turns into a question about a move, real estate or otherwise, Let's Connect.
