Join the Southern Food & Beverage Museum to welcome Louisiana Horticulturalist, Grant Estrade of Laughing Buddha Nursery for a discussion on the sourcing and purchasing of local meat and produce for home cooking.

Estrade is a native of Metairie and graduate of Jesuit High School and the University of New Orleans. His first business venture at the age of 15 was raising of mice and rats for the sale the pet shop where he worked. With the help of his father, he learned the basics of business accounting, and thanks to all the rodent poop he learned the basics of nutrient cycling and compost - which he used for his first vegetable garden.

In 2003, Grant started Laughing Buddha Nursery, which focuses on helping people grow vegetables naturally and organically. LBN stocks micro-batched soils, garden supplies and hydroponic growing equipment and hosts a daily farmer's market stand. Grant and his wife Kate have a farm, Local Cooling Farms, south of Bogalusa, where they compost and mix soil for sale at Laughing Buddha and also raise pigs, cattle, goats, chickens and rabbits using rotational grazing methods on pasture and in the woods. Grant is a certified Zig Ziglar Legacy trainer, leading professional development courses for companies and coaching for individuals.

Grant is still fascinated by the composting process, and even more interested in growing food with recycled organic matter. Currently, as a Louisiana Horticulturalist, holder of the PDC (Permaculture Design Certification), and student of the PolyFace Farm farming model he is working on tying in sustainable agriculture (raising livestock), with the burgeoning local food and beverage manufacturing scene in New Orleans.

The program begins at 1 PM in the Rouses Culinary Innovation Center by Jenn-Air. Free with museum admission.