Legacy Garden & Corner Store

05/10/2022

The Ben D. Johnson is consolidating all accounts into one account. We will no longer use this account for updates. See pictures for more information.

Be sure to like Ben D. Johnson Educational Center and Legacy Cafe on Facebook for all updates on our community events, activities and programs.

04/13/2022

Due to inclement weather we are postponing today’s session of Healthy Cooking With and For Your Kids to a later date.

04/11/2022

Just a quick reminder that tonight at 5 pm is our “Healthy Cooking With and for Your Kids” class. To register call the Legacy Cafe at 318-460-7460.

Come out and cook with us! ⏲👩🏾‍🍳

04/05/2022

Good Roots Farm brought us pea shoots so what else to do but make a free sample and give out a recipe for how to cook these delicious veggies! Come by the Legacy Corner Store from 7:30-3 to pick up your own bunch for $1 (SNAP/EBT users buy 1, get 1 free).

04/05/2022

What a fun and beautiful celebration we had this weekend, celebrating the completion of our community mural and coming together in community! We had burgers with beef from Beef and lettuce from the Legacy Garden, lunches cooked by Legacy Cafe staff, music by DJ J’Corey Lamar, the portable park from City of Natchitoches, tables & activities put on by Cap At Cane River, Boys & Girls Clubs of Acadiana, Northwestern State University, Ben D. Johnson Educational Center, and the Women's Resource Center of Natchitoches. Talk about community coming together!

Thank you everyone for coming out, being apart of our family, and working with us to transform lives and build community. Special thanks to Kevin Shannahan of the Natchitoches Parish Journal for capturing the event!

04/01/2022

Today's the day!! It's Good Roots Farm first time stocking their produce in our store. We have beautiful lettuce, eggs, and pea shoots from them. Come by and get a load of these veggies for yourself!

Reminder: If you use SNAP/EBT, you can buy 1, get 1 free on these veggies!

03/25/2022

It's that time of year... fresh, homegrown lettuce is ready! Come eat at the cafe and get these gorgeous greens on your sandwich, burger, or salad. Thanks, Chef Karen Wallace

03/23/2022

Homegrown turnip top and bottoms giveaway!!! Come through the Legacy Cafe to pick up your free bag.

We're so excited to be partnering with local farmers and friends at Good Roots. Huge thanks to them for donating these beautiful turnips. We're looking forward to all the veggie-filled partnerships with them to come.

03/11/2022

We are so lucky that our garden is supported so wholly by the Good Food Project. On Wednesday, we got a surprise of an awesome toolbox, some shock cloth to protect our plants during the upcoming freeze, and best of all, chicken manure!!! It was like Christmas morning for our garden.

Thank you so much GFP for all that you do to make our garden and our community grow.

03/08/2022

Luckily for us, a little rain and a cold front won't stop our preparation for our spring garden. We're lucky enough to have a greenhouse that acts as the nursery for all our baby seedlings before they get transplanted into the garden beds to become food for the Legacy Cafe. Here's a look at some of the tomato, pepper, cabbage, and flower seedlings we have growing. What else would you like to see this spring?

Also, huge shout out to our avid community of support: ferrell and her children for helping us seed many of these seedlings and Sherman Vogel for donating the greenhouse and making our plant nursery a reality! We could not do this work without you guys. Thank you.

03/07/2022

Look at the fantastic new garden mural completed at the Ben D. Johnson Legacy Garden in Natchitoches! Here's a much deserved shout out to our community garden partner for their dedication to building community connections and teaching sustainable gardening! Beautiful work! 🥦🍆💚

03/04/2022

Last painting day today! Come out 10-4, even if it's just for 20 minutes, to co-create this community mural with us. We can't wait to see you and enjoy this beautiful day.

Christine Romain Ferrell Nicole Shunte Gray Karen Wallace Kelsy Davis Bridget Gustafson Neeru Deep Claire Prymus Edgar Cano Gabriela Campos Orta Northwestern State University Marcus Jones

03/03/2022

Yum! Spent the morning harvesting some beautiful lettuce for the Legacy Cafe salads and sandwiches. Enjoy the lettuce at the cafe or call (318) 460-7460 to buy some of this lettuce for your home.

02/28/2022

Today, we are shining a spotlight on Ben D. Johnson Educational Center advisory board member and West Natchitoches native, Candace Johnson. Candace and her son have come to several of our mural painting days, adding their paint strokes to those of the 100+ Natchitoches residents who have helped create the beautiful mural scene.

Candace grew up in the Natchitoches Thomas Apartments, across the street from where the mural is now located, and says that "the mural has brought light to this area of town. I was glad to be a participant in painting the mural by volunteering with my son to help make it happen.”

Thank you Candace and thank you to all our other volunteers who have worked to make this mural come to life and helped breathe life and beauty into this space.

02/25/2022

Edit: We are postponing tomorrow's painting day to next week due to the cold and rain expected in tomorrow's forecast. Thanks and stay warm!

We're painting tomorrow!! Come join us and sign up at the link below.
https://signup.com/go/Yywtqqh

SignUp.com makes it easy to coordinate school events & classroom activities, fundraisers, snack schedules, potlucks & more!

02/22/2022

This is your last week to enter a $1 ticket into the raffle to receive an original drawing by Edgar Cano, the artist who designed our community mural. Stop by the Legacy Cafe for breakfast or lunch and get a ticket. This is an incredible opportunity to get a piece of artwork from an internationally-renowned artist. This is a $1 investment you don't want to miss!

Pictured here is NSU's president, Marcus Jones, highlighting the value of Edgar's drawing. Thank you Marcus and Edgar.

02/21/2022

Huge thank you to the Good Food Project, one of our biggest supporters, advisors, and the organization that keeps our wheels (and soil) turning, for dropping off this amazing assortment of pots and trays for us to start our seeds in and donate to community members who come to our gardening workshops/events. We appreciate you... and dang, those pots look good with the mural as a backdrop.

Keep your eyes open for our upcoming events and don't forget to join us this Saturday for our final community painting day!

02/18/2022

We're so excited to have Cap At Cane River and Joy Dove out in the garden every day next week running a children's camp about "How to Express Stress." We'll have activities, like how to make stress balls and lava lamps, and have discussions about how to cope with difficult emotions. It's going to be a great week... and you know us and the kids are going to try the carrots that are popping out of the garden now!

02/18/2022

A behind the scenes look at the Legacy Garden Community Mural project! Edgar Cano snuck into the garden one day this week to add details and bring life to the figures and scenes our volunteers have been working so hard to paint.

Join us, with paintbrush in hand or just to watch, as we get back to painting this Friday and Saturday from 10-4.

02/15/2022

Progress update on our community mural! Thank you so much to all of our volunteers for their dedication to this project. It has been such a blast! Stop by to check it out for yourself

02/10/2022

Lots happening at the Legacy Garden this weekend! Come by the Legacy Garden tomorrow from 11-1 to get carrots and turnips from the Mobile Market, courtesy of the City of Natchitoches. We'll have volunteers helping our mural artist Edgar Cano with the community mural from 1-4.
Grab yourself some fish from the Legacy Cafe, pick up your veggies, and watch the creation of some beautiful art.

02/04/2022

We are so happy to announce that we are now stocking local beef producer, Trotter Beef! Stop by the store Tuesday-Sunday from 7-3 and get products from cows that were raised in Southern Natchitoches using no hormones or harmful antibiotics. Yum!

01/31/2022

Free learning opportunity!

Join us next week for another virtual learning opportunity! NCAT's Felicia Bell will explore the topic of cover crops and how to use them to build soil health and improve water infiltration.

This workshop is free. For more information and to register, go to: https://www.ncat.org/events/ =69153096;instance=20220201180000

Questions? Contact Felicia Bell at [email protected].