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There were truck farms all over the West Bank of New Orleans, in Harahan, Little Farms (now part of River Ridge) and down in St. Bernard Parish. Farmers who worked at places like the Picone truck farm and Lauricella family truck farm raised artichokes, tomatoes and fava beans; the literal fruits of their labors were then trucked to New Orleans’ public markets. Italian immigrants also settled in the part of Kenner that runs from Williams Boulevard and Kenner Avenue to the St. Charles Parish line. Produce grown in Kenner’s “Green Gold” fields was ferried to the French Market via the O-K Rail Line, which ran between New Orleans and Kenner from 1915 to 1930. Kenner’s large Italian population still celebrates St. Rosalie, the patron saint of Palermo, with a procession every September.

Joseph P. Rouse immigrated to America from Sardinia, Italy’s second-largest island, in 1900. He arrived at Ellis Island, New York, accompanied by his mother, Marie, and an older brother. His father had come over more than a decade before. Joseph was barely a year old. The Rouses were part of the New Immigration of Italians. That period between the 1880s through the 1920s saw the arrival in America of more than four million mostly southern Italian immigrants who’d left their homeland in search of work and a better life. Many arrived wide-eyed and anxious, having left family back in their Italian homeland. Nearly three-quarters of those immigrants who arrived during the New Immigration were farmers and laborers. J.P. Rouse’s first job in America was at a family truck farm in Marrero raising garden vegetables.

ITALIAN TRUCK FARMS

Like farming, produce vending was a common livelihood for Italian immigrants who settled around the Gulf Coast.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT In 1923, having saved enough money working at the family truck farm in Marrero, J.P. Rouse and his wife, the former Leola Pitre, moved to Thibodaux, where he opened City Produce Company . He bought fruits and vegetables from big farms in Chackbay and Choctaw, then trucked them to the public markets including the French Market. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Many budding Italian entrepreneurs had stalls at the French Market, where business was almost all wholesale. Chisesi Brothers , now famous for their hams, started in the French Market selling live chickens from a basket. Other immigrants peddled food from horse-drawn carriages and later trucks. Each salesman traveled the same route every day, so people knew when and where to look for him. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Dole Fruit Company traces its roots back to the early French Quarter fruit carts. The Vaccaro brothers, who peddled fruit, joined another immigrant family, the D’Antonis of Baton Rouge, to form Standard Fruit & Steamship Company. They dominated the banana business and helped make New Orleans the world’s largest fruit importer in the early 19th century. Dole acquired 55% interest in the Standard Fruit & Steamship Company in 1964. It later acquired 100%. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Giuseppe Uddo, the founder of Progresso Foods , also started as a peddler, selling olives, cheeses and tomato paste in New Orleans, first from a horse-drawn carriage — his horse was named Sal — and later from a truck. Eventually Uddo purchased a small warehouse on Decatur Street. After World War I, Uddo bought a tomato paste factory owned by the Vaccaro brothers in Riverdale, California. Business expanded from there.

22 ROUSES SUMMER 2023