Tag Archives: Onions

What the Farmers Market has for your Thanksgiving Shopping List

Thanksgiving gives us the chance to eat ourselves silly, with a big spread of delicious food. So get ready to pig out! Make those yummy holiday recipes with healthy fresh produce, meats and dairy from the Franklin Farmers Market and you’ll feel a little less guilty about stuffing yourself this Thanksgiving.

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Triple L Ranch great tasting hen right out of the oven!

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Saturday will be a day of Families doing their Thanksgiving shopping

Here’s a handy shopping list of some of the goodies you’ll find from the farmers at the market this Saturday to create the best Thanksgiving dinner ever.

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  • Beets – delicious roasted with honey!
  • Broccoli – a broccoli casserole hits the spot.
  • Cabbage – try it grilled or sautéed
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower – pick up some fresh cheese and drizzle over the cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Chard
  • Chives
  • Greens – lots of winter greens available now
  • Leeks
  • Lettuce
  • Mushrooms
  • Onions
  • Potatoes – Got to have mashed potatoes with gravy
  • Radishes
  • Shallots
  • Squash/Pumpkins
  • Sweet Potatoes – sweet ‘tater casserole is a must!
  • Turnips
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Fresh Herbs and Lettuces from Rocky Glade Farm

Pick up fresh cheese at the market. Moonshadow Farm has delicious varieties of Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese and Noble Springs Dairy has fantastic goat cheese in different flavors. Hatcher Family Dairy Farm has the milk, cream and buttermilk you need for your recipes and the kids would love some Hatcher chocolate milk with Thanksgiving dinner.

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Farm Fresh Harvest from Pilgrims Produce

Don’t forget the eggs you need for special Thanksgiving desserts. Moonshadow Farm, River Cottage Farm, Gardners Grove and Triple L Ranch are just a few of the farms with fresh eggs at the market.

Who says you have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving? From chicken to beef or ham, you can find the meat you want at the market. Check out Triple L Ranch, Bear Creek Farm, West Wind Farm, Peaceful Pastures, River Cottage, Gardner Grove and Beaverdam Creek Farm for the cuts of meat you want. Johnson’s Honey Farm and Pilgrim’s Produce have the honey you need to spread on fresh rolls. And if you don’t feel like doing all the baking, you can pick up delicious breads, pastries, cakes and more at the market. Norton Family Farm, Lucy’s Kitchen and Jones Mill Farms have what you need. Jams, jellies and preserves can be found at the market too.

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Fresh Baked Breads from Flying S Farm

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Jams, Jellies and Preserves from Jones Mill Farm

So go ahead…. Eat it up! Happy Thanksgiving from the Franklin Farmers Market.

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Fresh Lettuces and root vegetables from Zadok the Natural Farmer

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Wonderful Thanksgiving fresh picked veggies from Paradise Produce

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Rocky Glade at your service!

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Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes and Honey from Pilgrims Produce

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Beaverdam Creek fresh Veggies

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Organic Fennel from Delvin Farms

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Watermelon Festival Brings Fun and Games for Kids!

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Teddy Pennington shows off his spitting skills.

One, two, three….spit! Who knew that spitting seeds could be an athletic event? That’s what happened at the Franklin Farmers Market this past Saturday at the 2nd annual Watermelon Festival.  Contestants lined up to show off their spitting ability with watermelon seeds and claim the coveted Seed-Spitting Championship title. The winner was Casey Walker, who put the kids to shame with her athletic spitting ability. However, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place contestants were winners too.

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The winners took home sweet  juicy watermelons

All of them went home with a delicious sweet watermelon. Watermelon was definitely the star of the market, with delicious watermelon slices to munch on while walking around the market.

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A big crowd at the Watermelon Festival!

As we’ve said before, it’s the high season at the market, with summer produce at its peak. Lots of people walking around with big bags filled with peppers and tomatoes; lettuce, potatoes, onions, corn, purple hull peas and much more.

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Tasty, ripe bell peppers at the market

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Sweet corn from the King Family Farm

And it was a record-setting hot August day for the Franklin Farmers Market too. Over 3,000 people came to the market’s Watermelon Festival! We are very grateful for your support of local farms and local food.

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Local artisan Tom The Furniture Guy shows his wares

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There is always music at the Franklin Farmers Market

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Munching on yummy treats from Ellie’s Doughnuts

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Watermelon seed bean bag toss at the festival

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How fast can you eat a watermelon slice without using your hands?

The highlight of the day though was the fastest watermelon eating contest. Contestants quickly munched and slurped down watermelon slices with their hands behind their back.

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Max wins the top prize

It was a very close call, but in the end, Max Atlas took home the championship along with his first place winnings – a big CSA box of produce from Delvin Farms, honey from Johnson’s Honey Farm, sweet preserves from the Norton Family Farm, chess pie from Geraldine’s Pies, fresh yummy doughnuts from Ellie’s Doughnuts, a bar of goat soap from Tottys Bend Goat Farm and of course, a delicious watermelon!

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First place winner Max and his brothers hold up the contest prizes

And if you were at the market for the watermelon festival, you may now be a star on the market website! Click here and check out the photos of market day fun in our photo gallery. Lots of photos snapped, lots of smiling faces. Proof that when all was said and done, it was a great day at the Franklin Farmers Market for everyone!

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Evie, a student at the Growing Kids Garden

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A juicy watermelon makes everyone smile!

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The Franklin Farmers Market Watermelon Festival is proudly sponsored by the Williamson Herald and Southern Exposure Magazine

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Picking out the perfect watermelon

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Slicing watermelon to munch at the market

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Juicy, slurping fun at the watermelon eating contest

Farmers Bring Fresh Green Beans, Squash, Cucumbers, Blueberries, Peppers, Onions and More to Market

You know it’s going to be a good day when you spy the first of the blueberries at the market. They were the early variety, tasty and juicy. Those blueberries didn’t last long though, but that’s okay.

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Deb ringing in the Start of a wonderful Market Day

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Lot’s of new visitors and vacationers enjoying the day

The market was full of delicious food last Saturday. Green beans and new potatoes, along with cauliflower, beets and other fresh produce were plentiful. A lot of good farm eggs were snapped up too, along with tender steaks for the grill. Yummy breads, desserts and honey…. It was a food paradise!

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Fresh Flowers to Fresh Veggies at the market

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Lucy’s Kitchen always has Breakfast Treats ready

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First Cucumbers of Summer

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Where’s my Olive Oil and Outdoor Grill?

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Absolutely Beautiful Potatoes

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The new Franklin Farmers Market Recipe Book has wonderful Recipes from our Famers!

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We still have Strawberries…but not for long!

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Ellie’s Fresh Made Old Fashion Donuts

But sometimes you can’t find the vegetable you really want at the market. A lot of questions were asked Saturday about when would tomatoes show up at market; why weren’t there any watermelons and where was the corn? Georgia and Alabama produce typically is ripe and ready about two weeks before it is in Tennessee. The further south a farm is, the quicker the garden grows. Plus this year, we had a wet and cool spring, so some produce is running a little later than usual. But you need to be familiar with the seasonality of produce and fruit grown in Tennessee. Tomatoes typically are not ripe and plentiful until July. It’s the same thing with corn and watermelons are at their best in July and August too. Next Saturday, stop by the Market Information booth and pick up a free copy of Local Table. It’s a great guide to food and farming in Middle Tennessee, and it also has a big seasonality chart so you can get a better idea of when your favorite veggies and fruits are ripe and at market.

Speaking of tomatoes, nothing says summer like a deliciously ripe tomato. And we’re not talking about those tomatoes that are shipped in from other states or countries. We crave real tomatoes; the locally grown tomatoes. So when those first Middle Tennessee tomatoes are ripe and ready, it’s time to celebrate. And we’re going to do just that with our salute to tomatoes. Don’t miss the Franklin Farmers Market’s TomatoFest, July 27th. Fresh tomatoes are the stars of the show. Enjoy samples of delicious heirloom tomatoes. Watch cooking demos of Chef Steven from Amerigo. Learn seed-saving techniques and take part in the ugly tomato contest. It’s a tomato lover’s heaven… TomatoFest at the Franklin Farmers Market!

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New Fresh Peppers

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Lovely Green Onions

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The clean smell of Lavender was in the Air