Tag Archives: Rocky Glade Farm

Farm Hoop Houses providing early Local Farm Produce

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Rocky Glade farm grown strawberries

We saw them too – red, plump and juicy and flying out of the market as fast as cars zooming around a racetrack. The very first local farm strawberries of the spring were at the FFM this past Saturday and some of you could not wait to get your hands on them.  We can’t really blame you. Those beautiful strawberries were grown on Rocky Glade Farm and are a couple of weeks earlier than expected. But remember how we told you that farmers are pretty resourceful, using hoop houses and row covers to protect their crops from bad weather? That’s exactly what they did on Rocky Glade Farm. The Vaughn family raises a lot of good vegetables in the fields. But they also have two large hoop houses, which help to protect early spring crops from those last-minute blasts from winter. It all adds up to delivering delicious local farm produce like those early strawberries. We’re betting you’ll see more of them next Saturday.

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Pilgrims Produce  radishes

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Sweet green onions from Pilgrims Produce

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Beaverdam Creek fresh lettuces and radishes

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Farm fresh spinach, carrots, lettuces and radishes from Paradise Produce

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Just picked romain lettuce from Norton Family Farm

It was one of those everything old is new again days at the FFM this past Saturday. Think about it for a minute. Sometimes it seems like winter drags on forever, with no bright flowers to see and no warm weather fresh veggies to enjoy. So when all the local farm produce of spring finally show back up again, it’s like we’re seeing them for the first time. That’s what it was like at the farmers market. There were new spring veggies to enjoy, like fresh green onions for the perfect salad.

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Lettuces from Pilgrims Produce

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Green Onions from Kirkview Farm

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Celery from Rocky Glade

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Delvin Farms fresh lettuces

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Carrots from Norton Family Farm

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Fresh lettuce mix from Norton Family Farm

Early starter plants, such as squash, tomatoes and cucumbers were going home to be planted by backyard gardeners.

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Vegetable Starter Plants from Paradise Produce

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Blackberry plants from Delvin Farm

Plus all the flowers… beautiful, bright flowers were found all over the market. Spring makes everything new again.

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Beautiful Flowers from Blooming Baskets

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FFM customers heading home with new starter plants for their garden

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Volunteer Day April 26th

Have you ever wondered how the FFM comes together every Saturday, year-round? Sometimes to us, it seems like magic. But it is really the work of our volunteers who play an important role in making the Franklin Farmers Market the best market in Tennessee for local farm produce. We’re always looking for great volunteers.

Next Saturday is FFM’s Volunteer Day. It’s your chance to join the market team and help out in a variety of different ways. If you believe in local food, sustainability and the goodness of Tennessee farms, we’d love for you to be part of our team.

Look for the special farmers market Volunteer booth next Saturday at the front of the market and join the FFM team!

 

Tennessee Tomatoes and Blackberries arrive at Farmers Market

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Fresh Blackberries make their entrance for 2013!

The Word for the Day is…

Actually it’s two words: Tomatoes and blackberries! The very first tomatoes for the summer season were available at the Franklin Farmers Market this past Saturday from Rocky Glade Farm. It wasn’t a huge amount, but who cares? They were the first real Tennessee tomatoes of the year and everybody wanted one.

There were the blackberries.

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Rocky Glade Farm had Tomatoes that sold out fast

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This girl is all smiles over farm fresh blueberries and tomatoes

Kelley’s Berry Farm had the first pick of their crop of blackberries and so did the Colbert Family Farm. Again, the first of the season and not in a huge amount, but within the next couple weeks, the number of blackberries will grow much larger.  Summer has officially started and with the warm weather and sunshine, more and more crops are ready for picking and enjoying, so what’s available at market changes each week.

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Kirkview Farm is loaded with summer produce

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The Green Beans and Cabbage are all so beautiful

The market was pretty busy this past Saturday. We even had a tour of folks from Kentucky. The Kentucky State Agriculture Department’s Roadside Market Tour brought a busload of people into visit and they had nothing but good things to say about your market.

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The Kentucky Roadside Market Tour visiting on Sat.

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Market Manager Deb Grant visiting with Kentucky tour

And finally, everyone kept asking about the photo of the kids with the tractor in the market’s newsletter last Thursday. Those little “farmers” are all part of the Growing Kids Educational Garden classes that we conduct at the Park in Harlinsdale Farm just across from The Factory on Franklin Road. The classes take place every Thursday at the garden and the kids get to learn about such things good bugs and bad bugs, why worms are a good thing and the scoop on how cow poop can make a garden grow. Lots of hands-on activities too and classes are free. Registration for July classes is open now. Find out more by clicking on Kids section of the market website. Come see us next Saturday at the market!

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As always Beaverdam Creek Farm has a large variety of Tennessee Farm Fresh Produce and CSA’s