We were blessed with warm Sunshine on Saturday!
After a month of bone-chilling winter weather, suddenly everything changed for the farmers market. Sunshine and a high in the mid-60’s on the first day of February! Weird but wonderful weather for the month that’s typically the coldest of the year and it made it a great day to be at the Franklin Farmers Market. Lots of folks came out to get the best in fresh food and to soak up the sunshine with the farmers and vendors at the market. We saw lots of crunchy carrots and yummy apples from Kirkview Farm being snatched up and delicious sweet treats from the Norton Family Farm too. Those dried shitake mushrooms from Gardner Grove Farm were a hit. So were the Heirloom Tomato soup from Jones Mill Farm and the Potato Gouda Dill soup from Lucy’s Kitchen. Even the little ones got a taste of extra-special yummy food to take home with the fresh organic baby food from Chubby Bunny.
Kirkview Farm Apples
Carrots, Butternut Squash and Kale from Kirkview Farm
Dried Shitake Mushrooms from Gardner Grove
Carrots and other produce from Zadok The Natural Farmer
Valentine cookies from Flying S Farm
Heirloom Tomato Soup from Jones Mill Farm
Geraldine’s Greatest Chess Pies
Hatcher Family Dairy
Jams, Jellies, Preserves and Breads from Jones Mill Farm
Biscuit Love uses locally sourced foods
And despite their recent status as TV stars, the Biscuit Love crew was at the market too. They were featured in a recent segment on NBC’s Today show called “Marketing Makeover” that helps worthy small companies to keep growing and thriving. The thing we like best about the Biscuit Love Truck is that they use local and seasonal ingredients from such farms as Beaverdam Creek, Bloomsbury Farm and Bear Creek. We don’t think they were giving out autographs this past Saturday at the market, but they were serving up scratch made biscuit sandwiches like the East Nasty, with buttermilk fried chicken, cheddar cheese and sausage gravy.
Hand made by Miniatures by Phillip
Chubby Bunny Organic Baby Foods
And finally, there were a lot of parents on Saturday asking about gardens. When will tomatoes be back in season? When will strawberries be available? What about green beans? The farmers do have all the answers for you, but then so could your kids. How? By being a part of the FFM’s Growing Kids Educational Garden classes. It’s all about teaching kids about where their food really comes from and what it takes to get it from the garden patch to the table. There are lots of new features this year’s program, which gets underway in April. Details on classes and how to sign up will be released at the end of February in the market’s newsletter and website.