There’s no doubt about it – y’all sure do love strawberries! This past Saturday was a quite literally a red letter day at the FFM. Our 3rd annual Strawberry Festival brought in droves of berry lovers. And the market was the place to be for all things strawberry. From strawberry cakes and jams to strawberry donuts, it was berry heaven.

Customers celebrating a bumper crop of fresh local strawberries

Local Tennessee families enjoy farm made strawberry short cakes

Fresh picked strawberries bring smiles

Ann dressed the part getting her some strawberries

Kelley’s Berries sold a record 2 truck loads of Strawberries

And there was the ultimate treat – homemade strawberry shortcakes. They were deliciously decadent. The shortcakes were made by Karen Norton of Norton Family Farms and the strawberries for the shortcakes came from Delvin Farms, Kirkview Farm and the Kelley’s Berry Farm. To top it all off was the sweet dollop of cream from Hatcher Family Dairy. It really was a strawberry lover’s dream come true.

Volunteers served up over 1,700 Strawberry Shortcakes

Yum! Fresh Stawberries with Norton Family Farm baked shortcake and Hatcher Family Dairy cream

Franklin First Lady Linda Moore can’t resist some strawberry shortcake

There was a lot of fun for the kids too, with the special Kids Game Zone. And of course, the Barnyard Petting Zoo was also a big hit.

We love animals!

My new beaded necklace!

The Petting Zoo was a popular stop for kids to see and pet their favorite animals

Our Strawberry Judges of the day

And what would a festival be without a little competition going on? First off was the competition for the strawberriest vendor booth at the FFM. Our honorary judges were Najahe Sherman, News2 WKRN-TV Weekend News Anchor, Linda Moore, the First Lady of Franklin and wife of Mayor Ken Moore, Claire Crowell, Puckett’s Director of Operations, and Greg Brown, CEO of Ford –Lincoln of Franklin, the presenting Sponsor of the FFM’s Strawberry Festival. It was their job to decide who had the best strawberry spirit going on and the winner they picked was Giraffe Works Studio, followed by Carol’s Soaps and Barkers Market.

Giraffe Works Studio took home 1st Place

Linda’s Soaps took home 2nd Place

Barkers Market took home 3rd Place

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers for baking, washing, cutting and serving yummy shortcakes

Then it was on to the big contest of the day – which farmer had the best tasting strawberries at the festival. It was a very tight, tasty-sweet competition. But when it was all over, Kelley’s Berry Farm walked off with the trophy.

Strawberry Festival Judges had the best job of tasting all the strawberry entries from local farms

Kelly’s Berry Farm took home 1st Place for best tasting Strawberries

Of course, all of the strawberries at the festival were fresh and sweet and before lunchtime. every last strawberry the farmers had brought to market had been snatched up and were gone. Like we said before, y’all sure do love strawberries!

To enjoy more of the Strawberry Festival you can see pictures of the day in our market Photo Gallery.

Our local farmers and artisans decorated their booths with Giraffe Works Studio winning First Place!