Monthly Archives: May 2015

Large Crowds Pack Farmers Market for Franklin Strawberry Festival

Franklin Strawberry FestivalThis year the Franklin Strawberry Festival brought smiles to everyone! A fun day for ALL, especially the kids loving the sweet tasting strawberries, strawberry shortcakes and donuts. We had our largest crowd of the year even with scattered rain showers. We are blessed to have so many customers who support our local farmers each Saturday of the year looking for fresh farm produce, baked goods and unique artisan crafts. A big THANK YOU to all our local farmers who picked strawberries Saturday morning, making 2nd deliveries of strawberries to market for Festival customers. We are grateful for having Ford Lincoln of Franklin as our Strawberry Festival Sponsor. imagesWithout Greg Brown’s generous support of our market and Tennessee Farmers, it would be difficult to have such a large Strawberry Festival. Please support Greg and his Ford Lincoln of Franklin local business!

franklin Farmers marketThank you to Norton Family Farms for baking over 600 shortcakes and Ellie’s Old Fashioned Doughnuts for over 600 strawberry doughnuts. Whipped cream was supplied by Hatcher Family Dairy. The fresh local strawberries came from Delvin Farms, Kelley’s Berry Farm, Kirkview Farm, and Rocky Glade Farm. All the festival preparation and serving of strawberry shortcakes could not have been accomplished without our army of volunteers. You guys are the BEST!!!

Strawberry Festival JudgesA special thanks to our Celebrity Judges who had the difficult task of making the tough decisions of Best Tasting Strawberry and Best Decorated Strawberry Booth. All of you did an outstanding job! We appreciate your time and dedication to judging this years Franklin Strawberry Festival!

-Joe Dubin, WSMV Channel 4 Sports Team, Emmy Award winner and two-time Edward R. Murrow Award         winner while at WKRN
-Marianne DeMeyers, President of Downtown Franklin Association, Owner of Tin Cottage
-Cassie Jones, Director of Sales for Southern Exposure Magazine & The Williamson Herald
-Chef Carlos Garcia, Homestead Manor’s Executive Chef

DSC_3186 2Best Tasting Strawberry Awards to:
1st Place – Rocky Glade Farm, Jim Vaughn and son Dylem
2nd Place – Olivia Olive Oil, Christi Lassen
3rd Place – Evans Produce, Tonya Evans

Best Decorated Strawberry Booth Awards to:
1st Place – The Barkers Market, Eric & Jeanne Floyd
2nd Place – Bloomsbury Farm, Lauren Palmer
3rd Place – Triple L Ranch, Ann Lee & Daniel Fold
Strawberry Festival Franklin TN
From all our Market staff, Farmers, Bakers and Artisans…THANK YOU!!! The Franklin Farmers Market enjoys putting on this event each year. We appreciate all our customers to come out to support our market each Saturday!

Visit our market photo gallery to see pictures of all the fun we had during this years Strawberry Festival!

Thank you to the Williamson Herald for covering this years market Strawberry Festival!  

Franklin Strawberry Festival May 16th 2015

franklin strawberry festivalStrawberry Festival time is here! It’s the first sweet bite of spring and it’s the delicious main ingredient of the 5th annual Franklin Farmers Market Strawberry Festival which gets underway Saturday, May 16th beginning at 8am. It’s a fun celebration for the entire family with music, kids’ games, and plenty of delicious fresh strawberries grown on Middle Tennessee farms.

Mouthwatering homemade strawberry shortcakes, made by Norton Family Farm will be available. Topped with sweet berries from the farms of the market and a dollop of Hatcher Family Dairy whipped cream, the shortcakes are a festival favorite. We will also have strawberry donuts from Ellie’s Old Fashioned Doughnuts. Proceeds from the shortcake and donut sales benefit the Franklin Farmers Market and the Franklin Farmers Market Educational Foundation. The Franklin Farmers Market is a non-profit agricultural organization dedicated to keeping Tennessee farms growing.

strawberry festivalA team of local judges will select the best tasting strawberries at the FFM and decide the winner of the “Strawberriest Booth” contest. This years judges will be:

Joe Dubin, WSMV Channel 4 Sports Team, Emmy Award winner and two-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner while at WKRN
Marianne DeMeyers, President of Downtown Franklin Association, Owner of Tin Cottage
Cassie Jones, Director of Sales for Southern Exposure Magazine & The Williamson Herald
Chef Carlos Garcia, Homestead Manor’s Executive Chef
The Franklin Farmers Market Strawberry Festival is presented by Ford – Lincoln of Franklin.

Besides all of the fresh berries at the Franklin Farmers Market Strawberry Festival, festival attendees can also enjoy a wide variety of fresh produce and goods from Tennessee farms and beautiful, unique arts and crafts from local artisans. Admission to the Franklin Farmers Market Strawberry Festival is free. The Franklin Farmers Market is located at the corner of Liberty Pike and Franklin Road, behind The Factory.

Would you like to be a Strawberry Festival Volunteer? Visit our Volunteer sign up here

strawberry festival franklin

Volunteers for Strawberry Festival Needed!

franklin strawberry festivalWould you like to be a volunteer for the 2015 Strawberry Festival?  We have Volunteer
opportunities throughout the day of our strawberry festival and the day before prepping strawberries. A Volunteer Schedule will be emailed to all volunteers. And you will receive some strawberries for your time!

If you are interested in volunteering, please do the following:

Please email Kristy Williams at kwilliams@historicfranklin.com by Thursday, May 14, 2015 at High Noon.  Provide your Name, Day(s) and Area(s) you are interested in along with your cell number.  You will receive an email in response to your request as well as a
schedule before the event.

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

Washing and Slicing 25 flats of strawberries at 1st United Methodist Church, downtown Franklin

4pm till 8pm – Need 15 Volunteers

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2015

Set Up Crew-Tents, games, moving the strawberries from Kitchen to tents,
etc.

6:30 a.m.-Need 6 volunteers

Shortcake Tent-Prepare shortcakes, Chair-Liz Norton

7:45 – 10:30 -Need 8 Volunteers

10:30 – 1 PM-Need 8 Volunteers

Children’s Area-Keep Game area cleaned and encourage children to share

7:45 – 10:30 -Need 2 Volunteers

10:30 – 1 PM-Need 2 Volunteers

Clean Up Crew-Pack up children’s games and the strawberry tent supplies

1 p.m.-Need 4 Volunteers

franklin strawberry festivalDid you know that the Franklin Farmers Market donated over 14,000 pounds of
fresh fruits and vegetables to the Giving Garden ministry for First  United
Methodist Church in 2014?  The Franklin Farmers Market has grown
significantly and we appreciate our great volunteers to produce the market
each week. We appreciate your time and consideration!!!!

Kristy Williams
Franklin Farmers Market Volunteer
kwilliams@historicfranklin.com

*If you still would like to volunteer after the deadline for sign up has passed, call Ryan Palmer, Events Manager at 615-310-3758, there may still be opportunities to volunteer.

Thank you on behalf of the Franklin Farmers Market!

What’s the Best Local Breakfast you can Eat?

best local breakfastI love cooking what I consider to be the best local breakfast you can eat with all ingredients coming from the Franklin Farmers Market behind the Factory in Franklin Tennessee. The eggs are farm fresh, the spinach, green onions and mushrooms have just been harvested the day before. The beautiful sweet strawberries top a freshly baked shortcake with local dairy cream. We are blessed to live in Tennessee rich with agriculture and farms dotting our entire state. There is no better taste than local farm fresh food! And we have the largest assembly of farmers at our Tennessee farmers market.

best farm breakfast

Sauté some fresh spinach, green onions and mushrooms

For breakfast, I used fresh farm eggs from Moonshadow Farm. Our market eggs are free range and have a bright orange yolk with a wonderful fresh flavor. Brenda of Moonshadow Farm treats her chickens like children, protecting them from hawks and wild animals. I sautéed some green onions and spinach from Rocky Glade Farm along with some blue oyster farm grown mushrooms from Colvin Family Farm. I used bacon grease from the market bacon I just prepared. Once slightly sautéed I then added two fresh eggs from Moonshadow Farm. I lightly scramble the eggs with the sautéed farm fresh ingredients just picked up at the farmers market.

 

Karen's shortcakes are the best!

Karen’s shortcakes are the best!

The most exciting part of this breakfast is the time of year it is. This best local breakfast is made possible by the star of the day, local strawberries from Kelly’s Berry Farm! We had over 1,200 pints of strawberries at the market and all we’re so beautiful and sweet. Karen of Norton Family Farm had her customer favorite shortcakes at market. These are the best tasting shortcakes you will find in Williamson County. With Karen selling out of her shortcakes by 11am, she was kind to save me two I could use for breakfast this morning. The whipped cream from Hatcher Family Dairy was the perfect white bed for the sweet strawberries to sleep in. Folks, this Best Local Breakfast, was better than the pictures communicate. It was simply “Local Fabulous”!

Come visit our market next week and enjoy fresh local food from the Franklin Farmers Market. Your taste buds will rejoice, and your body will be thankful for a week of nutritious local food. Our Strawberry Festival is May 16th! See you all Saturday, new summer hours 8am till 1pm!

Two Mom's carry home flats of strawberries and a Delvin Farms CSA.

Two Mom’s carry home flats of strawberries and a farm CSA from Delvin Farms