Kirkview Farm watermelons

The calendar says it’s September, but at the Franklin Farmers Market this past Saturday, you couldn’t tell it with so much summer farm produce still available. The temperatures made it feel like a hot day in July but that’s okay because the warm weather makes the season for those summer farm produce vegetables longer than usual. There’s still plenty of tomatoes, watermelons, sweet and hot peppers and all your other summer farm produce favorites at the market. We saw several people thinking ahead though, buying large numbers of veggies to freeze or can to enjoy the summer produce all winter long. That’s a good thing to do, but if you’d rather eat food straight from the garden, don’t worry. There will be summer vegetables at the market for several more weeks.

Norton Farm’s fresh lettuce

Lots of good bell peppers

Picking out apples

For those of you who are true connoisseurs of delicious fresh food, mark your calendar for October 4th and join us for “Feast from the Fields”. This unique farm to table dinner will be held at Bloomsbury Farm, the perfect setting to relax and enjoy an abundant gourmet meal with wine pairings.

The perfect place for a gourmet meal is at Bloomsbury Farm

James Beard Award nominee Chef Philip Krajeck of Rolf and Daughters Restaurant will creatively prepare a savory four course meal using only the best ingredients from local farms, such as Bear Creek Farm and Bloomsbury Farm. Proceeds from “Feast from the Fields” benefit the Franklin Farmers Market and the Franklin Farmers Market Educational Foundation. Tickets are on sale now.

The official first day of fall this year is September 23rd and that caused a lot of people to stop by the market’s info booth to find out when the market would shut down for the winter. A little cold weather doesn’t bother us – the Franklin Farmers Market is a year-round market. Our farmers don’t stop growing during the winter. And while the produce grown in cooler temperatures differs from summer vegetables, there’s still a lot of good vegetables to eat. To find out what’s at the Franklin Farmers Market during the winter, stop by the info booth and pick up a free copy of the Local Table magazine. There’s a big seasonality chart in Local Table that will show you the peak season for practically every vegetable and fruit grown in Middle Tennessee. Winter market begins on November 1st!

Cooling he veggies with water

Smiling faces at the market

Taste it – you’ll like it!

We like to share the photos we snap each week at the market. See who and what we captured on camera with a visit to the Franklin Farmers Market’s photo gallery!