Tag Archives: strawberries

Large Crowds Pack Farmers Market for Franklin Strawberry Festival

May 19, 2015

This 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. Without 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!

Thank 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!!!

A 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

Best 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

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!

Strawberries, Asparagus and more Fresh Produce Arrive at Market

April 28, 2014

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Loving that first Strawberry from the market

And they’re off! It was just like a race this past Saturday as some of you practically ran through the market to get strawberries, the first asparagus, radishes and other spring goodies. The lines for strawberries were particularly impressive. But If you missed out on the ‘berries and new veggies, don’t worry. There should be even more next Saturday. With the warm temperatures and sunshine we had, things are growing a lot faster now. Enough so, that the market will begin its’ summer season next Saturday (May 3^rd), giving you an extra hour to find your favorite fresh food. Market hours will switch to 8am – 1pm.

Delvin Farms Strawberries are in!

Fresh Kale and Green Onions from Delvin Farms

Asparagus from Delvin Farms

Beautiful Radishes from Gardner Grove

Happy FFM Volunteers ready to serve

This past Saturday was also Volunteer Day at the market. We’ve got a great group of volunteers, but we can always use more to help with special events and market operations overall. A good number of people stopped and signed up to be a member of the FFM volunteer team. If you missed out, you can become a team member by visiting the Volunteer section of the market website. It’s a great chance to become friends with the farmers and vendors, be up close and personal for all of the FFM’s special events and to be styling in a really cool volunteer t-shirt too. Visit our volunteer page to learn more.

Jones Mill Fresh Picked Asparagus

Farm Strawberries anyone?

Romain Lettuce from Norton Family Farm

Having some fun at the Triple L Ranch

Beaverdam Creek fresh lettuces

As we said before, days like this past Saturday really put things in the garden into high gear. Every weekend through the summer, there’s some newly harvest vegetable coming into market. It’s only natural to grab as much as you can to take home and enjoy.

This long line of strawberry lovers snatched up all strawberries by 10am

Green Onions and Broccoli from Norton Family Farm

Just picked spinach from Norton Family Farm

Get your Farm CSA’s now as shown by Beaverdam Creek Farm

But do you know how to take all of those veggies and turn them into the perfect meal? Find out how at the FFM’s Chef Saturday. On the first market day of every month, there will be a professional chef at the market to give you more ideas on cooking. This upcoming Saturday, Chef Cyndi Shalhoub who specializes in delicious healthy organic cooking will be at the market to show you great ways to prepare the perfect meal with the fresh food from the market. When you get a sample of what she prepares, your taste buds will be doing the happy dance!

Young plants from Earth Advocates Research Farm

Somebody will do some serious planting

Beautiful plants from Purple Tree Farm

Farm Hoop Houses providing early Local Farm Produce

April 21, 2014

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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.

Pilgrims Produce radishes

Sweet green onions from Pilgrims Produce

Beaverdam Creek fresh lettuces and radishes

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

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.

Lettuces from Pilgrims Produce

Green Onions from Kirkview Farm

Celery from Rocky Glade

Delvin Farms fresh lettuces

Carrots from Norton Family Farm

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.

Vegetable Starter Plants from Paradise Produce

Blackberry plants from Delvin Farm

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

Beautiful Flowers from Blooming Baskets

FFM customers heading home with new starter plants for their garden

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!