Knoxville Farmers Market (Oak Ridge, Cookeville, Maryville: appointed, to rent, co-op)

[GSD101]

Can anyone give me information on the farmers market in Knoxville? Any and all info is welcome. I am especially interested in locally grown vegetables, and farm raised animals with no hormones or antibiotics added to their diets. If anyone knows of anything in Crossville that would be great also.
Thanks so much!

[hiknapster]

I have been to the one in Knoxville and Oak Ridge. They are both very small. They both start up in May. The Knoxville one is on, appropriately enough, Market Square.

I was pretty disappointed considering there are so many farms around here. I have yet to find a produce stand, either,

I think you really have to go out to the farms to get the produce.

I did run into a guy that sold meat in Oak Ridge. I use to have his business card but I lost it.

He is listed on this site, though. This is a fantastic website and I couldn't do without it!

http://www2.state.tn.us/agriculture/onlineinfo/Marketing.asp?QSTRING=MKT&SCREEN=Farmers%20Markets &DISPLAY=Farmers%20Markets (broken link)

[JMT]

Originally Posted by GSD101

Can anyone give me information on the farmers market in Knoxville? Any and all info is welcome. I am especially interested in locally grown vegetables, and farm raised animals with no hormones or antibiotics added to their diets. If anyone knows of anything in Crossville that would be great also.
Thanks so much!

What used to be the Knox County farmers market is now a giant Target store.

There are produce stands scattered around town, and the food co-op on Broadway just north of downtown sells local produce and organic meats.

I don't know if there's a farmers market in Crossville, but there is one in Cookeville.

[Milo Bloom]

Originally Posted by GSD101

Can anyone give me information on the farmers market in Knoxville? Any and all info is welcome. I am especially interested in locally grown vegetables, and farm raised animals with no hormones or antibiotics added to their diets. If anyone knows of anything in Crossville that would be great also.
Thanks so much!

Hopefully this link will be allowed, as it's a Dot Org, but if not then search on "Pick TN Products"

http://www.picktnproducts.org/index.html

It gives a fair overview of markets and retail farms.

Maryville has a very consistent Saturday market all during the growing season, and Knoxville has a couple.

[happyappy]

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations usually use sustainable methods. Tennessee has 23 of them. There are 2 websites I recommend you check out (I’m not familiar with the rules about posting website addresses, so I’ll just give you the names of the organizations):

Local Harvest has a search feature in which one can enter city or zip code and State and get a list with descriptions of products available from each farm.

ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service has a wealth of information about CSAs including history and definitions of the 2 prominent types of CSAs:

Subscription CSA (farmer-driven) and Shareholder CSA (consumer-driven).

The USDA has quite a lot of information as well, but, not to get into politics, that organization’s methodology for qualifying organic or sustainable methods is suspect—in my humble opinion, that is.

It’s wonderful that you’re looking into this type of agricultural production. The more people who do so, the better able we’ll be to keep our agrarian heritage alive and once again produce most of our food in the areas in which we live.

[EagleI]

I followed the ATTRA site to a link to the Southern Organics Resource Guide, then to a site on TN Organics. If I read it right, according to the 2002 farm census, TN has 26 million acres of land, with a little over 4 million acres that are cropland. Of these, only 300 acres are certified organic, 98% of which is used to grow organic tobacco. This leaves only 5 acres of certified organic mixed vegetables, and 1 acre of herbs.

One of the things I will miss about WNY is my local CSA which I participated in for 5+ years. When you pay your money in advance of the growing season, you join the farmers in praying for rain (but not too much), the problems with lack of bees or too many bugs, and the threat of pollen drift from genetically modified crops on neighboring farms. I'm looking forward to planting my own garden once I've transplanted myself in NE TN, but am surprised at the lack of organic options.

I did find links for High Haven Farm with pasture fed meats and Middle Creek Blueberry Farm that look promising.

[happyappy]

EagleI,

Did you get a chance to look into the Local Harvest group with its list of CSA farms? I haven’t yet, but I will once I get settled in.

It appears there is a wide-open market to be enjoyed for awhile! While I’m disappointed in the lack of organic growers and CSAs, I do look forward to untapped markets.

[hiknapster]

Yes. I can't understand why there are no produce stands. No produce farms in my area, either. I get my Grainger County tomatoes at the grocery store. I think a lot of people have gardens but for their own consumption. I would love to rent a house where I can have a garden.

[Bear Creek]

Crossville's farmer's market opens around the first of May. It's located on 70 North, near the flea market. The building is bigger this year and there are organic growers there. We will be selling there. We just planted our first patch of corn, hoping there will not be a big frost, yet to come. We use a natural fertilizer, no hormones or antibiotics.

[GSD101]

Thanks for all the replies. I will be looking into the links when I get a chance. I really don't like GMO's, but I can live with pesticides. I know that if used properly they can't harm you much, and they can be washed off.

Budong, I have seen the local farmers market. What are the days and hours. And are there many vendors that participate.