Farmers Markets Are Cropping Up in Rutherford County
Aside from growing vegetables in your backyard, local farmers markets might be the best food option for health-conscious families.
Several farmers markets have been cropping up throughout Rutherford County, including one that has sprouted on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. Students operate that small summer market and are growing items such as tomatoes, corn, onions, peppers and cucumbers. They sell the fresh produce primarily to other students and faculty members, but anyone is welcome.
The town of Smyrna has a farmers market that operates on Wednesdays throughout the summer, with fresh produce for sale along with baked goods, eggs, flowers and herbs. Stones River Market is open during each summer in Christiana, and Rutherford County has been running its own long-standing market for several decades. The farmers market has been around since the early 1970s and used to be located in Cannonsburgh Village.
“We needed a more up-to-date facility, so we moved in 2009 to a Murfreesboro site on John R. Rice Boulevard,” says Anthony Tuggle, director of Rutherford County Extension, which oversees the market. “All the produce is fresh, and the local farmers have to grow it themselves in order to sell it. In other words, there is no buying and then reselling before the items reach Rutherford market. Everything is as fresh as it can be.”
The market is open Tuesdays through Fridays from the second Friday in June through the last Friday in October.
“It coincides with the typical warm-weather growing season in Tennessee,” Tuggle says. “The extension office helps to promote the market through a statewide Tennessee Fresh campaign.”
