Farmers Market will return to fairgrounds on Saturday, June 28
The new Clinton Farmers Market, shown here on its inaugural day May 24 at the Anderson County Fairgrounds, will hold its next session from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 28, also at the fairgrounds. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Returning to the Anderson County Fairgrounds, this second event will include more vendors, said Matthew Garafolo, who set up the market along with his partner, Maggie Hanson.
Garafalo, a Clinton sheep farmer, and his partner, Maggie Hanson, started the Clinton Farmers Market on Saturday, May 24, also at the fairgrounds, with about 15 vendors and a steady stream of customers.
“There will be some new vendors,” Garafolo said Monday. “Hopefully there will be some vegetables this time, and we’re also hoping for some eggs.
“The county 4-H program will have a booth set up, and will have some dairy-themed goodies to give out, we’ve been told.
“It’s early still for most of the in-ground vegetables,” he added. “But they should be coming soon.”
Additional dates for the market will be announced on the Clinton Farmers Market Facebook page, Garafolo said.
The plan now is for the market sessions to be held once a month.
Meanwhile, the Norris Farmers Market continues to operate from 3-6 p.m. every Wednesday in the Norris Commons area in front of Norris Middle School.
Coordinator Mindy Wells said the Norris market has done “quite well” for the season so far, although it, too, is still waiting for the summer vegetables – including the much-anticipated home-grown tomatoes – to begin arriving.
As for the Clinton market, Garafolo and Hanson brought lamb meat to the first session, and will be on hand June 28 to operate their booth again, he said.
As with the first market session, Garafolo expects to see artisan food items, baked goods, beef, crafts, and pork, as well as some food trucks on hand for the second event.
With its organizers, new location and new day and time, the new Clinton Farmers Market aims to succeed where the previous version failed, Garafolo said.
The East Tennessee FARM group had sponsored the Clinton Farmers Market the previous three years – the first year in the city parking lot on Commerce Street and the past two years in Clinton’s Lakefront Park.
But the group announced in March that it did not intend to operate the market this year, citing a lack of vendor interest and the shape of the U.S. economy.
Garafalo and Hanson produce Katahdin sheep on their farm, which “work very well in a variety of production situations as a low-maintenance, easy care sheep,” according to the website katahdins.org.
He said that he and Hanson decided to revive the Clinton market in part as a way to help market their own products.
They decided to hold it on Saturdays instead of on Thursday mornings, as the FARM group had. Garafolo said he believed the main reason the FARM group’s market failed was because
of its inconvenient Thursday morning time slot.
