Clinton Farmers Market returns Saturday
Fairground location, day a boon for both vendors and shoppers
The new Clinton Farmers Market will hold its second session from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday (June 28) at the Anderson County Fairgrounds.
For this one, there will be more vendors, said Matthew Garafolo, a Clinton sheep farmer who created the market along with his partner, Maggie Hanson.
The inaugural session was held on Saturday, May 24, also at the fairgrounds, with about 15 vendors selling mostly meats, baked goods, and crafts, but only a few early vegetables.
“We hope there will be some vegetables this time, and we’re also hoping for some eggs,” Garafolo said. “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.
Just a few miles away, 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 to operate their booth again this Saturday, 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.
With its new organizers, location and day and time, the revived 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 the Thursday morning time slot.
G. Chambers Williams III | The Courier News
Some of the vendors on hand for the first Clinton Farmers Market for 2025 are set up at the Anderson County Fairgrounds on Saturday (May 24). At left are the new market’s organizers, Clinton sheep farmers Matthew Garafolo and Maggie Hanson, who produce Katahdin sheep, and sell lamb meat at the market.
