Steamy weather and intermittent thunderstorms can make cooking meals a real drag. Times like these call for a few refrigerator staples that can perk up a simple salad or help power through an afternoon lull. Luckily, fruit and berry season is kicking into gear at farmers tailgate markets. Beyond fresh eating and desserts, these are great for making zippy vinaigrettes and icy drinks.
Fresh at Farmers Markets
Start your shopping list and get meal inspiration each week with ASAP’s roundup of what’s fresh at farmers markets. Although this report focuses on vendors at Buncombe County markets, many products mentioned can be found at markets throughout the region. Want to get this report in your inbox each week? Subscribe to ASAP’s Weekly Farmers Market Report newsletter. Looking for a yearlong view? Check out ASAP’s produce seasonality chart.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
June is here and farmers tailgate markets are picking up speed with warmer weather and new produce finds each week. Look for garlic scapes, basil, summer squash, and even the very first cherries of the year.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Is baking, grilling, and relaxing all on your agenda for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend? Get yourself some rhubarb, which has a short window of availability at farmers tailgate markets. Beyond the name of one of Asheville’s locally sourcing restaurants, rhubarb is a prized ingredient in many springtime desserts, beverages, and toppings. We’ve seen it from McConnell Farms (North and West Asheville Tailgate Markets) and Myseanica Family Farm (ASAP and Enka-Candler markets).
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Beets can usually be found at farmers tailgate markets year-round, especially with farmers employing cold frames or high tunnels to extend their season through the winter. So the spring beet crop often arrives without much fanfare. But these early-season beets are worth getting excited about.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
We’re coming into the height of spring produce—and even getting the first glimpse of summer—at farmers tailgate markets now. Cucumbers, sugar snap peas, spring onions, and bamboo shoots have arrived, along with other spring treats like asparagus and strawberries. And farms continue to offer the best of spring spinach, chard, tender lettuces, arugula, radishes, beets, carrots, salad turnips, mushrooms and more.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Just in time for Mother’s Day, strawberries are hitting farmers tailgate markets! You can get them now from Lee’s One Fortune Farm and Ivy Creek Family Farm, and more farms will have them in the coming days and weeks. Find the Lees at the ASAP, Black Mountain, West Asheville, River Arts District, and East Asheville markets. Ivy Creek is at the North Asheville and Weaverville markets. Note that North Asheville Tailgate Market is moving to Salvage Station for this Saturday only, due to UNC Asheville’s graduation.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
As temperatures continue to rise, more farmers and others vendors are returning to fill out farmers tailgate markets—and a few more markets are ready to open! Enka-Candler Tailgate Market, at the A-B Tech Small Business Center in Enka, opens this Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. Black Mountain Tailgate Market will open next Saturday, May 8, from 9 a.m. to noon. (If you’re looking for a market outside of Buncombe County, here’s a full list of opening dates throughout the region.)
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Early-season plant starts, like snow peas, leafy greens, and cabbage are giving way to summer vegetables and herbs, including cucumbers, summer squash, tomatoes, and peppers. Farmers tailgate markets, in addition to offering plenty of ready-to-eat produce, are also a great resource for plant starts and gardening advice. Most of these frost-sensitive types should wait to go into the ground until temperatures won’t dip below freezing. (After Mother’s Day is the traditional guideline.) But you can choose and gather your starts now!
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
Springtime brings on foraging dreams for many of us—returning to your favorite ramp patch or happening upon an elusive morel deep in the woods. But if you’re not able to wander off the path in search of these delights, farmers tailgate markets can also be great places to gather wild foods, in addition to cultivated spring crops.
Fresh at Farmers Markets This Week
One of the joys of shopping at farmers tailgate markets is getting to try things you would never find in a grocery store. That’s especially true in the spring, when a myriad of unique greens start to join the more tried-and-true spinach, arugula, and kale. Right now we’re excited to see the first stinging nettles, sorrel, and Tokyo bekana, among other greens.