Winter tailgate farmers markets are busy, busy! Market-goers tell us that you can find turnips, apples, sweet potatoes, cabbage, collards, and spring onions. We have also heard about a rainbow of carrots, including orange, yellow, and purple!
There continue to be lots of interesting local farm products at the Woodfin YMCA Indoor Winter Tailgate Market. Shoppers can find greens and winter squash from Wildwood Herbal, while Dillingham Family Farm is carrying beef, eggs, and chicken. For cheese, Spinning Spider Creamery has chevre and marinated feta, as well as spreads, soaps, and lotions. You can also find Spinning Spider at Asheville City Market on Saturday mornings. Another fun vendor at Asheville City Market is Sweet Monkey Bakery. Sweet Monkey is experimenting with new products for the 2014 tailgate market season, including variations of rye sandwich bread, whole wheat, and new savory twists like pickle bread. This past Saturday they had delicious samples of rye bread for shoppers!
There are plenty of markets outside of the immediate Asheville area too. The Spruce Pine Farmers Market will meet the first Saturday of each month through April. This Saturday, February 1st from noon to 4 pm, you can find products perfect for Valentine’s Day including herbal truffles, bath salts, tea blends, herb salts, sugar scrubs, as well as local pork, grassfed beef, pastrami, sausage, jams, jellies, salsa, baked goods, and fresh eggs. The market will take place inside The Pizza Shop and Dry County Brewing Company (585 Oak Avenue, Spruce Pine, NC). You can shop at the market while eating pizza and drinking beer at this Appalachian Grown™ partner restaurant!
The Jackson County Farmers Market meets every Saturday, 9 am-12 noon, at the Community Table in Sylva. They are welcoming a new vendor, Cullowhee Creek Farms, to the market. This farm will have organic sprouts of all kinds. Leicester Farmers Market will also meet this Saturday, 10 am – 2 pm, in the parking lot of Leicester Landing Shopping Center at 338 Leicester Highway. One farm that you will find there is Beulah Farm, who is offering grassfed beef, lamb, and pork.
There are plenty of other winter markets open now. For a list of these markets, visit the farmers market section of asapconnections.org or at ASAP’s online farmers market calendar.
photo courtesy of Woodfin YMCA Indoor Winter Tailgate Market
Fresh at Winters Farmers Markets This Week
