Memphis Farmers Market: Here are some items to try
Exploring the Memphis Farmers Market on Saturday mornings has been a favorite weekly ritual of mine since the market opened in 2006.
Over the years the market has grown in size and vendors have come and gone, but the one constant has been the incredibly delicious locally grown produce, locally raised meats and handprepared foods.
On June 22, I got to introduce a group of 15 readers to this unique market and to several of the vendors that I shop with on a regular basis. (I have been a customer of a few of them for more than a decade.)
The tour was part of The Commercial Appeal’s “Experience the Story” series. These special events allow readers to have unique experiences featuring various topics covered in stories by reporters at The Commercial Appeal. The series also offers readers the chance to meet and get to know the reporters who cover Memphis and the surrounding area.
Robert Marcy, the new market director, helped kick off the tour by describing what makes the Memphis Farmers Market unique. The largest market in town, it is also the only one that is a producer-only market. That means if you did not grow it, make it or produce it, you cannot sell it at the Memphis Farmers Market.
We stopped by Jones Orchard, one of the original vendors, and learned about its Millington family farm. At the Tamboli Produce Co., we learned how owner Miles Tamboli makes by hand his pastas and cheeses, and how he uses only local produce to make his sauces and pestos.
Robert Tims at Ripley Produce walked us through the various heirloom tomato varieties he raises in addition to the famous Ripley hybrid. Next to his booth was Bluff City Fungi. Owner Scott Lisenby told us how to cook the mushrooms he had grown, offering us a recipe for making faux crab cakes from Lion’s Mane mushrooms.