 Fresh from the F.A.R.M.
Group conducts traveling farmers'
markets.
LatIt's a steamy summer
afternoon in mid-July and a dozen or so local fruit and vegetable growers
have set up shop on the hot blacktop behind Central Baptist Church of Bearden
in Knoxville.
The heat doesn't keep their customers away. Long before
opening time, and as the growers are still unpacking, buyers swarm the assembled
cars and trucks eager to get first pick of the fresh fruits and vegetables.
It's that way most everywhere this traveling market goes,
says Bobby Varner, East Tennessee president of F.A.R.M.-the Farmers' Association
for Retail Marketing. Four days a week members of the group set up shop
in area parking lots. All are local producers who offer vine-ripe garden
varieties they've grown themselves.
Varner and his wife, Doris, produce about 87 varieties
of vegetables, and even offer fresh cut flowers for sale. Flowers, plants
and herbs are a growing segment of the market for F.A.R.M. participants,
Varner said. "Consumers get really healthy plants and they get to talk
to someone on how to put them in the ground and what kind of fertilizer
to use."
That kind of personal service with the sale keeps buyers
coming back for vegetables, too, Doris Varner said. "There are lots
of people who will say, 'I don't know how to fix that.' If I hand them a
recipe, sometimes they'll buy a different vegetable."
The Varners and other F.A.R.M. growers sometimes work with
scientists at the UT Agricultural Experiment Station in testing new varieties
and production methods. Many of the growers have strong ties with UT, he
said. "The Extension Service bends over backwards to help growers in
this area."
 A chance comment by an Extension agent launched Ruth and
Kenneth Noe (pronounced No-ee) of South Knoxville into their business-Noe
Boys Blueberries.
Ruth Noe was talking with Harry Bryan of Knox County about
15 years ago, she said, as they discussed what the Noes might do with a
small farm they'd bought for retirement. He said, "Why don't you grow
blueberries?" Intrigued, they followed through on the information Bryan
provided and established the business that, among other things, helped put
their sons-the Noe boys-through college. -
by Lisa Byerley Gary | 