Milan Farmers’ Market holds 2020 opening day

MILAN, Tenn. — Saturday was the Milan Farmers’ Market 2020 opening day.

Local vendors set up their tents and food trucks. They were working hard to provide families with fresh local produce and handmade goods.

“I came around early this morning, bought some goodies and bought some eggs,” said customer Jeremy Clark.

Market Manager Seth Lee says the market opens in mid-May each year.

“We’re a local-only market, so we keep everything here in town or close by,” Lee said.

He says most of their farmers were eager and excited to be out serving the community.

“We were very excited because we’ve been looking forward to this since we closed last year,” said vendor Robert Gilliland.

“It’s been really good. People have been really open and very glad that it’s time for it to be open again. They’ve missed it,” said vendor Susan Eaton.

“Farmers’ markets are an essential part of any community, especially when food is trying to get around. So our farmers and our vendors were very excited to be able to have this outlet, a place where we can get some product out,” Lee said. “Not only that, [for] a lot of us this isn’t our full-time job, this is supplemental. So helping out and also helping our community, that is what we are here for.”

Vendors say it has been a successful day at the market.

“We’ve had a great opening day. It’s been really good. We had a good flow of customers. The vendors that are gone is because they sold out,” Eaton said.

“The turnout has been awesome today. We’ve had several people out today. It’s just, we had great results today,” Gilliland said.

Social distancing and other safety guidelines will be in place for patrons.

“For our farmers’ market, we’ve implemented a few things, you know social distancing. Wear a mask or face covering if it makes you feel more comfortable. We’ve also pushed all vendors off to one side to allow some extra parking that is right up next to the vendors so you can use drive-thru very quickly,” Lee said.

“We look forward to being here until closing of this year,” Gilliland said.

“Today has been a really good day for the Milan Farmers’ Market. We have had a lot of customers, so and we will stay as long as we have customers,” Eaton said.

The Milan Farmers’ Market is located behind Milan City Hall.

The market will be open Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The market will operate from May to October. For more information, visit picktnproducts.org.