The Paris Tennessee Farmers Market is a great place to get all your fresh produce, jellies, jams, relishes, and honey . The temperature today was hot, but the market had a festive feel with multi colored tents, visitors shopping and sampling ,and sellers doing a brisk business . We got there early and they still had a good selection of vegetables and goods.
Vendors were busily attending to customers and giving out samples of bread, jellies and salads. The farmers market is brought to the community from the UT Extension and the USDA. All vegetables are locally grown and today’s biggest seller seemed to be the sweet corn. The other variety of choices, were green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, huge onions, green peppers, jalapeno, and cucumbers. Vendors ranged in age from earlier 20’s to late 80’s and they offered homemade breads, relishes like zucchini relish, jellies like dandelion apple, which we bought, and local honey from the beekeepers.
The UT extension had a table set up with samples of a delicious Tri-pepper salad and laminated recipe cards of the sample and a silicon large cutting mat just for stopping by.
Tri-Pepper Salad from the Institute of Agriculture at UT
Makes 4 Servings
Ingredients
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 sweet bell peppers (red, orange, or yellow, preferably 1 of each)
1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 small red onion, peeled and sliced very thinly crosswise
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Directions
In a large bowl, combine garlic and vinegar; let sit 15 minutes. Meanwhile, halve peppers. Remove seeds and white membranes. Cut peppers into bite-size chunks and set aside. Separate parsley leaves from stems; discard stems (you should have about 1 cup leaves). Finely chop leaves and set aside. Whisk olive oil, salt, and pepper into garlic-vinegar mixture. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Toss peppers, parsley, and onion with dressing. Add feta and toss gently. Serve at room temperature, or cover and chill for up to 2 hours. (Print the PDF of this recipe from the University of Tennessee here.)
More about the Paris Tennessee Farmers Market
Organized by the UT Extension , the Paris Tennessee Farmers Market is held every Tuesday and Friday afternoon from June 22 through August 31 at the corner of Ruff and Highway 641. The Paris Tennessee Farmers Market opens at 3 pm and ends at 5 pm. Each Friday visitors will be offered samples from a special recipe.
The corner parking lot is reserved for Farmers Market vendors only, but the city lot to the immediate west is available for customer parking. I truly enjoyed the short time we spent there and will be looking forward to next Friday’s visit. Hope to see you there.