If there exists a place to find a more inclusive variety of pickled produce than the WNC Farmers Market, it’s in an underground military bunker forgotten long ago.

In Market Shops A & B, the two buildings connected by a breezeway that most visitors first encounter on the 36-acre campus, vendor shelves are lined with jars packed with pickled okra, beets, beans, asparagus, garlic, jalapeno peppers, chicken eggs and quail eggs. There are endless interpretations of chow chow.

Inside the enclosed buildings is also canned and fresh produce, cheese, honey, sorghum, jams, preserves, bread, hand-crafted items and country ham.
It’s no wonder that many visitors – locals and tourists – don’t venture any further. But Ellerslie McCue, marketing and communications manager for the market, urges people to leave that comfort zone and explore. “A lot of times people just do the Market Shops and maybe Jesse Israel and don’t realize they can drive or walk down the hill and there’s so much more.”

As big as it is now, the WNC Farmers Market started small in 1977 – one retail building and one truck shed – and got its start through the efforts of one local farmer. “He was tired of having to drive out of Western North Carolina to get to a market big enough to sell his product, so he started calling on other nearby farmers and legislators and agents and eventually got it done.”

With a big assist from Biltmore Estate, which owned the land the Market now covers. “We are bordered on three sides by Biltmore land,” Ellerslie  says. “When you drive in, you can see the mountains around us and one of the big Biltmore fields in the distance. It’s really beautiful.”

Today, the WNC Farmers Market, owned and operated by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, buzzes with activity 24/7, though retail hours are more limited, from 8 a.m. every day until 5 or 6 p.m. depending on the season.

But thanks to the multi-operational tenants, farmers and trucks arrive and depart around the clock, and local chefs often arrive well before dawn to buy their produce.

Ellerslie explains there are three categories of vendors at the Market. Wholesalers with long-term leases and lots of square footage are in the rear of the property and include Mountain Foods, JMJ Tomato, Smoky Mountain Honey House and Paul Collins.

Two additional long-term lease holders are the Moose Café – well-known and beloved for its southern style country cooking, and Jesse Israel & Sons, a sprawling family owned and operated garden center with everything from trees, plants, seeds and starters to mulch, soil, tools, pots, planters, bird houses and wind chimes.

The truck sheds are where regulars in the know gently squeeze peaches, thump watermelons, peruse tomatoes and sniff cantaloupes, while developing relationships with their favorite vendors for locally and regionally grown produce and products that change as the seasons roll out.

Truck Shed 1 is the NC Farmer shed, Ellerslie says. “To sell there, you have to have your Farm Service Agency number and your county extension agent has to sign off on your farm. During the season, their busiest time is about 3 a.m. to 10 a.m., so when shoppers come in at 11 or after, it looks empty because they have already come and sold for the day.”

Farmers, she points out, need to be on the farm and not in a market stall, so frequently small growers will partner with vendors at the market to sell their produce for them. There is simply no reason ever to leave the market empty handed. From late May through September, the sheds are exploding with summer produce — tomatoes, corn, squash, eggplant, cucumbers, peaches, berries and melons.

In late summer, apples take over. “Henderson County is the second largest apple growing county in the country, so we have apples and apple products everywhere. In the fall, it’s mums and pumpkins and around Thanksgiving, we get the Christmas trees.”
Though the Market Shops, Jesse Israel and the Moose Café remain busy – and the entire property is open – the sheds are pretty vacant in January and February. Then in spring, it starts up all over again.

“The fun thing about working here is seeing each season’s farmers come in,” Ellerslie says. “When their season is done, they leave and the next season’s farmers come in. We have farmers and vendors that have been here since the market opened, and it’s such a joy to see generations of those families grow up here. It’s just a happy place to be, no matter what brings you here.”

For more about WNC Farmers Market, visit this link.

— Kay West

Photos courtesy of WNC Farmers Market