Lawrence County Advocate
July 22, 2024
By Jonah Storey
Staff Writer
Just off the beaten path in Summertown lies the quaint community of The Farm and every second Saturday from April to October The Farm holds its own market day.
Market Day at The Farm consists of more than 35 vendors, live music and a craft table for the children.
April Finerty runs the kids craft table and teaches at the Farm School. She said one of the things she loves about running the craft table is getting to meet kids from across the area, teaching them a new craft.
Alayne Griffin, a resident on the farm, spoke about the history of Market Day itself to give a more in-depth view of spectacle.
“We’ve had some fits and starts with it because of the pandemic, and so it took a hiatus for a few years,” Griffin said. “It was started, I want to say in 2012 by one of the first generation farmees, Pat McCarthy, who wanted to coordinate having the farmees here who live here to sell their wares from their gardens, their artist stuff, unique items. And then Laura Look revitalized it a few years ago, and we now have a Farm Market Day crew. There’s about six or seven of us that co-create and work together in collaboration to make this all happen. We have over 40 vendors that come, not necessarily all at the same time, but 40 vendors that come through and we start in April, and we end in October, and it is the second Saturdays of every month during that season.”
Outside of being able to drive a golf cart to the market Griffin said she also enjoys letting others come into the beautiful space.
“So I love the fact that we have this opportunity to open the farm to the public, in a sense that, we do the marketing, you via social media, or we have the flyers, we put the big signs out, and it is a great opportunity for visitors from various states to come here to have a chance to see who The Farm is, where we are, and get to bask in this beautiful community that was started in 1971,” Griffin explained. “We have a lot of vendors that are here that either live on the farm or had used to live on the farm. They are what we call farm friends who live just off the farm. Folks that have learned their craft, possibly at the farm school, or like the tie dyes, that is the second generation (second generation children of the first people to come to the farm) doing the ties over there. Where I live, they used to do the dyes, the tie dyes in the basement back in the 70s. My other favorite thing is that it is open to off-farm folks to become vendors. They have some really unique creations or items that you normally wouldn’t see at a typical farm market, artisans’ market.”
The Farm has a few months left of their market days so if you’re looking for a unique experience with some kind folks you might want to stop on by. Their website also contains a calendar of events that are coming up this fall.