​I’m Karen Turner and I was raised up by parents who grew our food. As a child I didn’t see the value, but my ideas changed as I got older. When I needed to stay home with our son who has special needs, I decided to try to raise as much food as I could. My sporadic gardening took a serious turn. One son wanted chickens, so we added those. 
After my cancer diagnosis, I cut out most processed foods and added dairy goats to our little homestead. I dabbled in soap making until I developed the perfect recipe. My daughter, Kristen, joined me in building our goat milk soap business in 2015 and we began selling at the Maryville Farmers’ Market. She added lotion, goat butter sugar scrubs, body butter and is working on other projects as well. 

This year we’ve added a greenhouse tunnel and are learning to grow produce in all seasons. While Kristen and I (along with Kristen’s children) are who people see at the farmers market, everyone in the family helps when needed on our homestead. I’ll add a shoutout to my husband Carl, who does the heavy lifting and helps on my never-ending projects.

We will be back at the Maryville Farmers’ Market this year with your favorite goat milk soap and other skin care products, as well as free range eggs and produce. We hope to see you there this Saturday April 23rd 8:30-11:30AM!
#maryvillefarmersmarket
#turnerholler

​Meet our gentleman farmer, Mike Garland from Octagon G Farm and his sidekick Beverly Johnson (aka our MFM market manager). Mike and Beverly’s love of farming stem from fond childhood memories and a lot of hard work with their grandparents and parents, which they prefer to call “life lessons”. 
Mike grew up helping his grandfather with his bees and grandmother with her garden (the very spot that theirs is today). As a young boy he even had his own corn patch that he planted and tended while tagging along with his grandfather and his honey to the sidewalks of Downtown Maryville on Saturday morning to sell at the farmer’s market. 
Beverly grew up tagging along with her daddy anywhere he went (she is a daddy’s girl). To the barn, hayfield, stockyard, or to the garden to help his mother; she was on his heels. Her love of growing things stems from her Granny’s green thumb, and beauty of watching things start from a tiny seed to the outcome of the fruitful bounty of delicious produce.
Life happens and thing change. With that being said, they have recently gone back to their roots and the area they both grew up in and have come together to continue on with their love of growing vegetables, sharing them with their community and the love for each other to carry on with Mike’s farm, Octagon G Farm. 
They will  be bringing a variety of vegetable to the market this year; corn, several varieties of heirloom beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, peppers, onions, okra, greens, beets, along with a few other things if the weather permits. 
They have both been members of MFM individually for a number of years and have both served on the MFM Board of Directors as voting members and as president.