​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.

Wandering Walnut Meadows is a small farm in Greenback TN growing pastured chicken, turkey, duck, eggs, pork, and grass-fed lamb. We focus on quality nutritious food, highly respectful animal welfare, sustainable and regenerative land management, and cultivating joyful community around food and land.
 
We are always learning and growing, receiving most of our lessons from the land and the animals.
 
We attend our local farmer’s market in downtown Maryville. We also have an online store and run local deliveries regularly.
 
Our Story:
 
We like to ride in trucks with dogs and goats. Bouncy piggie tails are the best. Turkeys are the most magnificent birds. Fried pastured chicken tenders are heavenly. Sheep are calming. Ducks in a kid pool represent irreplaceable joy.
 
We got started farming in 2020, after many years of homesteading. We like food - really good flavorful fresh food. We also really like getting dirty and working hard and hanging out with non-humans.
 
We are increasingly aware of the importance and value of the community built around food and the land. We feel the need to steward the land/air/water for generations to come, to feed our families’ bellies and souls, and to cultivate our community of human connectedness.

The Holder Family Farm is a treasure of our region. Nestled at the foothills of Smoky Mountains, the view in any direction is astounding. Talking to Mom, Wilma, and son and daughter,  James and Teresa you quickly sense the living history of the family and their land. 
What used to be 150 acres of planted fields is now primarily used to raise cattle. However much of the land is still farmed much as it was 100 years ago. Wilma, at 93 years old, rides the tractor each spring to prepare for planting and walks the yards and fields (some days barefoot) to make sure everything is doing ok. She also pots and propagates flowers of every color and succulent plants in the greenhouse. 
James plants and grows rows of many fruits and vegetables such as cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuce and green beans to name a few. Because they collect and use their own seeds year to year, plants like their green beans are now considered heritage plants that are difficult or impossible to find anywhere else.
The farm and greenhouse are heated with a rain water catch system and a wood burning furnace that heats the water and circulates it through the farm house and green house to provide warmth in winter months.
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Teresa is a beekeeper. She and James negotiate the use of any and all chemicals for the health of both the bees and the plants. This type of land use cooperation is essential to the future of pollinators and farmers. After a lifetime of farming, James and Wilma can casually list of which pollinators are necessary to grow what fruits and vegetables. 
When I asked them what had changed in the time since their late father planted the grape vine some 60 years ago, they responded that they used to sell a lot more watermelons and cantaloupes. For years their farm provided these fruits for three White stores in Knoxville. Today, most major retailers buy produce from producers outside of Tennessee. The also mentioned that they used to have a smoke house and each year make a salt cured ham, but that it was no longer cold enough long enough to do that because the seasons had changed here.
After 100 years of farming these foothills, the Holder Family knows the land and brings you the fruit of their labors every Saturday and Wednesday to the Maryville Farmers’ Market. Come see them and find out more about where your food comes from.
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