The Pickers and Grinners open-air market was held at Limestone Park in downtown Maysville Saturday.
Visitors were able to peruse the many wares from a variety of local vendors. Farmers peddling fresh produce, artisans promoting their crafts, and community interaction were in abundance. Carrie Taylor, who teaches at Maysville Community and Technical College said the market was brought about as a way to give local producers another avenue to give to the community.
“I teach agriculture and horticulture at MCTC,” Taylor said, “and several years ago it was brought up that there was a little bit of a disconnect with people who were producers and our area, so livestock and crop producers, that sometimes they, other than the farmers market, maybe didn’t have a place to sell some of their products.”
Taylor said they created a committee around three years ago, and spoke with those in charge of Limestone Park to find a location to place the market.
“Mr. (owner Bruce) Carlson and some of his employees decided that they would love to see the park being used for those purposes, and to emphasize the importance of locally grown products and also the importance of the fresh and the local,” Taylor said.
According to Taylor, there are three markets held throughout the year, one in June, one in October, and one in December. A great contributor to creating the market is the ever-growing interest in locally grown and produced goods.
“It’s a nice way to have the novelty, and to have folks in the area know that this is going to be going on, this will be going on at a certain time of the year, certain months, that there’s going to be special culinary folks,” Taylor said. “There’s some exciting things going on in farming and we want to let people know about it. More and more people are learning about high tunnels and different kinds of farming techniques.”
Community reception to the markets have been very positive, Taylor said. People are pleased with the convenience of having access to fresh produce and local farms.
“People love the fact that they can come down and there’s Whispering Breeze, there’s Turtleback Ridge, there’s Spring Creek Farms,” she said. “Those are just a few of the many local farms in our area, and I really think that so many people appreciate being able to buy directly from them.”
Eric Keel, farmer and chairman of the farmer’s market, is pleased to see events like Pickers and Grinners to really show the community what’s available to them.
“It’s a vibrant part of any community,” he said, “just to have stuff like this.”
