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| Nashville’s Best Produce Markets |
|  | We promise these leeks cannot hurt you. (Margaret Littman / City Cast Nashville) |
| Bringing it home: What does all this have to do with shopping local in Nashville? I’m glad you asked. It made me think about the best places to shop for produce — particularly vegetables and herbs — at home. Given my desire to avoid cyclosporiasis, I’m re-committed to buying produce that has been grown close by, rather than packaged and shipped. I used to subscribe to Community Supported Agriculture vegetable share programs (a.k.a. CSAs), but because I travel often, it doesn’t make sense for me to reserve a weekly box. Instead, I seek out farmers without the delivery. I like the chill vibe at Amqui Station in Madison. I have not yet made it to the Gay Farmers Market in East Nashville, but the next one is Aug. 23, and I plan to be there. | | Caveat: I am not a medical professional; I am just a writer who likes salads. If you are immunocompromised or have concerns about your risk factors for cyclosporiasis, talk to your doctor. There’s also information from the CDC here, and I think Consumer Reports gives unbiased, straightforward info. | | | I mentioned Hamby’s in the Old Hickory neighborhood newsletter (hot tip: if you missed a Keep It Local newsletter, you can find them archived here). Hamby’s is an Amish market, with produce grown by Amish farmers around the South, like South Carolina peaches and truly the single best ear of corn I have eaten. | | | Formerly known as Hendersonville Produce, Gammon’s works with local farmers to stock a small selection of in-season produce, such as tomatoes and berries. There’s a coffee shop and a small cafe menu, too, so you can grab lunch while you shop for at-home cooking. | | | | | I didn't know much about The Produce Place, Nashville’s oldest natural and local food store, until last year when I wrote about the passing of its founder, Barry Burnette, for the Nashville Scene. Burnette was the real deal, and the Sylvan Park shop engenders extreme loyalty from its long-time customers. | | | This local chain of natural-food grocery stores has four locations in Nashville (East Nashville, West Nashville, The Gulch, and Midtown), making it easier to find organic fruits and vegetables wherever you live. The website lists the farmers they buy from. | | |
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| Talking Local Produce with Miel’s Seema Prasad |
|  | Seema Prasad, owner of Miel restaurant. (Jen McDonald) |
| Since Seema Prasad opened Miel in Sylvan Park in 2008, she’s been Nashville’s reigning queen of sustainable cooking and eating. Before it was in fashion locally to talk about knowing your farmer and reducing food waste, Prasad was walking the talk, so I reached out to her about how to navigate this weird time in vegetable shopping. | | “I like to visit the farms. When I know a farmer, we can be very confident in the quality of the product that we’re getting,” she says. “They will tell us if they’re concerned about a crop ahead of time. Because the weather is not the same every year, the crops are not the same every year.” | | In addition to buying from farmers Prasad knows, Miel grows several of the ingredients it uses, some from its small plot at the restaurant and some from Prasad’s home. Herbs, for example, can be expensive to buy, plus the flavor doesn’t last long once they are picked. So, the chef lets Prasad know how much tarragon the kitchen needs, and she snips some that day. | | Prasad’s a big fan of Green Door Gourmet, which, in addition to offering CSAs, runs a market open Thursday through Sunday. They sell foods they’ve grown on their River Road farm, plus other goods from artisan farmers who share Green Door’s vision. | | | | If you want to try to grow some of your own herbs and vegetables, Prasad will help you set up your first container garden. (Container gardens can be more manageable when it comes to weeding and pest control than planting directly in the ground.) “I always tell people I’m happy to come to their homes and help them start a container garden. It’s the easiest thing when you get used to it, and it’s so rewarding,” she says. “I never, never buy lettuce. I go out to my garden and clip, and then it comes back even more robustly. I clip all that arugula, and three days later, let’s get more arugula on that sandwich. It’s easy to maintain once you get comfortable with it. Just five different little greens in a big pot can really support two people year-round.” |
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Where to dine out: In addition to Miel, there are other restaurants in town that grow some of their own ingredients, including Husk, one of Prasad’s favorites. Bad Idea and AVO are two others that share where their produce comes from, so you can eat with confidence. |
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