Discover the Bliss of Asheville's Tailgates Food Markets

Farmers markets and tailgate markets can be an excellent way to get the freshest produce... often at very reasonable prices.

New Tailgate Produce Market to Open on South Charlotte Street Lexington Avenue open air market, 1938 Citizen-Times File Photo Buncombe County Cooperative Extension and the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project have organized a market in the parking lot of the Asheville Public Works building on South Charlotte Street in downtown Asheville. The new market will be open 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays starting April 19. The aim is to start with 50-100 local vendors who will sell produce, meat, eggs and other products.

French Broad Food Coop Saturday Tailgate Food Market
".. Asheville's original all organic tailgate market, serving Asheville and surrounding communities on Saturday mornings since 1990. You will find freshly picked organic vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs and flower bouquets plus garden, herb and landscaping plants. Local honey, freshly baked breads from a wood fired brick oven, vegan and non-vegan baked treats, eggs, pies, goat cheeses, jams, mushrooms, and locally raised meats...."

Outdoor Market at the Grove Arcade
"... A dozen stalls house farmers and craftspeople selling their wares directly to the public. " 7 days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Grove Corner Market's Friday Festival Freshest fish, produce, wine tasting, music.

Western North Carolina Farmers Market

Wednesday at Greenlife Tailgate Market

North Asheville Tailgate Market

See also

Slow Food Asheville's List of Tailgate Markets

Asheville Sustainable Agriculture Project's Local Food Guide

From Rolf Potts' Vagabonding blog:

I've never been one of those uptight literary types who thinks that you have to have actually read a book in order to recommend it to others. So I feel no trepidation in suggesting Eric Weiner's new travelogue-slash-memoir The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description:

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

In the imaginary Netflix queue of books-that-I'm-planning-to-read, this one has just jumped to the top. By the way, why has no one started a Netflix for books? This question, and many more, I'll leave for another day.

Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!

Local Food Guide

Local Food Guide
"...You will find here a directory of western North Carolina and southern Appalachian family farms, Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSA’s), farmers' tailgate markets, grocers, restaurants, caterers and bakers, u-pick farms, apple orchards, and bed & breakfasts that sell locally grown farm products. This guide will facilitate your connection with healthy fresh food, your neighbor farmers who grow it and those markets, grocers and restaurants that are committed to using locally grown food in their enterprises..."