The Walnut Street Market

The Walnut Street Market has gained new energy and momentum for the region’s local food movement, operating a space which provides the best that a farmers market has to offer and combining it with the convenience that a grocery store has to offer, resulting in the perfect local food shopping experience.

Located in downtown Cookeville, The Walnut Street Market operates under the parent Tennessee Nonprofit Cookeville Locally Grown. The store has been in operation for less than a year and was able to generate about $150,000 in sales during its first 6 months of operation, proving that the local community is eager and ready to support local growers and producers on a more regular basis than the typical weekly Saturday’s farmers market affords them to. 

Being open more than one day a week is just one of the many advantages that The Walnut Street Market offers over a farmers market. Being open to the public Wednesday through Saturday makes eating local more accessible to people with schedules that don’t leave them much time for Saturday morning outings, and also allows farmers and producers a larger window for making sales and moving perishable items. 

From a farmer's point of view, the Saturday farmers market is a big bang that happens once a week, but leaves six additional days worth of fresh harvests to find markets and sales avenues for. The very best part of The Walnut Street market from a farmers perspective is that farmers are not required to be salespeople and marketers as they are required to be in the standard farmers market model. 

According to Anthony Villa, a farmer who supplies the market with organically and biodynamically grown produce shared, “It’s been so great having access to the Walnut Street Market. It has really freed us up to do more farming, allowing us to take better care of the land, soil, livestock, and the rest of the farming business.”

Farmers are busy and required to fill so many roles and responsibilities on a farm. To run their business, farmers have to be soil-builders, animal care-givers, cultivators, harvesters, washers, packers, business people, accountants, delivery drivers, etc. etc. The Walnut Street model meets the farmer at being a producer and giving them more time to focus on ecological stewardship of the land by allowing them to drop off their produce and goods at the market, and to leave the friendly and knowledgeable staff who run the market to interface with customers, set up the goods for ideal display, manage sales and numbers, and to maintain the systems and infrastructure that houses it all. 

Vendors are able to set their own prices, but the market does take a 20% fee of all sales. Kathy Stockton, one of the founders of The Walnut Street Market and the person who manages the accounts and vendors shared, “The 20% that the market takes is used to pay rent, utilities,maintenance,upgrades on displays and enhancing the property.”

In addition to being able to find locally grown and raised vegetables, meats, fruits, fermented products, raw milk and other dairy, customers can also find locally baked goods and house plants. The Walnut Street Market is also home to the Stockton Farms food truck which uses locally produced food in its menu items. The market has recently grown to include locally-sourced clothing, jewelry, and crafts. 

According to Kitty Phillips, who sells her pickled, dried, and canned goods at the market, and is known for having samples of recipes she has created using the items for sale in the store that week available for customers to try said, “The Walnut Street Market is the best place to shop for locally sourced food, and the food truck here is a great place for breakfast and lunch.”

The Walnut Street Market is committed to providing locally produced foods to the community, and is expanding and growing each week to meet the needs of the people who it feeds. Jim Stockton, one of the founders of The Walnut Street Market who also sells his pasture raised pork, beef and poultry at the market shared, “Our goal is to keep the community supplied in locally grown food, and continue to help the farmers in the area sell their goods and make money.”

While finding food grown out of season and grown thousands of miles away using questionable or unknown growing practices and inputs is the norm at typical retail grocery stores, The Walnut Street Market is helping the citizens of Middle Tennessee to reclaim ownership of their food sovereignty by creating strength and stability in the local food supply chain.