How does one get started running a farmer’s market, anyway?

For Daniel and Kasi Haire, it was upon the suggestion of his chiropractor.

“You have a chiropractor who wants to have a place where he can send his patients to get good quality, all-natural, organic food, without having to send them to Whole Foods,” Daniel said of Dr. Miro Bandalo in Nolensville. “He’s trying to get them to improve their health, and one of the ways is to improve their diet.”

Daniel, an engineer with Nissan, worked with the city of Nolensville to write an ordinance to allow for a farmer’s market. The market then opened in the summer of 2014.

The couple still manages the Nolensville market, and Daniel is the board president of the Nolensville Farmer’s Market, a 501(c)(3) organization.

In August of 2016, the marketing director for developer Boyle reached out to the Haires about running the community’s market, which opened in 2015.

Now, the couple is planning to work with a team to create another nonprofit to manage the Berry Farms market, as well as the Brentwood Farmer’s Market, as it kicks off its inaugural season this Thursday at CityPark.

Finding vendors was easy: “The farmer’s market community in Tennessee is a really tight-knit community,” Daniel said. “We work really well together, and we grow and feed off of each other.”

At Tuesday’s market, live music flowed in the breeze, as parents shopped while children ran around the grassy expanse.

Everyone in the market, Daniel said, is “market family.” He enjoys placing vendors near others who they might learn from.

They both helping new businesses prosper, too.

The proprietor of E&B Coffee, a vendor at the Nolensville market, was working for Ramsey Solutions when he began his business. Now, Daniel said, E&B has expanded to Herban Market, and is preparing to open a shop in Nolensville this summer.

“We try to put people together to make them better, and to make the market grow, he said.

Berry Farms Farmer’s Market: Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Located in the Berry Farms Town Center at the intersection of Lewisburg Pike and Goose Creek Bypass.

Brentwood Farmer’s Market: Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Located at CityPark, at the intersection Franklin Road and Executive Center Drive, in the green space in front of the Mooreland Mansion.

Nolensville Farmer’s Market: Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon. Located at 7248 Nolensville Road, between the Sonic and Nolensville Recreation Center at the intersection of Nolensville Road and Sunset Road.

Originally published in the Brentwood Home Page

By Brooke Wanser