What is the farmer’s market near Germantown?

The Nashville Farmers Market sits at 900 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard, directly on Germantown’s southern edge, adjacent to the Tennessee State Museum and Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. It is not technically inside the Germantown historic district, but it is close enough that most people treat it as part of the same neighborhood visit.

The Nashville Farmers Market has operated in some form since the early 1800s, when farmers brought goods into the city center by horseback. The current facility includes two covered open-air sheds, a 24,000-square-foot garden center, a culinary incubation center, and a food hall with roughly 20 restaurants and shops. The food hall is international in its range: vendors have included everything from Middle Eastern to Thai to hot chicken, and the mix changes regularly. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has had a presence here.

The outdoor produce and vendor market operates year-round but is most active on weekends, particularly Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On weekdays the market is quieter and some of the artisan and produce vendors are not present. If you are specifically coming for local produce, handmade goods, and artisan products rather than the food hall, a Saturday morning visit is the better choice.

What to do there

The most practical use is combining the farmers market with the Tennessee State Museum and a meal in Germantown. The three together make for a full morning or afternoon: walk the market, look at local produce and handmade goods, eat from the food hall or grab something to take to Bicentennial Mall, tour the museum (which is free and takes two to three hours to do properly), then walk a few blocks into Germantown for coffee or dinner.

The garden center is a real find for anyone who wants plants, and unlike the produce sheds it operates consistently throughout the week. The culinary incubation center supports small food businesses and is the origin point for several vendors who have grown into permanent market fixtures.

Parking at the Nashville Farmers Market is free, which is relevant given that parking is a constant friction point elsewhere in the downtown-adjacent neighborhoods.

The Germantown connection

The farmers market and Germantown have a natural relationship because the neighborhood’s restaurant culture and the market’s local-produce ethos are complementary. Several Germantown chefs source ingredients from farmers market vendors. On weekends the foot traffic flows between the two areas. Von Elrod’s Beer Hall, a few blocks into Germantown, has an outdoor patio designed for exactly the kind of lingering that follows a farmers market visit.


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