Across the U.S., Day 16 - One more day in Nashville (TN)

I kicked off another day in Honky-Tonk town with a visit to the farmers' market. It has been operating since the early 1800's, is located close to downtown and open 7 days/week, 362 days/year. The market re-opened in August 2010, after being closed for four months due to the severe flood that had hit Nashville that year.

The gentleman from "Smiley's Farm", 30 km north of Nashville, mentioned that not surprisingly, the busiest days are Sat/Sun and Fri. They are slowing down for the year now. The tomatoes in those buckets were picked green (but will ripe within 5 days), before the killing frost, which the farmers expect by the end of the month. They usually close down by Thanksgiving, maybe earlier, depending on the weather.

I selected some Arkansas Blacks, the apples from the buckets on the far left. They come from a 180-acre (~ 0.73 km2) farm that grows 30 different apple varieties. According to the farmer I talked to, the farm is not certified organic because of all the costs and bureaucracy that come with achieving and also maintaining the certificate. But they apply organic farming methods as much as they can. For example, they have many bird houses around the apple trees to encourage birds to nest nearby. The birds help with pest control and limit the needs for pesticides. He also mentioned the bird droppings as helpful fertilizer.

This market is a really neat place. Every 3rd Friday of the month they have a night market to "Shop and sip under the stars", with live music and wine.

In addition to the sheds, there is the Market House - home of varies restaurants, anything from the usual BBQ to Chicago-style gyros, Indian, Sushi, Cajun, Italian and Jamaican. I decided for the latter and had some tofu curry with kale and rice.

It looks like many people who are working in the office buildings nearby come here for lunch.

Guess who the kid in the middle is!

You might rather recognize him here:

Yep, Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003), a.k.a. the Man in Black. Nashville has a very impressive Johnny Cash museum, initiated by one of his longtime friends. It's the largest in the world. (Well, are there others?) I spent several hours browsing through this archive, listened to many of his songs (which I actually really like, especially the ones later in his career) and learned that Cash even was guest star in one of the "Columbo" episodes and "Little house in the prairie" series.

I also explored the Tennessee State Museum, which is free and was on my way back to the car. To refer to Sonja's comment on my Oct 20th post: When 2,800 volunteers were called from Tennessee for the 1812 war, over 30,000 responded. Well, one could say these were patriots fighting for freedom and liberation from the British Kingdom. Or were these simply a bunch of desperate hill billies, looking for an adventure and who could not wait to rush into death. Maybe a bit of both?

Wrapping up the day with greetings from the "Batman Building":

Well, it's simply the at&t office but everyone here calls it otherwise. ;-)

More to come.