In 2020, for the first time, the Main Street Saturday Market on the Murfreesboro Public Square is being extended into October.

Many of the summer vendors will be there throughout October with seasonal produce, and about 20 craft booths will be added, making it a diverse fall market.

“The response has been really good,” said Saturday Market manager Linda Weeks as September ended. “We are trying to have a little bit of something for everyone.

“We have a really good mix, and we’ve really tried hard to have a variety of vendors so they don’t have to compete against each other. I think that’s the luxury of a small market. Our vendors are very supportive of each other—they are always buying and trading with each other,” Weeks said. “It is kind of like an old-fashioned market.”

Christie Broome, who owns Solasta Designs with her husband, Michael, says they have been to the market as shoppers, and will debut a booth there for two weeks in October.

“We are excited to be at the market, and we have been working hard on new items. We make signs and doorhangers with all sorts of woods, and we add details for a nice touch to it,” Broome said.

New mother Madison Goad has a booth for her company, Under the Sea, selling teething rings and teething clips to hold pacifiers.

“They are made out of silicone teething beads that are safe for babies to chew on,” Goad said. “I also sell key chains. It all started when I had my son, and he started teething at an early age. My son chews on my keys going through a store. I needed something that was safe for him, so that’s why I started making the key chains. They are also cute for people who aren’t parents as well! I am very excited to be at the market and sharing my creations.”

Mike and Jody Eisher will sell their eclectic birdhouses and feeders at the market.

“I make the birdhouses out of reclaimed lumber from pallets and any kind of old lumber I can find, and old hardwood, like door hinges and drawer pulls,” Mike Eisher said. “I put a wooden chimney on some of them, and I put a flag on the top of most of the big ones. With the bird feeders, I make them out of old coffee pots, tea pots, a Christmas tin, a cookie tin. The wall hanging plaques are ripped from pallets or board and my granddaughters put the artwork on them and different scripture. I also make decorative craft sleds and my granddaughters do the same art and scripture on them.”

The market has an abundance of things for shoppers to choose from, said Weeks, from quilts to natural soaps to monogrammed clothes to dog treats. Plus, there will still be booths selling produce, local meats and cheeses, milk and sweet treats.

Possum Bottom Farms owners John and Susan Lawton are bringing their fresh picked mushrooms to the market.

“Our mushrooms are grown on locally obtained agricultural waste products such as natural hardwood logs, sawdust, wood chips and wheat straw,” John Lawton said. “Every mushroom we bring to market is picked fresh the day of the market and are available to market patrons in hours. When it comes to gourmet mushrooms there is no substitute for fresh.

“Flavors range from earthy with oyster and shiitake mushrooms, to nutty with chestnut and even lobster-like with lions mane.”

The extension of the market means vendors will also have sweet potatoes that can be used into the winter.

“The sweet potatoes that you see at the market are going to be this season’s sweet potatoes, which means that they will keep for a long time,” Weeks said. “I bought some last week and they are delicious. They will keep for months if you don’t let them get hot. The ones you see in the store are probably the ones that were picked last year. If you buy them in October at the market you will be able to use them at Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

For those who enjoy sweets, The Cake Project offers over 40 flavors of cheesecakes with flavors ranging from traditional strawberry cheesecake to their best-selling banana pudding and maple bacon cheesecakes, said company owner J.P. Smith.

Visit the Main Street Saturday Market each Saturday in October from 8 a.m.–noon on the Murfreesboro Public Square. Weeks said that this year organizers discourage bringing pets to the market.