18 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 07.22.2016 GREENVILLEJOURNAL.COM
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The good life TR Farmer’s Market executive director Adrienne Hawkins has her dream job by the mountains LETY GOOD | STAFF
lgood@communityjournals.com
Adrienne Hawkins is a master gardener, a painter, an adventurer and a mom, and she’s also the Travelers Rest Farmers Market executive director. She’s helped transform the TR market into one of the most talked-about farmers markets in the Southeast. Hawkins, a Travelers Rest High School graduate, didn’t think she would come back to the small mountainside town. While at the College of Charleston, she completed a foreign study in France; when she returned home, she continued to travel and ended up in Indiana. There, she became a permanent substitute French teacher while she was “still trying to find herself,” she says. She also began painting, and gained a mentor, Daniel Fitzgerald, who gave Hawkins her “first real adult job managing a gallery.” She found out very quickly that a big passion of hers was organizing events. Hawkins also got the chance to intern with another of Fitzgerald’s mentees, Frenchy, the official team artist for the New Orleans Saints from 2001–2007. Hawkins returned to South Carolina to reconnect with her roots. While raising a family, she began gardening, eventually becoming a master gardener. That’s when she and her family moved to a farm in the Greenville area and farming became a hobby for her. Hawkins became a vendor at the TR Farmers Market that was still located at Sunrift Adventures during that time. “We sold our pestos and our vegetables and flowers,” she said. When Hawkins met Sandra Stroud, president of the TR Farmers Market, Stroud invited her to be on the board and Hawkins became a volunteer for the market in its seventh season. When she began her journey with the market, there were several developments planned, including the plan to move it to Trailblazer Park. Showing a true passion for the market as a volunteer, she called on her experience and made a plan to double the number of vendors at the market. “I had a call list of about 100 farms that I would just cold-call and tell them about this park and how wonderful the market was going to be,” Hawkins said. “I heard a lot of ‘nos’ and
Photos by Will Crooks
Adrienne Hawkins
finally we heard a ‘yes’ … and once we got that one ‘yes,’ other people started signing up, and before you knew it, we had doubled what we expected.” The TR Farmers Market quickly began to grow, and the team developed programs for live music, kids’ activities and chef demonstrations, among others. “Not only did we have these amazing vendors, but we had a culture that started to develop,” she said. “The market just really took off from that point and became a center for the community.” During Hawkins’ second year with the market, she became the market manager and soon acquired the title of executive director. “I would say it’s my dream job,” Hawkins said. “I think it’s perfectly suited to my personality, because it encompasses so many different aspects of the good life, which is music, food, people and health. I feel that it’s basically like throwing a party every single weekend for the whole town.”
Travelers Rest Farmers Market When: Saturdays through Sept. 24, 8:30 a.m.noon Where: Trailblazer Park, 115 Wilhelm Winter Street, Travelers Rest
Tomato Sandwich Taste-Off When: Saturday, July 30, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Info: travelersrestfarmersmarket.com