East Tennessee is a beautiful place and
we love to just cruise around on the back roads looking at the scenery and whatever
else catches our fancy… Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill were with
us recently and we decided that it was a beautiful day for a drive…
This is the high order Mennonite farmer’s
market on a side road in Delano Tennessee.
It’s a bit far for us to drive just for produce, but we still make it
down here a couple of times a year.
Considering that this market is really out of the way and it’s not close
to any major cities, they really pack in the customers!
The produce was plentiful…beans, peppers,
corn, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, etc. etc. In addition one can pick up soaps, baked
goods, jams/jellies and jars of pickled products…including Laurie’s favorite…their
‘Starr Mountain’ pickled beets.
This is the valley adjacent to the farmer’s
market… Horse drawn wagons were coming and going with produce. There is no electricity in the store and the
men who run the store use mechanical calculators to total up your purchases. Female shoppers are asked to dress modestly…and
photographs of the store’s operators are discouraged.
About 30 families live here farming about
470 acres. The farm and market is of
course their primary source of income.
The market is open from mid-April through October. It is located at 146 Needle Eye Lane about a
mile east of US Highway 411 in Delano Tennessee. Obviously there is no phone or website!
I have a tendency to stretch out our
drives in the country… I always want to check out another road or show off
another sight to visitors. After
wandering all the way south to beautiful Ocoee Lake, I’d decided to drive to
Dayton Tennessee for lunch. That took a
while…and then we didn’t see any place we wanted to eat. So we kept driving, ending up here at Carter’s
Restaurant in Ten Mile Tennessee. Watts Bar Lake is right across the road from
the restaurant.
The interior of Carter’s is very warm and
welcoming…with lots of interesting items to look at in every nook and
cranny. You order at a counter and they
bring your food out to your table. Laurie
and I had been here before and we had a good experience…
On our first visit, Danny Carter had
mentioned that they make a great pizza.
He and his wife Patsy own and operate the restaurant…as well as an
adjacent miniature golf course and a small RV park.
Well, we just ‘had’ to try the pizza…as good pizza
is hard to find here in East Tennessee.
We ordered a small pizza with pepperoni and sausage as an appetizer. ($5.79)
It was pretty darn good! As an aside,
the prices at Carter’s are remarkably reasonable… For example, a large 16”
pizza with pepperoni and Italian sausage only costs $13.49!
Unfortunately, not everything was as good
as the pizza. Bonnie had the fried
shrimp and she thought that they were just OK. ($8.29) The coleslaw was very good but the fries and
corn meal muffin were nothing special.
Sorry for the blurry photos. This was the Country Fried Steak. ($7.99) It
was pretty good. All dinners come with 2
sides. There are 12 sides you can choose
from without incurring an additional charge.
I’d trade out the fries for another side the next time…
When Laurie and I visited Carter’s the
first time, it was on a Sunday and we’d really enjoyed the special Two Piece
Boneless Chicken Breast Dinner. ($7.99) Based on our experience, Bill ordered
the Hand Breaded Chicken Strip Dinner. ($7.99) The beans and the fried squash
were good…but the chicken strips were dry… Sorry Bill!
Laurie started out her meal with a nice
fresh salad for one of her sides…
Laurie ordered the Hand Breaded Pork
Tenderloin Dinner with that side salad and cooked apples. ($7.79) She thought
that it was pretty good…no complaints.
OK… Well, we had mixed results on this
visit to Carter’s Restaurant. Still,
based on the positives including the pizza, plus a couple of the entrees, the accompanying
sides and the pricing, we will return!
Carter’s Restaurant is closed on Monday and Tuesday. It is located at 2430 TN Hwy. 304 in Ten Mile
Tennessee. Phone: 423-334-3300. Website: http://www.cartersrestaurant.net/index.htm.
Note: Danny and Patsy Carter
have also produced several record albums/CDs of their gospel music. You can find out more about their music on
the website as shown above.
Just click on any of the photos to
enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
We enjoy rides in the country too and if it means we can pick up some fresh vegetables and a bite to eat, so much the better. Their pizza did look very good.
ReplyDeleteSam
I think in places like this, it's important to order the right thing as many of their offerings are probably from a frozen bag - like the shrimp and squash. I usually try to stick with their specialties that that make from scratch. I've yet to get a corn muffin that I enjoyed as I don't care for cold cornbread. I pizza does look very good.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't been to either place, Dave, but both of them sound GREAT... I will write down the info for a future day trip for us sometime. Think I'll try the pizza at the restaurant... Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy