Twenty-Two Kitchens, One Pavilion: Inside Landrum's Taste of the Market

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  June 30, 2026

A Mayor's Dare and Six Hundred Hungry Neighbors

The line forming at the Joe Cunningham Pavilion on the evening of June 27 had a simple problem to solve, and Landrum Mayor Bob Briggs put it plainly. "This is a great opportunity to enjoy all the wonderful products and food from the Market's vendors," he said. "If you leave here hungry, it's certainly your fault."

That is the kind of confidence a town earns only after it has done something right a few times in a row. The 4th annual Taste of the Market handed out roughly 600 community tickets, the largest turnout in the event's short history, and the people who carried them came to eat their way across twenty-two kitchens.

This is the Landrum Farmers Market's signature evening, the one Saturday a year when the market stops being a place to buy a basket of tomatoes and becomes a place to taste what those tomatoes can become. Vendors, local food producers, and regional restaurants each prepare a small-plate dish built entirely from fresh, in-season ingredients sourced at the market itself. The result is a sampling crawl that doubles as a tour of who actually feeds this corner of the foothills.

Landrum sits just over the South Carolina line, but it pulls hard into Polk County, North Carolina. Tryon and Columbus are minutes away, and the crowd at any given Landrum Saturday is a mix of both states. The Polk County Community Foundation helped fund this year's event, which is why admission stayed free and the tickets stayed plentiful. That partnership is worth noticing. It is a clean example of a regional asset that does not care where the state line falls.

What It Means When a Vendor Cooks Their Own Crop

There is a difference between a food festival and what happens at Taste of the Market, and the difference is the supply chain. At a typical festival, a vendor trucks in product from wherever it is cheapest. Here, the rule runs the other way. The ingredient comes off the market table, and the person who grew or made it figures out how to put it on a plate.

That constraint is the entire point. It is easy to talk about eating local. It is harder to watch a grower turn their own harvest into a finished dish and hand it to you on a sample plate, still warm, with their name on the tent behind them.

JoAnn James, who co-manages the market, has described the event as a celebration of fresh, local products, creative talent, and a strong sense of community. All three showed up in equal measure this year. The talent part is easy to underrate until you taste it. A peach is a peach until Hyder Farms folds it into a cobbler and crowns it with ice cream, and then it is the thing people drove across the county line for.

The community part is structural, not sentimental. Volunteers from the Landrum High School FFA worked the event throughout, the kind of student labor that teaches young people what agricultural value looks like up close. The city's maintenance department and staff handled the unglamorous logistics that keep a free event free. None of that shows up on a plate, but all of it shows up in whether the night works.

Twenty-Two Kitchens, Six Culinary Traditions

The headline this year, and the reason the event keeps the phrase "culinary diversity" in its name, is the range. Twenty-two participating kitchens served food that traveled, on the plate at least, across most of a world map.

Start in the South, because that is where the foothills usually start. Hyder Farms ran its famed peach cobbler. Miss Barbara's Craft & Kitchen served hearty jambalaya. Southside Smokehouse, a local favorite that has cooked at the event before, brought pork tacos. Amy Lynne's offered cheddar shortbread paired with house-made jam, and BB's Homegrown set out pepper jelly on crackers, two dishes that taste like somebody's grandmother had a hand in the recipe.

Then the map widens. 2 Tides Seafood Market served a bright shrimp ceviche. Estela's Empanadas worked a table of savory fillings and finished it with creamy flan. The Eggroll Lady brought crispy egg rolls, and Yun's Asian Kitchen offered mochi filled with fruit. From farther east still, the European Market presented cabbage rolls and pirozhki, the kind of dishes that rarely turn up at a small-town Southern market. Betterballen Foods introduced bitterballen, the Dutch fried snack that most attendees had likely never tried within fifty miles of home.

Italy showed up through Robinos, which served cheese tortellini drizzled with a rich mushroom-and-vodka sauce over handmade pasta, and through Sweet Treats by Laura's strawberry tiramisu. The bakers held the middle: Dria's Southern Cakes ran a moist blackberry cake that became a crowd favorite, Whisked Away Bakery brought cupcakes, and Polisma Sweets contributed an assortment of cookies.

There was real food on the savory side too, not just sweets. Cinch Spice Blends served savory taco cups. Kristen & Maria built loaded mashed potatoes with the full lineup of fixings. The Little Sprouts group offered a garden salad that made the case for local produce on its own terms. Eleanor Jo served sourdough drizzled with oil, Yoders Trading Post brought yogurt with fresh fruit, and Looking Glass Creamery, the well-known regional cheesemaker, plated a BLT crostini.

Why This Kind of Range Matters in a Small Town

It is tempting to read a list like that and file it under novelty. A small foothills market with Dutch bitterballen and Russian pirozhki next to peach cobbler makes for a fun paragraph. But the range is the story, not the garnish.

Western North Carolina and the upstate South Carolina it borders have changed over the last two decades, and the food is the most visible evidence. Retirees and second-home owners arrived from the Northeast and the Midwest. Working families came from across the country, and immigrants put down roots and opened businesses. A market that can field six culinary traditions in one evening is a market reflecting who actually lives here now.

That is a real estate fact as much as a cultural one, though nobody at the pavilion was talking about it that way. When people consider a move to the mountains, they often picture isolation, the trade-off they assume they make for the views and the quiet. An evening like this argues the opposite. You can get bitterballen and empanadas and tiramisu within a short drive of a trailhead, and the people serving them know your name by the third Saturday.

Adrienne Wilson of Rural Seed caught the idea in an earlier year when she noted how lucky the area is to be so agri-diverse. The phrase fits the food too. Diversity here is not a slogan printed on a banner. It is twenty-two tents, each one run by someone who chose to build something in this particular valley.

A Tradition Built Fast

For an event that already feels like a fixture, Taste of the Market is young. The first edition ran in 2023. By 2024, the second annual drew 400 to 500 RSVPs and featured 25 vendors plus three restaurants. The 2025 edition pushed past 500 attendees, with participating cooks drawing on ingredients from 46 market vendors to plate 25 dishes.

Market co-manager Kristin Johnson summed up that 2025 night with the kind of plain wonder that signals an event has arrived. "Seeing more than 500 people come out to sample 25 dishes made from our own market ingredients was incredible," she said. The 2026 edition's 600 tickets continued the climb.

The calendar has wandered a bit. The event ran in early July in 2024, shifted to October in 2025, and landed in late June this year. That is a fast reshuffle, and it suggests the organizers are still finding the right slot, likely chasing peak in-season produce and pleasant evening weather at the same time. Late June, with the first peaches in and the gardens hitting their stride, makes a strong case for itself.

What has not wavered is the formula. Free admission. Tickets handed out in advance so the market can plan. Live music. Small plates instead of full meals, which keeps the night moving and lets a guest realistically taste a dozen kitchens before the mayor's warning about leaving hungry becomes relevant.

Sarah McClure, a chef with Southside Smokehouse, put the appeal in local terms a couple of years back when she said it was nice to have an event like this close to home. That is the quiet engine under the whole thing. These are not vendors who travel a festival circuit. They live and work here, and the event gives them one night to show the neighbors what the everyday market actually holds.

How to Be There Next Time

If you missed the line at the pavilion this June, the practical advice is to start paying attention to the Landrum Farmers Market now, not next spring. The event has grown every single year, tickets are limited even though they are free, and the people who claim them early are the ones who get them.

The market sets up at the Joe Cunningham Pavilion on West Rutherford Street in downtown Landrum, an easy drive from Tryon, Columbus, and the rest of Polk County. During the season you will find it running Saturday mornings, which is the right time to meet the vendors you will later watch cook at Taste of the Market. The market answers questions at landrumfm@gmail.com and 864-237-3644.

Going to the regular Saturday market first is the move, actually. Taste of the Market makes a lot more sense once you have shaken hands with Hyder Farms or stood at the Looking Glass Creamery table and tasted the cheese on its own. The annual event is the payoff. The weekly market is where the relationships get built, and those relationships are what turn a stranger into a local.

That is the part outsiders tend to miss about this region. The food and the festivals are wonderful, but the real draw is how quickly a place like Landrum folds you into its rhythm. If you have ever stood at a market like this and thought you could see yourself living within a short drive of it, that feeling is worth following, and I am always happy to talk through what calling these foothills home actually looks like.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Taste of the Market in Landrum?

Taste of the Market is a free annual culinary celebration hosted by the Landrum Farmers Market just over the Polk County, North Carolina line in Landrum, South Carolina. Market vendors, local food producers, and regional restaurants each prepare a small-plate dish built from fresh, in-season ingredients sourced at the market, then serve samples to the community. The 2026 edition, held June 27 at the Joe Cunningham Pavilion, was the fourth annual event. It featured 22 participating kitchens, live music, and roughly 600 community tickets. The Polk County Community Foundation helped fund the event so admission stays free for everyone.

When and where is the Landrum Farmers Market held?

The Landrum Farmers Market sets up at the Joe Cunningham Pavilion on West Rutherford Street in downtown Landrum, South Carolina, a short drive from Tryon and Columbus in Polk County, North Carolina. The market runs on Saturday mornings during the growing season and pulls vendors and shoppers from both sides of the state line. Taste of the Market is a special evening event held at the same pavilion, separate from the regular Saturday market hours. For current market dates, vendor details, or questions about Taste of the Market, the market can be reached at landrumfm@gmail.com or 864-237-3644.

How much does Taste of the Market cost to attend?

Taste of the Market is free to attend. The Landrum Farmers Market distributes community tickets in advance, and the Polk County Community Foundation provides financial support so cost is never a barrier. In 2026, the market gave out roughly 600 tickets, the largest reach in the event's history. Because tickets are limited and the event has grown every year, it is worth watching the market's announcements and claiming a ticket early. The samples, the live music, and the chance to meet the people who grow and cook the food are all included at no charge.

What kinds of food are served at Taste of the Market?

The 2026 lineup spanned six broad culinary traditions, all built from ingredients sourced at the Landrum Farmers Market. Southern dishes included Hyder Farms peach cobbler, Miss Barbara's jambalaya, and Southside Smokehouse pork tacos. Latin American offerings came from 2 Tides Seafood Market's shrimp ceviche and Estela's empanadas and flan. Asian plates included The Eggroll Lady's egg rolls and Yun's Asian Kitchen mochi. The European Market served cabbage rolls and pirozhki, Betterballen Foods served Dutch bitterballen, and Robinos served cheese tortellini in mushroom-and-vodka sauce. Bakeries and dessert makers rounded out the spread with cakes, cookies, shortbread, and strawberry tiramisu.