The MTSU Creamery already has a presence on shelves in downtown Murfreesboro. It soon will have an even larger one — at the Murfreesboro Saturday Farmer’s Market this summer.

It will come in the form of the MTSU milk truck and both whole white and chocolate milk for sale at the market from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from June 6 through Sept. 26.

The MTSU Creamery milk truck, shown making a delivery in this file photo, will have a new presence this summer at the Murfreesboro Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Rutherford County Courthouse from June 6 through Sept. 26 on the southeast side of the Public Square. MTSU senior agriculture major Brendon Puckett delivered milk to Pearcy’s General Merchandise in Lascassas, Tenn., last fall, not long after the Creamery purchased the truck. Pearcy’s is one of 15 businesses in three counties carrying MTSU milk products. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

This marks the first farmer’s market-type venture for the Creamery, which started in 2017 and is part of the MTSU School of Agriculture’s dairy at the farm in Lascassas, Tennessee, and milk processing plant in the Stark Agriculture Center on campus.

“This is a new thing for us,” said Matthew Wade, director of the MTSU Farm Laboratories.

“We don’t know what to expect, but we kind of have an idea. We’re thankful to the Murfreesboro market, to have a spot and provide milk to a greater audience.”

Sarah Callender

Matthew Wade

The MTSU Creamery currently sells its milk products downtown at Hattie Jane’s Creamery, the City Café and Brass Horn Coffee Roasters LLC, along with about 15 more  area establishments.

Main Street Murfreesboro Executive Director Sarah Callender said her organization “is very excited about any partnership between MTSU and Main Street … and come up with different ways to get students to come downtown. We think the community will be excited to see the truck here selling milk every Saturday.”

Along with a student worker who will be training the first week, Wade and milk processing plant manager Steve Dixon will staff the farmer’s market, bringing pints and half-gallons of the university’s popular chocolate milk and gallons of whole white milk.

In the following weeks, Creamery student workers will bring and sell the milk — “and we may make adjustments to meet customers’ demands,” Wade said.

“Our students are very excited about this,” Wade added, “so we’ll turn them loose.”

With the coronavirus still prevalent, Wade said he, Dixon and MTSU students will follow public health guidelines on social distancing and protective gear.

“We’ll take precautions — wearing face coverings, gloves and practice social distancing,” Wade said.

The Creamery recently added a new bottling label machine, new bottles and labels.

A variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables, meat, jams and jellies, bread and other items will be available at the market featuring 50 vendors, said Callender, whose husband, Nate Callender, is an associate professor in the MTSU Department of Aerospace.

—Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

The new MTSU Creamery chocolate milk label, shown in this file photo of the new labeling machine, features larger MTSU, “I Am True Blue” and Tennessee Milk logos. Recent MTSU graduate Chalyce Gammon, shown in the background, waits for the labels to reach her on the Creamery’s new, more rounded milk bottles. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)