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Curb Market celebrates 100th birthday on Saturday

Marilyn Horne, The Caramel Cake Lady, spends Saturdays at the curb market. [PHOTO BY AMY MCCRAW]

By Amy B. McCraw, Published: May 27, 2024

Most people around the Henderson County Curb Market know Marilyn Horne by her other name — the Caramel Cake Lady.

And Horne, like most vendors who sell their goods at the market on Church Street in Hendersonville, knows her customers by name.
“It becomes kind of like a family here,” she said. “It’s just part of your life. Your customers become like family too.”
Horne, 69, often sells out of the old-fashioned caramel cakes she’s famous for before the market closes for the day on Saturdays. But she almost always agrees to take special orders from the customers who arrive a little too late for one of the dozen or so cakes she sells each weekend.
In addition to her homemade cakes, Horne also sells fresh eggs from her chickens, handmade quilts and crochet items at her booth.
She grew up watching her mother work at the market before manning her own booth 40 years ago.
“I was one that was raised under the table at the curb market,” she said.
Horne’s daughter also comes to the market these days and her granddaughter is starting to show an interest in what grandma does at her booth.
“I hope to pass it down and keep the tradition going,” she said.
Family, tradition and a commitment to the market that is passed down from one generation to the next is what has kept the curb market a fixture in Hendersonville for the last 100 years, Horne and other longtime vendors said recently.
The curb market will celebrate its 100-year anniversary on June 1 with food, music, a raffle, a live radio broadcast, a tour of the market including visits with vendors and a 100-year anniversary cake with ice cream, among other special treats.
Elected leaders and a representative from the state’s agriculture department are also expected to attend the celebration along with American Fruit Grower and 2023 Apple Grower of the Year, Kenny Barnwell of Edneyville.

Frank L. FitzSimons III, whose great grandfather helped start the market in 1924, will also provide a history of the curb market.
Edneyville farmer Freddie Rhodes said his grandfather, Lee Rhodes, joined Frank FitzSimons Sr. and other farmers to create the curb market to give farmers a place to sell their produce.
“It’s a place where we can bring our products off the farm and sell,” he said. “Everybody that comes out here, it’s a family tradition. We just try to keep it going.”
Rhodes, 68, sells a variety of products from his farm including apple butter, chow-chow and cider. The recipes for the canned goods came from his late wife, Phyllis, who passed away in 2016.
Leslie Zarnowski, who is chair of the curb market board, said after the market formed 100 years ago it moved around to a few places in town before settling in its current location on church street about 75 years ago.
The building with doors and windows allowed the market to operate year-round and led to the wives of farmers selling rugs, quilts and other homemade crafts when produce was scarce in the winter months, Zarnowski said.
The market today continues to offer handmade quilts, rugs and crafts along with produce, canned goods and baked items.
Curb market vendors must be from Henderson County or surrounding counties and the goods they offer must be homegrown or handcrafted.
Edneyville resident Albert Ledbetter, 65, said he first came to the market with his mother, Louise, and aunt, Gladys Barnwell, when he was a little boy.
His mom taught him how to make the rugs he now sells at the market.
“It’s just a family thing. We’ve done it forever,” he said. “People come just to visit. I’ve made friends here I’ve known for 35 or 40 years.”
Green River resident Shannon Ball said his roots also run deep at the curb market.
His great grandparents, Benjamin and Nancy Justice, were two of the original vendors at the market when it opened 100 years ago. Ball’s grandparents and parents also sold goods at the market.
And now Ball, 62, and his wife, Robbie, come to the market to sell flowers the way his family has for generations.
“I grew up doing it. I just like it,” he said. “They all taught me how to. I enjoy meeting the customers. Most customers are like family.”
Ball said he hopes his children and grandchildren will take over when it’s their turn because customers will always want to buy from the curb market.
“People want to buy local,” he said. “You know where it comes from.”
The curb market is located at 221 N. Church St at Second Avenue in Hendersonville.
It is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The market is open only on Saturdays in January, February and March.
For more information about the curb market, visit www.hendersoncountycurbmarket.com, call 828-692-8012 or visit the market’s Facebook page.