Hughes and Sons Farm Market has only been open for a few weeks, and already it has provided the Milligan area an opportunity to purchase produce that the owner raised and made here in Carter County, in the fields right next to the register.

Owner Jamie Hughes said he has been interested in farming since he was a boy, looking out the window during his time at Happy Valley to look at the farm next to the school.

“The farm is all I have ever known,” Hughes said.

Hughes and Sons aims to provide its community access to quality meats and other farm produce without the hormones or other added chemicals.

“We haul it to a USDA processing plant, and then we haul it back in freezers and coolers for sale,” Hughes said.

He said this process ensures the meat is as high quality as it can be, a fact he cannot say the same about larger meat companies or grocery stores.

“The beef industry has taken some hard hits,” he said. “This is a way I can help the community.”

He said this is partly because he has seen people become afraid of the meat they purchase from other stores, either due to illness or lack of quality of the meat itself.

While his mother handles the retail portion of the job, Hughes said he will spend most of his time in the fields out back, tending to the hundreds of animals he has across several farms in the area.

This passion for farming and its benefits to the county and beyond have been a part of Hughes’ life for many years. Though the idea to open up the Farm Market as a supplement to his farming income has existed for a while, construction of the building itself started around the Fourth of July.

“We started selling meat Saturday,” he said. “It went really well.”

Even before the market, Hughes described himself as a wholesaler, interested in quality over price and quantity.

“These cows are grass-fed and grain-finished,” Hughes said.

Even a few weeks after their initial opening, Hughes said they are still working on what items to add to their inventory.

He said it was surprising to see so much support from the community after their opening, since they hardly advertised themselves at all.

“Word of mouth got several people up here,” Hughes said.

As the name implies, Hughes said his family has been helping with the business since it started. He said his mother baked apple pies when they first opened, which were a big hit.

“I want a good product I can sell to a customer so that they want to come back,” he said.

This strive for high quality is important, he said, because negative reception of his work can be more prominent that positive reception.

“We live in a negative world,” Hughes said. “If it is bad, they will tell 300 people. If it is good, they will tell three people.”

He said a prospective customer once told him to worry about the quality of his product before worrying about what price to sell it at.

The market also sells pumpkins, just in time for the fall season, and other seasonal items might become available as business continues, he said.

Currently, the market is open between 2-7 p.m. most weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, though those times might change as business continues. The market is located at 128 Willocks Road in Carter County.