Long-time vendors of the Farmers Market put in the hours to show up for Bluffton

On a humid Thursday in mid-August, the market was busy but preparing for its peak fall season. The lines and crowds on hot summer days typically come early to beat the heat.

The Bluffton Farmer’s market features nearly 4 dozen vendors and farmers from all over the Lowcountry since 2008. All of them, whether they have been there for 10 years or two, work hard to make Thursdays special in Old Town year-round.

The man behind Tuten Farms

Larry Tuten, owner of Tuten Farms, has been bringing his fresh produce to Old Town every Thursday since 2013.

He’s been farming ever since he was a child. He grew up nextdoor to his grandfather, who owned a farm.

Next to one of his grandfather’s sheds, young Tuten started a small garden.

“I had a little area that was mine, I fenced it in and I planted a little dab of this and just a little dab of that,” Tuten said. “Back then, you could buy a pack of seed for like 25 cents, and I’d go and I just buy all kinds of seeds of plants. And still, now it’s like that, but the dabs are bigger.”

Now, Tuten has his own farm. And, as he said, the scale is much larger by about 300 pounds.

One of the crops he sells is Okra, a southern staple that can be fried by itself or used in stews. He brought 100 pounds of the vegetable to the market on Thursday. But his entire yield is 300 pounds, he said.

To be prepared for the Thursday market, Tuten and his team work all day Wednesday and are on the road from their Hampton County farm by 7 a.m.. They will return late in the afternoon, when the rest of his team will go home, but Tuten has some other chores he needs to get to, like feeding his fish and eight aquatic dogs.

Tuten Farms sells produce at Bluffton’s Farmers Market on Thursdays and Port Royal’s market on Saturdays.

“I got to feed my fish, I got a lot of fish I need to go hand feed,” he said. “They are almost like pets…I look down there, and they are all lined up. Then I start throwing the food out, but then my dogs, they like the fish food too, so they get in the water.”

The dogs like to swim with the fish while they eat, but then they also have an alligator on the property, whom he affectionately calls Frank.

“When Frank shows up, everybody runs,” Tuten said. “He’s a real party pooper.”

The most rewarding part of working at the market for Tuten is the opportunity to see the people who enjoy his produce.

“We get to see who we sell to and who will eat the food,” he said. “Instead of selling at wholesale, you sell it, and nobody ever knows who grew it.”

The most challenging part is that the work never ends. The only day Tuten has taken off since April was last Sunday. Even then, it wasn’t by choice. He said he had to “force himself to take it off.”

And his work pays off, his business at the market is good, he said.

“As soon as the market opened, they were lining up,” he said. “Like my fish in my pond. They are sitting there, ready.”

Calibogue Catering brings the heat to Bluffton on Thursdays

Amy Krans has been working at the market with Calibogue Catering, selling barbecue for 15 years. She’s been a resident of Bluffton since 2000.

Since she started, she has noticed the market has gotten a lot busier. There are more vendors and better parking options in its current location.

Her market days start at 5 a.m. and end between 4-5 p.m. after they finish breaking everything down and cleaning up. Bluffton Market prep days start on Wednesdays.

Krans said the best part of her work is the community they have with the other vendors. Many of them she has known since she started working at the Bluffton market, and she also sees at other markets in the area, like Port Royal’s Saturday market.

“Kind of feels like a family,” she said.

On a typical day, they are busy, she said. They have regulars that come every time, and they have a loyal customer base.

“They come out in rain, 800 degrees, she said. “We sell out of pretty much everything, definitely the chicken or the brisket.”

When asked what her favorite item they sell is, she said it was like asking her to pick a favorite child.

“Probably the mac and cheese for myself,” she said. “For the customers, I’d say it’s the brisket or the chicken.”

On the other days of the week, she works on catering orders or prepping and vending at the Port Royal market on Saturday.

‘Youthful audacity’ started Fili-West farms

Nathan Boggs and his wife are from downtown Charleston. One day in 2009, Boggs was inspired to move from the city and start a farm.

The idea started when he came across a TED talk by Michael Pollan from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a book discussing the dilemma of food production and consumption in the U.S..

The talk covered the right ways to farm, and one of the examples talked about in the presentation was a farm owned in Virginia by an owner named Joel Salatin. He wrote some books that Boggs then picked up, one of which was titled “You Can Farm.”

“It had the intended consequence of convincing me that I can farm,” he said. “I didn’t grow up on a farm and didn’t know anything about farming. I just had the youthful audacity to try my hand at it. Every time things went bad, I was like, ‘Well, tomorrow will be better.’ Which isn’t always true but it was a helpful lie that kept me going. And here we are, almost 16 years later.”

Someone told Boggs 10 years ago that Bluffton’s Farmers market was the best in the state. He has been a vendor for them ever since.

Their farm, called Fili-West, is located in Orangeburg County in Vance, near Santee. It is 100 miles from Bluffton, he said.

Over the summer, the market starts earlier. Boggs wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to pack the coolers, load the van and leave the farm by 6 a.m.. On the way to Bluffton, he makes deliveries to wholesalers and makes it to the market 30 minutes to an hour early to set up. He jokingly tells people he has a five-to-nine instead of a typical nine-to-five.

Boggs said he works seven days a week all year. His longest record without a day off is three years.

“I hope not to beat that record,” he said.

Fili-West is a vendor for three Farmers Markets in the Lowcountry: Bluffton’s, Port Royal’s on Saturdays and the Sunday Brunch Farmers Market in Charleston.

The most fulfilling part of his work is serving others, he said. This has been a goal that has been met for him, as the Bluffton Market continues to grow in popularity.

“More families than ever before, which is kind of our goal,” Boggs said. “We want to serve as many families as we can.”

If you go

Bluffton’s Thursday Market is in its summer hours until the end of August at 68 Boundary Street at Martin Family Park.

The summer hours are 10a.m. to 2p.m. Starting September, they are open noon to 4p.m.

They are open all four seasons.

Free street parking and designated parking can be found around the park, Lawrence Green, Boundary and Calhoun St.

The Bluffton Breeze also has free fares from Walmart to the market on Thursday.

Most vendors take card or Venmo, but “it’s a good idea to bring cash,” Kim Viljac, market manager and executive director said.

Some vendors also provide bags and the market sells some at their stand as well.

This story was originally published August 15, 2025 at 12:07 PM.