Lick Skillet Farm’s second annual fall ride and farm celebration will feature cycling routes for all skill levels, food, tours, and live music. Proceeds donated to New Market Elementary School.
NEW MARKET, TENNESSEE – The pastoral setting and quiet country lanes of New Market and Strawberry Plains have become a destination for cyclists of all skill levels. Organized rides in the area start in spring with the Ride the Plains Cycling Tour. The TN Senior Olympics Cycling Championship take place on many of the same roads mid-summer. And the region’s final organized ride of the season is the Lick Skillet Scramble each fall.
The Scramble is hosted by the Lick Skillet Collective, the farm’s nonprofit focused on reconnecting people with farming and food. The nonprofit hosts the ride as a chance for guests to visit the farm, and as a fundraiser for New Market Elementary School.
Lick Skillet Farm has been in the Miller family for more than a century. An ancestor bought the oldest part of the farm prior to the Great Depression. The farmland had been so abused that he was warned anyone trying to feed a family from it would “starve to death and be licking the skillet.” A century later, Lick Skillet Farm produces grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured heritage pork, free-range chicken, and eggs all sold online.
Alex Miller, the current patriarch of the family business, is a former ultra-endurance cycling enthusiasts who came to love the local roads while training for 24-hour and coast-to-coast bike races. He recognized how much other cyclist appreciate the region’s country roads and saw the ride as a way for cyclists to show their appreciation. As he explains, “Using the ride as a fundraiser for the local elementary school is a way for cyclist to say thank you for great times enjoyed in our community.”
The Lick Skillet Scramble offers four road routes ranging from a family-friendly 12-miler to a moderately challenging metric century. The ride is timed to showcase the splendid colors of fall in the Tennessee countryside. All routes are fully paved loops carefully marked and supported with fully stocked rest stops and SAG.
Guests of cyclists not participating in the ride can relax on the farm. The day will include gourmet burgers and chicken sandwiches catered by Sister South as well as an all-you-can eat homemade ice cream bar! Alliance Brewing Company will host a cash beer bar and live music by local talent, The Emancipators, will play through the day. Hayride tours will provide a behind-the-scenes look at a working family farm.
For more information or to register for the ride and farm celebration visit, racedayevents.net/lick-skillet-scramble/. To learn more about Lick Skillet Farm or to order from the farm, visit www.lickskillet.farm.
