Gotta love new items!

What’s not to love about fresh local produce and eggs IN THE WINTER?! Yep, we’re lucky :-)

Microgreen mixes from Rosy Toes Designs and Simple Living Farm, plus Goat’s Milk Soaps and Lip Balms from Grumpy Goat Experiment!!

Also added… more of those farm fresh eggs from J & S Buehler, Bair Trax’s beef from their Organic dairy cows, and Green Fins’ aquaponic lettuces!!

And we're Back!! :-)

We had such a marvelous time while we were on break, I was admittedly reluctant to get back into the swing of things tonight, until the vendors and customers began to arrive!

I missed you all :-)

Thanks for a great start to the New Year!

And just so you know, Green Fins won’t be posting any of their greens until tomorrow morning, so don’t think they’re sold out already if you get on tonight!

Be safe, stay warm when winter returns, and have a lovely week!

Hello to a New Market Year!!

Welcome to another exciting year with our local Virtual Market!

We hope everyone had a delicious and safe holiday season, and that you’re off to a contented, restful beginning to 2020!

It’s exciting to be back, especially with all our favorite products plus some great specials, including indispensable Chicken Broth 20% off!

We look forward to sharing our harvests and specialties with you, and hope to see you at pick-up soon :-)

Happy New Year!!

The end of the Market for 2019!!

I can’t even believe it’s time to say this, but it’s truly the LAST day to order for this year!!

Whether you’re stocking up on our locally raised meats, putting your favorite bread in the freezer, or picking up some perfect gifts, we’re open til 8pm tonight!!

We’ll draw the winner of our Christmas Bouquet tonight after Market closes, so the winner may pick up their gift during Market pickup this Tuesday!!

And when you come to pickup your orders Tuesday, we’ll not only have a variety of local products for you to browse thru, but you’ll also enjoy some tasty snacks and desserts at our mini Christmas party :-)

We will not see you for almost a month! January 7th we’ll reopen, with the first pickup in 2020 on January 14th!!

THANK YOU for your continued interest in and support of our 100% local artisans, farm families, and producers!! Looking forward to seeing you Tuesday :-)

And the Winners are...

The Winner of the beautiful Christmas Bouquet is… Marlene McDaniel!! Congratulations!! :-)

And the Winners of our Refer A Friend gift certificates are… Kelly Snyder and Ruthie Myers!! Congratulations!!

Thank you to everyone who came out for our Holiday Farmer’s Market tonight – and especially THANK YOU for ALL the donations you generously gave to the First Place Food Pantry!!

We are OPEN for orders, for the last time in 2019!! Wow!! Next Tuesday December 17th is the last pick-up until January 14th!! The Market will be CLOSED for Three Weeks over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays!!

Be sure to check out the newest pastry on the Market, the Christmas version of a Pumpkin Roll – it’s Chocolate Peppermint!! Oh my!!

And the Buehler’s are back with everyone’s favorite eggs, plus lots of meat specials to stock up on, including Chicken Pot Pies and Michael’s Organic Chicken!!!

Happy Shopping, and Thank You for staying local!! Stay warm :-)

Tonight's the NIGHT!!

Join us for the Holiday Farmer’s Market at First Place tonight!! 4-7pm!!

Enter the drawing to win a beautiful Christmas bouquet of handpainted wooden flowers!! Wow!!

And we’ll also draw for TWO winners of a Virtual Market gift certificate tonight!! Drop the name of the person who told you about the Market, and they’ll be entered to win!!

Anyone who is able, we’re collecting donations for the First Place Food Pantry as well!! Monetary donations, any type of food or toiletry item… Thank you for your help!!

Hope to see you tonight!!

Our final Featured Vendor of 2019...

The Farmhouse Bakery!!

Luscious cakes, Brioche donuts, gourmet muffins, German chocolate cake, decadent specialty breads, pies aplenty… To end our Market year with Jonathan and Carmen White’s The Farmhouse Bakery as Featured Vendor is deliciously perfect – just like the crusts in their fabulous fruit and custard pies. They may have traveled thousands of miles together before making Troy their permanent home, but oh are we grateful to now have them just around the corner!

When I initially spoke with Jonathan about the possibility of them joining the Virtual Market, I was pleased as punch – he sounded enthusiastic about filling an important niche for our established customer base, determined to be vested in our community venture by shopping from fellow vendors, and wanting to show their belief in the importance of shopping local, not simply their own bottom line.

Sounded fantastic – what I hadn’t expected was to find such a wonderful whirlwind when I visited his wife Carmen in the Bakery of their cozy Troy home. With a ready smile and work ethic beyond compare, she is simply fascinating. Born in Mexico, Carmen attended culinary school in Mexico City, and needing to fulfill an 18 month internship requirement, she had two choices… wait for an opening to intern in Spain, or immediately head to The Four Seasons in Tuscon, Arizona. She laughed when declaring it was all meant to be, since it was at The Four Seasons she then met her future husband Jonathan White, a Troy native.

When asked had she always intended to bake for a living, she gave a cheeky smile. “No, I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but only for one semester!” She hadn’t started out intending to specialize in pastries, either, but beginning in Arizona, “everything pushed me to pastries”, she shrugged – and certainly everything really does happen for a reason, as she has such a seemingly natural knack for perfect pastries and presentation.

After graduation and marriage, the White’s made a successful move to the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida, where 600 dessert plates a night were the norm. “I like to be busy,” Carmen explained, “and they said I was a hard worker. I always wanted to learn everything, and people were very good to me.” Seven years of “very fancy stuff”, a lot of variety, and learning quite a few tricks gave her the challenge she had always desired. But the births of their daughter Emma and son James, coupled with the far distance from any relatives and a high cost of living, turned Jonathan back to thoughts of his hometown. “One day Jon said, “How about we…” and we researched Ohio laws”, finding it much more welcoming and reasonable compared to Florida. August of 2016 found them permanently in Ohio designing, building, and readying their new home and bakery.

Starting with a simple Home Bakery License the following season, Carmen began selling at the Downtown Troy Farmer’s Market in 2017, where one of her regular customers soon suggested his sister Megan NEEDED The Farmhouse Bakery, as she was just starting up a new local venture, Purebred Coffee Shop in downtown Troy. Now Carmen’s weekly deliveries of pastries, muffins, and donuts are beloved and famous staples of the shop, just as her Pumpkin Rolls are a specialty favorite at Fulton Farms in the fall.

After laughing she had always grown up in “nice” tropical places, the cold was a major adjustment for Carmen. But now being literally right around the corner from Jonathan’s family helps a great deal, as Jonathan works full time in Lima, and Carmen wakes at 2:30am to bake before making deliveries at 6:15am. There are so many roles to juggle… mother of three (Emma now 7, James 4, and little Luna 3), chauffeur, homemaker, chef, businesswoman… she said it’s routine to wake so early every morning, although on Sundays she may sleep til 7! “Carmen can make anything,” her proud husband told me matter of factly, when a customer came with a specific request. “Sugar free, gluten free, soy free, vegan – she can make anything you need or want!”

They both are in love with local food. “You don’t ever want to go out and eat elsewhere after you’ve cooked a locally sourced meal,” Carmen explained simply. “After you taste it, you can’t change from wanting it. That’s why we want to have our own eggs, apples, fruit… things we need in the bakery. And Troy is really nice – people want to know where their food comes from.”

Jonathan and Carmen are not only popular vendors but also some of our most frequent Market shoppers, both for their own household and also for their business, buying local and supporting fellow producers. They can appreciate the passion and effort which goes into their favorite Market products because it’s the same care which goes into their own.

That’s been a goal of the Market from it’s inception – to encourage vendor collaboration – as it only makes good sense for us to support each other! The White’s certainly take that to heart, by incorporating Sugar Grove Maple Products in many of their baked goods, utilizing J & S Buehler’s farm fresh eggs each week, or joining the Troy herdshare at Bair Trax Dairy for their fresh milk. They’re as serious about the importance of local as we’ve hoped our vendors would be. You can shop at any grocery store for tasty food – you cannot support local growers or real freshness at those same locations, and we hope to continue to enjoy our small niche in this wonderful community.

Carmen’s pies, muffins, cakes, breads, pastries (don’t forget the Brioche donuts!)… you pick them up on Tuesday and they’ve only been out of the oven for a couple hours! You’re not getting a day-old pie that’s been sitting waiting for a customer to purchase it when she bakes your custom order THE DAY you pick it up! THAT’S the kind of fresh and local goods we want to provide customers who are looking for the real deal.

There’s a reason why each and every participating vendor is currently selling on this Market, whether farming is their sole occupation, producing food is supplemental income, or perhaps simply a beloved hobby… we’re committed to the common good! We can each continue to sell from and promote our individual farms and businesses separately, or we can work together to build a model market that offers convenience and quality all within our local community. That’s the kind of grassroots, sustainable network of which we are glad Jonathan and Carmen White want to be a part. What we all have in common is a dedication to quality, a commitment to local, and a passion for the delicious!

The Return of Dog Biscuits!!

It may have taken a while to restock our brewer’s yeast, but the kids are back in the Dog Biscuit business!

We appreciate how many inquiries we’ve had about them, so they’re back on the Market and we’ll have them at the Holiday Farmer’s Market this Tuesday as well :-)

Thank you for your support! Enjoy this beautiful season!

Gingerbread in oh so many ways!!

Not only do we have Mucci’s Sweet Treats’ brand new Gingerbread Fudge on the Market…

But Honey Creek Farm has their Gingerbread Biscotti, The Farmhouse Bakery offers Gingerbread with cream cheese, and 6635 StudeBaker has traditional Gingerbread as well!!

It’s that time of year, and we love it!!

Plus, did you notice Mucci has brought back her perfect Pizzelles and Mmmmm-inspiring Mint Chocolate Brownies?! Wow and Yum!!

We close tonight at 8pm!

Our last Market Gift Certificate Giveaway of 2019!!

We are taking referrals for our Refer-A-Friend program this week, and next Tuesday Dec 10th we’ll draw our last winner of 2019!!

How does it work? You tell a friend about the Market, they place an order and drop your name at pick-up, then I enter your name in our Drawing for a $10 Market gift card!!

And just because it’s so fun, we’ll be giving away TWO next week!! So tell your friends about our little local market, spread the love, and we’ll see who the Winners are next week after the Holiday Farmer’s Market!! Tis the season of giving ;-)