Our Featured Vendor Tonight...

We’d driven past the gorgeous homestead on State Route 201 hundreds of times on the way to my parents, always remarking what a lovely spread – and were completely intrigued one day a few years ago when a large sign went up at the end of their drive declaring it Honey Creek Farm – Farm Stand, Open! We were vastly curious who was behind this new addition to the local food scene!

If you’ve met May Alanzi at her home farm stand, the downtown Troy farmer’s market, or one of our Night Markets at First Place, so many things are quickly evident – while she’s the least pushy and most modest vendor you may ever meet, the variety of unique goods she offers is astounding. From gangly gourds, exotic vegetables, gorgeous floral arrangements, and fragrant herbs to homemade jams (for a crazy low price, I might add), unusual baked goods and quaint carpentry projects, the woman seemingly does a bit of everything… with a knack for the most creative and unusual ideas!

When asked whether she’d always wanted to farm, she didn’t hesitate – “not necessarily”, although she always loved spending the 3 months every summer at her grandparents farm (the Honey Creek Farm where she and her husband now reside). She moved away from home, and spent a long time in New York, where she dreamed about round bale houses and being an architect while working toward her degrees in Political Science and Anthropology. Unable to completely escape that farming bug, she worked in a nursery and became a Master Gardener in order to learn as much as possible, before finally moving back home to Tipp City where her parents now lived at her grandparents farm – and still do, raising their own garden and encouraging May’s wide variety of farming and homesteading endeavors.

Her grandmother passed down a love for doing crafts, as well as a fully stocked basement with “all the supplies you could imagine” just waiting for May’s creative juices to flow. And she still loves doing woodworking in her grandpa’s workshop… “when I have time”, she admits, before laughing that she never really has time, shaking her head at herself. Surprise surprise!

Most people may expand slowly but surely – not May, having constructed her own high tunnel (think unheated greenhouse for extending your growing season) this past year and adding chickens and goats to her growing farm. I wouldn’t have thought it possible she could get more excited, yet she did when talking about the goats, saying she chose Nigerian dwarfs as they’re small (under 30”) and manageable, particularly for her two nieces whom she’s taken under her wing as apprentices the last two summers. Wanting to practice last year with just two female goats, she intends to find a buck this summer – let the breeding and continued expansion begin!

It comes as no surprise she hates asking for help (“that’s just not a good motto!”) – her independence is obvious, stating she prefers to figure things out, and “research research research”, even if it means putting 7 years worth of work into her strawbale house before ever actually beginning construction. And if you’ve had the pleasure of seeing her incredible home up close (she said yes to hosting one of our Community Potluck’s this summer!! Woohoo!!) you’d understand how awestruck I was while she nonchalantly showed me around as if it were ordinary for people to not only draft and design their own home, using the most natural of resources, but document and photograph the entire project down to the minutest detail, with the thought of writing a book on the experience. No kidding!

Looking around open-mouthed, I kept thinking this was the kind of thing you read about in books, wondering how these people actually pull off something so extraordinary. And she’s right in our backyard, growing vegetables for us?! What a woman! And what an asset to our Market family :-)