Welcome to 2022!!

Hello everyone!

Our beloved Market is open for ordering once again!!

I’m so excited to work with you all in this joint endeavor of supporting healthy and delicious local food in 2022!

In case we haven’t met at a Tuesday pick-up, my name is Erin Harris and I’ll be the new manager of the Virtual Market. I’ve met many of you over the past months of working with Jennifer and have been moved by your kindness, patience, and dedication. I have big shoes to fill here but I know I’m in good hands!

One thing I should mention about myself – I’m actually an Ohio native but have always been a Michigan fan as my parents met at U of M and we’ve always vacationed in the Upper Peninsula and have lots of family up there. BUT my daughter has decided to attend Ohio State so now I have a conundrum…who do I root for?? Ah, I suppose there are bigger problems…

Happy New Year!

The second verse of O Holy Night began as I drove back to Fletcher from my last Market the 21st – “Truly He taught us to love one another – His Law is Love, and His Gospel is Peace”.

What an appropriate ending to my Market experience. My customers, you customers, have shown me that in spades.

I am content knowing Erin has the reins. I respect her, and having known her intimately as both a CSA and herdshare customer on our little farm, I know her commitment to Local food is honest and lasting.

Mother of three, a fellow Michigan native (GO BLUE – how well have I held THAT one in all these years ;-) ), a registered nurse and then homeschooler, I appreciated her first as a loyal, patient customer and quickly grew to like and appreciate her as a person. I want to thank her for stepping in!

But more than anything I want to thank you customers for your sincerity, genuine openness, gracious natures, and considerate hearts.

One night recently I said to the children, “Ok, time to load up and head home.” Two and a half year old Anna looked at me curiously and said, “Which home, Momma?”

So while I miss you dearly already, I feel Blessed to part with the Market so our family life can get back to our extraordinary level of fun, manageable chaos, and not the stress of the last while.

Our lives are richer for you having been a wonderful part of them. Thank you for allowing us to be even a tiny part of yours. We deeply appreciate your good will and support.

May God bless and keep you especially during this most Holy Season, and long into the New Year. A Joyous, Healthy 2022 to you all!

Lee, Jennifer, Lucy, Joseph, Mary, Molly, and Anna Ruff

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We're OPEN til 9 Tonight!!

Your final friendly reminder of the year – we’re Open until 9pm TONIGHT!

Then off for two weeks – we’ll Reopen for orders Tuesday January 4th, with the first pickup of the New Year January 11th!

So place your order by 9pm Tonight :-)

Thanks for shopping local and supporting our family farmers, artisans, and businesses!

Congratulations to our final Winners of the year!

CONGRATULATIONS to our final two 2021 Winners, of the Refer-a-Friend Gift Certificate drawing…

Linda Bozick

And

Robert Reas!

Whenever you refer someone to the Virtual Market, and they drop your name when they pickup their order, you are entered in our monthly drawing for a $10 Market Gift Certificate!

Good for any Market Products – and no expiration date!

Thanks for helping spread the word about our little local Market!

Join us Sunday at the Veteran's Christmas Market!

Join us this Sunday at the Miami Valley Veterans Museum for their Christmas Market and Museum Open House!!

10am to 4pm – we’ll be there with so many other local vendors! Something for everyone!

2245 S. County Road 25A in Troy!

The perfect Handmade Holiday ;-). Hope you stop by to see us!

A beautiful goodbye from Green Fins

“To all the wonderful customers at Miami County Locally Grown,

As this magical season is upon us, I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity you have given me to be part of this family, and I want to wish each of you, and your family, a very blessed and content Christmas.

Looking to the new year at our doorstep, I have been given the opportunity to go traveling for work with my husband of 32 years. So it is with mixed emotions, excitement for the new and sadness, that I have to tell you Green Fins is closing.

Since my new job starts on January 9th, next week will be the last Market for me.

With the very best wishes to you all,

Marion from Green Fins

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We're OPEN til 9 Tonight!!

Lots of sweet Holiday treats just posted!!

Classic Pizzelles, Mint Chocolate Brownies, and Holiday Chip Cookies from Mucci’s Sweet Treats

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream from The Farmhouse Bakery

And a Special on Certified Organic Chicken Wings from Michael’s Pastured Poultry!

We're Back for December!!

December already – wow!

Only TWO MORE MARKETS in 2021 – unbelievable!

Walker Cabin Farm debuted her European-style Crusty Rolls at the Night Market with great sucess, and has added them now to her Virtual Market repertoire!

Hidden Springs Farm has more of their pastured Beef Steak and Roast options available!

The Farmhouse Bakery brings Back her beloved Christmas version of the Pumpkin Roll – Chocolate Peppermint!! Mmmm!!

And Becky’s Buckeye Naturals unveils her latest Holiday soap – Peppermint Anise! Perfect!

Something for everyone (and grab the carrots and spinach while you can)!

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Holiday Farmer's Market TODAY!!!

Please join us!! The Holiday Night Market is TONIGHT, 3:30-6:30, at First Place Christian Center in Troy!!

Yes, we’re still Open for Virtual Market pickup – the Night Market will run just down the hall, so stop in and see us!

The perfect time to not only grab some Holiday goodies, stocking stuffers, and yummy samples, but to meet your favorite local producers and farmers in person!

This is a super fun night, and we’ve got such a great variety of vendors who’ll be set up with a wide selection of products (more than they have on the Market!) and information/pictures of their businesses/operations!

And we even have new faces who’ll join the familiar faces from the Virtual Market! So tell your family, friends, coworkers, and join us TODAY :-)

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It's a RUFF life making Dog Biscuits!

Deb Spencer, aka 6635 StudeBaker of “History in the Baking”, is truly to blame.

Back in 2018, just before Thanksgiving, she came to Market with a wild idea – “so Jennifer, wouldn’t it be wonderful if your children took over making the dog biscuits on the Market? I’m happy to share my recipe and cookie cutters?!”

To which I wanted to reply, "Deb, that’s crazy talk– sure the children love to bake, but for US only! When I bake for our CSA members, what’s the children’s first question when they see me pull out the pizza pans? “Is this for us or for people?”, knowing they aren’t allowed to help unless it’s something only we are actually eating ;-)

Plus, at the time of Deb’s suggestion, our oldest was 7, Baby #5 was due that Spring, and with all the general craziness on our farm, there’s only so much Mommy can handle! Instead of that, of course I told her we’d love to!

Fast forward a few months, and the children were committed to working on Dog Biscuits for selling on the Market, specifically to save up so they could buy sheep and start a dye garden!

They had been enthralled as we read a series on Laura Ingalls’ great grandmother growing up as a little girl in Scotland, and all the talk about raising the sheep, then shearing, carding, waulking, spinning, dying and weaving the wool (if you ever enjoyed the Little House books and haven’t checked out the more recent series’ on the females going back in Laura’s family, oh are you missing out! We found them at the Troy and Piqua libraries!)

Now we have some incredible women on the Market who truly know what they’re doing when it comes to working with wool, from raising the sheep (Keba of Innisfree on the Stillwater and Brette of Grumpy Goat Experiment) to spinning the wool (both Keba and Deb) and creating beautiful woolen goods (all of the above as well as Lucy of Rosy Toes Designs), and of course the children know this is a weak spot for both Mommy and Daddy, as we’ve talked about adding sheep to our menagerie since we married.

My husband even built a gorgeous spinning wheel that I keep looking at and telling Keba someday we’ll make time for her to help me cultivate the knack for it (my first efforts were not pretty, folks) – but he also made the girls drop spindles for Christmas… a much simpler concept that still allows us to practice spinning and creating a beautiful yarn!

My little farmers have always wanted to be shepherds – they love bringing the cows in from the pasture, and who wouldn’t want lambs (especially when one of our girls is Mary)? They’ve even loved when we’ve accompanied my husband when he’s had a sheep shearing job – it is a grueling procedure but fascinating to watch!

The children also love helping in the kitchen (bring on the practical math applications!) and relished the idea that they would be able to make something to sell on their own. Down to doing the dishes and cleaning the counter (oh, if only the incentive of getting to play in the water would last til they were teenagers)! And we already know we have the perfect number of kitchen helpers for our cozy space – the two youngest sit on the counter, with the older two standing beside and the middle one in front of me… hard to picture but it’s our routine anyway, and plenty of jobs for all – many hands make light work, right? The more the merrier!

And oh is it “fun” math to both keep track of their ingredient costs and their sales, as well as practice their fractions and measurements! Plus hand-writing practice for neatly writing out the tags. And what child doesn’t love using cookie cutters? Molly, the two-year old when we started, may have been best at snitching samples and enjoying the crunch, but thank goodness I can tell myself they’re just crackers – organic ingredients, homemade chicken broth, wheat germ, brewer’s yeast, olive oil, flour – my goodness they’re healthy! And now our current youngest Anna is two, and has graduated to Master Taster and Stirrer!

And now the thought of adding to our current small flock of Icelandics is so exciting for the whole family – as is coming up with more "Icelandic"ish names, to join Thorbjorn, Thora, Greta, Gretl… naming the animals is such a fun aspect of farm life! For the cows the children come up with some logical progression of names so each line is obvious… Rose Red’s babies all have color names, Iris’ are I names, Tatiana’s line is Slavic names (she’s a shorthorn, and I CANNOT wait to have a “Vlad the Impaler” bull calf), we have a flower line, a fairy tale line, etc… (and yes, THEY may remember but Mommy has to write everything down, and Daddy smiles while he shakes his head).They can’t wait til Snow White has babies so they can name them after the Seven Dwarves – oh so fun!

To think our last name happens to lend itself perfectly to being makers of a tasty dog treat was just too much to overlook – we truly do have a Ruff life, and I mean that in the most wonderful way possible :-) Even if we don’t even own a dog!

So I’m happy to say we again will offer our infamous Ruff dog biscuits at the Holiday Night Market TOMORROW!

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