Winter Warm Ups!!

What could be better than convenient canned meats when you need a filling, warm meal on a cold winter day?! We have beef, pork, or chicken in two sizes!

Tis the season for chicken stock! Make your own with our feet and backs from King’s and Michael’s, or pick up some of King’s delicious Ready to Enjoy broth!

And Grumpy Goat Experiment has more of those hearty black beans to offer – in bulk or 1lb pkgs!

But our family’s favorite thing when it’s cold? Warm pumpkin anything! Soup, custard, bread, muffins – cook down a famous Granny Bensman’s Pie Pumpkin and you’ll see why they’re our favorite ever :-)

Welcome Back, Buehler families!!

Happy February to everyone – hope you are all staying warm!! Brr!!

Michael’s Pastured Poultry has several Sales to offer this week!! Check out his Certified Organic chicken cuts and bulk deals!!

So glad to have the Buehler family back with us – both J & S with their Beef plus Phil and Matt with their Pork!

And Simple Living Farm will soon return – but with the current frigid temps, and cold forecast, they’re playing it conservative and staying off the Market for one more week!

I’m signing off and scooting my chair a bit closer to the woodstove – my favorite Chocolate Mint Tea (thanks, McGuffey!) is calling!

Introducing our first Featured Vendor of 2021...

Hidden Springs Farm!

When I informed our five children, ages 1½ to 9½, our next field trip would be to visit Mark Gibson’s Hidden Springs Farm in Troy, you could have heard the happy explosion a mile away. Mark had recently purchased 8 feeder hogs from us, and the kids couldn’t wait to see Link, Biscuit, Gravy, Ham, Porkchop, Patty, Tub ‘o Lard, and Bacon’s new home.

Yet the oldest two kids were also a bit hesitant – have you ever sold an animal to a seemingly good home, only to be disappointed? We’re raising an opinionated bunch when it comes to factory farms and feedlots, so at almost 8 and 9½, they hoped they’d be content with what we found – boy, were they reassured tenfold.

Our trip had a dual purpose – First, I visit the operation of each vendor on the Market. The better I understand their operations, the better equipped am I to answer questions and promote their businesses and products. Plus it helps assure the Health Department that I am able to vouch for each vendor, and verify the source of each product on the Market!

Second, Mark needed a fellow farmer or farmer’s market advocate to complete an inspection for him to join the Certified Naturally Grown program – the incredible grassroots equivalent to being Certified Organic! My husband and I first personally got involved with the CNG program years ago, and are always thrilled watching and helping it expand. So yay! A lengthy, dual purpose inspection it is!

Knowing firsthand raising livestock organically is both rewarding and difficult, I could intimately appreciate seeing the set up Mark has built, with the help of his hard-working sister, for his cattle, hogs, and chickens. What could be better than seeing the animals thriving under his attention and care, with ample space to run and graze as he regularly rotates them to even greener pastures?

Mark is dedicated to being a good steward of the land, improving the quality of his pastures as well as protecting and utilizing the woods and springs on his beautiful 37 acres, with the help of the National Resource Conservation Service. It was an important change to organic agriculture when he learned of the health benefits, for both his family and his livestock. Despite the extra time and costs involved, he has witnessed and loved all the benefits in terms of taste and health.

This past season, everyone saw so much craziness, it’s overwhelming to consider. And in a year where there were deals galore on feedlot animals, Mark was stubbornly, admiringly committed to both staying intimately local when looking for livestock, and purchasing organic, pastured genetics where possible – feeder calves from Bair Trax Dairy, feeder hogs from us at End of the Road Farm, and even ordering his chicks from the King family of King’s Poultry Farm.

March 2021 marks my 5th anniversary as manager of Miami County Locally Grown, and Mark is a perfect vendor. I am thankful he’s always accommodating, thorough, and just so pleasant to work with – particularly when it took SO long for him to be able to join the Market, waiting for the inspection and paperwork for his Small Egg Producers License. Mark’s generous nature amazes me, and I so appreciate the sincerity with which he wants both the Market and his fellow vendors to succeed.

It is always such fun to visit a new farm with our children. They’ve seen A LOT of farm life, just by growing up and helping out on our own diverse homestead, but especially with all the traveling and visiting we’ve done to other operations. They are as opinionated and stubborn as their ornery parents when it comes to animal welfare and happiness, with our 4 year old recognizing how happy animals are with plenty of sunshine, fresh air, space, and friendliness – or how sad they are without those basics.

So there’s no higher recommendation I could give than my almost 8 year old son commenting the second we’d piled back in the van to head home, “Mom? This is a happy place. If we had to sell the piglets, I’m sure glad it was to Mr. Gibson.” As am I, Buddy, as am I.

Bulk Special on Dried Beans - $1/lb!!

Check out the Bulk Bargains category this week -

Grumpy Goat Experiment is offering their organically raised Zorro black dried beans only $10 for 10lbs!! Wow!!

This special won’t last long at that price! Time to stock up for hearty winter warm-up meals!

The Buehler's meats and eggs will be back!

The Buehler families, with their beef, pork, and eggs, are only on break from the Market temporarily, and will be back with us the first week of February!

It’s thrilling to have fresh local produce in January – there’s nothing better than seeing a room full of vibrant greens to brighten my Tuesday!

The use of the word Local intrigues me – the federal government and groceries stores still define Local goods as those produced within 500 miles of your location, the distance they figure a semi can drive in one day – yesterday the kids were looking at pictures of places my husband and I have visited or lived, so we looked up a few, only to find Davenport IA, Traverse City MI, and St. Louis MO are all within 500 highway miles of us. Amazing. Glad we define Local as within 30 miles of First Place :-)

We’re also so fortunate to still have eggs on the Market, during the worse time of year for laying – between the cold, the short day length and resulting lack of sunshine, the hens proclivity for molting (when they grow new feathers each year they stop laying!! Ugh!!), the up and down weather, and the unbelieveable variety of wily poultry predators day and night, I’m ecstatic we ever consistently have any eggs to sell at all!

Thanks for shopping with us, supporting our family businesses and farms, and keeping your dollars in our community. Enjoy the glorious sunshine today!!

Hello to another Market week!

Just a reminder we’ll be Closed on the first Tuesday of the month this year – so we’re open for orders this week as normal, then will not reopen next Tuesday! No pickup on Tuesday Feb 2nd!

New on the Market this week – adorable Valentine’s Day dryer balls from Rosy Toes Designs!

And gorgeous naturally dyed yarns from the Grumpy Goat Experiment!

Plus the Grumpy Goats are now offering Popcorn on the cob!! Yum!!

Can you believe that’s just one example of our quirky Ohio regulations – we can sell Popcorn on the cob legally, or loose kernels IF it was harvested with a combine. Any of us small time producers harvesting by hand have to have a special commercial license to shell the Popcorn to be sold! So on the cob it is! :-) And shelling by hand is so fun – give it a try this week! There’s no better treat than homemade Popcorn ;-)

We're Open for Orders!

Short and sweet – happy shopping, and thanks for such a strong start to our New Year! We appreciate your support, your kindness, and your commitment to shopping Local! Thank you for helping us continue doing what we love!

Happy 2021!!

Delighted to be BACK with you in the New Year, with new vendors, new products, and the return of old favorites!!!

First we Welcome newest vendor, hydroponic Fifth Season Farm, from Piqua!! This dynamic brother and sister team has so much to offer from the 365 perfect growing days of their indoor smart technology Freight Farm! Beautiful Romaine, crisp Radishes, several unique Kale varieties, and more! Welcome Britton and Laura – we’re excited to have you!

We see the return of everyone’s favorite Sweet winter Carrots from Simple Living Farm, as well as Certified Organic Chicken Feet from Michael’s Pastured Poultry for healthful, delicious chicken stock!

From fresh eggs, local meats, and peppery arugula to crave-worthy jams, herb mixes and baked goods, we hope you’ll find something delicious on the Market this week – and here’s hoping your 2021 is off to a lovely start!!

It's a BOY!

A HUGE Congratulations, five times over, to Josh and Stephanie Buehler of J & S Buehler Family Farm – they just welcomed #5, son Anthony Joshua, yesterday for the perfect early Christmas present!!

I just got the call from our favorite pork producer, proud Grandpa Phil Buehler, who was thrilled to say he’s probably one of the few people who had a great 2020 – two grandsons in less than two months!

Little Anthony joins a VERY happy big brother, 12 year old Landon, who’s finally not quite so outnumbered with three adorable sisters Karinne, Alana, and Marissa!

Phil just cracks me up – I asked him the girls’ ages, as well as how to spell their names, and he rattled Karinne off like a pro. I told him I was going to give my dad a hard way to go because I didn’t know if HE could do that (I love him dearly but Dad is the kind that come tax time he’d ask my teenage brothers and I what our birthdays were…) then Phil hesitated and told me he knows Karinne is in second grade and Alana is in Kindergarten, but ages? “Well you know it gets confusing for an old guy when they don’t seem to stay the same age very long!” :-)

I was so excited, I dumbly asked how Stephanie was doing, then thought, Duh, like she just had her fifth baby! Phil said, “Well Josh is sure in a good mood, so you know what they say, Happy Wife = Happy Life, so she must not be too bent out of shape” :-)

5lbs, 12oz, 19", and after a long 5th pregnancy (boy can I relate!) both Mom and Baby are doing well!! So glad to hear that!!

Wishing their beautiful farm family and yours a wonderful, restive, healthy weekend as we close the Market for 2020 tonight!!

One Week Left to shop MCLG in 2020!!

Next Tuesday December 22nd is our final Market before our TWO WEEK Christmas Break!!

When we close next Tuesday after Market pickup on the 22nd, we will not reopen until January 5th! Amazing but it’s true – almost ready to say Goodbye to another year!!

The Chicken Pot Pie Sale continues this week, and there are plenty of steaks, roasts and more for your Holiday feasting pleasure ;-)

Plus baked goods galore – and so many stocking stuffers for the locavore, food lover, or cook in your life! From herbs and seasonings to coffee and tea, jams and mustard to stocking-sized honey and maple… happy hunting!

Thanks for an evening filled with positive energy and the Christmas Spirit – and thanks for your patience while I get my weekly dose of practicing my alphabet searching for your names, and my math skills adding your extra purchases :-) You’re the best, and we wish you beautiful, happy, healthy last Market week of the year!!

Hope to see you Tuesday!