The Farmhouse Bakery is BACK!!

Welcome Back to the Farmhouse Bakery – we’re glad they enjoyed their vacation, but we’re even happier to have them return :-)

With their incredible pies, they’ve got something for everyone, whether you’re looking for a classic cherry, peach or apple, or want a true taste of summer with a scrumptious key lime or lemon meringue!

I can’t wait to share their Vendor Feature – Carmen is one talented, hard-working woman!

And aren’t we lucky she can bake your custom orders the morning of pick-up, and have them in your hands only hours after she’s pulled your Rum Cake out of the oven!

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

Romaine, Plants, Peppers, Honey and More!!

Davidson Family Grower’s is now able to offer their ever-popular Romaine Lettuce again!! Yay!!

Plus more produce is always a hit! Watch for tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, garlic, and more as we rebound from all the unpredictable (and undesirable!) weather :-)

And Honey Creek Farm is back this week with an even bigger variety of Perennials, Annuals, and other unusual Live Plants!

Thank you for shopping local, eating fresh, and supporting our small businesses and family farms!! We appreciate you helping us be able to continue doing what we love :-)

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

Broccoli, Lettuce, Tomatoes, and more!!

Tonight during pick-up we have lots of extra for sale, including…

Eggs

Broccoli

Lettuces and

Yellow Tomatoes

in addition to our local maple syrup and assortment of beef, pork and chicken!!!

We’re open now, but it won’t be here long!!

Join us at the Small Farm and Food Fest - Sat July 27th!!

We are thrilled to partner with Carriage Hill Metropark, an 1880s Living History farmstead in northern Montgomery County, who’s hosting a brand new event this year – the Small Farm + Food Fest on Saturday July 27th, 10am-5pm!

This one day event will focus on healthy eating and learning to be more sustainable!

Attend workshop sessions on topics such as beekeeping, growing heirloom produce, preparing quick healthy meals, cooking with a whole chicken, herbal teas, small-scale grain growing, backyard chickens, and more!

And guess who’s supplying the vendors for their farmer’s market, which will connect the workshops at the Visitor’s Center with the demonstrations at the Historic Farm? Your favorite virtual market, Miami County Locally Grown :-)

At the Farm, over 12 different stations will be set up teaching basic homesteading skills such as making butter, seed saving, weaving, making sauerkraut, and more! Plus you’ll see demonstrations in horse-drawn farming, woodworking, broom-making, and blacksmithing!

Save the date and look for more info as we get closer to this incredible Event!

You can also find the Event on their Facebook page, or ours!

www.facebook.com/friendsofcarriagehill

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

Honey Creek is Back, and we're Open!

Honey Creek is Back this week with her jams, plants, baked goods, and more!

Now it’s The Farmhouse Bakery’s turn to be on Vacation temporarily!

Bair Trax Dairy is now offering Italian Brats and Ground Beef Patties from their Certified Organic cows!

Check out the Peach Chutney from Grumpy Goat Experiment – would you pick Mild or Spicy?!

Michael’s Pastured Poultry has a new Weekly Special on his Certified Organic chicken hearts!

And King’s Poultry Farm now has their non-gmo Whole Chickens on the Market!

And stay tuned for news on our upcoming events, gift basket giveaways, and more!!

Honey, Berries, and 4th of July Fixin's!

New Light Amber Honey available! Plus the sweetest Black Raspberries, Mmmm oh my!

And so many Meat options for your Fourth of July celebrations and grilling get togethers!

Burgers and Brats, Chicken Wings and Pork Chops, a roast for pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwiches… Plus the buns to go with ;-)

Tonight's Featured Vendor is...

Mucci’s Sweet Treats!

Marinda Mucci became an enthusiastic customer on the Virtual Market some time ago. When after months as a regular customer she inquired as to the Market’s needs when it came to new vendors, I was thrilled. Not only because she well knew how the Market worked but because we were already looking for a new baker who specialized in candies and sweets. Her quality products filled that void, in the most delectable fashion – from gourmet brownies and luscious fudge to unique pizzelles and chewy cookies!

I laughed outright when one of our mothers brought her brood along to customer pick-up one Tuesday. The kids peered at their mother’s order, and as all eyes fell upon a package of irresistible cookies from Mucci’s Sweet Treats, the mother pulled them aside, hugged them to her chest, and sighed, “Oh no, these are a Mommy Treat!” I couldn’t disagree – the professional packaging and cute labels appear to contain a fancy delicacy to savor on any day, whether one when you’re particularly frazzled or a special occasion… with or without the people you love ;-)

Finding new vendors who can supply us with an interesting niche in our established customer base has worked beautifully as we’ve gained not only Mucci’s Sweet Treats but JM Gardens, Rosy Toes Designs and Sacred Rosie that way! Being a customer first, Marinda proved how vested she was in our community venture by putting her money where her mouth is – supporting her fellow vendors and showing she truly believed in the importance of shopping local, not simply her own bottom line.

And many of our long time vendors are our most frequent shoppers. Innisfree on the Stillwater, McGuffey Herb and Spice Co, Becky’s Buckeye Naturals, The Farmhouse Bakery… 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.

We also want to encourage vendor collaboration, whether it be 6635 StudeBaker incorporating Sugar Grove Maple Products and Pumpkin Patch Honey in her baked goods or Tin Roof Mobile Food using King’s Poultry chicken products in their food truck. It only makes good sense for us to work together!

It was unavoidable – I had to chuckle when someone recently questioned why the Virtual Market was open during the summer – weren’t we afraid we’d “steal” customers from the Downtown farmers market? If the vast majority of folks in even our immediate area eat 3 times a day, no one farmers market should be able to sustain that amount of need! We’re certainly not hurting the big box store’s bottom lines (hey, there’s a goal!) And if the demand for multiple farmer’s markets with honest to goodness local products isn’t there, why not? What can we do about it? I am still in shock after someone else commented how surprised they were I tried to promote the other area markets – for goodness sakes, why the heck wouldn’t I?! They’re not competition – they’re neighbors, friends, and fellow business owners – we should want each other to succeed!

I’m not in the business of selling things because I love being a salesperson – I love love LOVE when customers come in with a smile, sharing recipes, inquiring how we handle this pest or store this vegetable, appreciating the care we put into their food, expressing their gratitude, asking the “How do you do’s” because they genuinely want to know how things are… If I didn’t truly believe we had something special going, I’d stay home on the farm with my little (ok, kinda big and growing) family (I’d certainly have to look no further to find the most honest critics and most appreciative eaters I know!).

Sure we might not be able to offer fresh ripe local tomatoes in February, but doesn’t the anticipation make those first June tomatoes that much sweeter? Anyone who’s ever eaten a truly ripe tomato off the vine must agree – a hothouse grocery store variety just can’t compare. No different than Carmen’s pies from The Farmhouse Bakery or Deb’s StudeBaker sourdoughs… you pick them up on Tuesday and they’ve only been out of their oven for a couple hours! THAT’S the kind of fresh and local goods we want to provide customers who are looking for the real deal.

In order to supply that real deal, we vendors have to be our toughest critics – just one more reason I appreciate Marinda. After a certain Market Manager gently encouraged her to become our new pretzel vendor, she brought two different versions of soft pretzels in for us to tell her which we preferred. Well my children were useless, because they just thought both were “perfect”. My husband and I thought we were honest critics, but it’s difficult to give a useful critique when you simply want to say, “This is really good! Do you have any more handy?” :-) But Marinda wasn’t willing to make anything available for sale that she didn’t feel was perfect. I was surprised, no, impressed how hard she was on herself, and loved her attention to detail, whether playing with the addition of this and that for the pretzels or spending the time on her brownie icing to make them look too pretty to eat. That’s something hard to fathom when you’re used to baking with your children and often times the dough never makes it into the oven!

Growing up she relished the time spent baking with her mother and sister. Marrying an Italian opened new culinary delights. And her friends and coworkers have been grateful guinea pigs for years. Now turning her sweet tooth and her own appreciation for yummy food into a business was the next logical step – and aren’t we glad!

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. What we all have in common is a dedication to quality, a commitment to local, and a passion for the delicious!

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

Becky's Back, Early Honey, and Yarn Galore!

Becky’s Buckeye Naturals is Back on the Market this week with her Shampoo Bars, Laundry Butter, Bastille Soaps, Shower Fizzies, and More!

And calling all knitters, crocheters, crafters, and spinners…

Check out the lovely roving and yarn from the Grumpy Goat Experiment! The descriptions of the wool from each different sheep and goat is hilarious – makes my fingers just itch to feel each one!

Plus, thanks to Doc Allen of Troy’s Pumpkin Patch, we are now able to offer the first Honey of the year! Raw, unheated, unfiltered, and local, this delicate, light early Honey has to be tried to be believed!

We’re Open til 8pm Sunday!!
:-)

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

Here comes another awesome week!!

Ah, summer is close! And we’ve all kinds of goodies to ring in the new season!

Such a variety of lovely, healthy plants from Honey Creek Farm – everything from beautiful Snake Plants and Dahlias to useful Aloe Vera and Toothache Plants!!

Plus snow peas, new microgreen varieties, cucumbers, radishes, and a beautiful assortment of lettuces and kales!

And don’t forget our incredible local meat selection, with plenty of grilling options… pork chops and bacon, chicken wings and breasts, beef burgers and steaks… plus brats and patties in pork, chicken, or beef! Awesome!

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown

We're Open for Orders!

Tonight the Buehler family is Back with several new Weekly Specials on their Pork and Beef, plus they again have eggs available to compliment those from Bair Trax Dairy!

Innisfree on the Stillwater now has Brazilian and Mexican coffee to offer once more! Yay!

Plus mixed Salad Greens, Fresh Herbs, Live Plants, and More this Week!

And we’re so glad Doc from the Pumpkin Patch is getting ready to list the first early Honey of the year!! Oh is Spring full of thrills :-)

www.miamicounty.locallygrown.net

www.facebook.com/miamicountylocallygrown