Area farmers markets
Barn-N-Bunk Farm Market
3677 Wayne-Madison Road, Trenton. (937) 988-9211
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 26-Dec. 23
Hamilton Farmers Market
Front and Court Street
7 a.m. to noon Saturdays, May 31 through October
Landen Deerfield Farmers Market
3292 Montgomery Road, Loveland
Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon, May 23-October
Lebanon Farmers Market
120 W. South St., Lebanon
Thursdays noon to 6 p.m., June-September
Main Street Marketplace
Armstead Park, corner of Main and D streets, Hamilton
3 to 7 p.m. June 4-Oct. 29
Mason Area Farmers Market
6370 Mason-Montgomery Road, Mason
Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon, June 5-September
Oxford Farmers Market Uptown
www.oxfordfarmersmarket.com
Main and High Streets, Oxford
7:30 a.m. to noon, Saturdays, May - September
8:30 a.m. to noon, Saturdays, October - Thanksgiving
9:30 a.m. to noon, Third Saturdays, December - April
Middletown Farmers Market
Governor’s Square Park, Central Avenue and Broad Street
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays, April 30 through Oct. 29
West Chester Farmers Market
The Square @ Union Centre, 9285 Centre Pointe Drive, West Chester Twp.
Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 22-October
Sources: farmersmarketonline.com, www.localharvest.org
Vegetables aren’t the only things growing lately — so is business at local farmers markets.
Area markets are ramping up for their warm weather openings, which arrive as soon as today, April 30, or as late as June.
Early harvest
Middletown’s farmers market will be the first out of the gate, opening today, April 30, and running through Oct. 29 at Governor’s Square Park at the intersection of Central Avenue and Broad Street. In addition to offering items typically found at farmers markets like vegetables and crafts, the Middletown Farmers Market also offers entertainment, such as local musician Chuck Evans schelduled for the market’s opening day.
“We’ll have different vendors there selling exotic culinary vegetables like Asian greens, we’ll have homemade soaps, a honey guy selling beeswax candles and we’ll have lunches for sale,” said Kim McMillan, who is new to organizing the market this year. This week’s menu includes roast beef and turkey hot shots, with a side of mashed potatoes, for $7.
The farmers market enjoys the advantage of its location, being part of the ongoing effort to revitalize downtown, McMillan said.
Middletown’s market draws about 100 people a day. “So it’s not really heavily attended, but we give it a real good variety of stuff so we have a good showing,” said Carol Buckner, another of the Middletown organizers.
No more frost
The West Chester Farmers Market has held a monthly event through the cold months, but opens for full season May 22. The market will open Saturdays through October at The Square @ Union Centre, 9285 Centre Pointe Drive.
Since it opened in 2004, “We’ve been doing great — the vendors are excited. Every year we’ve grown and grown. I think it’s a lot of embracing of local products and putting the focus on farmers. We have 800 people that come in (per day),” said Linda Rosselot, one of the market managers.
Products sold at the market include raw honey, soaps, coffees and meats.
“As far as the crops go, we’re looking pretty good. We’ve got a good supply of greens going into the opening. Last year (crops were) very good compared to the droughts we’ve been coming out of,” she added.
Higher yield
When the Hamilton Farmers Market stationed outside the old Butler County Courthouse opens May 31 in downtown Hamilton, it will be the fifth and final year Robert Sherwin runs it.
“It’s been overwhelming. I’ve got grandchildren playing football on Saturday mornings, and I’ve missed those. It’s been wonderful — but five years is enough,” he said.
Before Sherwin took the reins five years ago, the market “had been languishing. It seems as though things were not favorable. But we turned it around handsomely. It was a lot of hard work, with a lot of help from a lot of people,” he said.
Those people have included the customers, who have come out in increasing numbers. In the most recent years, the market has drawn anywhere from 300 to 500 people a day. Early on, it was drawing less than 200 a day, Sherwin estimated.
The numbers have grown because “There’s that movement in society to eat healthier than we have been,” Sherwin said.
Bumper-crop attendance
The Mason Farmers Market starts a little later than some of the others, getting off the ground June 5 and running through October at the Mason Middle School parking lot at 6370 Mason-Montgomery Road. It offers everything from baked goods to dog treats and has been open for about five years, organizer Debby Mount said.
She estimates about 500 people a day attend the market, standing in lines “because of the education of people to buy things locally. Obviously, the vegetables will be more nutritious because they’re so fresh,” Mount said.
Locally grown tradition
Another Warren County farmers market is the Landen Deerfield Farmers Market on 3292 Montgomery Road in Deerfield Twp. This is one of the older farmers markets, having run for about eight years, said market manager Guy Ashmore.
“This is our eighth year in that spot. We were one of the first in the area. Seventy-five percent of us have been there the whole eight seasons,” he said, “We’re nothing fancy, but what kind of stands out is that we have a great selection of produce.”
Ashmore said all products and produce sold at the market have to come from within 50 miles of the market, but the majority of the products are from Warren and Clinton counties.
Attendance last year hit a peak of more than 300 people a day, and “it keeps growing and growing, It has a lot of people wanting to know the source of their food,” Ashmore said.
Down on the farm
A different kind of experience can be found at the Barn-N-Bunk Farm Market in Trenton. It’s not a farmers market in the sense of farmers bringing their produce to the people. This one, in operation since 1991, is the other way around, explained Tom Theobald, one of the owners. People come to the family farm for produce, crafts and recreation.
Barn-N-Bunk offers produce, as well as flowers, baked goods and John Deere collectibles. There’s an ice cream and candy shop as well as a Sunday brunch buffet.
“We’ve got a lot of neat things to see,” Theobald said. “We’ve got our silos painted (with farm scenes) and people like to come and take their picture with that. We’ll be starting a bluegrass festival in June.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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