Lovely family farm market in Springboro to grow again

Dale Huffman

Dale Huffman is on vacation and his column will return soon.

SPRINGBORO — The Lovelys have been selling produce out front of the family farm for 80 years.

Ora Lovely started the tradition during the Great Depression after the family purchased the farm in 1929.

“That’s how they made extra money,” said Robin Lovely-Dowd, who with husband Steve Dowd plans to grow the existing 6,000-square-foot farm market on East Central Avenue (Ohio 73) by 50 percent.

In 1985, the current business began on a card table set up just east of the store in front of Uncle Don Lovely’s home.

“I started selling vegetables off it. And I sold lemonade shakes,” she recalled. “I would sit out there all day long.” Business was so good customers sometimes blocked Uncle Don in, prompting the construction of a succession of stands.

In 1991, the first market building was raised by Lovely-Dowd’s father, Robert. Two years later, they added the eastern section.

Some of the farm was sold and turned to a housing subdivision and neighboring businesses. The family hopes to preserve the rest of the farm, while the city develops around it.

The project still lacks city approval and could be complicated by the widening of Central past the business.

In April, the family plans to open a 3,100-square-foot addition to be dedicated to the sale of fresh produce, including sweet corn grown on the farm.

Employee Carter Bishop, 19, began hand-picking the corn with other area youths when he was 13.

“If they’re too small, they don’t have any flavor. If they’re too big, they don’t have any flavor,” he said, while bagging candy behind the counter.

The family, and employee Jessie Elam, make much of the food sold in the store and café-deli, including fried chicken, candy apples, fudge and pies. Other foods, including nostalgic candy, are brought in from Amish country.

“Today, I made hot baked apples,” said Lovely-Dowd, a 1978 graduate of Springboro High School. “We’ve got a niche people yearn for.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.