Westerville is giving new life to an old trend. Among the plethora of traffic, pavement and city lights is a farmers’ market that will allow Westerville residents to enjoy a legendary aspect of a more rural lifestyle.
The weekly Westerville Farmers’ Market, which takes place every Wednesday from 3 to 6 p.m., offers an abundance of products. From organic beef to coffee, honey, chutney, maple syrup, flowers and all kind of fruits and vegetables, the event covers all the bases.
According to Jeff Hartnell, director of the Westerville Chamber of Commerce, which helps advertise for the event, the markets are part of an effort to draw more local residents to city events. “When I did a study last December, I found out that if we drove a stake in the corner of State and Main, right in Uptown Westerville, and put a 5-mile rope on it and did a big circle, there are more than 100,000 people living in that circle,” Hartnell says.
With so many people in Westerville, Hartnell felt that residents didn’t know enough about local events.
“The mission of the bureau for years has been to get tourists and visitors to visit Westerville and that mission still remains. But now we also have a second mission: to focus on reintroducing Westerville’s residents to their own community. We started really focusing on trying to reintroduce Westerville to itself and it’s really going well,” he says.
While the goal is to get residents active in the community, the vendors are also benefiting. “It’s been a great market for a midweek market,” says Dick Jenson, owner of The Flying J Farm in Johnstown. “The neat thing about it is there are lots of people who are walk-ins from the community. They’re just absolutely wonderful people to have at a farm market.”
Jenson is beginning his second year as a vendor at the market and offers residents an array of produce, maple syrup and whole wheat and spelt flours. His most notable product is his grass-fed beef.
“Grass-fed beef is grown the way beef used to be grown when people were healthier,” Jenson says. The meat contains 70 percent less cholesterol than grain-fed beef, in addition to large amounts of Omega-3.
In addition to Jenson, Dawn Combes of the Mockingbird Meadows Honey & Herb Farm also ventures to the weekly markets to sell honey, herb, beeswax and pollen products. “It’s getting more and more difficult to get raw honey. I’ve had regulars that come and I know people check out our Web site and pick out what they’re going to get before they come to the market,” says Combes.
“The community is starting to be aware that (the market) is there and embrace it. It’s a small market, just in its infancy, and it’s doing really well for just getting started. We’re really hoping that the community more and more gets to know that we’re there and uses it to pick up fresh, local produce and support their local farmers,” says Combes.
More than 11 vendors currently participate in the market, which takes place every Wednesday from 3-6 p.m. at the corner of Home and State Streets.
“It is kind of a nice break in the middle of the week,” says Hartnell. “It’s just another example of how the community is offering, new, unique and fun things for its residents.”
Other Farmers' Markets to check out:
Worthington Farmers Market. Through Oct. 27 in Historic Downtown Worthington, intersection of State Routes 23 and 161. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Call 614-841-2545 or visit www.worthington.org
Clintonville Farmers Market. Through Oct. 29 on North High Street, from Orchard Lane to Dunedin. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Call 614-262-2790 or visit www.clintonvillechamber.com
Granville Farmers Market. Through Oct. 6 in Downtown Granville, corner of Main and Broadway. Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Call 740-587-7473 or visit www.granville.arts.org