Great products come from the local community

Local vendors bring their products farm to market at Wild Edge

 The best way to support your community is to purchase products made locally. Local vendors came to the Wild Edge farm to market event on Saturday, March 29, to show their custom made items and give people samples of food products made from scratch.

The farm to market event allowed people to meet local vendors and purchase items they like. At Wild Edge in downtown Lovell, shoppers will find food items made with fresh ingredients and handmade products such as custom jewelry, gift cards and clothing.

“I started farm to market to meet the community needs,” said Cindy Asay, owner of Wild Edge. “Farm to market is open six days a week, 52 weeks a year. I aim to sell clean whole foods without chemicals, additives or preservatives.”

Local vendors want to make products of better quality than food, clothing and accessory products sold elsewhere. Hearing from the community helps them develop ideas for what they want to make or sell.

“I grow popcorn on Lane 12, and it is locally grown,” said Tara Johnson, owner of Tara’s Treasures. “I also make bake goods and homemade vanilla and create handmade gift cards.”

Johnson said she makes homemade vanilla using pure alcohol and fresh beans. She also uses different alcohol flavors when making vanilla from scratch.

“I use vodka to make vanilla because it is cheap,” Johnson said. “The next step is to use fresh beans and extract it for a year, so it’s one ounce of beans to eight ounces of alcohol, depending on the size of the decanter and the measurements being used.”

Johnson said the best part of selling her products at the farm to market is it helps get her name out to the public whenever consumers want to try homemade food products.

“I was selling my popcorn and bake goods at farmer’s markets at first, but it seems there was not enough exposure,” Johnson said. “At the farm to market, I have people coming in every week for my scones, and it’s more exposure for my business, and Cindy is fun to work with. She is an honest person.”

Johnson said buying products from local vendors helps communities grow. She said supporting local vendors helps bring good quality products that local people can depend on.

“Buying local homemade food products is fresher,” Johnson said. “When you support local vendors, it is like helping your brother, sister and cousin, and you help them thrive as opposed to going to the grocery store where they sell outsourced meat, and it’s not from a local farmer. Not only are you buying eggs from local farms cheaper and better, but the eggs are fresher than what you buy at the supermarket.”

Honey from Cowley

Homemade honey is another food item that local people buy at the farm to market. Buying honey from local bee farmers helps them contribute to their community by providing fresh honey from bee hives.

“I started with three bee hives when I first moved up from Kinnear, Wyoming,” said Howard Keebler, owner of Howard’s Honey in Cowley. “I had been having hives since 2006, and I helped a good friend of mine up in Kinnear to care for his bees for two summers. He taught me everything I know and helped me start with my three bee hives, and I moved up to Cowley in 2008. I started expanding a little bit and then got up to 50 hives. I own two hive yards.”

Keebler said he has had some struggles making sales and credited the farm to market with helping him get his business back on its feet and reach out to people who want to buy homemade honey.

“Sales have been off so bad in the last year or so,” Keebler said. “People just could not afford to buy honey, and times were tough with the years of the Biden administration. Buying insurance and groceries was tough, and it took people’s last dimes. I had plenty of honey, and I stopped into Cindy’s store and asked if she would like to buy my honey. We sat down and worked out a deal.”

Custom soap

People who are health conscious want to buy products that won’t do any harm to their hair or skin.  According to Jacob Newman and Kurt Wheeler, co-owners of The Barber Mafia, they wanted to make and sell products such as men’s cologne, shampoo, hair gel and soap that is free of bad chemicals. Newman and Wheeler said that just listening to what their customers want is what made them decide to sell products that will fit the needs of the community and were able to bring their products to farm to market.

“Kurt had products in the barber shop before I came here, and when I came to work for him we decided we wanted to personalize some of the stuff we did,” Newman said. “Kurt mentioned that we have a product called American Crew, and now we have 150 different bars of soap with 50-plus colognes and various other products.”

Newman said people are looking for products made in America, which helps local businesses build prosperity for their community. This led him and Wheeler to sell their products at farm to market.

“We like selling stuff from other people, especially American made products,” Newman said. “This inspired us to start our own line, produce it here in Lovell and sell it. Kurt and I talked to Cindy and told her about the products we were selling, and she didn’t have any products catering to men, so she asked us to bring our products to the farm to market.”

According to Wheeler, the shop’s product, Barber Mafia soap, has different names and fragrances that customers can choose from.

“Jacob and I work together on creating our soap brand,” Wheeler said. “We would break up the bricks of soap, then we would package them ourselves and label them and come up with names for our soap. The fun part is that we come up with unique names for each soap, and we came up with some mafia names for our product. We will break into our shampoo and conditioner in the future, and the proceeds from our products help military veterans. For all our products, part of the proceeds goes back to the town to pay for different fund raisers. The best part about selling our products is that Jacob and I help contribute to the community.”

Newman and Wheeler said it’s better to buy wellness products from small businesses than retail chain stores because they are made naturally.

“Everything you buy from The Barber Mafia is predominantly all natural and free of chemicals that our customers do not want on their body,” Newman said, and Wheeler agreed, noting, “When our customers buy products, we convince them that our household names at Walmart, such as Irish Spring, Dove and Dial, are full of chemicals and are not good for you. All our products are way better for your hair and skin, and it smells great.”

Homemade bread

Homemade bread and pastries are among the many items that locals love to buy at the farm to market. Laura Aagard, owner of Laa’s Sourdough, said she started her business with her father.

“I started my business five years ago, and my father and I were at my grandfather’s 98^th birthday, and we were bored,” Aagard said. “So, my father and I decided to start a sourdough starter, and it advanced to do you want to try bagels or English muffins? I get suggestions from friends and family, then make them and end up at the farm to market.”

Aagard said she connected with Asay at a suggestion from another local vendor. Her friend told her she would do better selling her baked goods at the farm to market.

“Ben Zeller from Queen Bee Gardens is my best friend, and he said I should sell my bake goods at the farm to market,” Aagard said. “As a home baker, you don’t have to work in an FDA approved kitchen if you put a certain label on your products. I met with Cindy, and I made a bunch of products. I have been here for a year now.”

Aagard said she uses only five ingredients but rarely exceeds 10 in her baking products. All the ingredients she uses are made locally.

“Most of my products only have five ingredients,” Aagard said. “I use water, flour, milk, honey from Ben Zeller and salt. The added are usually fresh berries and vegetables, and rarely I go over 10 ingredients.”

Aagard said that ever since she sold her products at the farm to market, her business has had amazing success and received positive feedback.

“It has been successful for me since I had my products sold at farm to market,” Aagard said. “I always get positive feedback from the community.”