The aroma of cinnamon, honey, fresh-baked pastries, lavender and pine scent mix with soothing melodies from a harp to create a welcoming atmosphere.
This is the Granville Indoor Market, where vendors set up stalls along the walls of the Granville Center for the Arts, with four more vendors packed into the middle of the gymnasium turned farmers’ market.
An extension of the Granville Farmers Market, which is held outdoors each Tuesday and Saturday from spring through fall, the winter market also offers a variety of produce and products, ranging from natural soaps to cookies, and a wide variety of fresh produce, eggs, and locally raised beef, pork and poultry.
And a new winter market will open soon in Newark featuring some of the same vendors. The Canal Market District, which operates an outdoor farmers’ market just south of Courthouse Square from spring through fall, is opening its first-ever indoor market this month at the newly renovated Arcade.
The Canal Market District winter market will be among the first events in the block-long Arcade, which has entrances at 29-35 N. 3rd St. & 24-30 N. 4th St. The market will operate in The Arcade main corridor from 4-7 p.m. on Fridays through April beginning on Feb. 7.
“When we found out The Arcade was going to be renovated, we decided to bring our outdoor winter market indoors in The Arcade so it could be year-round,” said Bailey McCoy, executive director for the Canal Market District. “It was very easy to find vendors that wanted to sell year-round. We have a lot of support from shoppers in our outdoor market, so we suspect people will be eager to support the indoor market as well.”
The Granville Indoor Market is located in the United Church of Granville Annex Building at 119 W. Broadway, which is also home to the Granville Center for the Arts. The market is open on Saturday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to noon from the beginning of November to the end of April. The market has about 16 vendors, with a couple of them cycling in and out each week. It has been a staple in the Granville community for 10 years.
Cynthia Dilbone, 70, and her husband, Chuck, 72, run Sunbeam Family Farm in nearby Alexandria. The retired Granville educators founded Granville’s winter market and have worked during the past decade to serve the community and accommodate local vendors.
“In this country today, there’s a huge problem with obesity in adults and kids, and it’s rampant, so part of our goal is to bring nutritious fruits and vegetables to the community that we care about,” said Cynthia Dilbone. “Overall, all of the vendors are top-notch people. So it’s not like I’m reinventing the wheel every year; everyone has been here since we’ve started.”
Betsy Roberts, 49, the owner of Earth in Arts, sells soaps and other bath products at the indoor market. She also is one of the managers for the outdoor market, held in the Ross Granville Market parking lot on Tuesdays and Raccoon Valley Park on Saturdays from May through October. She said the Saturday outdoor market is much larger, with about 50 vendors.
“It definitely holds the same idea as the indoor market, but there are more people that show up to the outdoor one due to the bigger venue,” Roberts said.
Here are some of the vendors, the stories of how they got into their respective businesses, and what brings them to the market.
Karen McVay, co-owner of Cat Run Ranch Flower Farm in Alexandria
Greeting people right outside the market entrance before Christmas is Karen McVay, 67, the fashionably dressed, dog-loving co-owner of Cat Run Ranch Flower Farm in Alexandria, Ohio. Beside her stands her husband, Mark, 66.
“We used to have 13 cats on the ranch, hence its name,” Karen McVay said. “But now we only have one cat and a lot more dogs. It really should be called Dog Run Ranch instead.”
The McVays sell mostly flowers at the outdoor market. “We’re famous for our lilies, as we’re the only ones that sell them there,” she said, adding that Cat Run Ranch also does a pick-your-own daffodil event in the spring, since the farm plants about 5,000 daffodils every year.
The fused glass ornaments and festive wreaths McVay sold at the indoor market before Christmas are only a side gig. Due to the limited space inside, her stall is placed outdoors at the entrance.
“I thought it was fine, because you know, I have the wreathes and then I get to show off my fur coat,” McVay said. To make the wreaths, McVay rides along the farm in a golf cart and cuts down small limbs off pine trees. She carefully weaves the flora together to create wreaths and sprays them with anti-wilt products.
For the fused glass, McVay cuts out pieces of glass and puts them in a glass kiln. The kiln heats and melts the glass so it can be shaped into different forms of artwork. At her stall, McVay sells ornaments and other glass plaques featuring flowers, fish, and snowmen.
She enjoys talking with customers and meeting new people.
“It’s cool when people come all the way from Columbus and ask, ‘What’s going on here?” McVay said. “I tell them it’s the Granville indoor market and there’s a lot of awesome stuff people are selling.”
Elizabeth Yoder, a poultry and baked-goods seller from Coshocton
It all started for Elizabeth Yoder, 34, a couple of years ago when she and her family bought 100 chickens for their farm and the birds started laying eggs by the dozen.
In 2023, she rotated in and out of the market every two weeks. After the other vendor stopped attending, she began working every Saturday, and that’s when her business took off.
“Eggs sell out within the hour and most of the chicken, too,” said Yoder, who also sells homemade granola and other baked goods.
She turns to a customer and proceeds to check the eggs in her carton. Catching a glimpse of the eggs, little white feathers are stuck to some of the speckled shells – a sign of their freshness.
“People have started to ask if I have seconds, not caring if they’re a bit imperfect,” Yoder said as she helps a customer with her backpack, thanking her for shopping at her stall.
She said that sometimes she thinks it would be nice to be at home on Saturdays to do other work on the farm, but “it’s also more relaxing and a fun way to get out and interact with people.
“I enjoy having people tell us they love the fact our chickens are pasture raised and how much better they feel about our food,” Yoder said. “That’s the encouragement I need to keep pushing and doing this business.”
Leah Latshaw, co-owner of Latshaw Apiaries in Alexandria
Leah Latshaw is a third of the workforce for Latshaw Apiaries, a family-owned bee farm operated by her, her husband, Joe, and their son, Jacob.
“When we first met, my husband knew a lot about bees, but I didn’t know anything,” Latshaw said. She ended up learning the honey harvesting trade through marriage.
Joe was in grade school when his teacher brought in a bunch of bee equipment. The teacher taught the students how to keep bees and that it wasn’t very expensive, and this inspired Joe to develop his own hives.
Leah recalls her first date with Joe: He took her out to his backyard and showed her the wooden boxes where he kept his bees.
“He took me out and taught me how to handle the bees, and as my hands were full with the trays of honeycomb, he held a bee behind my ear and let it buzz,” Latshaw said. “It was unnerving to hear the buzz of a bee so close to my body, but it was also great.”
Leah had a love for nature and the outdoors, so working around bees seemed to fit in well with her agenda, although it can be a hot and sticky job to harvest honey.
She said the health of the bees is their priority.
“We only take what’s leftover that the bees overproduce,” Leah said, adding that “honey doesn’t spoil because it has a lot of moisture. That’s why it’s considered a safe food.”
Jan Felumlee, produce farmer from Mayapple Farms in Dresden
Mayapple Farms is Jan Felumlee’s pride and joy. It is a certified organic forest farm located in Muskingum County, which is among 32 Ohio counties that are part of Appalachia. At the farm, Felumlee, 44, and her family grow various types of mushrooms and native plants, including ginseng, golden seal, and black cohosh.
“The land led us to what we do,” Felumlee said. “We started after we discovered wild ramps, and once we sort of found other native plants sprouting up, we started the family business.”
Now the farm is an example of sustainability, as everything the family harvests is free of pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Felumlee said they harvest 97% of their mushrooms indoors but sometimes find seasonal mushrooms like chanterelles and maitakes.
“Mushrooms have specific needs and circumstances outside of just rain,” Felumlee said. “These conditions affect how they grow, develop, and bloom, and that’s why it’s hard to only harvest them outdoors.”
When Mayapple Farms began, Felumlee said she and her family specifically looked for places with local communities already formed. They have been traveling to the markets in Granville, Newark and Zanesville for five years and have attended both the indoor and outdoor markets.
The goal of Mayapple Farms is to provide products that are unique and fresh for the residents of central Ohio. The farm also works to replant and preserve native plants to combat the endangerment of these specific species.
“It’s working with nature instead of working against it, Felumlee said. “Reestablishing all of these native plants, it’s just rewarding to bring something so special and nutritious to our community.”
Jen Cuevas, owner of The Gluten and Grain-Free Gourmet in Heath
A plethora of pastries fill Jen Cuevas’s table – cookies, tarts, mini pies, and donut balls from The Gluten and Grain-Free Gourmet.
All of them are gluten, corn, grain, soy, dairy, peanut, and yeast-free. It’s an allergy-free smorgasbord of sweet delights.
Cuevas also includes a section for nut-free and vegan pastries. Everything is organic. Even the pink coloring used in the icing is raspberries, not food coloring.
“We make all of our food from scratch; we don’t cut corners,” Cuevas said.
The pastry business began after Cuevas was diagnosed with celiac disease and Hashimoto’s disease, two auto-immune disorders that make her averse to gluten and grains.
“When I started having stomach pains, I went to an integrated doctor and they told me not to eat gluten or it would get worse,” Cuevas said. “That worked for a while, but when I still had pain, I realized gluten wasn’t enough; I had to also stop eating grains.”
After Cuevas recovered, she started traveling and speaking at conferences, telling her story. She formed a support group and realized people like her with food aversions didn’t have snacks.
“I wanted to provide natural, clean ingredient options for people who are sensitive to the foods people normally eat,” Cuevas said.
So she started her business and grew it over 11 years. Now, Cuevas ships her products nationwide, even traveling to Europe for business.
“I like my business but this market is like a little family to me,” she said, adding that the winter market sells only vendor-made products and produce, meaning that the market is very particular about what people sell. “Here, the producers only sell their own products; we don’t allow outside sourcing, which is unique.”
Betsy Roberts, owner of Earth in Arts in Granville
The striking aromas of peppermint, vanilla, and lemon waft under the noses of customers as they pass by the stall operated by Betsy Roberts, 49, of Granville.
But those delicious scents are not from treats you can eat. Packed in elaborately woven baskets and wooden trays are soaps, bath bombs, oils, and lip balms from Roberts’ Earth in Arts.
Her company specializes in homemade products that are organic and scented with natural ingredients such as shea butter, organic cocoa butter, locally produced beeswax, honey, and even roasted coffee.
For making soaps, Roberts uses vegetable oil or lard, water, milk, and lye (or sodium hydroxide), a chemical compound necessary to make the chiseled, slippery blocks.
“I pour into molds and then I have to wait 3-4 weeks for it to dry,” Roberts said. “It’s a long, tedious process that’s a pain when I need stuff to sell in a hurry.”
This is Robert’s 24th year in the soap business. She started in New Mexico, hopping from market to market until she settled in Granville. Over the years, Roberts has sold her product at 15 different markets.
“I’ve always loved farmers markets; they kind of became my thing,” she said.
Although weather can sometimes get in the way, especially at outdoor markets, Roberts admires her fellow vendors at the summer market for persevering when the weather is challenging.
“I like how resilient and loyal everyone is, going out and selling their products rain or shine,” Roberts said.
As the soap maker began to pack up her crates of bathtime luxuries near the end of another Saturday indoor market, she offered a word of encouragement to anyone considering starting their own business.
“Start slowly and figure out how things work,” Roberts said. “If you’re interested, dive right in and don’t be afraid to start; you can be very creative if you try.”
Shaye Phillips writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.