A variety of items are available for purchase at area farmers markets, including one in Wapakoneta that shoppers visited Saturday.
Mackenzi Klemann | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — Donald Steinke gathers bottles of pure honey each Saturday to sell at the Downtown Wapakoneta Farmers’ Market, a tradition the 82-year-old Steinke has maintained for 14 years.
Steinke sold his beekeeping operation two years ago, but he continues to bring raw, unfiltered and unheated honey—commonly used as an alternative medicine—to the farmers’ market, where he sells a variety of goods like pure honey, beeswax and cinnamon sticks in the parking lot outside the Auglaize County Courthouse on Willipie Street.
The parking lot is crowded with vendors like Steinke each Saturday from May through October for the Downtown Wapakoneta Farmers’ Market, which recently resumed for the summer.
Shoppers browse through homemade toy llamas, clay figurines, dog treats, maple syrup, Ethiopian coffee, strawberry rhubarb pies and hair bows made by their neighbors like Cyaleigh McDermitt, a regular at the farmers’ market.
McDermitt decorates stickers, name badges and drinkware with inspirational phrases: “Juice boxes and Jesus,” one jar reads. “I’m only talking to Jesus today,” says another.
Several booths down, shoppers can leave their knives with a knife sharpener or sample freshly ground coffee, available in 15 varieties of beans sourced from as far away as Uganda.
There are homemade soaps, printed sweatshirts and endless baked goods: freshly baked pumpkin bread, cinnamon rolls, monkey bread and stuffed carrot cake cookies.
Known for fresh produce, homemade bread and locally made honey, the farmers’ market is a popular destination for jewelers and other crafts vendors who travel to regional markets, craft shows and locally owned boutiques to sell their goods.
There are plenty of local farmers’ markets to choose from: Bluffton recently opened its market, held each Saturday in the Citizens National Bank parking lot through October.
The Downtown Lima Farmers’ Market will open from 1-5 p.m. Tuesdays June 6 through Sept. 26 in the VFW parking lot on the corner of Elm and Main Streets.
The Lima farmers’ market has accepted SNAP or food stamps for years to make fresh produce more accessible to low-income families, who may earn free produce when they shop at the market.
