All Around Growth — reflections on faith, freedom, and finding purpose through Orthodox Christian living, formation, and the long work of becoming. Earlier episodes available to supporters.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
24:23
Medina is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Ohio, about 33 miles south of Cleveland and 23 miles west of Akron within the Greater Cleveland area. The population was 26,094 at the 2020 Census. Wikipedia
Medina is a hot spot for local food and farmers' markets. With 2 different farmers' markets three miles from one another during market season and a number of short off-season markets and everything the Historic Medina Public Square has to offer - it's a local shoppers' dream!
Join Rob has he talks to you about York Meadow Farm's history with the local markets, the two different markets Medina currently offers and the options provided for local shoppers!
If we land together, we'll never fall. We can make a difference.
SPEAKER_01
Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. Today is Tuesday, September 6th, 2022. This is a show that provides insight and tools to build the life and homestead of your dreams. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is episode number 415 of the show, and we are going to talk about our history at local farmers markets. And when I say our history, I mean the history of York Meadow Farm at local farmers markets. And we've been talking a lot lately about the launch of the online store and some new markets that we're going to. And with all that said, I thought it would be interesting to provide some context on our past and our history with local markets here, and what got us to the point where we're at today, and how that factors into where we're going in the future, which is not so much in the future, it's right around the corner this month. So for those of you who don't know already, we live in Medina, and Medina is a city in, and it is the county seat of Medina County, Ohio, which is about 33 miles south of Cleveland and about 23 miles west of Akron. We are within the Greater Cleveland area, and we are in a you know great position to access both areas with ease. Now the population of Medina was about 26,094 at the 2020 census, and all of this information comes from Wikipedia. So Medina is a small city, and where we live in relation to the city of Medina is on the west side. At that, and we're very close to larger metropolitan areas, so it's kind of the best of both worlds. We're here on the suburban rural fringe, and it's a it's a very nice place to be. Medina is also a hot spot for local food and farmers markets. Now with two different farmers markets, three miles from one another during the market season, and a number of short off-season markets, and everything the Medina Public Square has to offer. It is a local shopper's dream. So what are these two markets? We've got the farmers market of Medina County, and ultimately the Medina Farmers Market where we are located. Now the Medina Farmers Market takes place from mid-May to mid-October, and it is located on the historic Medina Square. And here's a little bit of history about that market. The Medina Farmers Market started in 2005 under the guidance of Medina County Commissioner Pat Geisman as a way to provide access to fresh food for Medina senior citizens. The original markets were housed in six communities throughout the city, and senior citizens received vouchers for fresh produce and transportation to the market. In 2007, the regional markets combined into one single market on the Medina Square. At that time, staff at the OSU Extension Office became the manager of the market and they increased the number of vendors and products available. In 2010, staff at the Medina County Planning Department took over management of the market and expanded it even more, added live entertainment and cooking demonstrations. When the county decided to transition the market to another entity, they approached the City of Medina, which in turn proposed the idea to Main Street Medina as another way to bring people to the square to support local businesses. Main Street Medina assumed management of the market in 2011, and that is the year that we joined the market, York Meadow Farm. Now, me, I was living in California at that time. And I was very proud of what my parents were doing and dreamed of maybe one day doing it with them. But that wasn't really on my mind at that time. I just took on the role of social media manager from afar and sort of watched with amusement with what they were doing at that time, I suppose. Now over the years, this market grew into a weekly market, open every Saturday morning from May to October, and included up to 70 vendors at the height of its capacity. Based on low customer feedback, starting in 2016, several changes were made to the vendor structure, including a renewed focus on food vendors and not arts and crafts or other items. Also, the distance within which products must be grown or produced was decreased from a 50-mile radius from Medina to 35 miles. And in 2016, a full-time manager was hired and Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital became the presenting sponsor of the market. Now in recent years, the market has focused on serving a diverse population, particularly those on food assistance programs, including low to moderate and senior residents of Medina. 2019 saw a nearly 100 or 1,000 increase rather in the Snap and Produce Perks program. And if you're not familiar with what Snap and Produce Perks is, basically what that is, is the Produce Perks program allows low-income shoppers to double the purchasing power of their dollar by receiving these produce perks tokens. And unfortunately, we can't use these produce perks tokens because we don't grow produce. We have a value-added product in the form of sauerkraut, but we can uh utilize Snap, which allows people to use. I I I don't even know what Snap is, it's it's food stamps basically. Um but uh supplemental nutrition assistance program, I I guess that's what we call it now. But nevertheless, it's a good thing that allows people who utilize those programs to shop at farmers markets, and that is a good thing. So 2019 there was a thousand percent increase in the utilization of that, and that brings us to 2020. Okay, 2020, as we all know, was a little bit weird, and uh the as the pandemic began that spring, and as people responded to the pandemic, no one really knew what was going to go on or what the right way to move forward with the farmer's market was, but farmers had seeds ready to be transplanted, or were already transplanted, crops were in the ground, and they needed an outlet to sell their produce, and with how things were moving, or more specifically, not moving forward at the Medina farmers market, some of the vendors decided to take matters into their own hands, and they formed a new market. There was a lot of talk about where this new market was going to be. There was a potential discussion of a storefront, and ultimately the market landed, so to speak, at a local VFW. And for several seasons, this took place in the back at the pavilion. There was also a lot of work that took place in that pavilion to enclose it and install heaters, and really excuse me. Oh my goodness, excuse me. Oh gosh, excuse me, we are not gonna edit that out. I don't do that in this show, we just roll with it live, so bear with me as uh you experience everything with me here in real time. But the vendors, the market manager at that time, they really came together in 2020 to make it happen in a time of uncertainty when there wasn't a lot going on. So 2020 was a successful market season in the fact that many vendors came together, pulled together to make it happen, and that's where we stayed in 2020 and 2021. We were there for two seasons, and then as we prepared for the 2022 season, um without going into detail, the location of the market fell apart, and the market manager resigned kind of abruptly, and without any solid location at or for the farmer's market, um, you know, all of the vendors were left kind of you know scratching their heads, not really sure what to do. Now, the right after that happened, we were lucky enough to be invited to a small indoor market at Richardson Farms, where the manager of the local Medina Farmers Market came, talked with us, invited us back to the square, encouraged us to submit an application, which we immediately did, and luckily we were accepted back on the square, and that is where we are today. Now, the farmers market of Medina County is it's a different market, and when you go to farmers marketofmedina.com slash about, what you see is have you heard the ever heard the saying you are what you eat, and during this time of crisis, have you wondered where your food is coming from? We encourage you to stop by and engage in a conversation with the many of vendors that call this market home. Get to know them, where they are from, and learn a little bit about how your food is grown and who the people that bring it to you are. Our farmers are professionals and what they do. Some are multi-generational, others are lifelong and still some beginning their journey. All of them have one thing in common. They are eager and willing to educate you on their practices and what it takes to bring their product to your table. At the farmers market of Medina County, we're proud to support our local professionals and invite you to visit during our open hours. We look forward to seeing you. Okay, so there's a little bit of what the farmers market of Medina County is all about. Now, what the mission of the farmers market uh the Medina Farmers Market is it's a little different. The mission of the Medina Farmers Market is to provide a venue where local farmers, bakers, and gourmet food producers can sell their high-quality products directly to the consumer. The market encourages direct communication between consumers and growers, fosters social gathering and community building, and promotes nutritious food choices. The market seeks to educate the consumer about the many benefits to the individual, the community, and the environment of buying locally produced food and to enhance and enrich the community and culture of Medina County. The market also provides and encourages local entrepreneurial opportunities and brings energy and excitement to Uptown Medina. Okay, so we've got very different mission statements and very different objectives of what the markets are set up to do. And that is okay. The beauty of Medina is the fact that, like I said, we have two markets in a five-mile radius of one another. Actually, it's two markets within a three-mile radius of one another. And it's two markets within a five-mile drive. It you know, there's some after after the the the farmers market in Medina County changed and went to a new location. I think some people just weren't really sure what happened, but I like to encourage people to check out both markets for several reasons. A, because of their proximity to one another, and b because of the differences within the market structure, the differences within the vendors at the market, and although there are similarities with each market, like for example, both markets have a guy that does knife sharpening, both markets have a guy that does kettle corn, both markets have uh, you know, like the the little food truck scene or what have you, okay? But the farmers market of Medina County is I would say more produce-centric, more uh, and there's a certain loyalty between the customer and the vendor, and I love that. And I want to really encourage people who attend the Medina Farmers Market on the Square to also shop and give love to those vendors over there because we're all trying to do something different with our lives, we're all trying to do something something different with our families, we're all trying to do something different with our communities, and it doesn't need to be a choice between one market or the other, we can really go through life and embrace both markets in our community. So if you want to learn more about York Meadow Farm and what's going on with the new markets, then definitely check out the show notes for links to York Meadow Farm, all the social medias where you can find York Meadow Farm. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, we've got a Telegram channel, and although we're not supremely active on float, we have secured that spot and we are there as well. And we also have a small Facebook group, York Meadow Farm Facebook group. Again, very small, very new, but it's active and it's there, and we would encourage you to join us. You can also check out the show notes for all of the links to the all-around growth podcast social medias as well. There's links to all past episodes and a link to leave a rating and review in the Apple Podcast app because believe it or not, guys, at this time we are still receiving the majority of listens through the Apple Podcast app. So if you want to help the show and help expose uh new audience members to the show that you like, go ahead and check out the show notes for a link to a video on how to leave a rating and review in the Apple Podcast app because that really does help the algorithm. And as of the time of this recording in September of 2022, it still matters, and I would really invite you to do that. Now, one other cool thing that is happening because the podcast game is changing. I've been listening and using a new podcast player called Fountain. Now, I don't consume a lot of podcasts, so when I recently reset my phone, you know, I'm only installing apps that I use, cleared out all the trash, I'm not syncing my devices. No. I have each, I actually have several different phones, each with a specific application, and that's going to make my life a lot easier because I was use I use my phone for so much. Um it just gets bogged down and I refuse to use the cloud. And uh, you know, so when you refuse to do things uh by the way the machine wants you to do them, you are forced to make certain adaptations because the machine wants you to comply, and what we pay for when we utilize services like the cloud is we are paying for the price of convenience, and even if the services are free, what we you know exchange for that is oftentimes our data and our privacy. So, uh, you know, speaking of privacy, I'll link to pre-search, a search engine that I like to use in the show notes as well. Um, just for your reference to learn a little bit more, I will also link to Fountain. And if you the well, one of the cool things about Fountain is its value for value. You can while listening to podcasts, you can earn Bitcoin in the form of satoshis. And if there's really cool content out there that you like, you can also share that content, create clips, which you've seen me doing on social media, sharing that on social media, clips of things that I've listened to, and you can share those clips, boost those clips, support content creators with Bitcoin as well through the Lightning Network. This is all new to me. I'm learning about this, but it's exciting, it's cool, and it really doesn't require a whole lot of work on your part, other than installing and downloading a new podcast player, which even if you don't want to do anything with Bitcoin, you can still earn and share Bitcoin with content creators, and uh you've really got nothing to lose. So, definitely check that out. There's a link in the show notes to do so. In the process, you get some free sets, I get some free sets, it's a win-win-win. So definitely check out the show notes for everything. Show notes on the Medina Farmers Market, show notes on the farmers market of Medina County, and more. So that's it for today, guys. Stay tuned for more later in the week as we discuss future markets, the online store, and everything else that's going on here on the farm. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
.jpg)
