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Instagram Miami County For Prizes

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Join in on the summer fun by participating in a hashtag project designed by the Miami County Visitors & Convention Bureau. For the next 16 weeks, the MCVCB will choose great Instagram post/photos to repost on their social media promoting Miami County. Every two weeks, a different category will be featured that will get folks out and about the Miami County area.

Here’s how it will work. First, participants will need a public Instagram profile and must use the following hashtags…#MiamiCountyandMe, #HomeGrownGreat, and one of our category hashtags that will change every two weeks. Category hashtags include:

#MiamiCountyFood (June 1-14), You could win a cooking class for four at Troy’s new Bed & Breakfast, the Charlotte

#MiamiCountyFamilies (June 15-28), Win a canoe trip for a family of four at Adventures on the Great Miami and Barefoot Canoes.

#MiamiCountyCoffee (June 29- July 12), Win a great coffee experience for six people with Joe Reiser, Owner of Winans

#MiamiCountyHistory (July 13-26), Winning this category will get your family 2019 family memberships at Brukner Nature Center, WACO Air Museum and Johnston Farm & Indian Agency

#MiamiCountyOutdoors (July 27 – August 9), A brand new Kayak from SmithFly
#MiamiCountyArt (August 10-23), Paint class for four with Wine & Design by Mary Frances Rodriguez

#MiamiCountyShopping (August 24 – September 6), Gift cards from local shops in Covington, Piqua, Tipp City, Troy & West Milton

#MiamiCountyBestOf (September 7 – 20). Staley Farm & Indian Creek Distillery tour with tasting for 6 people

The idea is to capture the best of Miami County that fits into one of these categories and post it to Instagram with the appropriate hashtags. And a great place to capture Miami County Food would be at the upcoming Troy Strawberry Festival. Then after the end of each two-week hashtag category, a panel of judges will select the winning image and award the winner a very unique prize related to that category. We hope folks will want to come out and capture the best Miami County has to offer by participating in this Instagram Hashtag Project that’s not just good, but Home Grown Great!

Please contact the Miami County Visitors & Convention Bureau at 937-339-1044 with any questions. Enjoy your summer!

Miami County HomeGrown Stories: Fulton Farms

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High school sweethearts, Joe and Kelsey Fulton, are part of a three generation farm operation at Fulton Farms. Joe was born and raised on the farm. Kelsey was born in North Carolina but moved back to her family’s roots in Miami County when she was ten years old. Both started working on the farm in their teens. This year Kelsey is coordinating the Sweet Corn Festival at Fulton Farms. They help Joe’s mom, Bev Fulton, manage the market at Fulton Farms.

 

On their connection to Miami County:
Joe – I was born on the farm and raised here. My father passed away when I was very young, about three months old. I was raised by my mother and my grandparents here. I was always involved with the farm as it was growing and changing. I started working at a young age on the farm, about ten or twelve years old. I didn’t get very involved with the market until I got back from college. When I got back my brothers and I started running different parts of the farm.

Kelsey – I was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and lived there until I was ten. My family is from Miami County, which I didn’t know when I was younger. My grandparents actually lived one country block away from Fulton Farms. Joe and I both went to Miami East. I’m glad that we came back, even though we moved away I got to move back to all my family history.

Joe – We’re high school sweethearts. It’s been fun because we grew up together.

Kelsey – For both of us, this was our first job. I started working here when I was fifteen or sixteen. I worked in the greenhouse with Joe’s mom, now my mother-in-law, Bev. [laughs] We’d be out in the greenhouse every spring and summer. Over the last ten years working here I’ve fallen in love with the farm.

On the history of Fulton Farms:
Joe – My grandparents bought the first 60 acres of the farm in 1958. By 1977 they had expanded the farm to 2000 acres. They started an outdoor market about a mile down the road. Later they purchased this barn and the south part of the farm. They turned into the barn into Fulton Farms Market. They started growing strawberries in the late 60s, early 70s. It was one of the best things to happen at the farm in years. My grandpa and Steve Hamilton started the Strawberry Festival in Troy. My grandparents were on the board for the festival for years. That was one of the things that lifted us up and got our name out there. We became very well known for it.

They started growing sweet corn pretty early on. Initially, it was extra income. In the beginning, they would pull the corn wagons in the barn. People would line up around the wagon with bags and get their corn. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that we have the best sweet corn. People will travel from out of state, from West Virginia and Michigan to buy their sweet corn. They come from all over.

About Fulton Farms today:
Joe – We’ve been farming this land for three generations. My grandparents, my mom and uncle, myself and my two brothers, along with my cousin Levi. It’s neat to work with your whole family all day. My brother Josh does a lot of the planting and harvesting. He also does a lot of our wholesaling to Kroger and Meijer. Our cousin Levi does a lot of our small crop production. His wife, Christie, works here too. They manage the farm workers and keep on schedule out in the field and bringing in the crops. We have farm workers that have been here for twenty and thirty years. They’re like family to us and that’s how we treat them. That’s how they deserve to be treated. They’ve dedicated their whole lives to the farm. It’s hard to find people like that. We appreciate them so much.

About the Market at Fulton Farms:
Joe – We meet a lot of people at the market. People who we would never have a chance to talk to otherwise. We hear amazing stories. That’s one of the neat things about the market. People are happy when they come here. We want to give them an experience. We don’t want to be some grocery store where they stop at, get their corn and leave. We want parents to take their kids to see all the animals out back. We have a big 700-pound pig, Charlotte. She eats like six times a day. We want them to come out to the farm and make a day of it. Have some lunch and ice cream.

Joe – Kelsey and I are in charge of the cafe now. We’re trying to modernize and bring in new revenue.

Kelsey – We’ve been sprucing it up and making some changes. We started the new shake and sundaes menu. The popular one right now is the blackberry one. Peach is another popular one.

Joe – We focus on items that were grown here on the farm. It’s also seasonal, the blackberry shake is a summer shake. We’ll do a strawberry shake in the spring and a pumpkin spice one this fall. My dream is to open a field to fork or farm to table restaurant out here.

Kelsey – Using our own ingredients adds so much extra flavor. There’s nothing like having a homegrown tomato on your sandwich – it makes such a difference.

How visitors can enjoy Fulton Farms:
Joe – One of the things I love seeing families do is come here to pick strawberries. It’s an experience. We always joke that we should weigh the little kids when they come out of the fields. There are some people that are just covered in strawberries – and we don’t care – that’s why they’re here.

Kelsey – That’s me when I pick. I’ll have half a quart in my belly [laughs].

Joe – We have people who tell us that their mom brought them here to pick strawberries when they were little. So they’ve brought their kids and grandkids to pick strawberries. It’s neat to see a community that has been raised with Fulton Farms and how appreciative they are.

In the fall we have hayrides and u-pick pumpkins. People will walk all the way across the field to get that perfect pumpkin. I always tell people there are a lot of good pumpkins right up front because everybody goes way out [laughs]. The fall is one of my favorite times at the farm. We have the hay maze and a petting zoo with lots of baby goats.

About the Sweet Corn Festival:
Joe –  The community has loved this festival and this is our first year doing the event ourselves. The past three years were a collaboration and the event was held here.

Kelsey – I’ve become the event coordinator. The feedback that we’ve gotten from everybody so far has been amazing. We will have a classic rock band play on Saturday. On Sunday, a local country band, ReFlektion will play. They’re an awesome band from Piqua.

We’ll have jumpies for kids out here. Free face painting and games for the kids. We’ll have a corn shucking contest. There will be four age categories, age 4-7, age 8-12, age13-17 and age 18-up. There will be prizes for the winners of each of the brackets.

I can’t wait to sample all the food vendors. We have thirteen different food vendors. We have Thai food, Cajun food… there’s so much variety this year. They’re all local too. Some of the vendors have restaurants in the area so it’s a way for them to show off their items. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through all of them! We’re having a competition for the food vendors too. Everybody will have tickets. You can vote for your favorite food and favorite beverage. Whichever vendors win will get a gift basket from the farm – and bragging rights [laughs].

Joe – Everybody has something different. That’s what we wanted. We didn’t want one kind of food, we want food from different cultures.

Kelsey – One of the new things for this year is a surprise that Joe’s brother did for the event. He planted a huge sunflower patch. He showed it to me last week – I didn’t even know it was out there – and my jaw dropped. It goes on and on, all the way back to the tree line.

Joe – We’ll have hayrides out to the sunflower patch and sunflower u-picks. People can go out and see it, and take pictures.

We feel the need to give back and the need to show our community that we appreciate them. Anytime somebody approaches us we definitely want to help them and do anything we can. We want to help out when people need help. Having the Sweet Corn Festival is our way to give back. People can bring their family out here and learn about the farm.

Kelsey – That’s one of the reasons we wanted to keep the Sweet Corn Festival free. A lot of people were telling us that we could start charging tickets and make a lot of money. We don’t want to do that. We want to keep it free and have something fun for the kids and families. Our sponsors have helped us keep it as a free event. We’ve had a really good response from our sponsors.

It’s so important to expose kids to where their food comes from. Families can come to our u-pick and pick their own tomatoes or peppers and get back in touch with their food. So many folks grow up only going to the grocery store and not seeing where their food comes from.

Joe – A lot of our sponsors are friends and family but we’ve had people we don’t know reach out and say they want to help. It’s cool to see how interested people are. These are people that we don’t know and they want to get involved because they love the experience and want to help. My mom always told me to be a blessing when you can.

Kelsey – Be a blessing, not a burden is what she’d say. I remember the first time you went camping with my family, we were seventeen. Your mom sent you to the campground with three boxes full of produce and food – we were only there for the weekend. There was no way we could eat all that food [laughs] but you were like “Mom said,  be a blessing, not a burden.” It was so cute [laughs].

Fulton Farms
2393 OH-202, Troy, Ohio
Monday – Thursday: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Friday – Sunday 9:00am – 5:00pm
Facebook: @Fulton-Farms-106214867550
Instagram: @fulton_farms_market
Twitter: @fultonfarms

Fulton Farms Sweet Corn Festival, (free to attend)
Saturday, August 26 – Sunday, August 27
Facebook: facebook.com/events/292144477913190
Instagram: @fultonfarms_sweetcorn_fest

This story first appeared on the Miami County Convention and Visitors Bureau website.  Follow author,  storyteller and interviewer, Courtney Denning, at ThisOhioLife.com.

 

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Miami County Home Grown Stories: Corie Schweser

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Corie Schweser has made Troy her home for the past thirty years with her husband and sons. For the past three years, she has worked as the business manager of the Troy Strawberry Festival. This year the Strawberry Festival celebrates its 41st year in Miami County. The festival celebrates strawberries, community and supports local nonprofit organizations.

On living in Miami County:
I have lived in Troy since 1987. My husband’s employer transferred him here. We moved from the East Coast with our three sons. I fell in love with Troy and the area. We decided we didn’t want to move!

On the Troy Strawberry Festival:
In 1977 local leaders organized the Troy Strawberry Festival to support nonprofit organizations. The festival created a way for nonprofit groups to earn revenue. This money went to support their services and programs. The festival is a collaborative effort. Instead of each nonprofit trying to earn revenue on their own, they work together. The leaders wanted to work with Fulton Farms for the festival. They first thought of a sweet corn festival. They went with strawberries instead because it’s the first available fruit. That way we are one of the first large festivals in our region. We kick off the summer season for the county. At the beginning of summer you have Memorial Day and then right away is the Strawberry Festival. If we had been the Sweet Corn Festival we’d be in August near the end of the summer, almost forgotten. And who doesn’t love a strawberry?

In the beginning, the festival had forty-five nonprofits and a variety of activities. Now we have about 60 to 70 nonprofits that have food booths at the festival. We also have arts and craft booths as well as two stages of entertainment all throughout the weekend. For the past 41 years, we still hold true to our vision and mission of supporting the nonprofits in Miami County.

There are so many things to do at the festival! We have a 10K race, a bike tour and a shortcake race for the kids. We have a Little Miss and Mr. Strawberry Pageant, a big wheel race, and a diaper derby. There’s a pie-eating contest and the alumni football game between Troy and Piqua. There’s a lot going on! Whatever day you decide to come — or if you come for both days — you’ll find something to enjoy. We will have picnic tables around each stage so you can relax and enjoy the strawberries and music! We have the schedule and more information on our website at gostrawberries.com.

How she became involved with the Troy Strawberry Festival:
I started out as a volunteer for the festival fifteen years ago. I have been the business manager for the past three years. It’s seemed like the natural transition for me. Through my involvement with volunteering, I developed an understanding of the festival. In 2012 I was the General Chairman. This is my third year as the business manager.

It’s so much fun working with the volunteers. They truly have passion, drive and the desire to keep the mission of the festival going. It’s a great group of about 45 to 50 event chairmen and their volunteers underneath them. We could not do the festival without the City of Troy. We work with the city and they are the best partners. We have help from organizations throughout Miami County too. It’s a lot of fun and people enjoy it. Their energy drives my energy. We never stop planning the festival. Once one festival ends we start working on the next one. It’s a lot of fun!

On the community response to the Troy Strawberry Festival:
Last year we had some rainy weather but we estimated we had about 135,000 people during the entire weekend. On a good year when it’s sunny and beautiful with temperatures in the mid-70s to 80s we can have 150,000 to 200,000 people. It’s awesome – especially for a city of 26,000 people!

Even though it’s the “Troy” Strawberry Festival, it’s actually about Miami County. There are nonprofits that provide services and support throughout the county. We’re embracing and supporting the entire regional area. We want people to know that yes, it is the Troy Strawberry Festival, but that’s because it takes place in Troy. We support the entire Miami County community.

New and exciting changes for the 2017 Strawberry Festival:
This year students at the Upper Valley Career Center built a cell phone charging station for us. The students got aluminum from the welding department. They went to the auto body department and painted it red. The graphics department created the graphics. Apple and Android users will be able to use the station. It has at least 18 different places to charge your phone — it’s amazing! I love it when we can get kids involved in creating a project.

This year you can bike to the festival! The Miami County Park District is putting up bike racks near the ball fields. They partnered with a nonprofit. For a small donation, you can park your bike and volunteers will keep watch while you enjoy the festival.

Something else that is new this year is the 3¢ stamp. This year the 3¢ stamp created by the United States Postal Service is a strawberry stamp. We were able to have a special cancellation stamp made through the Troy Post Office. If you come and get a strawberry stamp, you can put the strawberry cancellation stamp on it. We will also have special Strawberry Festival postcards. They will have the 3¢ strawberry stamp and the cancellation stamp. They will be at the souvenir booth — but we only have 200!

We have a great national recording artist, Morgan Alexander, for Friday night. Saturday night’s big concert will be with Exploit. They are a 70s and 80s group out of Celina. They are a lot of fun and have a lot of energy. There will be entertainment from Rum River Blend, blues and jazz groups, and dance groups.

We also have new food and new food trucks this year! There will be spinach salads and roasted Brussels sprouts with strawberry dressings. There will be sweets like strawberry donuts and strawberries with lemon cream. You name it – we probably have it! We will have favorites that we have every year, like chocolate covered strawberries! Our food trucks and food vendors all partner with a nonprofit. They share their net profits from the weekend. The food vendors have signage for the nonprofit group they have partnered with. It’s a great way for small nonprofits to earn revenue to support their programs.

We could not do this festival without the volunteers, the City of Troy and our wonderful sponsors. It’s great to have business partners from the community supporting this festival. They believe in it and they help bring visibility to our community.

What do you love most about Miami County?
I love that Miami County has so many opportunities for outdoor activities. Piqua and Troy have great outdoor concert series. There’s the Miami County Riverway — you can go to Treasure Island and rent a kayak for a river adventure. We’re very blessed to have a strong parks system — in the county and cities. I like to take my grandson bike riding, we usually stop and get ice cream and then get back on the bike path. There are so many interesting things within this county. It’s beautiful! I love Fulton Farms and the farmer’s markets. I embrace every bit of it! Once the festival is over, I’ll have time to get out there and enjoy it. That’s another great thing about the festival being in June, I have the rest of the summer to enjoy the county! I love it!

How Miami County is different from other places she has lived:
I’ve lived in the city and city suburbs which have a different feeling. There are a lot more people — you feel like you can’t move around without bumping into someone. I don’t want to say Miami County is more laid back because there are a lot of things to do here. But you have the space to find a park bench, kick back and relax a little bit and enjoy the view. There’s more of a relaxed, laid-back attitude here. It’s also very family friendly. It’s the perfect place to be.

Her Miami County recommendations for out-of-town visitors (besides the Troy Strawberry Festival):
I’m a very outdoorsy person so I recommend all the different parks. Visitors should definitely take advantage of our museums like the WACO Air Museum. I recommend visiting each community within Miami County. Every Main Street has its own unique flavor! Enjoy each area, visit the individual shops and restaurants downtown. Definitely check out the unique coffee shops, like Winans Chocolates + Coffees. Keep investigating and check out the activities like concert series or outdoor activities. Support the local restaurants and check out the different unique features. There’s so much to do. I love every single thing about it!

Troy Strawberry Festival
First weekend in June
gostrawberries.com

 

This story first appeared on the Miami County Convention and Visitors Bureau website.  Follow author,  storyteller and interviewer, Courtney Denning, at ThisOhioLife.com.

Miami County HomeGrownStories – Margaret Begg

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Margaret Begg loves the science and beauty of artisan bread baking, especially sourdough bread. For the past twenty years, her bakery, Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company, has provided delicious bread, baguettes, challahs, ciabattas, focaccias, cookies and pastries of every flavor in their downtown Troy bakery. Margaret focuses on high quality and nutritious ingredients as well as taste. In addition to baking a variety of bread and pastries, the Bakehouse also has an extensive menu of soups, salads, and sandwiches. Margaret is one-third of the local cooperative, The Farmer, The Miller, The Baker that grows, mills and bakes spelt in the southwestern region of Ohio. Margaret was recently interviewed for our #HomeGrownStories campaign.

On living in Miami County:
I have lived in Miami County for 34 years. I’m originally from California. My mother met my father when she was on a trip to San Diego; he was in the Navy then. We moved back to Ohio because my mother was from Lima and still had family in the area.

 

On working with sourdough and starting the Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company:
My sister lived in Sacramento, California and she introduced me to sourdough bread. I fell in love with it! I knew I had to try and make it at home. I tried baking sourdough at home, but with babies and everyday life, it was difficult. I had little success for a long time. My husband and I opened Taggart’s On The Square in Troy in 1984 and I continued my pursuit of sourdough in the restaurant kitchen. In 1988 I took a two-week intensive artisan bread course at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. I also apprenticed under a French Master Baker at the National Baking Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was able to come home and bake better bread. I started selling it to the restaurant and eventually, I was loading up my car and driving around to farm stands and selling it. About 20 years ago we opened a bakery next to Taggart’s. I think it’s the location for Raise Your Brush today. In three years we were bursting out of the seams so we moved to our current location here on the Square.

On her part in the local collaboration: The Farmer, The Miller, The Baker:
About ten years or so ago, Troy started up a food cooperative. We hosted a night of potential farm vendors, which is how I met Dan Kremer from E.A.T. Food For Life Farm. He grows spelt grain, which he was selling to a company that sold them in grocery stores nationally, but he wanted to sell it locally. That’s when I got some of his spelt flour and starting testing it in bread and cookies. I was personally surprised they turned out so well, just because of the nature of spelt flour. It’s naturally a little sweet so you need very little honey to offset the bitterness. Then we contacted Bear’s Mill to grind the flour for us. They buy the grain from Dan and grind it into flour. Then we buy the flour and make the bread and cookies. We sell the bread and cookies back to Dan and Bear’s Mill and we sell them here.

 


 

What she loves about Miami County:
I love the sense of community. It’s very important to most residents of the county, which you can see by the folks that come downtown to support small businesses. We have wonderful events at the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center and we always come downtown for the concerts and symphonies in Troy. In downtown, you can move about so freely, anywhere you need to go you can get there. The bike path has always been one of my personal favorites. Watching the bike path grow has been amazing, especially for a town of this size. We go to Hobart Urban Nature Preserve at least three times a week for a walk. Garbry Big Woods Reserve is one of our other favorites, but we tend to pick a different park to walk at on the weekends.

The best selling item at Bakehouse and her personal favorite:
The Bakehouse Seven Grain Bread is our most popular bread. It’s very healthy with all the grains [whole wheat flour, millet, cracked wheat, cracked rye, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, oats, buckwheat and cracked corn] and very nutritious. We don’t use emulsifiers, preservatives or other “shortcut” additives in our bread. My favorite, of course, is our sourdough bread.

Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company
317 Public Square Troy, OH
Facebook: @bakehousebread
Twitter: @bakehousebread

This story first appeared on the Miami County Convention and Visitors Bureau website.  Follow author,  storyteller and interviewer, Courtney Denning, at ThisOhioLife.com.

 

Local Small Business Fights Back Against Big Chain: Plans Strategic Expansion to National Market Through Online Sales

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bakehouse_toplogoAfter 17 years in business, Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company is planning to expand beyond their current Miami County market with the addition of online sales as their lead component for growth.

A small, mom & pop artisan bakery located in the small rural town of Troy Ohio, Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company has enjoyed years of consistent growth and local success. Established in 1997, the company moved to their current location in 2000 which boasts 3,800 square feet of bakery space in which they produce artisan breads, pastries and gourmet cookies for sale in their storefront café as well as to wholesale customers.

“Despite our success,” says Steve McLain, co-owner, “like many small businesses, we‘ve definitely felt the pressure of the large chain restaurants and bakeries popping up around us.  As a small, artisan producer, we knew we had to be strategic about our continued growth and find a way to expand beyond our current market in order to ensure longevity. The addition of online sales to our current revenue was the obvious first step. “

Bakehouse recently engaged a professional firm to help elevate the company’s brand presence to ensure it would not only be well received by a national market, but would stand strong when placed beside large chain competitors.

“Very often, small businesses reach a plateau after a number of years. They want to grow, but are afraid to invest in the tools that will help them reach that next level,” says McLain. “We knew that in order to continue to compete, we couldn’t stand in the shadows of the big chains. We had to refresh and not only come out swinging, but shining brightly as well.”

Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company invested in a complete redesign of their brand and web presence to feature high-impact photography of their artisan products and the ability to order products online. “The ultimate goal was to show customers outside of the local area who might not frequent our brick and mortar location the quality of our products and give them the ability to order online,” says Margaret Begg, co-owner and master baker.“This allows us to share the craft of artisan baking with folks all around the country and bolster our growth at the same time.”

Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company is now a small business poised for growth and expansion. Their new web presence features six of their most popular artisan bread staples:  Sourdough, Cranberry Poppyseed, Raisin Walnut, New York Rye, Seven Grain and a special collaboration with a local famer and miller, Organic Spelt. They also offer seasonal products and gift boxes online, as well as their famous Bakehouse gourmet cookies.

All of Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company’s products are created by hand using all natural ingredients in their Troy Ohio bakery. No emulsifiers, artificial fillers, preservatives or other “shortcut” additives are ever used. Every ingredient that goes into creating Bakehouse products are completely natural and whenever possible, locally sourced.

“Yes, there might be a faster way or cheaper way to create a loaf of bread,” says Begg,  “but the nourishment of a nation is no place to cut corners. We believe it is our responsibility as food producers to keep the health of our community at the forefront of every decision. So every ingredient we use in the creation of our products or the delicious food in the Bakehouse café is selected with this in mind.”

Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company’s artisan breads and gourmet cookies are now available to the public via their online storefront at www.bakehousebread.com. Shipping is available within 2 days to anywhere within the continental United States.

Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company creates handmade artisan breads and gourmet cookies for lovers of great food around the world. For additional information about Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company, contact them at937-339-8100 or info@bakehousebread.com. For the most up to date information about Bakehouse Bread & Cookie Company s products, follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bakehousebread.