Every summer in New Albany brings with it the New Albany Farmers Market, and every New Albany Farmers Market brings with it an assortment of fresh products and fresh faces.
This year’s market – which runs 4-7 p.m. Thursdays, starting June 23 – is bringing back many of its popular vendors, along with some newcomers. As many as 55 merchants and 10 rotating food trucks are lined up.
Photo courtesy of Small Batch Candle Company
Sauced Scents
One of the new vendors at the market this year is the Small Batch Candle Company.
Owned by JP Mathews and Sarah Albert, the Pataskala-based company specializes in repurposing old liquor bottles and using them as vessels for new candles.
After reclaiming old bottles that would otherwise be thrown away, the company cuts, sands and polishes the glass by hand. It then fills the bottles with soy wax, with scent options including apple mango, bamboo, brown sugar, eucalyptus, sage and lemongrass, and cognac and Cuban cigars.
Absolut and Ketel One vodkas and Bulleit and Maker’s Mark whiskeys are among the bottles converted to candles. Customers can also make custom orders using bottles they provide.
“Since the bottles are locally consumed and collected, we hope the people of New Albany love our candles,” says Albert.
Photos courtesy of LaVanya Watkins
They Grow (Up) So Fast
Tiger Mushroom Farms of Columbus is the brainchild of the 8-year-old Te’Lario Watkins Jr., who started a mushroom farm after being introduced to gardening through a Cub Scouts project.
After growing cat grass and basil through the project, Watkins discovered a talent for gardening, so his parents, LaVanya and Te’Lario Sr., bought him a mushroom kit online. Soon thereafter, he started growing oyster and shiitake mushrooms in the basement.
Thanks to Te’Lario Jr.’s green thumb, the mushrooms grew in excess, and his parents decided to turn their little home garden into a business.
“Soon, we grew too many to eat and decided to sell some at the farmers market,” says LaVanya. “We will sell (Te’Lario’s) mushrooms at seven different farmers markets and a CSA this summer.”
Business has been good; Te’Lario has even made an appearance on The Steve Harvey Show.
Among Tiger Mushroom Farms’ offerings at the farmers market are its signature shiitake and oyster mushrooms, as well as dried shiitake, shiitake and onion soup mix, and shiitake butter. Te’Lario himself will make appearances at several of the farmers markets.
Leah Kunnath is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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