STEWART, OHIO — Residents near Stewart now have their own farmers market, meeting 5–7 p.m. Mondays through the fall at the Federal Valley Resource Center.
The market opened July 7 with 11 vendors selling homemade food, clothes, and homegrown produce. By the third market on July 21, that figure had grown to 14 vendors plus music from Pete Shew and a six-piece band.
Therese Lackey, the Federal Valley Resource Center’s program director, had been wanting to set up a farmers market so Stewart residents don’t have to travel to Athens to buy or sell homemade goods.
“[Federal Valley is] a community center, and so anytime someone has an idea or need, we work really hard to address it,” Lackey said.
She’d been having difficulty making the market a reality — until she had a conversation with Tracy Clem, who took over the idea and set about organizing vendors through the village’s Community Projects Facebook group.
“This project started because we are trying to build back up that closeness that small communities used to have,” Clem said. “Everyone loves a farmers market; I know I do.”
The market will meet in the center’s parking lot until the fall. Beyond that, Clem said, “If vendors would like to continue, the resource center said we could move it inside [over the winter].”
Farmers market vendors are invited to set up at the center’s Christmas tree festival on Dec. 6, Lackey said.
“We’d like for it to be a regular part of another thing that we do,” Lackey said.
Clem, whose granddaughter sells flowers at the market, told the Independent she and the vendors would like to thank Lackey and the resource center for allowing them to use the outdoor space.
Local vendors
One vendor at the July 7 farmers market was Kari Pennington, who sells sourdough, honey and eggs with her family. She’s been selling her own sourdough since last fall, but she’s been baking for years.
“It’s taken off well,” Pennington said. Her business is called Simply Risen Sourdough Co. and Pennington Family Farm.
Another vendor at the first market was Sugar and Spice Bakery, a family-run business located in Tuppers Plains. The business was started in 1994 by Belinda Vogt and her sister, Vickey Joseph. Today, bakers include friends, cousins, and Joseph’s daughter, Jennifer Caldwell
Caldwell said she has been baking for Sugar & Spice Bakery since she was a little girl, when items were made in her childhood home. About 30 years ago, the family rented space in a floral shop in Coolville to sell their homebaked goods. Eventually, they rented a building next door to the floral shop.
“That’s when there was more of, like, a dine-in option for the bakery, too,” Caldwell said. “We had a pizza oven, so they would do pizzas and soups and subs and things.”
Sugar & Spice no longer has its own space, since Ohio’s cottage food laws made it legal to make and sell certain goods from home.
The Stewart Farmers Market is the first farmers market Sugar & Spice Bakery has sold at and they plan to go to more in the area.
“I love the idea of farmers’ markets because I think it’s a nice way to connect with our community and also a way to get healthier products for your family,” Caldwell said.
Theresa Blair started selling jam three years ago, when she picked too many strawberries. She sells Gran’s Jellys and Jams at farmers markets in Marietta and Belpre — and now Stewart.
In addition to the Stewart Farmers Market, Natasha Jack sells her Cluckin’ Crazy Confections at a roadside stand outside her house on Old Coolville Ridge Road in Athens.
“We do all kinds of baked goods, jams and pies and brownies, cinnamon rolls, kind of a little bit of everything,” Jack said.
There is no fee or registration required to vend at the Stewart Farmers Market. To find more information, email federalvalleyrc@gmail.com.
Renae Hefty is a junior at Ohio University. Hefty is a summer 2025 intern at Athens County Independent, with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program created by the Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
