Farmers markets: Honey, homegrown goods and glory to God

Thousands shop their Saturday mornings at the Kansas Grown Inc. farmers market, for homegrown honey and flowers, cinnamon rolls and St. John’s wort, bison burgers and fresh, grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef. And more.

They wander, some of them carrying children in their arms and just-bought potted flowers in their hands, through booths with vendor names like Rotten Ronnie’s Jigs (fishing lures), Muddy Boots Farm (asparagus, strawberries and more) and Twisted Buns Bakery (melt-in-your-mouth twisted buns and more).

These markets give people yet another chance not only to shop locally but to support people who give Wichita and Kansas its local and sometimes quirky identity.

“We sell the best German sausage in the world here, because we say so, ” Dan Schoenecker says. He says it, so it must be true.

“My daughter Maria (Maria G’s Baked Goods) makes the rolls and banana nut bread, but we take the credit for it,” he says.

He and his friend Ron Blasi on Saturday were stealing credit from Maria, and selling sausage, fresh pork, cinnamon rolls thickly ladled with creamy icing, and banana nut bread.

Other vendors were selling items ranging from hillbilly hash to homemade pottery to varieties of homemade soap to free-range chicken meat to pet treats to a variety of plants.

Jerry Schmidt was selling bison-leather wallets and purses, along with burgers, steaks and hump meat from his 18-head herd at his Indian Creek Bison Ranch near Haven.

The farmers market at 21st and Ridge has sold produce and more to thousands every Saturday for 29 years, says market manager Gunter Hansen.

If you know Wichita, you know that going to any farmers market works out well. The idea of this market, set up alongside the county extension building, is to provide a market for grow-their-own farmers and gardeners from Wichita and parts of nearby Kansas.

As many as 70 to 80 vendors there attract as many as 2,000 customers on a typical April Saturday, then 5,000 or more during summer months.

And if you know your way around southern Kansas, you know that whenever the Amish show up, things get good for everybody, Hansen said. The Amish aren’t the only people who know how to bake, grow produce and impress customers. But they set high standards.

“They inspire loyalty among customers, and we all have fun,” Hansen says. “We started with an Amish family last year (Miller’s Home Style Meals). They cook meals for one, two and four people, and freeze and sell the meals. I didn’t think it would be possible for that to work well – but it works very well.”

Don and Donna Miller and their daughter Julie were selling everything from home-baked bread to homemade honey (from their hives) to produce on Saturday at Don’s Produce Patch.

The Amish reputation for quality comes from diligent and hands-on work, he says – and from doing it “for the greater glory of God.”

All seven Miller children, ranging in age from 9 to 24, work with them on their farm southwest of Hutchinson, he says. Their son David works the hives and makes the honey. Daughter Jenni bakes the bread. The rest of the Miller tribe feed and collect eggs from their chickens and grow the herbs, onions, kale, asparagus, potted plants and assorted vegetables.

It pays.

“I feel good, healthy, from working outdoors with my hands and bringing life out of the soil, and giving God all the credit,” he says.

Beyond that, on a day like Saturday, he says, the family will take home $200 to $300. In peak summer seasons, at the farmers market in Hutchinson, they’ve regularly taken home $2,000 to $3,000 for a Saturday morning’s work.

On Sundays, they rest.

This story was originally published April 15, 2017 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Farmers markets: Honey, homegrown goods and glory to God."