Yellow House Honey

“I get one harvest of black locust honey a year,” farmers market vendor Aaron Warner explains. Jars of the soft yellow liquid fill the table at his booth. Potential customers stop to sample his wares, tasting a dab of honey Warner places of their fingertips. Some are looking for relief from seasonal allergies, and some just want honey for their tea.

Warner, a science teacher at Terre Haute South High School, has been keeping bees ever since he received a Teacher Creativity grant from the Lilly Endowment a few years back. “I’ve been bitten by the bug,” he says. No pun intended.

Now his bees produce honey, as well as pollinate his blueberry and blackberry crops. “I also take them to pollinate the Swanee Orchard,” he says of his hives. Warner is a proponent of sustainable agriculture, and his products are produced without the use of chemical inputs. “I try to practice what I preach.” In addition to honey, his organically grown blueberries and blackberries are available inseason at the market.

Heron Bay Farm

Heron Bay Farm produces heirloom vegetables along with eggs, and fruit. Market vendor and local attorney Chris Gambill shows off a basket full of dried heirloom beans, featuring varieties like Yellow Indian Woman, Sulfur Beans, and Jacob’s Cattle. “I don’t grow any hybrids,” he says.

In addition to his fruits and vegetables, Gambill also sells hickory nuts. Hickory nuts have a meat similar in appearance to that of pecans. Gambill says he grew up eating them, and when he went away to college at IU, he was pleased to find hickory trees near his dorm. He says he was well-known in his dorm for keeping a brick and hammer handy for cracking the shells.

“I grow about ten different varieties of heirloom tomatoes,” he explains, listing varieties like Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, and Pineapple among the types of tomatoes he offers. He also raises several different types of greens, and he notes that “Romaine lettuce, kale and chard are our best selling greens.”

KB Shimmer

Rows upon rows of colorful soaps fill KB Shimmer’s booth at the market. “I make a true soap that’s kind of like grandma’s old fashioned lye soap, but kicked up a notch,” says proprietor Christy Rose. Scents like Chai Tea, Margarita Lime, and Raspberry Vanilla, join traditional scents like Lavender and Honey Almond to produce an array which Rose refers to as “Soaps updated for the new century.”

Rose began making soap in the 1990s while still in high school. But it wasn’t until 2008 that she got serious about making bath and body products to sell. Using ingredients like olive oil and shea butter, she makes each batch from scratch, adding scents and coloring along the way.

In addition to bar soap, Rose also makes lip balms, lotions, bath bombs and her popular emulsified sugar scrubs, in a variety of delicious scents. “It’ll form almost a lotion,” she says of the consistency of the sugar scrubs when combined with water. And market customers get a bit of a deal on soaps, compared to her online pricing. At the market, bars are available for $5 each or buy 4 get one free.