On Sept. 9, ETSU hosted the first Farmer’s Market since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in Spring 2020.
Pridewalk came alive with excitable chatter as students and staff eagerly waited for the businesses to set up their booths. This year hosted a variety of different vendors; they each may have been selling a different product, but they shared the same universal sense of enthusiasm about being able to bring such a beloved tradition back to campus.
“We are really excited,” said Shanna Goddard, a representative for Marcella’s Bloom Supply, a grab-n-go flower bar. “As an alumni, I’m glad to be back on campus. We are looking forward to seeing how many students come out.”
According to their Instagram page, Marcella’s Bloom Supply was founded by sisters Rachel and Shanna Goddard in early 2020. The two girls own a flower farm and specialize in individual blooms, bouquets and wedding arrangements. Throughout the afternoon, they provided a variety of different flowers that students could mix and match to create their own bouquets, which proved to be a huge success. This year marked Marcella’s Bloom Supply’s first time at the Farmer’s Market.
Also in attendance was ETSU Farmer’s Market veteran Sheek Treats, a healthy homemade pet treat company based out of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Sheek Treats was dreamt up in 2011 by Angie Sheek, after realizing that she wanted to do something that would “make an impact on the community and bring a healthier life to others,” according to her website.
The treats Sheek makes contain fresh ingredients such as mint, holy basil, lavender, parsley, pumpkin, cheese and peanut butter. Some can even be used to treat issues in pets such as arthritis, diabetes, tartar buildup and bad breath. In addition to providing delicious snacks for your furry friends, Sheek Treats also sells handmade pet bandanas, tea mixes and plans to add fresh vegetables to their supply in the coming months.
“We were here before COVID, so we were a little sad when it was cancelled,” said Sheek. “But we are excited to bring tea mixes, vegetables, cat treats and dog treats back this fall.”
The vendor that students were most excited to see back on campus was the well-loved Auntie Ruth’s Doughnuts, a Mennonite family-owned mobile bakery that was created in 2008 and is based out of Limestone, Tennessee. Auntie Ruth’s, which is co-owned by Roman Kauffman and his wife, the namesake of their business, is best known for its giant sourdough doughnuts and handcrafted soft pretzels, but they also offer an assortment of smaller doughnuts in various flavors. The iconic white trailer emblazoned with its minimalistic logo is seldom seen without a line of eager patrons snaking around it.
But where there is sweet, there must also be spicy, and no one knows this better than the Night Owl Spice Company. Night Owl Spice was a quarantine project launched in 2020 by Craig and Mikaela Lewis, after their circus school, Night Owl Circus Arts, was forced to shut its doors for a limited period of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Night Owl Spice specializes in artisan hot sauces and offered three different flavors for students to sample and purchase during the market: Possum Princess, Hot and Happy, and Curry Cat – which is Craig’s respective favorite.
Rounding out the bunch was Eshta Egyptian Street Food, a food truck that specializes in serving Egyptian street food to Johnson City and the surrounding areas. Eshta – the Egyptian word for “okay!” – is like many of the other vendors in the sense that it began in 2020 and utilized the pandemic to chase a dream that had been previously left on the back burner. The truck serves delicacies such as beef goulash bites, tahini dip, hawawshi (an Egyptian hamburger) and hibiscus tea.
To find out more about the ETSU Farmer’s Market, visit https://www.etsu.edu/cph/newseventsdocuments/fallfarmersmarket.php.
