Local Sunday market withstands the years

June 1, 2012 • Shayley Steinke, Staff Writer  
Filed under Feature

The Howell Farmers’ Market is an ideal venue for growers to come and sell their products. The market offers a wide variety of produce, flowers, and specialty items such as jewelry and handbags.  It is located next to the historical Livingston County Courthouse and offers plenty of parking. It is open every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., May through October.

One of the more abnormal booths set up at the market is Never Dull Sharpening. This is where people can come and get their knives, lawn mower blades, and much more sharpened.

Another unique booth is the hand-crafted bird houses. One company, Ground Swell, has come up with very creative houses, decorated with stones and branches. These are not the average bird houses; one bird house takes up to three days to make.  All the stones that are placed on the bird house originate from Lake Superior and are handpicked by the owners. In the past nine years, they go through on average, five to fifteen birdhouses on one Sunday. “We come back simply because we do well,” says Jessica Warner.

Community members often come for one thing, the flowers and vegetables. Five Star Farmers has been selling these items for thirteen years. Right now, they are selling mostly hanging flower baskets, going through 100 to 125 plants on one Sunday. Five Star Farmers sell impatiens for ten dollars and the rest of the big hanging baskets for twelve dollars. As the summer progresses, they move into selling garden vegetables.

For Lucy Sanders, owner of Cosmo’s Canine Bakery, she does very well at the market. She features all natural dog treats and gifts. Her most popular flavor by far is peanut butter. In one Sunday alone she can go through forty pounds of treats. Sanders has been at this location for almost eight years now. “My favorite part is seeing the dogs come and go. I have watched some dogs come as puppies and now I have seen them grow to be old dogs,” Sanders says.

This local attraction has a strong sense of family. Some people have been coming and selling their goods since they first started. Cohoctah Honey Works have been at the farmers’ market for sixteen years. The owner Thomas Arnott, who recently passed away, handed down his company to his son who plans on continuing the tradition every Sunday at the Farmers’ Market.

Cohoctah Honey Works feature some very unique items. They sell beeswax and honey soaps at four dollars apiece and one hundred percent beeswax candles that are molded in various shapes like corn cobs, honey bears, and more. Undoubtedly their most popular product is their succulent honey. One of their secrets is they add extra bee pollen. Cohoctah Honey Works has a wide variety of honey because they cultivate many different blooms, which in turn give each a different flavor.

“We live here and the whole family thing is what keeps us coming back to the Howell Farmers’ Market every year. It has been a hard time since Tom’s passing and it is always nice to see some of the same faces every Sunday,” says Kathy Kohlman, who is part of the company and had a close relationship with the former owner Thomas Arnott.

People come for the flowers, vegetables, the bakery items, the jewelry, or the home made birdhouses, but no matter what it is that people go to the farmers’ market for, they are greeted with a family atmosphere filled with loving community members.

Tags: Howell Farmer's Market, local business, shopping

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