WALES — A dozen customers mill around neat rows of locally grown tomatoes and shelves lined with jams in flavors such as blue-barb, mandarin orange and FROG (fig, raspberry, orange and grape). There are pretty displays of produce, pickling cucumbers and pickled fiddleheads in jars. There is Dutchman’s gouda and Buggy Whip sharp cheddar cheeses and fresh milk, eggs and meat products.

These are some of the items at the Garden Spot Market, which reopened two weeks ago in a new barn on Leeds Junction Road. Word has spread through neighbors and advertising.

“People love to shop out of this place. We think even the food tastes better sold out of this building,” Jonas Yoder joked while tending the register.

The market is owned by 11 families in the Amish community nearby.

“We have several people that we have chosen to kind of lead out the project. And so they are sort of the overseers of everything,” Yoder said. But, everyone has a voice in decisions. 

“Everybody has their own little effort that they put in,” Yoder said. “We’re all raising vegetables, and producing jams and jellies and cheese. And cutting meat, processing meat. If everybody does their little thing, it tends to work kind of like a well-oiled machine.”

Yoder works at the market Tuesdays. The rest of the week, he and his family raise vegetables on a two-acre plot down the road. With a few exceptions, all of the items sold in the market are grown or raised by the families within a mile-and-a-half radius of the market.

The community formed in Wales four years ago, with families coming from places including Ohio and Smyrna. The decision to build a barn and expand their operation was made because both the community and business were growing. Yoder attributes the growth to their spirituality and intentional community, though they’re not interested in drawing attention to the fact that they are Amish.

“I realize you can really capitalize on that name as far as selling products, but we don’t want to capitalize on the name. We’re just common people,” Yoder said.

Prior to raising their new barn, the community sold produce out of a smaller building that is for sale.

“The business was taking off so well that we decided to build bigger,” Yoder said. “And it’s more room than we need right at the moment. But, with a growing community and doing more volume, we didn’t want to add on every two years.”

According to Yoder, everyone helped to build the barn, even the children. Together, they completed it in just over three months, working from March until early June.

“For some of us that were actually in the middle of it, it seemed like it took a while,” Yoder said. “But it went very, very fast.”

The community is hoping to start building their own furniture and add a display to the second floor of the barn. At the moment, they are selling furniture out front made by a group of Amish in Unity. As the summer progresses they also plan to add bins of watermelon, sweet corn and cantaloupe to the store.

Their current offerings are all raised organically, although not everything is organically certified. They raise and butcher their own meat, offering beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Customers have the option to make custom orders, such as an entire cow.

Summer hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The market can be found at 170 Leeds Junction Road in Wales and purchases are by cash or check only.

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