Bakers keep selling goods at rainy day farmers market
The Oxford Farmers Market runs 52 weekends per year, rain or shine. On the worst weather days, columnist and Free Press Board President James Rubenstein writes that the bakers run the show.
Last weekend’s wet weather disrupted normal routines for many of Oxford’s Farmers Market vendors. The drought followed by the deluge made harvesting impossible for some vendors. With less shoppers than usual, some of the vendors wanted to chat longer with us regulars.
Most of Oxford Farmers Market’s bakers came out last weekend despite the rain. Bigham Artisan Bread & Pastry is Oxford Farmers Market’s veteran bakery. James Bigham started selling bread and pastries here around 8 years ago, when he was only 16 years old. His older brother John also started his Farmers Market journey selling produce as a teenager, but he stopped five years ago when he moved to Wisconsin. Home-schooled on the family farm in New Paris, James honed his baking talent from accomplished to extraordinary at schools in San Francisco and Chicago.
Sasha and Mike Symon’s Birch Creek Bakery is the newcomer, first appearing at Oxford’s Farmers Market on a dark cold morning in January 2023 when only the most intrepid shoppers and vendors were there. The Symons, a “Miami merger” three decades ago, live in Loveland, where they both hold full-time jobs in business. They hadn’t been back to Oxford since graduation, but after Sasha took up baking artisan bread and pastries, they started coming to the Farmers Market every week last year.
During last Saturday’s rain, Sasha Symon joined her husband Mike at the market for the first time since April. Sasha has been taking their bread to Montgomery’s Farmers Market while Mike comes to Oxford. Montgomery canceled their market last Saturday because of the poor weather, but Oxford of course did not — I write “did not,” because Oxford never cancels. Oxford’s Farmers Market meets all 52 Saturdays of the year, regardless of weather, whereas Montgomery holds its market for only 26 weeks and evidently is less weather-tolerant than Oxford.
Because of the bad weather, the threat of losing electricity Friday night, and the cancellation of the Montgomery market, Sasha and Mike decided to bake only their two most popular breads, which they call Professor Bread and Student Bread. I’d never heard them refer to their breads by those names. Sasha explained that Professor Bread, which is whole wheat sourdough, is preferred by older customers, whereas Student Bread, which is white sourdough, is preferred by younger customers.
Mostly men buy their cheddar jalapeno bread, she added, and mostly children buy their chocolate croissants, whereas everyone buys their focaccia bread. I didn’t ask about their incredibly dense rye bread, but I’m guessing it’s preferred by locals of German heritage. Mike is a market analyst for several corporations, so he knows a lot about demographics.
I once asked Sasha why she does so much labor-intensive baking after a week of hard work and then drives to a farmers market early every Saturday morning instead of sleeping in. Her response: “It’s cool being here in Oxford. I work from home and see no other humans all week (unless you count my husband).”
James Bigham’s customers usually stand in a long line that snakes around the Farmers Market. Although I love his pastries, I usually skip the line, but last rainy Saturday there was no line, so I got some excellent croissants. I apologized to James, saying I am a fair-weather fan of his, and he replied, no, you’re a foul-weather fan.
James Rubenstein is president of the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press and professor emeritus of geography at Miami University.
