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Once farmers grow and raise their products, they need to decide the best method for selling those goods to customers. To be successful, farmers must reach and attract numerous buyers. Since the early 19th century, Cuyahoga Valley farmers have traveled to farmers' markets, sold their products from roadside stands (usually at the end of the farmer's driveway), and/or used home delivery to distribute goods directly to customers.
The Polcens' stand on SR 82.
NPS / Carolyn Conklin
Roadside Stands and Markets
As transportation improved, tourism increased in the Cuyahoga Valley. City dwellers came via canal boat, train, and later, automobile. With more visitors, local farmers could sell products directly from their homes. Roadside stands, usually at the end of the farmer's driveway, offered a convenient and inexpensive way to market goods. Most farmers only set up their roadside stands on weekends, since they travelled to urban markets during the week.
"[Customers] were very nice, and they always came back to buy stuff when I had it to sell. We used to sell quite a few tomatoes and apples there, everything I had there at the farm. Beans … I used to pick half a bushel of beans in twenty minutes. That's a lot of beans!" —Elizabeth Thalman, former Richfield farmer, 2011
Farm Stands
2011 Oral History Project: Warren Roller, who lived where the Coliseum once stood in Richfield, describes how State Road 303 looked like a "growers' market" during the mid-20th century.
“When the fall came we sold our tomatoes at the grower's market in Akron. I would say eighty percent of the rest of the vegetables we raised were sold at a farm stand out by the road. And that was a big thing back then. The people across the street had a stand . . . the Guises'. Emmett had a stand. Jim Schmidt had a stand. Haleski's had a stand. And it was like a grower's market. Years after that people quit coming to the hill because farmers dropped out and nobody comes up for one stand. They liked it when there was stands over across that whole hill.”
You can still find roadside stands in the valley today, attracting local and visiting customers. The Polcen Farm in Northfield and several of the farms in the park farming program continue to sell local foods from their family-owned and -operated stands.
Szalay's Farm & Market in Peninsula and Country Maid Ice Cream and Orchard in Richfield operate larger roadside markets that sell a variety of products, from fruits and vegetables to soaps and pies.
Vendor selling beets at Cleveland's West Side Market, 1947.
Courtesy/Cleveland Press Collection
Farmers' Markets
In the 1800s, improvements in transportation allowed Cuyahoga Valley farmers to take advantage of markets in Cleveland and Akron. Before the canal was completed in 1827, farmers had to take their produce by wagon to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River to be shipped to larger markets. Often, a farmer's produce would spoil on the way to Cleveland, left on shore waiting for a delayed boat. With the canal and later the railroad (in use by 1852), farmers could more easily ship products and buy machinery. For example, dairy farmers could ship milk and cheese to the growing consumer markets with less risk of spoilage.
From the 1840s onward, many regional farmers traveled to Cleveland's West Side Market to sell their products. The city contained additional markets in operation during the 1800s and 1900s, including the Central Market (later the New Central Market), and the Sheriff Street Market. The farmers' market in Akron operated on Beaver Street from the 1920s through the 1970s.
Modern farmers currently take advantage of the increasing popularity of farmers' markets, both in and outside of the Cuyahoga Valley. To prepare for the market, farming families work hard to pick and polish fruits and vegetables for sale. On market day, farmers get up early, drive their products to market, and interact with crowds of customers. Farmers' markets also offer exciting venues for farmers to exchange ideas, and for customers to support local and healthy foods.
2011 Oral History Project: Irene Kusnyer, who grew up on the Szalay farm in Everett, describes how her relatives spent long hours travelling to the Cleveland markets, waking up at 2 a.m. and returning later that night.
“Work days, well they were as long as that they needed 'em. I mean, because they had to pack the corn, load the corn, and then they took it in to Cleveland to the market there. And then they had to be up at two in the morning to take all this stuff to the markets. Then by the time they'd come back, it would be about eight o'clock, seven/eight o'clock, where they'd sold it all and everybody come home so it was time to eat breakfast, maybe, if they had time, and they were back out in the field.”
Farmer’s Market in Akron
2011 Oral History Project: Lee Darst, who worked with her father on the Bender Farm in Northampton from the 1950s through the 1970s, shares her memories about the farmers' market in Akron.
“Every farmer had their own little stall that they rented every year and Bender's had one. If we got a surplus of tomatoes or whatever vegetable, we would truck it on in there. You get there about two-thirty, three o'clock in the morning and you go in and sit. All these men. . . I remember kinda being a scared little girl when I was first offered to go to farmer's market. We sat at the big counter and ate breakfast with all these guys and, you know, they're all doing their farm talk and by four o'clock, five o'clock then the groceries in the area came in to buy directly from the farmers. So that was a part of the truck farming business.”
Delivery trucks brought milk, ice, food, oil (above), and other necessities to homes and businesses.
NPS Collection
Home Delivery
During the 1800s and early 1900s, Cuyahoga Valley families purchased goods through a large home-shopping network that brought dairy products, bread, fruits, vegetables, ice, coal, oil, and tea directly to their farmstead. From carts drawn by horses or cattle, delivery men sold most food items that a family needed to survive. The milk delivery business was especially competitive around the Cuyahoga Valley. In the morning, the milkman left a quart-sized bottle of milk, cottage cheese, and other requested dairy products outside the home's side door. To order more milk, the family left a note for the milkman outside in the empty bottles.
Milk Delivery
2011 Oral History Project: Ott Wilson, who worked on Hale Farm in the 1930s, describes his father's milk delivery business.
“My dad had this milk route . . . he hauled milk into Akron from the farmers in the area out there. We didn't make much money on the farm, he made it otherwise. Well he had to go to all the farms and some of the milk was on stands out in front, most of it he had to get out of the milk house and load it on the truck and then he had to go into town, Akron, with it. He had several farms, oh fifteen, twenty maybe, I don't know. Well he went pret'near to Peninsula and all around Ira and over across the river and up in the hill in Bath. Not too much in Bath. That's about as far as he went.”
A Shave and Tie for the Milkman
2011 Oral History Project: Ott Wilson, who worked on Hale Farm in the 1930s, describes why his father always looked his best.
“My dad, he had all kinds of friends, all the people that he hauled milk to. ~laughs~ The women would always be out there, waiting for him to come, to talk to him. He went to go to work hauling milk, he'd have a tie on . . . he'd shave every morning – have a tie on, shirt on, overhauls you know. He wouldn't go out of the house without a shave and a tie on.”
