LEWIS CENTER — Do you know where your dinner ingredients come from?
If you bought them from a chain grocery store, it’s possible those meats and vegetables could have come from anywhere in the world.
That’s why David and Mary’s market in Lewis Center promises most of its produce, meat, dairy and snacks come from Ohio farmers, butchers and entrepreneurs.
Jeff and Ellen Fishel opened the market at 6001 Columbus Pike last November as a year-round aggregator of Ohio-grown meat and seasonal products.
The name for the market comes from both Jeff and Ellen’s middle names.
“We started this because it was really important to us to have local meat for our kids year round,” Ellen said. “And it’s really hard in the winter, even in the summer, if you miss the farmers market, you don’t have meat that week.”
They knew they weren’t alone in their appreciation for where their food comes from, so they decided to take it beyond their home kitchen.
“Once we started talking about it, we decided that we would go all-in and just do probably 90% local products. We only have 10% in the store that we can’t get in Ohio,” Ellen said.
They took on the business despite already having plenty on their plates. Ellen works full time as a human resources consultant, while Jeff is chief of Delaware County EMS. The couple also has six children, the youngest of whom is nearly 2.
The benefits of eating local
Ellen said their market saw its busiest months this summer. She thinks that’s partially because of several food recalls and the cyclosporiasis outbreak.
“This is our first summer we’ve been open, but at least in the past three months, we’ve had a huge increase in people wanting to buy local produce,” she said.
“There’s an egg recall right now. And we know where the chickens are. We know what they’re feeding them. And so for the perishable food, it’s really like knowing what they’re feeding the animals, knowing how they’re being grown.”
Every time David and Mary’s takes on a new brand or product, the Fishels ask a lot of questions about growing practices, living conditions for animals, what pesticides the farmer uses, if the food contains dyes, etc.
“We try hard to avoid food dyes. We try hard to avoid highly-processed foods in the store. Sometimes stuff still ends up here, but we try to be very conscious of what we’re stocking the shelves with,” Ellen said.
David and Mary’s works with three distributors, but every other product in the store is the result of a direct relationship with the supplier. The business carries roughly 130 local products.
Eating local products is also more sustainable than eating products shipped in from far away because the food travels less miles, cutting back on gas emissions, and often requires less heavy cold storage and extensive packaging during transit.
Nearly out of space
The Fishels initially had their sights set on a location in Delaware, but the deal fell through. Their location just off U.S. 23 has worked to their advantage, Ellen said, giving the business strong exposure.
“Even in the first year, we’ve added multiple freezers; we’ve added multiple fridges that we didn’t purchase initially and shelving units. We’ve maximized the space here to the point that I’m not sure that there’s much more places to put stuff,” she said.
Despite the great location, Ellen said she hopes David and Mary’s will outgrow it and expand the brand somewhere new.
“We would love to be able to do more with prepared food,” she said. “We’d also love to be able to add Ohio beer and wine.”
Their growth has been fueled by nearby residents who, like the Fishels, want one centralized location to shop for locally produced food.
“A lot of our customers tell us it’s really hard to get groceries that you trust. And they’re going to like four or five different places to get them,” Ellen said.
Those customers do a lot of the marketing for David and Mary’s, Ellen said, noting that many customers come in through a recommendation from a friend or family member.
Ellen and Jeff have attended several markets this summer to get their products in front of new people. They’ve also invited farmers to participate in some of their own markets in the parking lot.
Also new this summer was a food truck from Sticky Fingers Ice Cream Parlor serving cones and cups in the parking lot.
But despite a large success, David and Mary’s still has growing pains like any small business. One of the biggest is maintaining inventory because people know things get restocked on Tuesdays, so by Wednesdays some shelves are bare.
“Which is a great problem to have, but also, we still have people coming in for eggs, bread, milk and so on,” she said.
Ellen said she’s still navigating the seasonality of products. In the winter, they ease up on selling Ohio-only products to allow for American products to continue filling the shelves.
In the meantime, David and Mary’s is selling all the seasonal products it can, and Ellen said she’s always taking recommendations for new products to carry in store.
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