DELAWARE — One less building will sit empty in downtown Delaware this coming spring.
A Bushel and A Peck Co. recently announced it will be coming to downtown Delaware in late March or early April at 19 N. Sandusky St. next to Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop.
The move marks the next step for business owners and husbands Charlie and Michael Erwin, as they take the store from a farm stand in front of their Bexley home to its brick-and-mortar location.
“We didn’t want to just open a store somewhere, we wanted to be part of a community and downtown Delaware felt like the right home for us,” Charlie said.
The Erwins had already been selling their homesteading products at Goat Local and regularly visiting the Evans Farm market. Those experiences helped them discover how “close-knit” and “cohesive” Delaware’s downtown business community is.
About a year ago, they began working toward opening a storefront of their own.
A modern take on a general store
The Erwins’ farm stand, now in its fourth year, sells a variety of homemade and homegrown products, including:
- Flowers from their backyard micro flower farm;
- Honey from their six beehives;
- Eggs from their ducks;
- Vegetables from their gardens and greenhouse;
- And homemade soaps, room sprays, candles, jams and bread.
Those products, and some new ones, will stock the shelves of their “grocery-forward” modern general store, Charlie said.
“The whole idea behind a Bushel and A Peck Co. is it’s all local. At farmers markets you can get all local foods, but what happens when farmers market season ends,” Charlie said.
The cottage-core store also fills the need of a grocery store in downtown Delaware, he said.
A Bushel and A Peck Co. will sell groceries year-round with products that make sense for each season. All products will be local to Ohio, with a priority for nearby products.
“While we are grocery-forward focused, our home decor, candles, room sprays and the way it’s curated is what I think will be a really fresh addition to downtown,” Charlie said.
“What we do and what we curate is meant to be about slowing down. Think cozy scents, gathering around the table, etc.”
That feeling is a nod to the name’s inspiration — which does not come from the song, but rather from Michael’s childhood.
His grandmother owned a spice shop in Wisconsin called A Bushel and a Peck.
Meanwhile, Charlie grew up on a farm where he learned many of the skills he uses today. He grew more interested in a homesteading lifestyle several years ago when Michael’s mother became sick.
She could no longer care for her bees, and the two decided to take over her honey operation, which triggered a chain reaction to produce as much as they could for themselves.
Now they get to produce those goods for everyone who visits their store, and their farm stand, which will remain operational.
“We want everyone who walks through the door to feel like they belong there,” Charlie said.
