Heigh-ho, heigh-ho it’s off to the market I go. This week my family and I headed to Fremont for Ralph’s Joy of Living Farmers’ Market and boy, oh boy, what a market it is. But I’m breaking my format; first I need to tell you what you can find online and how to get there, and then we can go into what a great farmers’ market it is.

Ralph’s Joy of Living Farmers’ Market in Fremont is held once a month right in downtown Fremont on Front St. When you Google for information on Ralph’s Joy of Living Farmers’ Market you’ll find a few things. First, make sure you put Fremont, Ohio in your search because if you don’t, you will get farmers’ markets outside of Ohio. When you do put in the right search info you’ll find downtown Fremont’s website, downtownfremontohio.org. It’s a simple site and right at the top of the page is the farmers’ market schedule.

The next thing I found in my Google search was a PDF on the Fremont Farmers’ Market. This document has the schedule and information on how to become part of the market, but I’m going to give you all the info you need to know right now.

Fremont is just a short drive from Sandusky on Route 6, and it was a nice car ride to take with my family; we got to talk about things we wanted to look for at the market.

According to all the information I found on the web, this farmers’ market is held rain or shine and goes from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. We got into downtown Fremont at about 9:45 a.m. and you couldn’t miss the market. Two city blocks were blocked off and people were looking for places to park. It was packed, but parking was really easy to find. We ended up parking a block away from the market.

We started at one end of the market, at the corner of Front St. and Croghan St. and my husband, son and I were so excited to see over two full blocks just packed with people. We could hear music and smell food being cooked, like grilled corn on the cob, tacos and BBQ. Mmmmm.

The Fremont Farmers’ Market is by far the biggest one I’ve been to this summer and it’s kind of a shame it’s not every week or every other week, but that’s just how it is.

All of the produce vendors had wonderful fruits and vegetables, with huge selections to choose from. This market also had lots of different vendors with baked goods. We wanted to buy so many things, so we decided that the best thing to do would be to walk down one side and then come back up the other and just take everything in as we went.

All of the produce vendors had lots of different kinds tomatoes and peppers. Some had 10 different kinds of peppers. My family loves multicolored peppers so we picked up three for $1 at one of the vendors. At another vendor they had purple peppers, which we also love, and they were three for $1 as well. Every produce vendor had a minimum of four different kinds of tomatoes, and a few had way more than that.

One of the vendors had zebra tomatoes (red and green) and were giving out samples and man, they were really tasty.

You really could get all kinds of produce there. They had green beans, lima beans, three different kinds of local melons, four different kinds of potatoes, sweet corn, onions, green onions, different kinds of squash, cabbage, beets, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, greens, herbs, pears, plums and just so much more.

We also found a vendor that sold free-range local eggs and free-range locally raised whole chickens. If you have been watching the news, you may be a little more aware of how these animals are treated and how dangerous it can be, so buy local! The eggs and whole chickens are both antibiotic and hormone free.

The Fremont Farmers’ Market also has special themes to help out local programs and make it more kid and family friendly.

We went on “The Dog Days of Summer” and it was super-cute. The Market had all the different local pet shops with lots of special treats for the pups. We didn’t bring our dogs but we should have; they would have loved it and we could have had them in the contest they had going on, but oh well. My son (like most kids) loves dogs and had a ton of fun talking to the owners and meeting the dogs. He also found the greyhound adoption area and fell in love with every one of them, but he already has two dogs. The greyhound adoption is a really good program and if you are looking for a dog you should check them out. We did pick up two toys for our dogs at home; they are cloth animals that you put a used water bottle in. Our dog Shadow loves to play with water bottles and our dog Mia loves stuffed animals so it works for both of them. But they will have to wait until Christmas to get them.

Fremont Farmers’ Market had lots of baked goods. A few vendors we had met before, like Bella Cuisine and Healthy Bakers. But we also meet a ton of new bakers, too. Fremont Farmers’ Market had lots of different Amish bakers and they had lots of yummy breads, cookies, cakes and more. One of them was Yoders’s Family Market from Mendon, Mich. and they had 12 different kinds of huge cookies. They also had pies, cakes and tons of different kinds of breads. We picked up some apple cinnamon bread and some blueberry swirl bread.

The Fremont Farmers’ Market also had jewelry vendors, fundraisers, Pampered Chef, The Fremont Library and more. We did find a few that stood out, like one vendor was selling baked goods and Haitian woodwork, kind of a weird combo. I asked them what they were about and they said that all the money they raise goes back to Haiti to help rebuild. That’s really cool. Another vendor that stood out from the rest was Nature’s Design created by a lady name Trish. She takes concrete leaf castings and they make really neat wall hangings, birdbaths, seed holders or cute miniature gardens. Another vendor was all about J.R. Watkins products and she had everything these guys make. I got a huge bottle of all natural dark vanilla and I can’t wait to make some homemade cookies with it.

Fremont Farmers’ Market is definitely a must for anyone that loves to go to an open-air market. My family spent at least two hours walking around and shopping. Most of the farmers’ markets we have gone to we are done within 30 minutes tops. This is a great place to bring the kids and spend a day getting them excited about produce shopping and because they block off the street there were lots of little kids running around having a great time. Plus everyone was incredibly nice. My son asked lots of questions and everyone was great to him, took the time to answer everything and then asked him if he want to know anything else.

Another nice thing was all the shops downtown were open so you could go in to them. We found an Amish deli on our way out of the market and picked up some lunch meat and cheeses. The lunchmeat was so good my son wants us to go back every week and get more. I’m not sure about that, but I do know we will be going back to the Fremont Farmers’ Market in September and in October. I took a ton of photos and they will all be online along with a short video. I know I haven’t done a video of the other farmers’ markets, but this one really needed one.

The next Fremont Farmers’ Market will be Sept. 18 and will feature Service Club Olympics. October is a special month for the market because they are having two of them. That’s right, two! The first will be Oct. 2, 2010 and the second will be Oct. 16, 2010 featuring a scarecrow-decorating contest. Make sure to bring the kids out for that one.

Well, till next week, don’t forget your earth friendly bag and to eat local to help build a stronger community.