By Liz Gordon-Hancock
Hot or cold, rain or shine - Bluffton Farmers Market is the place to be on Saturday mornings in town. According to the Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce, our town "boasts the best farmers market in northwest Ohio." 

In celebration of our small but mighty farmers market, the Icon will be featuring a market vendor each week over the course of the summer.

This week's feature vendor is Chris Freed.

Chris Freed is a baker, as you will see if you stop by her stall.

She offers angel food cake, cinnamon rolls, pecan rolls, chocolate chip cookies, chex mix, apple dumplings and dinner rolls.

Her personal favorite is the dinner rolls, which have potato in them; her husband has them toasted for his breakfast.

When asked why she sells at the market, she said "I enjoy baking." Baking is apparently a family tradition, as both her grandmother and mother baked, and Freed grew up alongside them learning the art of baking and doing baking projects for 4-H as a teenager.

The angel food cake she sells is from the family recipe, passed down from her grandmother, which was always Freed's cake of choice for her birthdays. 

The cinnamon rolls are tall and square, topped with powdered sugar icing. They come in individual or pan-of-six portions. The rolls are made on Fridays. (Freed's sons have been known to buy them before they get to market.)

When busy on the farm, Freed is not always able to come to Saturday's market, but the Icon can report that she will definitely be there tomorrow, Sept. 28.

If you are interested in making an order from Freed, please call 419-721-4942.

About the Bluffton Farmer’s Market
This story is part of a summer series on Bluffton Farmers Market vendors. The market is open each Saturday through the end of October from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Citizens National Bank parking lot, 102 S. Main St. For vendor information, contact Greg Probst, market director, at [email protected].