By Liz Gordon-Hancock
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 vendor each week over the course of the summer.

To kick off this series, the Icon features Probst Family Farm.

Probst Family Farm is owned by Greg and Laura Probst, and they have eight children: Bryt, Drew, Lukas, Levi, Austin Kaleb, Makenna and Melanie. (The oldest three are grown and married.) The farm has been around since 1897, and is a Century Farm of Ohio. 

After working 30 years in residential construction, Probst said he "wanted to be able to support his family off the farm." They started raising animals because of his five boys, and then other people started asking to buy meat from them.

They now raise beef, pork, turkey, and chickens. They raise 1,500 broiler chickens over the course of a year. They also take orders for organic turkeys for Thanksgiving.

They've been vendors at Bluffton Farmers Market for eleven years now. On Saturdays, they sell homemade maple syrup, Himalayan salt, granola and granola bars, and you can order organic eggs, free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, and pastured pork, to be picked up from the farm.

All their farm produce is soy-free.

Stop by the stall to check out the nifty "tapped tree" to see how maple sap is collected. According to Probst, it takes 45-50 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.  The farm tapped 500 maple trees last year.

You can make an order at the stall on Saturday, or email Probstfamilyfarm@embarqmail.com, for pick-up from the farm.

In January, the Probst boys purchased four dairy cows and started milking them twice a day. The farm now has raw milk available, but you have to be a herd share member to buy it. 

Probst is the current market director.

About the Bluffton Farmer’s Market
This story is part of a summer series on Bluffton Farmer’s 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, director, at blufftonfarmersmarket@embarqmail.com.

Next week's vendor featured will be Ashley Breitigam of Old Homestead Soaps & Lotions.