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 market vendor each week over the course of the summer.

This week's feature vendor is Taste Tempters.

Carol Geiger is the owner of Taste Tempters, and she's been selling her products at Bluffton's farmers market for fourteen years (almost as long as the market has been in town).

Despite growing up as a city girl in Columbus, she taught herself how to make and can jams and she did it so often that her kids started complaining and suggested she start selling her jams. "It's better than a nine-to-five job," said Geiger.

She's now based in Pandora, and sells at the Findlay, Lima and Bluffton farmers markets.

Taste Tempters sells a wide variety of jams and jellies. Besides the traditional flavors, Geiger creates a plethora of tempting flavors, such as cinnamon pear, nutty plum conserve or peach rum jam. Geiger says she's always on the lookout for new and interesting flavor combinations. She also offers less common varieties such as mulberry, quince, and tomato jams.

In addition, Geiger makes over thirty flavors of sugar-free jams and jellies. She uses truvia or stevia in place of the sugar.

But Geiger offers so much more than just jellies and jams. She bakes fresh yeast breads, in every variety and flavor known to man. Her list of breads covers an entire page, with varieties from across the globe. Additionally, she has tea or quick breads, in enticing flavors, such as black raspberry, glazed chocolate, and spiced pear, just to name a few.

She also offers relishes and sauces, including five different BBQ flavors, a sweet and sour sauce and three types of mustard. With Geiger's savory sauces, you could turn your plain chicken breast into sweet honey mustard chicken for dinner.

And then she bakes up a wide variety of gluten-free products, such as breads, cookies, cakes and noodles. She uses a mix of flours, primarily rice-based, for her gluten-free creations.

When asked why she offers gluten-free products, she said a woman approached her one day at the market and asked her "Do you do gluten-free products?" Geiger replied, "No, but I'm willing to try." She's been offering gluten-free products for years, long before they were readily available in stores. 

She now offers over twenty different breads, cookies, angel food cake, mini donuts, noodles, and zucchini brownies, all of which are gluten-free. (Obviously, she offers the gluten versions of these as well.)

There's basically nothing that Geiger won't try. "I'm in the kitchen every day, making something for the market," said Geiger. When she's spent too much time in the kitchen, she goes outside to do some gardening.

She does do special orders, including gluten-free pizza dough. To make a special order, contact Geiger at 419-233-1375.  Taste Tempters is based out of P.O. Box 76, in Pandora.

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].