A milestone of the reopening occurred Saturday, may 9.
Sons of Toil in Mt. Orab hosted their first of the summer farmers market.
“This area was just so receptive to having a farmers market last year that everyone was super excited about having one this year,” said Sheree Caraway, co-owner of Sons of Toil.
According to the Ohio Department of Agriculture, farmers markets have been designated as essential, albeit with some additional restrictions.
Sheree and her coworkers have been diligently paying attention to new requirements and proactively rearranging for the coming environment.
“It’s going to be a little apprehensive at first because we may have to police a little bit but we’re hoping that people are respectful of the fact that we can open,” she said.
Across Ohio, closed businesses and limited headcounts are being replaced by individualized directives for social distancing.
More than a dozen people were present when the farmers market began at 11am, but most were wearing homemade masks and customers politely diverted around each other and maintained gratuitous distances when waiting in line.
“There are very specific guidelines like how far apart each person has to be,” Sheree explained. “Cones or some kind of markings [must be] set up, each vendor had to have a way of cleaning or sanitizing afterwards. They even sent out guidelines for customers.”
All the vendors present offered either food, plants, or soap, which are considered essential products.
The gathering in the Sons of Toil parking lot will be repeated on Saturdays through May, and Sheree expects each event to grow.
“Next week will be a little bit bigger, we think, because we’ve got people that want to sell candles and that kind of thing,” she predicted. “We’re hoping that with the retail opening up that there will be a few more booths available.”
For the brewery itself, Sheree is cautious and they haven’t officially announced any scaling up of operations. But they are optimistically preparing for the future. “It’s like opening up for the first time all over again,” she said.
“We’ve got everything together, that’s our hope. We hope to continue the carryout because it’s been successful if people feel comfortable with it… Social distancing is still in effect, but we’re allowed to sit outside and have a beer and a cider.”
Until then, residents of Brown County can meet in groups larger than ten people while browsing the locally-produced fare of a farmers market.
To follow the brewery, visit the Sons of Toil Brewing Facebook page.
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