A handwritten sign advertises fresh eggs, green peppers and squash. Baskets of peaches and armfuls of potatoes bask in the sun beside a cash box. Down the road, another stand offers bouquets, handmade soaps and fresh-baked sourdough. Around Montgomery County, farm stands have become as much a part of summer as red-ripe tomatoes.
For shoppers, they’re about more than convenience. They offer fresher food, personal relationships and the chance to support their neighbors. For the families behind them, they’re a labor of love built on trust, hard work and community.
“In the last few years, it seems like everybody and their neighbor has started up a roadside stand,” said Susan Smith, owner of Bit of Wild, a farm stand just south of Crawfordsville she’s proud to call 100% homegrown.
Bit of Wild’s story began nearly two decades ago, around the time when Smith established the Sustainable Initiative Community Garden, also on her property (and still thriving). With the excess from her own garden, she now offers a selection of fruits and vegetables, and even boasts an expansive greenhouse and pumpkin patch where beneficial insects like praying mantises and lacewings take care of pests, not pesticides.
Her customers keep coming back, she says, not only for the organic produce, but also for the gardening advice that accompanies each purchase.
“When it comes to growing the plants and everything, I’ve got the education behind growing that I can explain to people in layman’s terms,” she said.
Smith’s homestead is just one example of the shapes farm stands can take. From staffed farm stores to seasonal produce patches to “honor fridges,” the colloquial definition of a farm stand is any establishment that sells homegrown produce or homemade goods directly from the seller’s property. They generally operate under Indiana’s home-based vendor law (or “cottage laws”), which allows certain homemade foods — such as baked goods, candies and jams — to be sold without a commercial license. (Foods considered potentially hazardous, like pickles and dairy, typically must be prepared in an inspected commercial kitchen.)
“You’re going to come up with more of the fresher stuff that’s not been sitting on the shelf forever,” Smith said. “That’s why you don’t expect the perfect tomato or the perfect cucumber.”
Perhaps perfection was never the pursuit, anyway.
“Have you ever bought a tomato at a food chain store that tasted good?” offered community farm stand frequenter Ted Lewellen. “Me either.”
Just a few minutes north of Bit of Wild, the aptly named The Narrow Path sits tucked among flower beds and vegetable gardens, where owner Brooke Morrison says the farm stand has become much more than selling what her family grows.
Morrison began selling produce from a simple roadside stand nearly five years ago as a hobby gardener. As the venture grew and the gardens expanded, her husband, Brad, built the permanent structure on their property that now welcomes visitors throughout the summer and fall months.
“I wanted to be able to share what we grow with other people,” she said. “It’s also started relationships with people that have come here to purchase, and that’s been fun, getting to know more new people from the community and then returning every year.”
For Morrison, those familiar faces matter much more than the day’s sales.
“It’s not really about the money,” she said. “It’s just about those people coming back and forming a relationship with them.”
And for customers, that sense of familiarity is a two-way street. Owners say farm stands offer something that’s difficult to find at larger retailers: the opportunity to know the person behind the product.
“I think there’s an element of trust that is built,” said Christina Eldrenkamp, owner of Black Creek Valley Acres, a family farmstead located just west of Crawfordsville. “You get to actually see that person, get to know them and build a rapport with them, and it’s not just coming from Amazon or from the grocery store where you have no clue who or where your things are coming from. I think the farm stand makes people feel more connected to their own community, in a sense.”
After moving to Montgomery County from North Carolina and stepping away from a career in teaching, Eldrenkamp turned her passion for homesteading into a full-time business. Like The Narrow Path, Black Creek Valley Acres began from a modest roadside stand selling flower arrangements, baked goods and handmade products like soap. Today, Eldrenkamp has expanded beyond the roadside, stocking shelves at the Bin-tique — a fully air conditioned, fully renovated grain bin-turned-storefront. Her business specializes in natural, chemical-free products for the skin, body and home, in addition to still carrying farm-fresh produce, dairy, sourdough and bouquets.
“I think people just are looking for that more natural and organic product, whether it’s natural skincare or produce or baked goods,” Eldrenkamp said. “When I bake, I want people to know that I take the time to do it carefully and to use good ingredients. And when I make soap, I want them to know that I’m making it so that they have another option, instead of going to the big chain stores and getting chemical-laden soaps for their family. It’s a good peace of mind to know that there’s people out there that still hand-make stuff and do it with love and purpose.”
Behind that sense of trust, farm stand owners say, is countless hours of work that customers rarely see.
“Having a farm stand isn’t so easy all the time,” Eldrenkamp said. “You do it with love, especially baking. … It’s a labor of love.”
Chelsea Page knows that feeling well. She opened Sunset Farm Stand two years ago after finding herself with more produce than her family’s garden could use. Now, the stand offers pork, fresh bread, cinnamon rolls, goat milk soap, seasonal produce and the occasional antique, all while Page balances an additional full-time job and family life.
“I wish people would understand how much work goes into it,” she said. “I have a full-time job, and this is another full-time job, with also raising a family.”
Despite the long hours, Page says the reward isn’t measured in revenue.
“It’s rewarding, though, knowing that it goes back to the community,” she said. “You become like family to other people when they know where their produce and their meats are coming from. … I’ve been in this community my entire life, so being able to give back to it is huge for me.”
While at this point, it may seem obvious why many shoppers choose local goods over larger retailers — the freshness, the relationships, the community giving — some may still wonder how small farm stands manage to compete with bigger grocery stores. But for Page, cost was never a question.
“I’m not going to price gouge something, because if I don’t want to pay that price, I’m not going to make somebody else pay that price. I don’t look at prices in the store — I look at what I can give somebody and know that they are able to pay for it and enjoy what they got,” she said.
Her favorite example of this philosophy arrives in October.
“Halloween is my go-to holiday, and it’s one of those where I want to see the kids be able to get a pumpkin,” Page said. “Even if they give me a quarter for it or don’t pay at all, I don’t care — I just love being able to see the joy that they get from that.”
For some shoppers, choosing a community farm stand is an investment in the local economy, or even a way to push back against big-box retailers.
“I’d rather support someone local than a huge corporation,” said community member Anthony Bailey.
In the end, Page believes her business thrives because customers want a closer connection to the food they eat.
“A lot of people like to know where their things come from, especially food. You want to know what you’re putting in your body, and this is a great way to do it,” she said. “You know the person that you’re getting it from is reliable. You know what they’re able to use and what they’re not, and you can ask questions about what they feed their animals or what they put on their products. Those kinds of things make you feel a little bit more safe about what you’re eating.”
According to Tricia Herr, Purdue Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources, the rise of farm stands accompanies a broader increase in home gardening that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With current food prices and inflation, you also see cost savings as motivator to start growing. It also has to lead to people learning they are good at it. There also are many programs that have supported the movement,” she said, pointing to grower grants offered by the USDA Farm Service Agency, and the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation District’s Urban Soil Health program, which provides free soil testing and on-farm technical assistance for small-scale growers.
“Overall, there is also a trend of individuals that are seeking more community,” Herr said, referencing the increasing trend of American loneliness.
Aside from the community benefits, farm stands are efficient for owners because rather than committing every weekend to a farmer’s market, many farm stands are “always open,” with the benefit of being only an arm’s length away (on their own property).
“Farm stands are a win-win for both grower and consumer,” Herr said.
But farm stands don’t always have to stay on the farm. Many owners, like Eldrenkamp, consign their products to local emporiums to broaden their reach, or participate in nearby farmer’s markets. Some, like Tammy Blankenship-Williams, go wholesale.
Blankenship-Williams founded Elderberry Everything in 2019, after her son was diagnosed with asthma. After navigating medications and lifestyle changes with her son, she researched the anti-oxidant effects of elderberry, eventually making her own elderberry syrup as a supplement for her family.
“Literally within two months, he was off of all of his nebulizers, steroids and inhalers,” she said.
What started as a homemade remedy quickly grew into a small business.
“I was just making it in an Instapot, loading it up in my mom van, driving to the Dunham’s parking lot, and posting it on Facebook, and people would come and buy it,” she said.
As word spread, Blankenship-Williams began selling through social media, festivals and farmer’s markets, eventually expanding into a dedicated storefront on her property with an honor fridge available to customers 24/7. Through sponsorships, donations and partnerships with local events, she said she tries to reinvest in the community that supported her business in any way possible.
“If somebody has a raffle or needs donations, I always try to pitch in, because you never know who that’s going to present it to,” she said.
In 2025, Elderberry Everything received an Elevate Small Business grant through Hoosier Heartland State Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis — a grant which has allowed it to expand into wholesale beverage packing for its new elderberry lemonade, expected to hit shelves in Indianapolis, Lafayette and parts of Illinois this September.
But for Blankenship-Williams, her business’s humble community beginnings will always be at the heart of her mission.
“This all started when my kiddo was little and had asthma,” she said.
From honor fridges stocked overnight to small roadside stands that have grown into full-time careers, Montgomery County’s farm stands continue to thrive on a foundation of trust. The products may change with the seasons, but the reason customers return remains the same: fresh goods, familiar faces and a connection to the community they call home.
