Meet Moser’s Farm Partners: The Mashburn Family - It Takes a Village to Build Community

Little did we know when we opened the barn six seasons ago that so many of our neighbors

would embrace us. We’ll forever be grateful to the Mashburn family who were among our

first customers – and throughout the past few years their story with us has grown into so

much more. Now, mom Christin, is the behind-the-scenes-maker of many of our canned

specialty products and son, Joey, who helps in the market has built a unique gift for kids this

Fall season! We know we couldn’t build this community without people like Christin and

Joey in our village to help. Read more about them – we think they are pretty special!

Meet Christin Mashburn

“From the time Brad and Christina bought their property on Clark Shaw Road, I had been

watching them do amazing work to refurbish the old barn there,” said Christin. “I was super

excited to learn the barn would be a market – and then, right before they opened, a truck

delivering product there hit an electrical line, cutting the power to nearly everyone on our

road.” Christin imagined this was an extremely stressful time (oh, was she right!) -- so she

took the opportunity to gather some fresh flowers from her garden, put them in a pickle jar

and walked over to introduce herself. “I had been praying for their success, and I wanted

them to know they had my support,” said Christin.

Once the market opened, Christin quickly became a regular customer. In fact, Christin

would do her shopping first at our farm market and then fill in with other staples from the

grocery store. “With several allergies in our family, I began buying in bulk and cooking from

scratch. It made the most sense for our family of six,” Christin said. Soon, we started

offering Christin excess produce as a ‘thank you’ for being such a loyal, first-year customer.

“As a ‘thank you” back to the Mosers, I gave them a jar of whatever I made from their extra

produce,” said Christin.

From there, a unique relationship was underway. “Christin’s products were so good, we

knew our market customers would like them as much as we did,” said Brad. Christin was

very hesitant at first to sell her homemade goods … “I’m just a mom cooking for my family –

I had no intentions of starting a business to make things for others,” she said. Finally, Brad

talked Christin into making grape butter to sell at the market from extra concord grapes he

had in stock. Her jars sold out in a week. She made elderberry syrup shortly after that, and

those sold out quickly as well.

Over the past couple of years, Christin, who does all her cooking from her home kitchen just

doors from the market, has expanded her specialty products to include jellies, fruit-based

drink mixes, canned apples and peaches, applesauce and tomato soup. “We give Christin

full range to come up with the unique things she makes – we just supply the produce for

them,” said Brad. “The end products are all her creativity.”

Meet Joey Mashburn

When Christin was doing her regular shopping in the barn, she usually brought along her

four kids. “Over time, Brad started seeing my oldest son Joey as a potential future

employee,” said Christin. Joey, who is now 14, has working closely with Brad at the market.

He helps with everything from breaking down boxes, trimming and mowing the surrounding

property to restocking produce and unloading pumpkins.

Earlier this Fall, Brad asked Joey if he could design a straw bale maze for kids. Joey took

up the challenge immediately.

“Joey is home-schooled and had been working with the CAD program ‘Sketch Up’ in his

curriculum” said Christin. Brad shared with Joey the dimensions of the straw bales and the

room he had for the maze. From there, Joey used the program to create the maze and help

to build it with more than 300 straw bales. “It’s been fun to see it come to life,” said Christin.

“And each time I go to the market now our younger kids want to go too so they can run

through the maze their brother built.”

“Meet Moser’s Farm Partners” regularly features the area farmers who bring you “farm

fresh, flavor first” produce at Moser’s Farm Market and Barn. Neighbor Christin Mashburn

is a home cook making items exclusively for Mosers under the Ohio Cottage Law for in-

home preparation. Her oldest son Joey helps part-time at the market.