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Farmers Market with more than 2-dozen vendors opens Saturday

Gary Dittman cultivates 13 acres on his 40-acre farm in Ross Twp., including this potato crop, to sell roadside and at Hamilton’s Farmers Market on Saturdays.

Staff photo by Nick Daggy Gary Dittman cultivates 13 acres on his 40-acre farm in Ross Twp., including this potato crop, to sell roadside and at Hamilton’s Farmers Market on Saturdays.

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By Richard Wilson, Staff Writer Updated 6:57 AM Friday, May 29, 2009

HAMILTON — Gary Dittman said his grandparents used to drive the horse and buggy to the Farmers Market on Saturdays.

Attending the market is a family tradition that makes up some of the earliest memories for the 66-year-old Ross Twp. farmer.

“Wall-to-wall people, wall-to-wall cars. The market was still going good in the 1950s and ’60s,” he said.

Dittman, who retired from Mosler and now focuses mainly on cultivating 13 acres of prime farming soil, will be among more than two dozen vendors at the Farmers Market Opening Day, 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 30, at the Historic Butler County Courthouse.

All of the vendors spots around the courthouse are rented, according to the public works department. In addition to fresh vegetables and fruit, offerings include fresh baked goods, homemade honey and authentic Navajo jewelry, said Bob Sherwin of Historic Hamilton.

Historic Hamilton has made it a goal to bring back the market’s glory days from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Sherwin said.

“We’ve invested a fair amount of money. ... I can see the changes taking place,” he said.

Live performers are booked throughout the year to provide musical entertainment, sponsored by the Great Miami Event Center, and a drawing will be held at the end of each month in which market shoppers can win a food basket.

For Dittman, he hopes the Farmer Market continues its upswing so he can continue doing what makes him happy.

“One word: satisfaction. You don’t answer to anybody except the people who buy your produce. And you depend on the weather.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2122 or rwilson@coxohio.com.

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