In the frigid, early-morning Saturday of fall, local vendors for the Hillsdale Farmers Market wake up early to assemble in the parking lot under the shadow of city hall and come together for commerce.
Gina Gray, the head cook at Hillsdale Community Schools at Gier, has come to the farmers market to sell her bread, scarves, and mittens for the past three years, warming the hands of all who come by. She stands underneath the bright pink and lime green poster of “G’s Edible Creations,” an edible arrangement business that was her kick-start.
“I’ve always loved cooking,” Gray said. “And I’m a cook by trade. I just started at the market with a basic Italian bread and a garlic bread. And then just kind of spread out. The cinnamon rolls and pumpkin rolls are new, and this year, I added hard rolls and the rye bread and the English muffin bread.”
While she began with the baked goods three years ago, she now also sells crocheted scarves and cozy, warm mittens made from recycled sweaters given to her, or that she buys at Salvation Army or Goodwill.
““I had a friend who suggested it to me one day,” Gray said. “She said, ‘You really ought to try to make those.’ I had seen them before, so I did a little research and came up with them.’”
Gray said she’s working on continuing her business into the year, even after the farmers market closes. She already has several customers who buy from her year-round.
Lee Krauss, a local resident who attends the farmers market on a regular basis, is one of those year-round customers.
“It’s so great that you know what’s in it. You can’t buy her stuff and leave it on the shelf for two weeks,” Krauss said. “So there’s no preservatives. I love her variety of product.”
Krauss enumerated many of Gray’s products, including a dill loaf, the English muffin bread, an orange cranberry loaf, the cinnamon rolls, which he called “angelic,” and an Italian bread.
“The orange cranberry loaf makes the world’s greatest French bread,” he said. “It stands up to the egg wash and cuts a nice thick loaf, and it’ll take all the syrup you want.”
Krauss revealed that, although Gray is excellent at baking, she can’t eat many of her products.
“The ironic part of this that she can’t eat any of this,” Krauss said. “She has an issue with gluten — she realized that soon after starting at the farmers market.”
Krauss and his wife place orders with Gray, and she brings them right to the door.
“She’s extremely effervescent,” he said. “She’s one of those people that you run into in life. She’s just a positive person. Buying from her is cheaper than what you’d buy at the store, and you’re supporting a local person who’s talented instead of buying from someone from lord-knows-where.”
