How to go
What: Miamisburg Artisan Festival; all local artisans — includes pottery, jewelry, local specialty foods, woodworking, soaps, glass and live entertainment
Where: Riverfront Park on the Great Miami River, 30 S. Main St., Miamisburg
When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sept. 6, a Saturday
More info: (937) 654-4346 or BurgArtFest@gmail.com
When Pegge Bellamy was raising her four children, she made salsa from tomatoes she’d grown in her home garden. She continued the tradition for family and friends while she worked part-time for the City of Miamisburg. Now, however, she’s left her job as adult recreation programmer to focus on her growing salsa business.
“I’d tried to find full-time work since my kids were in college, but found it difficult for someone my age who’d been a stay-at-home mom,” said Bellamy, now in her 50s. “But, when a friend here bought 12 jars of salsa from me, it planted the seed for a business.”
The Miamisburg resident discovered SCORE, a group of successful entrepreneurs who advise newcomers to the business world. “It’s a wonderful organization, with a chapter of retired business men and women in downtown Dayton,” she said. ”I met with them, had them taste my salsa, and I was assigned two mentors who taught me so much, including the fact that I had to make the salsa in a certified facility.”
Of three such kitchens in Ohio, the closest is at Ohio State University. “I rented the space for my first batch of 60 gallons in four flavors — they had all the utensils, expertise and space, and I brought in helpers and ingredients.
“We canned it in pint jars, and had to go through the food processing authority. Then, we worked with the Department of Agriculture to add a nutrition label. My niece designed the logo and label but had to use certain styles and sizes of fonts for listing ingredients.
“This whole process took a solid year and a half — it was like going on a scavenger hunt, but I learned so much at OSU.”
When she brought home her finished jars of A Bit of a Bite Salsa, she sold to friends, then joined Ohio Proud, which had a weekly farmers’ market in Columbus’ Easton Town Center. “One of the vendors started a local storefront and asked me to bring my salsa. It sold very well.”
Her salsa now sells in all three Dorothy Lane Markets, Health Foods Unlimited and several chains in Columbus.
Although she left her city job in May, she went back as its farmers’ market manager this summer, and she and another vendor decided to take over Miamisburg’s annual Starving Artists’ Festival, which ended its 40-year run last year. “It will be the Miamisburg Artisan Festival, and we moved it from the library park to Riverfront Park, although we’ll have it on the same weekend as the Starving Artists.
“It’s just one day and more of an upscale artisan festival, with local vendors and entertainment — no re-sale or items produced in other countries.”
Of course, Bellamy will have her salsa stand there. And, although she enjoys the interaction with people at festivals and markets, she’s pursuing retail markets in Cincinnati, Kentucky and Indiana, and her five-year goal is to have her salsa in stores throughout the U.S. Not bad for a former stay-at-home mom who couldn’t find full-time work.
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