“We have been providing Washington Twp. and surrounding areas with fresh produce since 1969,” Wilson said.
“My dad, Frank Treadway, (of Washington Twp.) started this business hoping to supplement his income to help four kids go to college. His vision was to grow vegetables so people could feel like it was their garden.” At 87, he’s still working their 9.5 acres of fields, she said.
They plant about four acres each year to rotate crops, she said. Her mom, Inez, 82, works behind the scenes and brings out lunch to whoever’s working each day.
The market offers u-pick and already picked produce. “We supplement with produce grown by the Amish in Bainbridge, Ohio,” Wilson said.
Ready for picking now are beans (stringless bluelake and white half runners), sweet and hot peppers, Roma tomatoes, eggplant and okra, she said.
Washington Twp. resident Amy Fish, who claims to have a nose for sniffing out tasty tomatoes, extolled the tomatoes sold at the Treadway Gardens while shopping at the Centerville Farmers Market on July 16.
Stopping by the Treadway Gardens on July 18, I noted loads of bright red tomatoes, with a large bin marked Amish tomatoes, nearby.
On July 20, I cut into a firm red Amish tomato I had bought, put salt and pepper on it, and ended up eating half the tomato just by itself for lunch. Amy Fish wasn’t wrong.
“We use very little chemicals and a lot of manpower battling weeds,” Wilson said of the gardens.
“We have also starting selling flowers in 2006, all grown locally,’ she said. A long line of tall sunflowers grow near colorful bundles of cut gladioli.
“We also have North Carolina Frasier Fir Christmas trees,” she said.
Her brother, Jeff, and his wife, Judy, who have five acres on Bigger Road, grow heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic that are sold at the gardens. “It really is a family affair,” she said.
Wilson said she’s been helping her father run the market operation since 1987.