CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio – The late August heat didn’t deter people from lining the sidewalk waiting to step into the Winchester Farm Exchange, a locally sourced farm market in downtown Canal Winchester.

Opening day was amazing, we probably had over 2,000 visitors in the space, and we did over 400 transactions,” Co-owner Chelsie Casagrande-Smith said. “It showed how much the community is behind us – which I’m excited about.”

Winchester Farm Exchange provides an indoor space for local farmers to sell products year-round. The historic 19th-century building includes remnants of past occupants.

The reclaimed facade, wooden rails, and floorboards recall the 1880s grocery store named “The Exchange” that initially called the space home. Inside is a bank vault used by the last tenant, Chase Bank, incorporated into the store’s marketing display, housing coolers filled with apple cider.

The Exchange is a partnership between Casagrande-Smith and Trish Preston, owner of Preston Family Farm in Canal Winchester.

The partners were enamored with the space from the moment they saw it. “I currently rent across the street and one of the building owners showed us over here and we fell in love with it,” Casagrande-Smith said. “We decided on the building because of the beautiful restoration homage to the history of Canal Winchester.”

Meat, dairy, produce, and Ohio-made products are displayed in various sizes and spaces throughout the store. This includes coolers, freezers, shelves and crates.

Space rental fees are tiered based on the size and type of space needed. “If you have someone who only needs a shelf, they pay a price and then the founding farmer who needs a triple base freezer, that’s a different price,” Casagrande-Smith said.

Farmers pay a fee to rent their space for the month and 100 percent of sales go back to them. “Instead of the traditional markup that they have to put on their items, we can keep prices lower and ultimately hope that the farmers can scale their businesses in a way that they can be in more spaces like this,” Casagrande-Smith said.

Currently space rental generates enough income to pay the costs associated with running the business. Casagrande-Smith and Preston have other sources of income which provides a buffer until they can generate additional revenue. Casagrande-Smith is a marketing entrepreneur and Preston earns income from her farm.

“Right now, none of that money we generate goes to myself or Trish – that goes strictly back to the bottom line of operational fees,” Casagrande-Smith said. “Because our goal is to benefit the farmers, we’re not getting paid that way. We have to maintain our other jobs until we can find a more sustainable way to get paid while we continue not to harm the farmer in any way.”

They plan on selling beer and wine along with adding a small cafe, pending the acquisition of a liquor license and health inspections this fall.

“With our kitchen build-out we’re looking to partner with a company called Sprig & Brie Charcuterie,” Casagrande-Smith said. “She’s another local Columbus maker who makes sandwiches, baguettes, charcuterie plates, crudités, and a bunch of other things.”

All farms affiliated with the store have access to the rear of the building, which houses an educational room where they can teach workshops to the public.

“Whether it be something from how to grow your own garden, or how to make your own jam, things like that are going to be offered in the space directly from the farmers themselves,” Casagrande-Smith said.

Casagrande-Smith said they are exploring other opportunities in the coming months. “We hope to partner with a greenhouse so you can buy your Christmas tree out of our back parking. And we’ll have fun as well as educational things coming up.”

Other partnerships include Canal Winchester Schools as well as a summer lunch program called Lunch Box. “We hope to provide them access to food directly from the farmers,” Casagrande-Smith said. “The goal would be to bring back the supply chain and the food source and have it be all local.”

The pair established the “founding farmers” group from the relationships they made before forming the partnership. “We ended up pulling from resources that we already had and we’re able to find them that way,” Casagrande-Smith said.

Preston connected with the farm community, reaching out to meat and produce suppliers. Casagrande-Smith, who runs the German Village Makers Market and the Canal Winchester Makers Market, connected with bakers and other artisans.

Winchester Farm Exchange is open to a variety of marketing options for local farmers who may not have products for sale year-round. “We have additional small shelving and pop-up spaces for people who would be here more on a seasonal basis, like flower vendors – they can’t always be here throughout the year,” Casagrande-Smith said. “And we have space for different people to do pop-ups for just the winter with more winter-based products.”

While founding farmers get the largest spaces and have their names up in different areas, expansion opportunities for other producers exist. However, they will face some scrutiny.

“Our business model is to make sure that anyone who’s in a space doesn’t have a lot of competition – we try to be very mindful of who we’re bringing on,” Casagrande-Smith said. “For instance, we’re covered with meat right now and don’t need any new meat people.”

Located at 8 South High Street in Canal Winchester, the Winchester Farm Exchange is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.