wisdom from the farm {june 10, 2023}

It’s summertime and I’m back at my all-time favorite job.

My friend's farmers market has been in business for 54 years. It started out as a roadside farm stand, had to move a couple times, and is now in its permanent spot. Her dad ran the business until he took his last breath four years ago.

A little history about this wonderful family business…

Frank Treadway was one of 12 children and grew up in a loving, active family in Middlesboro, Kentucky. After serving in the Navy during WW II he moved to Dayton, Ohio with his new bride.

He graduated from high school via night school in Dayton in 1963, following a break in his formal education since fourth grade. He loved learning, both formally and through the school of hard knocks, throughout his life. During his youth, Frank helped his family in many business endeavors, including setting up a store, building a house, trading and bartering, transporting goods, and always farming. As a teenager he worked as a caddy at the Middlesboro Golf Course, developing his skills and a love for the game of golf. He later worked 35 years for NCR in Dayton, Ohio. There he worked assembling cash registers, then in quality control as final inspector, and as technology evolved, in the micro-electronics division. He welcomed change as a challenge and an opportunity to grow throughout his life. Frank learned to plow and work the earth from a young age with a mule named Sal.

Farming became a passion for the rest of his life. In 1969 his greatest business success commenced when he and his wife founded Treadway Gardens and developed it into a thriving Centerville farm market. He worked hard growing produce and keeping bees for honey, all to sell to the community. The whole family helped and benefitted from the garden. Many customers became good friends as the business grew. The garden market was first located on the south side of Nutt Road, but had to relocate to the north side when the property sold and a house was built there. A few years later the owner of the new property decided to build houses, too. So Treadway Gardens moved to Dayton-Lebanon Pike where it is now located. Frank said he started growing houses and had to keep moving.

Mr. Treadway’s spirit is still with the farm, with his daughter and grandson running it, a son keeping the bees and spinning honey, a daughter-in-law growing kohlrabi, herbs, making flower bouquets, and the tidbits of wisdom seen around the stand. It’s a gentle happy place where the little things that make life a better place happen.