The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Gerhart’s Garden marking 30 years
Popular produce stand began as a few tables
Gerhart’s Garden, located at 33840 Lorain Road in North Ridgeville, is excited to celebrate its 30th year in October. The farmer’s market, which started in 1992 has a rich history to its humble beginnings.
Original owner and founder Norman Gerhart started the business with his wife Mona Lou shortly after retiring from work as a baseball field construction worker.
The decision to retire came soon as he found out his wife was ill.
In order to spend more time at home with her but to still keep the finances up, the Gerharts decided to open a small roadside shop outside their house. Daughter Norma Adams took over the establishment once retirement came again for her parents, and still maintains the shop today.
“My parents first started with four or five roundtables of produce that they would grow and sell. People would come from here and there and before we knew it, it just kept growing,” says Adams.
To compensate for the large influx of customers, the family purchased a tent and moved their work there. Following the death of Norman Gerhart in 2013, Adams took over full time.
“It was a little rocky and nerve-racking to take over, but it was also super exciting. I mean the business isn’t that big, but it’s huge to us,” she said.
Since then, Adams has carried on her father’s legacy of hosting celebrations and raising funds for local nonprofits during the stand’s season.
“We try to choose nonprofits that correlate to our family in some way and tend to rotate between four or five of them to do each year,” she said.
This year, Gerhart’s Garden is collecting funds for Project NICU, a nonprofit located out of Cleveland. The group focuses on raising funds for families of neonatal intensive care unit babies and the medical staff that care for them.
Adams explained that the decision to partner with them came after the threemonth early arrival of her nephew’s son earlier this year.
“My nephew is a huge supporter of the business and is helping out with the celebrations planned in October so it felt necessary to choose Project NICU,” Adams says.
The same nephew is the head candidate to take over the business when Adams retires.
“We try to keep the business in the family. We have a lineage for the property,” says Adams.
“I am the youngest of my siblings so it will probably be grandkids or greatgrandchildren that end up taking over. It’s just important that we continue to educate the younger generations about our legacy so that it doesn’t get lost.”
Adams says she is looking forward to the fall season and festivities, and urges everyone to check out Gerhart’s Garden’s page on Facebook for upcoming events.