WELCOME TO OUR MARKET
Wardensville Garden Market is our on-farm market, where you can find all the goods produced from our bakery, farm, kitchen, and glass studio. Additionally, we feature local and regional products and pantry items produced by farmers, small businesses, and makers. Our market serves as a living classroom for our Junior Crew (local Appalachian Youth participating in our program), where they learn general retail skills such as customer service, teamwork, and product knowledge. They also help to serve our award-winning baked goods and craft our house-made drinks.
With every purchase you make at the Wardensville Garden Market, you support local makers, businesses, and our Junior Crew Program. For our Junior Crew, working in the market helps teach them the ins and outs of a successful retail sales operation with fantastic customer service and hospitality. While enrolled in the program, Junior Crew learn all about inventory, merchandising and store conditioning, customer service, and retail sales technology. Their on-the-job experience covers everything from unpacking orders and stocking shelves to expanding their product knowledge, testing new food items, and helping our guests find what they’re looking for.
Hours of Operation:
Thursday – Monday 10AM – 6PM
THE MAKING OF THE WARDENSVILLE GARDEN MARKET
THE JOURNEY FROM A ROADSIDE FARM STAND TO A TOURIST DESTINATION
What began with a humble display of a few crates of potatoes and dry herbs from the farm, by the end of 2016, had expanded to be a well-known tourist destination. As community interest in the project grew, so did we – expanding our farm stand into a genuine market inside the historical Frye Farmhouse. Inspired by a Junior Crew’s suggestion, we also created a made-from-scratch bakery inside the farmhouse that allowed us to expand our living classroom opportunities and provide even more food choices to our guests.
The 2020 pandemic brought a need for people to purchase essential items like fresh groceries in safe conditions, so we launched farmtakeout.com to serve just that. The online store is still active today, with many weekend guests preferring to order online early in preparation for their mini vacations.
In 2022, the bakery moved into its own state-of-the-art kitchen space down the road, allowing the needed space for both enterprises to keep up with product demand. Today, the market still operates out of the historic Frye Farmhouse and is home to hundreds of local + regional products. Here you can find Mack’s Bingo Bakery’s award-winning baked goods, Dakota Glass Works’ handblown glass art, and organic farm produce from Lewis Farm.
All enterprises in the Farms Work Wonders family reinvest 100% of their profits back into their youth programming. These include the Wardensville Garden Market, Lewis Farm, Mack’s Bingo Kitchen, Mack’s Bingo Bakery, and Dakota Glass Works.
MEET OUR MARKET MANAGER: SHENAE FRAZIER
Originally from a small town in Montana, Shenae moved east with her family during high school. After high school, she attended Laurel Ridge Community College, where she earned her Associate of Biology. After working at a local antique store, she found that making genuine connections with her customers gave her a joy that she hadn’t found in other work she had done.
Joining our market team in 2021 after 15 years in retail, she brings retail management experience and a passion for agriculture. She recently completed a Farm Fellowship program made possible by a USDA Rural Business Development Grant through a partnership between Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College and West Virginia University. She earned certifications in topics like farm business management and livestock management. As a homesteader, Shenae has been able to raise her own meat and vegetables alongside her husband while being intentional about their impact on the land, the animals, and their community.
“Every time we get to say ‘here’ when asked where our fresh produce is grown, or our baked goods are crafted, we get to help bridge that disconnect between people and their food. Being on a first-name basis with our vendors takes that a step further and allows us to build our community and broaden it. The way that we have lifted that veil here is inspiring, and I enjoy watching as those connections trickle down into our Junior Crew. I graduated in a rural area and thought I had to leave to find something meaningful to do. I love seeing them discover that there is opportunity all around them.”
MEET OUR MARKET MANAGER: SHENAE FRAIZER
Originally from a small town in Montana, Shenae moved east with her family during high school. After high school, she attended Laurel Ridge Community College, where she earned her Associate of Biology. After working at a local antique store, she found that making genuine connections with her customers gave her a joy that she hadn’t found in other work she had done.
Joining our market team in 2021 after 15 years in retail, she brings retail management experience and a passion for agriculture. She recently completed a Farm Fellowship program made possible by a USDA Rural Business Development Grant through a partnership between Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College and West Virginia University. She earned certifications in topics like farm business management and livestock management. As a homesteader, Shenae has been able to raise her own meat and vegetables alongside her husband while being intentional about their impact on the land, the animals, and their community.
“Every time we get to say ‘here’ when asked where our fresh produce is grown, or our baked goods are crafted, we get to help bridge that disconnect between people and their food. Being on a first-name basis with our vendors takes that a step further and allows us to build our community and broaden it. The way that we have lifted that veil here is inspiring, and I enjoy watching as those connections trickle down into our Junior Crew. I graduated in a rural area and thought I had to leave to find something meaningful to do. I love seeing them discover that there is opportunity all around them.”
