New vendors at the Steele County Free Fair

Every year new vendors come to the Steele County Free Fair and this year was no exception.
Of the new vendors, four of them were from the Steele and Dodge County areas.
Carmen Dorr and Jeanette Sanford are co-owners of the Harvest Coop in Owatonna.
They were located inside the Izaak Walton Building and said this was their first time at the fair.
The coop features a variety of products from local producers including honey from Waseca, coffee roasted in Ellendale, beef sticks from Farm on Wheels in Dodge County, Hope Butter and aroma therapy products from Clarks Grove.
While they were more an informational booth than having items for sale at the fair they were doing a brisk business selling a variety of teas.
The coop has been doing well, Dorr said, and they were working on expanding their products. Coming to the fair was a good way to get their name before the public, she said.
Over at the Four Seasons, Rischaria Adams was promoting her Hands of Magic.
Adams said she promotes her own organic body lotions, therapy gels and other products. She is also a massage practitioner, she said, She recently moved to Owatonna from the Twin Cities area. She said she still has clients in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage area and she did not want to get to far away from that clientele.
Two other new vendors in the Four Seasons came from Dodge County.
Moenning Meats was selling chocolate covered bacon and beef and pork sticks under their Sweet Swine brand.
Cathy Moenning said their booth had been attracting attention and that people had been stopping by to see what they were offering, She said that they also sell a variety of meat products at the Tuesday farmers market in Owatonna, the Rochester Farmers Market and other venues. The animals, she said, are raised on the family farm south of Dodge Center and are processed at Geneva Meats.
Also inside the Four Seasons building, Jim Whitmarsh was giving out samples of the coffee Trail Creek Coffee Roasters is roasting in Kasson.
Like the other new vendors he said that the traffic at the Steele County Free Fair was enabling him to show his product to new customers.