Emily Sanders starts up ‘Emily’s at the Lovell Farmers Market

The Lovell Farmers Market is a hit in town, and so are the booths, especially a new recent startup booth called Emily’s. The booth is run by Emily Sanders and her family, serving Italian sodas and shaved ice. 

Emily started her booth last year to help raise money for volleyball camps and other activities. Originally, she started with baking bread and cinnamon rolls along with making bracelets and other knickknacks. She decided at the last minute to include Italian sodas because she liked them and they ended up selling the best.

She and her family decided from there that they would keep just the Italian sodas at the booth because they did so well. They also felt that it was easier to sell because lots of people at the market sold things similar to her other items, but no one sold Italian sodas. 

It was brought up to her that she could include shaved ice because the same flavors are used for both Italian sodas and shaved ice, so she used her money from last year and bought her own shaved ice machine to add them to the menu. Both options are a hit for all age ranges, and she sells quite well there.

Emily shared that her most popular flavor last week was peach, but blue raspberry and cotton candy are big hits, as well. She has lots of flavors on her menu, and she is open to new suggestions. Just this year she added passion fruit to her menu upon customer request.

Preparation for the Farmers Market for Emily normally includes checking inventory on cups, lids and straws, checking low flavors, refilling homemade flavors and loading everything to set up. Her parents and siblings are big helps when it comes to preparing, filling orders and doing behind-the-scenes work like keeping track of income and deciding which flavors to add or get rid of. Emily’s mom, Sandra Sanders, noted that they have a lot of good customers. They really enjoy seeing new faces, but they love the returners who come back week after week to buy a treat.

Both their Italian sodas and the shaved ice are priced at $3. They wanted to make it a fair price for everyone including the littles who may be buying with their own money. They love to make a profit, but they really care about the community and what they get out of their business.

“Thanks everyone for coming, and I really appreciate the support the community gives to my stand,” Emily added. 

Sandra Sanders also added that she loves the support they get from Sharron Nicholls, the organizer of the Farmers Market. Sanders loves the support she gives their booth and allowing Emily to set up there.

Emily has only set up at the Farmers Market, but she did say that she thinks it would be fun to go to other places like big events or parties. She won’t be at the market on August 14 because she will be out of town, but keep an eye out for the next one. She makes an effort to be at every one.