Booth buddies at the Welland Farmers Market
By Luke Edwards
As much as Sheri Cherriere and Geraldine Edwards love interacting with the friendly customers who greet them each week at the Welland Farmers Market, they enjoy each other’s company just as much.
The pair are regulars at the weekly Saturday market, setting up next to each other. Cherriere operates Cherry Suds, where she sells her homemade soaps and body products, naturally scented with essential oils. Edwards, meanwhile, creates hot sauces, jellies and other products through her Sunshine Gardeners Small Batch Canning business.
They’ve developed a close friendship over the years at the market.
“When she’s not here I’m just not as animated,” Edwards said. “We definitely feed off each other, joking, or going back and forth quite a bit.”
Whether it’s enjoying each other’s company or interacting with the public, it’s that friendly atmosphere the Cherriere and Edwards enjoy most about the market.
Cherriere got started through a business program she was taking at Niagara College. One of her classes required students to develop a business and generate at least $500 in revenue. She’d dealt with skin issues and began developing her own natural products.
“Making my own products helped me to be able to have something more natural for my skin and I love sharing that with other folks as well,” she said. Cherriere is also part of the CAA Niagara Community Retail program, where she sells her product at the agency’s Pen Centre location in St. Catharines.
Edwards, meanwhile, is a trained chef who turned her passion for gardening into the canning business. Wanting to waste as little as possible in her garden, she began looking for options to use everything up.
An elderly lady heard about her conundrum and suggested canning, something that was new to Edwards.
“She was like, ‘okay, stay here.’ She went home and got her home cookbook, brought it back to me and she said ‘copy whatever recipe you want,’ and I’ve been canning ever since,” Edwards said.
She creates a wide variety of products, often following a theme, much like Cherriere. And Edwards sources her product locally, as much as possible.
Her personal favourite currently is a hot sauce called Burning Bush, that has habaneros and orange.
“Its flavour profile is very bright, so once you’ve had it, there’s no turning back,” she said.
The Welland Market, which operates every Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon at Market Square, is the main market for both Cherriere and Edwards. For more information on Cherry Suds follow them on Instagram, @cherry_suds, or email cherrysudshandcraftedsoaps@gmail.com. For more information on Sunshine Gardeners Small Batch Canning, email sunshinegardenerslocal@gmail.com.
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