Farm preservation through profitability

By Matt Reese

Profitability is the best way to help preserve Ohio’s agricultural heritage, farms and farmland. This philosophy is at the heart of the Winchester Farm Exchange housed in a historic former bank building that has quickly become a hub of agricultural commerce in downtown Canal Winchester, just southeast of Columbus.

“I started with a cooler on my front porch selling eggs, which quickly escalated during COVID to opening a farmstand market in a small shed on our farm with our products and those from our friends’ farms that grew to be wildly popular,” said Trish Preston, Winchester Farm Exchange co-founder. “Chelsie Casagrande-Smith met with me and we hatched this plan to grow what we were doing at the farm stand. There was this property in downtown Canal Winchester and it was a perfect match. Both Chelsie and I have other jobs and we are really busy moms with families. We would sit down to work on this concept about 10 at night and work until 2 in the morning for weeks.… Continue reading