Reaping what they grew: Straw Hat Farm Market and Kitchen Store celebrates 10 years

Assistant Editor and Senior Writer

A decade ago, Chet and Karen Byler were running out of room, but not demand: People were eager for their homegrown products sold through the local farmers’ market and, although it was an online operation, their Urban Homemaker store kept drawing people interested in shopping in-person.

“We wanted to grow that business, but also had the farmers’ market going on. We combined the two under one roof when this building became available,” Karen recounted on a rainy Friday evening.

The Bylers brought their operations together as Straw Hat Farm Market and Kitchen store at 514 S. First St., just a stone’s throw from where the summer Montrose Farmers’ Market is held.

That was 10 years ago, and things have not slowed down; they’ve expanded. Walk through the store’s doors, and neat, bright shelves of kitchen and cooking supplies greet you. Proceed, and find everything from Whirley Pop kettle popcorn popper, to seeds, homegrown garlic and other produce when in season, plus Karen’s amazing baked goods. Straw Hat even has prepared food items and cold cases for drinks and perishable items. In the far back of the leased building — once the Salvation Army thrift store — the Bylers have added a kitchen for most of their baking tasks.

“I enjoy the whole business. It’s fun to provide good-quality stuff people appreciate, whether kitchen items or food,” Karen said.

The business, which is hosting an anniversary celebration Saturday, holds its own in a time of retail giants and an explosion in online shopping.

“We appreciate each and every person who chooses to come in these doors instead of clicking the button, because that’s so easy. People really should check us out — you can get it today, instead of tomorrow,” Karen said.

What you can get at Straw Hat includes brands not necessarily available elsewhere, like Bosch, Black Cube cookware, and NutriMill grain mills. Straw Hat was recently approved as a Cuisinart retailer, capping what Karen called “a huge process.”

Customers can buy value-added products, such as jams, jellies, salsas, chips, tortillas, products from Ela Family Farms, some organic flours, Adobe Milling Co. beans, and whole grain flours Chet grinds. “People can get freshly milled flour here,” Karen said.

The family’s business grew out of their own farm, and expanded to the local farmers’ market in 1999.

At the time, Karen rented a kitchen to bake items, but then the Bylers added an inspected kitchen to their home. The in-store kitchen, added in 2020, makes the tasks easier — although Friday is still baking night, and Karen still works late into the night at home, where key staples are created. (Two words: Cinnamon. Rolls. But only on Saturdays — and get there early, because they’re popular.)

In the early 2000s, the Bylers began growing garlic on their southern Montrose farm, which expanded in 2009 to several varieties of organic bulbs. Straw Hat customers can still buy the garlic, when in season, at the store, although those operations have scaled back somewhat.

Not that the Bylers aren’t plenty busy. “We took one summer off, in 2002. Other than that, we’ve been in this community selling baked goods for a long time,” Karen said.

Straw Hat grew steadily, a testament to the hard work of the Bylers, their employees, and the willingness of the City of Montrose to lease them the store. A year before opening the market, the Bylers purchased The Urban Homemaker, an online kitchen products store.

“That is how this store came to be. It was that store, that was growing in our basement. People wanted to come and shop. It was not set up (for that),” Karen said, recounting the factors that prompted the store to open.

The city approached the Bylers about the old Salvation Army building, they said.

“They’ve been good landlords. They’ve treated us like they said they were going to,” said Chet, who also contributed a fair amount of elbow grease into getting the building ready for the store, and has made further improvements. “I think it’s a good public-private partnership. That was the goal at the beginning.”

It doesn’t hurt that the Montrose Farmers’ Market takes place right across the street in the summer, at Centennial Plaza. “It was so great that this building was here. Our customers knew where to find us,” Karen said with a smile.

Others find the store when they visit Chow Down Pet Supplies nearby — or simply because a public art statue of a horse that sits in front of Straw Hat piques their curiosity.

Customers are met with friendly faces.

“We have lots of good help. We don’t do this all by ourselves,” said Karen. Straw Hat five part-timers in the kitchen and a full-time and part-time worker up front, plus Karen, and Chet managing finances on top of working offsite.

“Good landlord, good customers, good employees,” Chet said, of what makes the business successful.

“We don’t really have much to complain about,” added Karen. “ … We’re still happily doing it. We try to give a better experience than what they get on Amazon or maybe Walmart. We appreciate people who decide to come to a small store off the beaten path.”

Straw Hat’s anniversary will be marked Saturday, Sept. 2, with an informal celebration from 9 a.m. - noon on the patio. (The store will remain open until 4 p.m.) Enjoy goodies, share some tales, and get your name in for door prize drawings. “We’ll just be there to say thank-you,” Karen said.

Katharhynn Heidelberg is the Montrose Daily Press assistant editor and senior writer. Follow her on Twitter, @kathMDP.

Assistant Editor and Senior Writer

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