The accidental beekeepers

What started with a hive is now a thriving indoor farmers market

The morning frost bites at Ash Winfield’s fingers as he braves a winter storm to get into his truck. The roads are slick with ice, but the dairy can’t wait. At Swan Brothers Dairy in Claremore, Oklahoma, a 101-year-old operation that’s weathered everything from the Dust Bowl to the digital age, the cows still need milking, ice storm or not.

And at Farm Hippie, Winfield’s year-round indoor farmers market in Collinsville and Pawhuska, the customers still need their fresh, local milk too.

“The milk demand has been so high,” Winfield says.

After this run, he’ll head out to pick up fresh-baked goods from Amish kitchens for what he jokingly calls his “three-day tractor delivery.” It’s all part of the intricate dance that keeps Farm Hippie’s two locations stocked with the finest local products northeastern Oklahoma has to offer.

The story of Farm Hippie begins, improbably enough, at a Ross Dress for Less in Owasso, where Ash first spotted his future wife, Carrie Beth Winfield, a local teacher working a holiday retail job.

“I lounged around Ross so long they thought I was a secret shopper,” he says with a laugh.

That chance encounter would eventually lead them both to leave their careers. Ash retired early after 24 years with Verizon Communications, and Carrie Beth stepped away from teaching to pursue a shared dream they didn’t even know they had.

“We became accidental beekeepers,” Carrie Beth says, recounting how an old high school friend of Ash’s offered them their first hive. That gift led to honey harvests, and to excess beeswax, which sparked Carrie Beth’s creativity. She developed Bee Farmee, a line of natural beeswax skincare products. But when summer temperatures threatened to melt their outdoor market offerings, they needed a new solution.

“I’ve always wanted a farmer’s market,” Ash said. Carrie Beth’s response was characteristically direct: “Just bring it indoors.”

That simple suggestion would end up changing state legislation. When they opened their doors in August 2019, they quickly ran into a legislative roadblock. Indoor farmers markets didn’t technically exist under Oklahoma law. Rather than give up, they launched a petition, gathered thousands of signatures and worked with legislators to change the law. In November 2020, indoor farmers markets became legal in Oklahoma, paving the way for a revolution in local food access.

Today, Farm Hippie’s original Collinsville location houses between 170 and 180 vendors, with a waitlist of more hoping to join. Their newer Pawhuska location, opened in September 2024, serves a community with only one grocery store.

“Just to be able to provide good local quality food and have that accessible to everybody, that was a big draw for us,” she says

The vendors range from century-old dairies to Amish bakers, and from the famous Drummond Ranch (of “Pioneer Woman” fame) to small-scale egg producers.

“What I love is that we are in the dead of winter right now, but everybody in the market is thriving,” Carrie Beth says. “Cows always milk, chickens always lay eggs, bakers and makers always make. These people still need that outlet.”

For many of their vendors, Farm Hippie provides more than just shelf space. It offers stability and legitimacy.

“People need that stability. They want that safe marketplace where they don’t have to go set up every Saturday, they don’t have to sit on the side of the road, they don’t have to work with Facebook marketplace to sell their eggs,” Carrie Beth says.

The focus on local sourcing isn’t just about convenience or economics; it’s about quality and connection.

This commitment to quality has created a phenomenon larger than just a store. Farm Hippie has become a destination, drawing shoppers from Broken Arrow, Bixby, Tulsa and Bartlesville. But the Winfields see their vendors as customers too.

“When they come in, it’s our priority to make sure that their product is treated the best we can and goes to market because they’ve done the work to get it there, and now it’s our job to make sure it gets into someone’s home who can enjoy it,” Ash says.

“It’s almost become a lost art of continuing the generational knowledge that gets passed down and making sure that doesn’t fall away,” Ash said. “I would love to see a Farm Hippie in communities all over northeast Oklahoma.”

In the end, Farm Hippie is more than just a market. It’s a movement.

“Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own,” reads a Cesar Chavez quote displayed in their store. It’s a fitting motto for a business that began with a chance encounter at a retail store, grew through a beekeeping accident and blossomed into a community institution that’s changing the way Oklahomans think about, buy and eat their food.

Plan a trip to a location near you:

1008 W Main St., Collinsville OK 74021

134 E 6th St., Pawhuska, OK 74056

Monday – Friday: 10 AM to 6 PM

Saturday: 10 AM to 4 PM