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Elizabeth Threlkeld is the proud owner of Sunny Creek Trading Post. Sunny Creek partners with local growers and producers to bring homegrown foods and products to Ponca City and the surrounding areas. Threlkeld shares this as the heart of what Sunny Creek is doing. “We don’t just provide produce; we are empowering producers. We don’t just provide food; we provide food security. We don’t just provide supplemental income; we provide supplemental purpose.”
While Threlkeld is newish to owning her own business, she is not new to the world of entrepreneurship or agriculture. While growing up, both her parents and grandparents had their own businesses. She also grew up working in the garden with her parents and grandparents. Her time spent in the garden left her with a love of plants and a passion for growing her own food.
While raising her own kids, Threlkeld always had a garden and enjoyed canning and preserving. She dreamed of one day creating a pathway to share her food locally. She is also passionate about disaster preparedness. She helped with disaster relief efforts around our state when her children were young. In this arena, she received training from organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. She learned that the food supply chain can quickly fall apart during disasters, and then watched that happen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fortuitous convergence of Threlkeld’s passion for local produce and disaster preparedness, along with the passing of the Homemade Food Freedom Act in 2021, are what led her to start Sunny Creek Trading Post.
The Homemade Food Freedom Act
The Homemade Food Freedom Act was passed in Oklahoma in November 2021. This Act expanded the types of food items a producer can make and sell from their home. This act has opened the doors for smaller producers to enter the sales arena and led to the growth of many home-based businesses.
When Elizabeth first started Sunny Creek, the business was sharing homegrown food through produce subscription boxes. These were a huge hit with our community! So much so, she had to quit advertising them because she was selling out so quickly.
Last fall, Sunny Creek applied to become a part of Pioneer Technology Center’s Business Incubator Program. The Incubator Program is designed to nurture the growth of new businesses and help them with things like business plans, marketing plans and even provides space for them to house their start-ups. The space Sunny Creek has at Pioneer Tech allows them to manufacture food items that fall outside of the Homemade Food Freedom Act. The incubator space will give them more product versatility and allow the business to grow better than it could if it remained in a home kitchen space.
While working on finding a manufacturing space and with growing season at an end for the year, Threlkeld shifted focus and began hosting pop-up events selling value-added food products like pickles, jellies, salsas and more. Sunny Creek hosted their first pop-up at City Central in December 2023, and went on to host two more at the beginning of 2024.
In April, Sunny Creek took part in Ponca City Development Authority’s Pitch Off event. Threlkeld shared her dream to own her own storefront and share her goods and produce from local vendors with the public. She shares this as a part of the goals of the business, “We are the bridge between producers and consumers. We are pioneers at the forefront of a new frontier in local food industry committed to educating ourselves, vendors and customers how and why to eat locally, seasonally and healthy.”
Sunny Creek took second place in PCDA’s pitch-off. As part of their winnings, they have been granted temporary use of a retail space on the first floor of City Central. This space will house the sales floor of Sunny Creek Trading Post and will be open each Monday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunny Creek partners with a myriad of area vendors allowing them to offer value-added food items, as well as fresh produce and a handful of nonfood items. The retail space is meant to bring a convenience to healthy eating by offering a one-stop-shop for locally grown and preserved items.
For now, the retail space will be open on Mondays to complement the schedule of our local Farmer’s Market, held on Tuesdays and Saturdays. She plans to add additional days in the future so our citizens have access to locally grown foods even more often than three days per week.
Threlkeld has other dreams and goals, as well. She plans to eventually own a property with a commercial kitchen and a retail space. The ideal property would have good visibility and some land available for a garden. The green space would allow Sunny Creek to host gardening classes and other outdoor events. She would also like to grow the offerings of Sunny Creek Trading Post. She is currently looking for vendors who make teas, spices, dehydrated foods and canned goods like sauces. She has plans to purchase a commercial display refrigerator so she can sell local meat and dairy products in the future.
In the midst of pursuing her goals, Threlkeld also works hard in her own garden. She and her family have tons of fruit trees, including peach, cherry, nectarine, pear, apple and mulberry. They grow a variety of berries, including blackberries, strawberries, goji berries, blueberries and gooseberries. They grow other things like tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, green beans, cabbage and asparagus, just to name a few.
When asked how she does it all, Threlkeld candidly states, “I don’t do it alone. That’s how I do it. My family is completely supportive.” She goes on to say how incredibly grateful she is for the individuals and organizations within our community who have been so supportive. “There are so many people that help me with the business. I would not have a business if it weren’t for them. Everybody from my best friend who helped me launch, to one of our vendors who now became one of my partners, all the people at Pioneer Tech and PCDA, and the community – friends telling friends, telling friends. It looks like a lot, but I don’t do it myself. That’s how I do it.”
For more information, visit Sunny Creek’s Facebook page. You can also reach out to Threlkeld via email at [email protected] or via phone at (580) 304-3623.
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