Forsyth Mill Market Expo brings out local artisans

FORSYTH -- People deal with grief in many ways, but Keisha Fuller found solace by boiling peanuts.

She previously worked in an oncology office. After her mother died of ovarian cancer about a year ago, Fuller decided to do something else.

She told her husband she wanted to sell boiled peanuts, and he encouraged her to go for it. She bought a trailer equipped with two big gas burners to fire giant boiling pots. She set up alongside U.S. 41 near their home in Bolingbroke and started selling.

“It was healing for me,” she said between serving a steady stream of customers at The Mill Market Expo on Saturday. “I needed to be around people.”

In April she expanded her roadside business into an actual store in Bolingbroke called Keisha’s Fresh Market. She sells fresh produce, which she either grows herself or buys directly from a Georgia farmer. She also has canned goods, most of which she makes herself from local produce, and she bakes fresh bread.

Her store is on U.S. 41 next to Harvey’s Plumbing and is open Tuesday through Saturday. But on the first Saturday of each month she closes up shop and heads to Forsyth for The Mill Market Expo on Adams Street downtown.

“I love my community down in Bolingbroke but this expands my name,” she said. “It’s not just people from Monroe County who come here.”

The Mill Market Expo started in August and will be held on the first Saturday of each month, said Nancy McComb, co-owner of the expo. It includes two antique stores, a flea market, outdoor vendors and live music. There were 11 outdoor vendors Saturday, McComb said, which is about twice as many as she had last month, in which there were 1,000 visitors. She believes it will only grow. She has spaces for 50 vendors.

“We have lots of unique items... something for everybody,” McComb said. “It’s just a fun event.”

Camille Murray, of Forsyth, was among the vendors. She is only 24, but has already written two novels that she was selling. She writes under the pen name Camille Esther. Both of her books, “Dorian the Daring” and “Tell a Tale of Royalty in Disguise,” are available on Amazon.

“My goal is to write good books that people don’t have to worry about finding something bad in there,” she said.

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Forsyth Mill Market Expo brings out local artisans ."