PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2023

these hams that had been ordered. What are we going to do with all of these hams?” she said. “We decided to make Easter dinners to go.” That new business line took off imme diately, with the market offering other dinners to go, take-and-bake casseroles and other items in the freezer section and eventually catering. EVERYTHING AND THEN SOME In addition to stocking an untold number of goods, Braker’s Market has an eat-in café offering made-to-order deli and hot sandwiches, soups, hand dipped ice cream and flavored coffee. Daily lunch specials are available, along with indoor and outdoor seating. Their homemade cinnamon rolls, car amel rolls, pies, bread, cookies and rolls are in high demand, especially around the holidays. They also offer a variety of frozen homemade casseroles in ad dition to locally raised beef, pork and appetizers. But the market has more than just food. There are puzzles, books, tractors, dolls and wooden toys by Melissa & Doug, kitchenware such as Rada knives, World’s Best dish clothes, Nordic Ware baking pans and cookbooks, too. They also stock candles, lotions, soaps, baby clothes and gifts, décor items, vitamins, supplements, essential oils, Trim Healthy Mama products and long skirts and modest apparel that are hard to find elsewhere. CATCHING UP WITH THE DEMAND Earlier this year, the Brakers expanded the kitchen area and the freezer and re frigerator storage areas to accommodate their growth. Phil and Rebecca both acknowledge that they can’t keep up with the demand for baked goods and homemade food, areas that beg for expansion. The lo cation is landlocked, so future growth is just a dream for now.

Braker’s offers bulk baking ingredients, as well as jams and jellies.

Braker’s has an eat-in café offering made-to-order items.

along with the five acres upon which it sits, in 2019. “We had a lot of work to do on the building to switch it over to a market,” Phil said. The Brakers talked to a lot of store owners and vendors to understand what infrastructure was needed for the type of market they wanted. They knew they wanted to offer bulk bak ing ingredients, dry goods and candy, jams and jellies, coffee and tea, and an extensive deli with nearly 30 varieties of deli meats and 45 types of cheeses from their main food vendor, Walnut Creek Foods located in the heart of Amish Country in Walnut Creek, Ohio. “There’s really nothing like this in the area,” Phil said. CALLED TO SERVE The Braker family lives within a mile of their businesses and are members of the Apostolic Christian Faith Church of Eureka. The Brakers cite the vow at the core of their promise: “Every day we strive to bring you the best-quality goods and services. We endeavor to always be kind and fair and to treat every customer with integrity. By treating others the way we wish to be treated and ‘being as good as our word,’ our goal is to exceed the expectations of every customer. We believe that God has called us to serve.

It is our sincere desire to do this each day with joy and gratitude in our hearts.” “Faith means everything” to the fam ily, said Rebecca. “If there are things we can do to help our children by providing them with a good foundation, that’s what’s import ant,” she said. “We also feel it’s import ant to be a good light in our community.” A PRE-PANDEMIC ‘BLESSING’ Braker’s Market opened on Feb. 19, 2020. Yes, that was less than one month before the widespread shutdown of businesses and life in general due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Within a month, we pretty much panicked,” Rebecca acknowledged. “Within a month, things turned up side down,” added Phil. “We opened. Business dropped for a couple weeks and then it totally became a blessing.” In short order, business became brisk. “People just didn’t want to go to the big box stores,” said Phil. “In the end, God knew exactly what we needed.” And then an opportunity they hadn’t even planned to offer was born out of necessity, Rebecca said. “The Apostolic churches around here serve lunch on Sundays. All the churches had closed, and we had all

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