Searching for a new home, JaiLynn Stoker found herself lost. She wanted a home somewhere without the congestion of larger cities as she relocated to be near her sister in Billings; her caretaker after going into kidney failure. 

She needed a transplant and wouldn’t be able to return to her career as a high school teacher and coach after the operation. Finally, after traveling to Cody during her search and deciding the gateway town didn’t fit the bill, she missed her turn.

“I kept coming straight and I got to Powell. I was like, Oh, I can live here. This is my kind of place,” she said, remembering how comfortable she felt in the friendly agricultural community. “I moved from farm country to farm country. I literally went from the Columbia Basin to the Big Horn Basin.”

She bought some land, built a tiny house for herself and settled into her new surroundings. 

Yet, no matter how lucky she was to receive the lifesaving operation, she still needed to work. So she started to bake. That’s when Sweet Fantasy Candy & Confections was born.

It was in her blood. Her grandmother used to run a candy shop and Stoker had more than a dozen years of commercial baking experience before starting her Powell business.

She started selling her baked goods at the Powell, Cody and other area farmers’ markets, but needed something year-round. That’s when she heard Hillside Floral was searching for vendors to fill their indoor farmers’ market, both in Powell and in their Lovell shop. 

The market is open six days a week, so Stoker was going to need to start cooking.

“It’s a full-time job,” she said after stocking the shelves before the weekend rush at Hillside.

Stoker now sells her goods so fast Shelley Hill, co-owner of Hillside Floral, often has to call for more products.

“The flavors of the sourdough, especially the banana, the banana walnut and lemon poppy seed goes fast. It flies, like I can’t keep up with it,” Hill said. “I think a lot of it is just that it’s yummy. People come back week after week to get the yummy.”

Hill was also an educator, ending her career as a principal in Texas before coming back to her hometown with her husband, Jeff. They originally left Powell because Jeff, who is a machinist, was transferred to Texas when Weatherford Completion Systems closed. But it never felt right.

“Texas just got so big. And I don’t know, it just wasn’t home,” Shelley said.

When the couple returned to Powell, she got a call from Rayven Moore. Shelley knew Moore well, having previously taught her in pre-school. The young entrepreneur owned the flower shop, then on Bent Street, and asked Shelley to come in to help with event planning. However, soon after, Rayven offered Jeff and Shelley her successful business.

“We just kind of jumped in with both feet and haven’t looked back,” Shelley said.

Eventually Hillside Floral found a larger venue on Fair Street for their store after Powell Welding and Industrial Supplies vacated their longtime shop in favor of a larger building a block away on Absaroka Street. 

With all the luxurious room they decided to look for vendors eager for a chance to experience an indoor farmers’ market. Few local vendors experienced in the outdoor venues could turn down the chance to get out of the wind and rain and Hillside soon had 15 vendors featuring farm goods such as duck, chicken and guinea hen eggs, homemade soups and handmade soaps, baked and canned goods and candies, hot sauce and spices, carvings, candles, jewelry made of locally sourced rocks and semi-precious gemstones and much more.

“It’s been a win-win for us for sure,” Shelley said. “They get to come in out of the weather and It fills my store with great, local products.”

Shelley and Jeff met in third grade and both graduated from Powell High School together. Yet, despite their long history in the city, they have been meeting a lot of new Powell residents since the farmers’ market had its grand opening in February.

“It has brought in people that we’ve never seen before. And we both grew up here,” she said. 

Many of the new customers have become regulars and the Hill family hopes to increase items through the growing season. “It has given people a new choice for locally produced items,” she said.

The hardest part may be not eating the profits, she said as Stoker loaded her shelves with lemon poppyseed cake, dinner rolls, cake pops and jalapeño sourdough bread.

“Yum,” Hill said.