Farmers’ markets are a fun thing these days! It’s no wonder, fresh veggies are so delicious and make the best meals. I was blessed to grow up around many gardens and a produce farm!
You may remember the remnants of the market you see in the photo. Hurricane Isabel ultimately tore down the shed-like structure with a pecan tree growing up inside it on Edenton Road Street. That 100 year old tree went down in those winds and that was the true end of an era.
I remember some grand days though! It started long before me. In fact, I’m not entirely sure of when the market began, but I know my great aunts, Mildred & Marion, worked the market as kids during the depression. The farm belonged to my great-grandparents, John Jr & Maggie White. Great-granddaddy had a suit for church and suits for farming. His son, my grandfather, John III, would work the farm with him and Mildred and Marion would wait on customers with great-grandmother. Eventually, they were all joined by my dad, John IV, and uncle Mike. Daddy has told me stories for years about the horrors of spooning beets and threatened to send my sister & I to the field ourselves. Amanda and I did end up in the field sometimes, but it was just to pick and eat strawberries!
There was an old jeep that we filled with veggies to be driven up for sale. I wasn’t very big in those days, but I remember carrying a big basket of beans to the front. It was a hefty load I could barely move! Between customers, we’d sit on great-grandmother’s front porch and snap beans. I’d listen to two great-grandmothers and two grandmothers talk as we snapped. On hot days, we’d get a watermelon and cut it on the back of the Jeep and dribble juice down our shirts. Watermelon sugar sticky was the look! Uncle Mike challenged us to spit seeds the farthest.
We had peaches in the orchard as well. Those trees would get so full of peaches, the limbs would snap sometimes. I’m not even sure how many different types of apples were grown, but I know I ate too many green ones once with my cousins.
I enjoyed seeing customers. Many knew me, but I didn’t really know them. I’ve heard stories years later of the many people who saw us kids growing up in the big yard under the pecan trees.
In the fall, they’d ask about squash, maybe rutabagas. When there weren’t sweet potatoes in the back, I’d hide in there playing games with my cousins.
There weren’t many animals on the farm, mainly cats and chickens in those days. I got eggs with great-grandmother, but I didn’t care much for the rooster that hung around sometimes.
A box of collards was $5. I know this well because when I wanted expensive things, Daddy would say, “Do you know how many boxes of collards that is?” Not just the price, you see, but the growing and the cutting on cold mornings before school. Collards are always the best after a good frost. “Do you know how many boxes of collards that is?” is a loaded question, for sure. It’s a family saying, one asked of him by his own dad. I recently used it on my own children to much confusion.
I guess the market days are really over. Just that particular market though. I promise, there are many hard working produce farmers that still know the value and hard work behind a box of collards.
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