Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010

Produce stands no longer plentiful

By today's standards, I didn't drive all that far to find a produce stand.

Once upon a simpler time, though, finding local produce was neither a major production nor a mystery. Farmers just parked their truck on a well-traveled road. In Garner, we still buy strawberries this way from vendors on U.S. 70.

Before the produce stands, gardens were a way of life in a literal sense, and it wasn't all that long ago. A few years back, my sister and I were exploring a family farm in the upper N.C. Piedmont - a farm no longer in the family - and as we made our way from outbuilding to tumbled-down outbuilding, we looked closer at one that had caved in.

We discovered it had a root cellar, probably built a hundred years ago, best we could figure. Crude as it was with rocks stacked for walls and cement added later in spots, there it remained as testimony, a hidden, forsaken monument to our self-sufficient ancestors.

For me, self-sufficiency remains a fantasy; I just wanted to buy local produce.

We aren't the only place to suffer an absence of produce stands, though I noticed several during recent travels, including those between Pinehurst and Candor featuring the ubiquitous peach stand and an honor-system stand between Laurinburg and Aberdeen where you help yourself and put your money in the box.

Boiled-peanut stands dot the landscape more sparsely than before in southeastern North Carolina.

From Garner, my hunt took me to Ken's Produce on N.C. 50 first. I was disappointed to read the sign saying it was closed till September. I'm happy to report, though, that the corn for Ken's Corny Maze is coming along nicely. Another column for the fall, perhaps.

I had heard there was still a produce stand near Cleveland Elementary School. I drove N.C. 50 to Cleveland Road with no sign of a produce stand (except a trailer full of watermelons at N.C. 42 and Cleveland Road) until, hallelujah, there stood L&G Farms produce stand a the corner of Cornwallis and Cleveland roads.

Oh happy day! There were cantaloupes, watermelon, green beans, squash and zucchini, cukes and, most important, tomatoes - all speaking to me in reassuring voices.

My luck is good most of the time; on this day, farmer/stand owner Gene Lee was unloading the truck. In scant time and with minimal conversation, I felt his passion for his livelihood and a sort of primal fear that we are all too complacent about our food sources.

His family plants 60 acres in the Meadow community. They operate the Johnston County stand and a place at the N.C. Farmer's Market in Raleigh. April through December, they provide the things we Baby Boomers wistfully seek to satisfy our need for comfort food in summer and other seasonal goods as the year winds down.

"I want to thank you for your business the last 10 years," one sign reads, and "Only 2 percent of our nation's population still farms," reads another.

Gene lamented the loss of 15 acres of sweet corn, a risk inherent to the farmer who relies on the weather and one for which there was no insurance to cover the loss. He brought up population projections and loss of farmers, forecasting the growing importance of food producers.

Seeking local produce and meeting a local farmer can be an eye-opener.

The food was worth the trip. If there's anything better than a tomato sandwich - fresh white bread, mayonnaise, salt and pepper - I wish someone would introduce me to it. The sweet juicy cantaloupe is a reason to get up in the morning.

From Garner to Cleveland is not so far, considering everything.