Page 19 - February2019

ASCENDENT INDEPENDENT
Farmer Brown’s Produce
Longtime store offers quality local fruits and vegetables to South Georgia and North Florida.
BY DOUG OHLEMEIER
Fresh local produce is the drawing card at Farmer Brown’s Produce, a South Georgia staple.
Walking into the Valdosta, GA, store on the city’s south side, consumers immedi- ately sense they’re in a farm stand instead of a supermarket. ey see produce such as okra, red creamer potatoes, yellow squash, acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash and snap beans displayed in wooden stands. An adjacent table might merchandise bananas, citrus and avocados while on another stand, rutabaga is marketed next to zucchini squash, red and yellow bell peppers and green cabbage.
e family-owned-and-operated produce store promotes itself as o ering “the freshest produce in Georgia.” Farmer Brown’s has been recognized as “the best place for produce” for 12 years by the Valdosta Daily Times.
“Produce is what we are,” says John Holton, manager. “Produce is our operation. It’s what
we deal with. It’s what brings people here. Produce is what our business thrives on. It’s our thing.”
Farmer Brown’s customers are mostly middle-class people and include many senior citizens, who do a lot of shopping at the store. It markets through twice-weekly advertise- ments in the local newspaper and ads in farmers’ markets magazines. It also uses social media. At any time in the year, the store sells 300 items from its 2,400-square-foot building through handwritten signage.
Farmer Brown’s also boasts a wholesale produce operation that distributes produce to restaurants, schools and other produce peddlers within a 30-mile radius of Valdosta. One of its regular customers in Panama City, FL, recently returned to sending trucks to Farmer Brown’s after recovering from Hurri- cane Michael, which devastated areas of Flor- ida’s Panhandle and damaged Georgia crops.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FARMER BROWN’S PRODUCE
Local Produce Key
Local produce is a critical part of Farmer Brown’s. Its busiest times are mid-April through anksgiving. e store’s biggest business parallels South Georgia’s commer- cial produce season, which typically begins in the late spring and nishes around July 4, before returning in the early fall and harvesting until the rst freeze, which usually occurs in November.
“We like to buy from them, the smaller growers,” says Holton. “We try to keep it as local as we can. When the customers know the farmers themselves, how they got this produce from Bill down the road, they love it. e produce didn’t come two states away or from South Florida. It’s coming from around the corner, which helps our local economy because it keeps the money here.”
Farmer Brown’s works with about 130 South Georgia local growers. ose growers
PRODUCE BUSINESS / FEBRUARY 2019 / 19