Published: July 04, 2009 07:26 pm      

As gardens grow, region’s farmers share their goods

TAZEWELL, Va. — Vegetable gardens throughout southwestern Virginia are starting to yield a harvest, and farmers are sharing their bounty, at a modest price, at farmers’ markets in Bluefield, Va., and Tazewell on Friday and Saturday mornings respectively.

“A friend of ours told us that they already have cantaloupes at the farmers’ market in Bluefield, but my wife, Juanita said no way,” Bill Marrs said as he and Juanita checked out the selection of produce Friday morning in Bluefield. “He was looking at those ostrich eggs.”

Sue Carr of Sandy Head Ostrich in Tazewell offers a variety of farm fresh products at her produce stand, including ostrich eggs. “We are so thankful for this beautiful building that the town built for us,” Carr said. This marks the third years that local farmers have participated in a farmers’ market in Bluefield, and marks the second year that Carr has served as market manager.

“The farmers’ market is growing here as more and more farmers find out about the facility,” Carr said. “People have really come to appreciate locally grown produce. Most area farmers don’t use pesticides or chemicals. It’s good to know where your food is coming from. We don’t permit anyone to truck food in from outside of the area.”

Within an hour of opening on Friday morning, B.C. Fuller had just one more jar of honey left to sell before closing up the tailgate of his pickup truck and heading back home.

“The bees got off to a good start this year, but the rain knocked all the blooms off the poplar trees and they couldn’t do anything,” Fuller said. “The clover is out now and they’re out working.” At one time, Fuller had 30 hives, but he now has just five.

Hayden Lyons, 18, of Richlands, Va., had some large heads of cabbage in the bed of his family pickup truck. “You can put cabbage out early, and even if frost hits it, it won’t kill the whole plant,” he said. Hayden was in Bluefield with his mother, Nancy Lyons, the market manager of the Tazewell Farmers Market, his brother Hunter Lyons, 15, and their friend, Matthew Keene, 17, also of Richlands.

“I got some experimental tomato plants from Virginia Tech’s experimental farm in Glade Springs, Va.,” Hayden Lyons said. “They’re the best tomatoes I’ve ever had.” Hayden helps work the 500-acres of the family’s three combined farms, and will be headed to Southwest Virginia Community this fall to finish his associate’s degree. He hopes to attend Virginia Tech and major in agronomy.

“I plan to go into the medical field,” Hunter Lyons said. “I like farming and may do it as a sideline, but I want to go into medicine.”

The Bluefield Farmers’ Market, open each Friday from 9 a.m., to 1 p.m., is located on Locust Street in the open lot where Rasi’s IGA store stood in the years before the FEMA flood mitigation project acquired flood-prone buildings in the downtown. The Tazewell Farmers’ Market is located in the Farm Bureau parking lot near the four-ways in Tazewell.

“After I retired, I went through the master gardeners program at Virginia Tech,” Harold “Willie” Williamson of Frog Level, Va., said. “I’ve always enjoyed farming, but I have found that you don’t learn from your successes. You learn from your failures. This year, my failure was with tomatoes.”

Williamson said he and Mary Martin, a fellow master gardener got 120 blight and wilt resistant tomato plants, grew them for a time and grafted heirloom and other varieties of tomatoes on them. “Something happened and we lost all but four of the tomato plants,” Williamson said.

Williamson was among the first three farmers who participated in the Tazewell Farmers’ Market when it started in 2001. “If I don’t sell what I bring here, I give it all to the food pantry on Monday,” he said.

“You’re not out to make a paycheck from it,” Martin said. Martin’s father was a gardener and she continues the family tradition. “It’s slow early in the season, but by August, we will be saturated by vendors.”

The two Tazewell County farmers’ markets are open through the growing and harvest season.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com