Your source for fruit and vegetable news

By Bobbie Whitehead

Looking for wholesome fruits and vegetables straight from the farm as well as homemade bread, apple jacks, or fruit salads?

The Suffolk City Market and Country Store sells a variety of fresh products grown and prepared locally and often available at lower prices than area grocers. The market also has expanded its product line to include seafood as well as a new food vendor making homemade salsa.

Owners Kevin Beale and Andy Johnson, who formed Beale and Johnson Markets LLC, opened for business April 5 on 162 South Main Street in what had been the popular Epps’ store.

Open five days a week with a full schedule Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the market keeps its vendors not far from the bustle of Suffolk’s downtown business district.

“We’re going to try to be a year-round market,” Beale said.  "What we’re looking for now are some staples to get people in here everyday; April and May were very strong. June has been slow, but I think that’s been everywhere.

It’s a combination of things right. With gas prices high, people going on vacation, kids out of school, and unseasonably hot weather, there are a variety of reasons why things are slow now for all businesses.”
But Beale adds he’s been pleased with the Saturday traffic, which often draws 300 or more people.

The market, too, offers a lot more than just local produce. During certain times of the year, some growers supplement their produce sales with products from other areas.

“In order to run a year-round market, there has to be a certain degree of importing produce,” Beale said. “One grower, about 76 percent of what he sells is what he grows, But the difference between the produce you buy here and what you get from a grocery store is the amount of time it is stored before being sold.”

With the variety of produce and goods available at the Suffolk City Market and Country Store, Beale and vendors at the market say it makes sense for customers to shop here.

“Our products are sold at market price,” Beale said. “It just all depends on the crops and how available they are. The more venders grow their own, the more they can keep the prices down because they’re not paying a middle man for produce.”

For example, right now snaps and sweet corn prices are high because the quantity is low and because the demand is high. But Beale added with vendors growing their own, the prices at the market can be lower.

In addition to produce, the city market, too, has a bread shop and sells organic meat (pork, beef, and poultry) raised at a pasture just off Manning Road. Customers can also find flowers, nuts, soft drinks to go, pies, cakes, and salads, Beale said.

One vendor, Howard Piland of Suffolk, sells a variety of vegetables such as squash, tomatoes, zucchini, a type of squash called “Zebbies,” carrots, potatoes, and many other items that he raises in the King’s Fork section of the city.

“I like it here,” said Piland, who sold his produce last year at the former market site near the Main Street train station. “Here we’re out of the sun and heat. Plus, here there’s a nice place to set up the products.”

Along with selling his produce, Piland also sells different varieties of basil plants, and Beale, too, has fresh flowers from area growers for customers wanting to do a little landscaping or to dress up their yards, gardens, or flower beds.

While shopping for produce, customers can also grab a drink and something to snack on before they leave. Fannie Bowers and her husband Clifton sell apple jacks, pies and cakes at the market. Each morning Bowers said she makes the desserts, and she also sells fruit salads.

Vendors rent space at the market and find Thursday through Saturday to be the busier days of the week. Another convenience for customers is the available parking adjacent to the market as well as the sidewalks that enable customers shopping downtown to make an easy walking trip to the market or to various ATM machines along Main Street if they need extra cash.