Text and photos by Michael Gery
- Introduction
- Farming Challenges
- A Produce Store Is Born
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A produce store is born
As they have for generations, the Roberson family looked at options to help adapt to the times. Josh began monitoring the activity around the ramps at the new exit. It’s one of those easy-on, easy-off highway exits, and it has great visibility from the highway itself. By this past spring the Handi Mart was reporting between 4,000 and 5,000 customers over their 24-hour cycle. The location of the Robersonville-Hamilton exit is about halfway between Raleigh and the Outer Banks. Josh figured a produce store might work here. And so, Carolina Country Fresh was born.
The simple building made of rough-cut pine and poplar with a red tin roof resembles a barn inside, where fresh fruits and vegetables are set out in baskets and on tables. As usual, the whole Roberson family has become involved with the Carolina Country Fresh store. Vickie Roberson’s jams have a place of honor along one wall. Aunt Beverly Roberson’s pottery is on display in there, along with aunt Joy’s framed photographs and grandmother Haislip’s hand-painted glass. Deann Parker, a nursing student from Bethel who will marry Josh in October, is the latest addition. She keeps the place stocked and looking good and is pursuing marketing avenues such as the state’s Goodness Grows program. Carolina Country Fresh will carry local produce, including berries, squash, cabbage, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes and sweet corn. They’d like everything to have a North Carolina link: honey, peanuts, sweet potatoes, flowers, wheat straw, pumpkins, mums, Christmas trees.
As Deann and Josh tidied up the little store recently, I asked Josh’s father if he thinks his grandchildren will someday farm the Roberson scattered acres. He said, “They will if they ride with their daddies like these boys did and their daddies take them in that direction.”
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