It's time for fresh vegetables. Although a small variety of winter and early spring vegetables have been available all along, this is the time of the year that our local vegetable farmers begin to have a large variety of vegetables for us to enjoy.

It has been unusually cool for the past several days. Cool nights are not very good for vegetables. However, we have had some great spring showers during the past week. As the nights begin to warm up again, and with a lot of moisture in the soil, all vegetable crops will begin to grow rapidly.

We are fortunate that we have two very good farmers markets in this county. We have the downtown Lumberton farmers market that operates on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and the NCDA farmers market on US-74 that operates every day of the week. In addition, many other towns in the county, in addition to Lumberton, provide designated areas for local farmers to sell their produce or allow these farmers to sell from the tailgate of their trucks along the streets.

I have been able to talk to quite a few of our local vegetable farmers recently, and they all indicate that in spite of the fact that it was fairly dry early in the season, their vegetables are looking very good. It appears that with the recent showers, they will have an abundance of fresh vegetables and will have a great variety to choose from.

I would like to encourage you to make a much greater effort this spring and summer to purchase the fresh fruits and vegetables you need from our local farmers. I am not suggesting you buy vegetables you don't need just to be supporting these farmers but, instead, to buy locally what you need and what you can use.

Fresh vegetables from supermarkets generally mean that they have not yet been cooked. They were most likely harvested from a large commercial farm hundreds or thousands of miles away, shipped to a warehouse, stored and sorted, shipped to the local supermarket for storage in a cooler, and eventually placed on the shelves for you to buy. You might agree that this is not really the definition of fresh vegetables.

On the other hand, the vegetables you buy from our local farmers are most likely harvested just a few hours before you buy them. Now this is what you can call fresh vegetables.

The downtown Lumberton farmers market will begin operation in just a couple of weeks (May 15). They usually open officially about the middle of May. Many of the farmers who sell at this market have done so for many years, so they all know what kind of vegetables people enjoy and they usually have a large supply of these vegetable available.

Please don't forget that right now is the peak of the fresh strawberry season. I have heard many reports from satisfied customers who have bought strawberries from our local farmers. They indicate that the berries this year are juicier and more delicious than they can ever remember. Maybe the unusually late cool weather in early April did something that made the berries taste better.

There are seven strawberry patches in Robeson County. Each one is located in a different community, so everyone in the county is fairly close to one of the patches. No one has an excuse that there is nowhere nearby to buy fresh strawberries.

• Jack Pait's Strawberry Farm is located in the Allenton community, just off NC-211 about 3 miles east of Lumberton.
• Mitzi Powers Strawberry Farm is located in the East Howellsville community, just off Barker Ten Mile Road about 3 miles north of Lumberton.
• Lesley Sanderson's farm is located about 1 mile north of Prospect.
• Bo's Berry Patch, operated by Bo and Missy Stone, is located in the Rowland community, about 1 mile south of NC-130 on Ashpole Church Road.
• Jeff McPherson operates McPherson's Honor System farm on NC-72 about 8 miles east of Lumberton.
• Locklear Farms, operated by Ellery Locklear and his sister Amy Locklear-Cummings, is located in the Pembroke community on the Deep Branch Road.
• Kenny and Anna Floyd operate Floyd's Strawberry Farm in the Fairmont community, just off Iona Church Road about 1 mile west of Fairmont. You might want to make a special effort to visit this strawberry farm some time during strawberry season, because they offer an added attraction -- they have a homemade ice cream machine and are using their berries to make homemade strawberry ice cream. In fact, they will operate their ice cream machine at the big farmers market as well, so you can visit them at this location for some of the most delicious ice cream you have ever eaten. It's worth the trip to their farm just to have an opportunity to taste the ice cream.

Vegetable season is here. Don't miss your opportunity. And don't forget what your Mama told you. Vegetables are good for you, so eat all of them you can.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 5/19/04