Platinum Plus Level Club Sponsor
The Produce Patch
We are a family-owned fresh fruit and vegetable market located in southern Illinois. In addition to locally sourced produce, we also carry a large selection of seasonal items. Our calendar year starts in February with roses and chocolate strawberries for Valentine’s day. Produce season starts up in early/mid-March, then we roll into spring flowers and plants. We work with a dozen or so family farms across the midwest for homegrown items as they come into season; peaches, melons, berries, sweet corn, tomatoes, etc, In the fall we carry local pumpkins, hardy mums, cornstalks, straw bales, gourds, sunflowers, etc. We run our end of season sale on fresh produce the last week of October, then we close between 01 Nov and black Friday when we bring in fresh-cut Christmas trees, wreaths, firewood, pine roping, poinsettias, and a full assortment of homemade Amish holiday candies, chocolates, and fudge. Then we close up completely for the season on Christmas Eve until Valentine’s sales begin.
We also got into seafood last year and the first weekend of every month from March – October we take our truck down to Biloxi MS and haul back fresh gulf shrimp and crawfish from right off the pier. It gained a lot of traction since the turnaround is so fast; from the boats back to the midwest inside of 24 hours. Seafood is offered raw for pre-orders, but the biggest draw is the prepared plates from the boil we do the first Saturday of the month at the store.
I think I made this sound more like a sales pitch; would anyone like some tomatoes?
This is a family business. There are 19 cousins, aunts, & uncles, that operate similar stores all over Missouri; all independently owned, but the original family location in the US was opened back in the early 1930s in downtown Baden when my great grandparents came over from Italy. Our original family vineyard and farmers market in Palermo Italy is still operational. Andy has been in the business, in some capacity, for about 25 years between the Army and college.
