Local grown produce, baked goodies, sense of community can be found at Mount Olive Farmers Market

Jonnasen Stroud, 7, was excited. Her handmade cards and jewelry had earned her $17 to put toward her summer vacation.

Little brother Archer, 5, was still trying to sell his small three-piece train set so he could buy another cookie from Lisa and Eddie Carter’s For Goodness Bakes from Pikeville.

The children were with their parents, Joshua and Kim Stroud of Faison, who were among the vendors set up Saturday, June 3, for the first day of the new season of the Mount Olive Farmers Market, located in the Mount Olive Presbyterian Church parking lot, 105 N. Breazeale Ave.

The market will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays through October offering fresh, locally grown produce, meats, eggs, fruits, flowers, homemade goodies and arts and crafts.

Joshua Stroud owns Acorn Acres Farmstead in Faison producing premium pasture-raised pork products. Kim Stroud owns Happy Heart Elderberry producing organic elderberry products.

They first set up at the market last year.

“We like to show the community what we are doing, and we feel like a lot more people from the community are interested in where their food comes from,” Kim Stroud said. “So we like to offer products that can show that.

“We do ground-raised pork. We don’t use antibiotics, hormones and anything treated that way. We don’t add preservatives to it so it’s just the pork. We raised chickens last year and that has sold out. We did turkeys this past year for Thanksgiving. We just had good feedback from people that they wanted more.”

The Farmers Market allows them to come out, show and talk about their products while interacting with the public, she continued.

The response at the market has been good, she said.

The Strouds also support other small businesses such as Sea Monster Sauces out of Wilmington by selling the sauces that go along with their meat products.

Erma Jones, who has been shopping at the market since it started three summers ago, was on the hunt for fresh produce.

“I was hoping for tomatoes, but I got some fresh green beans,” she said. “I have blackberries, and I am going to score some eggs while I am here.”

Jones said she had enough blackberries for a cobbler.

However, her first stop was at a booth offering cheesecake for a morning snack.

“We love the location,” she said. “We have come to know many of the vendors, and I love their produce. It is personable, smaller, friendly, more intimate, convenient.

“I like the variety. Sometimes I come with a list. Sometimes I come to be surprised. The prices and the quality of the produce are amazing. Everything is so fresh.”

Jones added that she would be coming back every Saturday.

Ken Nagahama and Jessie Naab of rural Sacramento County, California are looking to relocate to Wayne County. They were in the area on Friday, June 2, in search of a new home when they saw signs for the market and decided to check it out.

Because of a pending flight back to California — until they learn if their offer on a house with three acres of land will be accepted — they were limited in their purchases.

However, they did stop by the For Goodness Bakes booth to pick up some homemade goodies and some blackberries from the University of Mount Olive’s George R. Kornegay, Jr. Student Farm booth.

The Farmers Market is perfect, Naab said.

“I love it,” she said. “The people are so nice. I feel a good sense of community. We will be buying the plants the next time we come out.”

Both retired from the Air Force as aircraft mechanics while at Travis Air Force Base in California. They stayed in the area to attend college.

That is how they met, said Naab, a Wyoming native.

“I was his boss for one day and that is the important part,” she joked.

“We just got done about a week ago,” said Nagahama, a native of Hawaii. “Jessie has always wanted to grow a lot of plants and have like a little orchard. So we are looking somewhere that has a lot of land, and California is not affordable.

“We have been looking around, and I am also looking at getting back into the military as an officer in the Air Force so we wanted something that was nearby an air base. So we are looking somewhere around Seymour Johnson. Then we saw this community, and we were doing a lot of house shopping online and we ended up here.”

Naab, who has a degree in botany, said she hopes to work with plants — something she sees as the foundation for everything. Most of the food people consume starts at some level as a plant, she said.

The Farmers Market got its start three summers ago, said Lynn Williams, a member of the sponsoring Mount Olive Presbyterian Church. It was late summer and the country was still in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

“One of our members, Joy Bell, said, ‘You know, we ought to do a farmers market,’” Williams said. “So, we just kind of grew from that. We kind of got a late start that summer, and we had a handful of folks come. The University (of Mount Olive) came that very first year and some others.

“For the next year we decided we had time so we were going to plan it and do it well. (Church member) Wendy Ford has taken the lead on it. This is our second year. They have worked very hard and this summer I think they learned a lot from last summer.”

Vendors have come together and been very supportive, she continued.

Williams said as the market was being planned that she knew that the town had been talking about having a permanent farmers market.

“I think we kind of looked at this as a way to get a farmers market off the ground and get it started,” she added. “And whenever at whatever point the town is in a position to maybe do a permanent facility, we’d already have the core markets, customers and traffic kind of in place.”

Ford with her arts and crafts, UMO’s agricultural program and J&J Martin Produce have been the core group from the start, and others as well, she said.

The market offers a really good mix of items while providing a personal setting where shoppers and vendors can talk and mingle, she added.

There is no vendor fee. People are asked to contact the church and let organizers know that they want to set up a booth, Williams said.

“From the church’s standpoint, it’s really good community outreach,” she said. “This is a great corner, the corner of Breazeale (Avenue) and Main (Street) so there is a lot of traffic, and we have a great spot for it.

“It’s just kind of a way to offer something to the community and being of service. We are grateful to be a part of it.”

Ford joked that she had missed a meeting and somehow ended up being the coordinator.

As of last year, there were at least 10 solid vendors, Ford said. Every week or two someone new will come in, she said.

“As for customers that is the base we are trying really hard to build this year,” Ford said.

To help in those efforts, more signs have been erected and social media advertising, she added.

“We will see if it has the effect — it is the first day so we don’t know,” Ford said. “Our vendors are great. They know so much about their products.

“J&J Farms over here, she will tell you everything you need to know about that. How to prepare it six ways, what is wrong with your plant at home. That is the part that I really like. I wish more people asked more questions. The most fun part of this endeavor is meeting people — that is part of it, too. Our outreach part is just to get to know the community better.”

Ford was referring to North Carolina’s 2023 Small Farmers of the Year, sisters Jeannette Martin Horn and Joyce Martin Bowen and their family farm, J&J Martin Produce.

The award was presented March 29 by N.C. Cooperative Extension at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro as part of its annual Small Farms Week.

The family farm has been in existence for 140 years. The sisters, who grew up on the farm, have been in the produce business for the past four years.

Horn’s booth was overflowing with sweet onions, Detroit beets, tomato plants, new potatoes, turnips, cucumbers, herbs and Aloe Vera plants.

“I’ve got a deal on my tomatoes this morning,” Horn said. “They are $3 as is, but I am offering them to the customers and telling them if they will bring me back the pot I will let them have them for $2.”

As a free bonus, Horn was providing gardening tips on how to plant and care for the tomato plants.

A staple at the market, Horn said the farm also has a booth at the farmers market at the Maxwell Center in Goldsboro.

Horn said what she loves about the market is the camaraderie of the neighborhood and the people who live in the Mount Olive community.

“We get talk and a lot ask me questions about how to plant tomatoes, is it all local grown,” she said. “Everything on this table, including the flowers, is all grown at the Martin Farms. My sister and myself we are tending about 20 acres of produce only.

“We will be out here every Saturday.”

For more information, visit www.FB.com/MtOliveFarmersMarket.