Lucy's Produce

Not “technically” a farmer’s market, Lucy’s Produce Market is a reclaimed gas station on Roswell Road that serves as an outlet for fresh local produce, jams, pickles, fire wood, plants, fruit trees, breads and nuts. The owner, Kim, named the location after her daughter and has been selling to the public for about a year and a half. We were out for lunch and passed by and decided to stop in for a look.

The first thing you come across is a large herb bed Kim planted in the spring. It is where all the fresh herbs come from. You tell her how much you want and she goes out and snips it for you. Even in this past grueling summer she kept a beautiful bed of basil, growing under what was once the awning of gas pumps long ago removed. The cracked concrete driveway is lined with tables heaped with tomatoes, peaches, beans, okra, and squashes. The three bay garage houses bags of organic mulch and potting soil, selections of potted fruit trees and herbs, and other supplies, and a big kettle filled with a bubbling brew of boiled peanuts. In what was once the glass encased office they have converted the beer and soda coolers to hold bags of shelled cowpeas, beans, fresh greens, lettuces, soups that are made and delivered daily, hummus, berries, yogurts and lots of other items provided by local vendors. Rustic wooden shelves display jams, potted succulents and house plants, bags of deep-fried peanuts, olive oil, vinegars, breads from a local bakery, and hand-made dish towels from Provence.

I got some garden-fresh basil, a basket of huge Florida tomatoes, and some South Carolina peaches the size of baseballs that were sweet and juicy. On a Friday afternoon the place was quite busy and we had little time to talk to the owners, except to say what a great selection they had, and what a nice place Lucy’s was. Being open six days a week from 9-5 makes them more “middle merchants” than “farm-to-table” vendors, but Kim and her husband, Richard, and the other woman working there could tell us the source of every item we asked about, if it was organic, how the season for some products was going, and tons of other friendly information I doubt I could have wrung out of a Kroger/Publix employee. And they are a great inner-perimeter outlet for local food artisans to establish a presence.

A little research helped me uncover their website, which looks like it is in mid-growth and doesn’t convey the homey, street-corner vendor atmosphere you find at Lucy’s. This blog from when they first opened is a better representation, but believe me, they have grown from those humble beginnings, but kept all their rustic charm.