Mississippi My Home - Farmer's Market & Sunday Buffet Tour

On a recent trip home, I decided to casually film some amusing features of Southern living, like the farmers’ market and a typical Sunday all-you-can-eat buffet.

The photo in the post heading is my grandmother (on the left) with a turnip she grew herself that won an award at a local competition.

After filming the narration, I got to talking with my mom and dad about how we used to get fresh food, and I remembered that even though organized markets weren’t around, we did have roadside “fruit stands” that inevitably sold more than fruit. It was typical to see someone on the side of the road, pick-up truck bed full of some type produce from their own little field. Melons like watermelon or cantaloupe, maybe some collard greens, peaches…and there there were the guys with the boiled peanuts out there with their little propane gas burners, keeping fresh batches on hand.

In some places, these little spots might build a wooden stand to give themselves some shade and a better display for the produce. That stand might build out into a small building, and eventually into a trailer that looks more like a semi-outdoor market with multiple varieties of area produce. They may even turn into a little tourist stop with ice cream and souvenirs. So while shopping at farmers’ markets may not have been en vogue back in the day, we had our own ways of getting hyper-local and seasonal produce.