Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990 TAG: 9005070172
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: POPLAR HILL LENGTH: Medium
"I didn't think we'd sell much of that," she said recently, pointing at an 11-pound log of bologna. "But people come in on their way camping or fishing. Some buy the whole roll."
The knee-high ceramic frogs that sit on the wood-chip floor at the front of C.L. Saunders' fruit stand also are big sellers.
"You'd be surprised how much we sell," Jean Saunders said. "People really like 'em. They think they're cute."
Folks also like the cured ham that hangs from the ceiling in cloth sacks, combining its smoky scent with the aroma of fresh apples, grapes and plums.
They like the Wisconsin cheddar, the old-fashioned horehound candy, the "ole-timey" sweet onion relish, black raspberry jelly, stuffed peppers and tomato pickles. They like the colorful Indian corn.
"People like to come in here 'cause they think this stuff is country," said Saunders, 58. "We've got beans in a barrel and an awful lot of side meat. We try to keep things that people like." There's a bucket of salt fish for regular customers tucked away in the corner to prove it. Saunders said her husband, Clyde, will buy just about anything to market at the small stand, which is about halfway between Pearisburg and Dublin. "He's a pretty good salesman," she said more than once.
But there are some items at the fruit stand that sell without Clyde's help, like the 14-ounce apples that are carefully arranged out front.
Nancy Stump, Jean Saunders' sister, said people always say something about the size of those red Rome apples. And they always ask where they're grown.
"I told one customer we got them from Washington, and he said he thought for sure they were from Texas," Stump said.
The brown, double-yolk eggs ("country eggs," Stump calls them) go quickly, too.
"A trucker came in and took five dozen," Saunders said. Soon after that, his route was changed and he no longer passed by the small wooden building on Virginia 100. But "he said he'd send his buddy by for some more around Easter."
Truckers are frequent fruit stand customers.
"They get tired of eating at Hardee's," Stump said. "They like the fresh fruit. People are buying more and more fruit because of cholesterol and things. That hasn't hurt this business any."
"Of course [President George] Bush may have ruined our broccoli business," Saunders added with a grin. "No, that's still selling."
So are jelly beans, though Ronald Reagan is no longer in office.
The Saunderses have dabbled in the produce business on and off over the years. They opened this stand about four years ago. Before that, they sold off the back of a truck.
"You make a lot of mistakes," Saunders said. "Once Clyde brought in coconuts, so I put them in a basket outside. I didn't know the sun would hurt them and burst them open."
Last July, she said, it go so hot that the sun cooked the huge, home-grown tomatoes she'd placed in another basket out front. "They blistered like someone had poured hot water on them," she said.
But she said Clyde knows a lot about produce. He knows where to go in Florida to get the first of the watermelons. And he knows where to go in Delaware to get the last of them.
"That's how he spends his vacations," Saunders said of her husband, who works in production at Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
Clyde Saunders knows that people will buy peanut brittle, apple cider and sweet Spanish onions if he keeps them on the shelves, along with tube socks, stick candy and beef jerky. Or anything else, for that matter.
"We even have a little humor," Jean Saunders said, showing off a small sign on the wall behind the pinto beans.
The sign says: Clyde goes where it Grows.
by CNB