Atlas Twp. – Most of the fresh produce sold at Zach’s Farmer’s Market is grown just down the road.
Trudy Campbell, who operates the M-15 family market along with her sons Zach and Dane, often shares recipes with customers, or offers advice.
Outside the bountiful market, where a scarecrow rules over bales of straw and dappled sunlight bounces off clusters of pumpkins, Trudy explains the secret to shining up a young customer’s Halloween pumpkin.
‘But you don’t want to do it if you’re painting it, because the paint won’t stick,? she says matter-of-factly.
Zach began farming 20 years ago at the age of 5. Hailing from a long line of growers, he raises approximately 85 percent of the produce sold at the market on the family’s Green Road property, or at three other nearby locations.
Although many farms were hard-hit by this year’s unusual weather, Zach’s crops thrived, prompting calls from Detroit markets searching for good produce.
The family doesn’t use an overabundance of sprays in growing crops, said Trudy, and they’re careful about the timing between spraying and harvesting for a high-quality product.
The airy market offers a wide variety of produce: Watermelons. Tomatoes. Cucumbers. Winter squash, including carb-conscious spaghetti squash, and hubbard squash, a favorite on Frankenmuth menus.
You’ll find several types of potatoes, sweet corn, red and green cabbage, lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, and numerous peppers, including several hot-hot, medium-hot, sweet, and bell varieties.
There’s also green beans, beets, turnips, eggplant, Michigan apples, onions, fresh garlic’perfect for roasting’pears, green onions, or nectarines
And sweet potatoes. Not the stringy kind, but sweet ones just right for baking, boiling, French-frying, dipping in maple syrup, or a good sweet potato pie.
Each of the hundreds of pieces of produce in the market are hand-washed before being set out for sale.
With few exceptions, most of the produce is grown in Michigan.
‘Obviously we have to get the lemons and grapes (out-of-state),? Trudy said.
Wondering what a certain vegetable tastes like? Want cooking ideas? Have a suggestion?
Just ask, says Trudy, who’s helped customers with everything from making soup to fixing desserts, zucchini dishes, applesauce, or canning tomatoes.
‘People go home and try something, they say ‘that was really good? and come back for more,? said Trudy.
The store, which first opened in August 2003, will remain open this winter, selling Michigan produce supplemented by produce from warmer climates
Delicate produce stays fresh in a cooler, where you’ll also find Michigan-made cider.
Deer feed is bagged up beneath the store’s awning: carrots, corn, apples, and sugar beets. In a recent prize drawing, Frank Lynn of Clarkston was the lucky winner of a one-year supply of deer feed, said Trudy.
Look for sunflower heads’great for feeding birds or other wildlife’along with seasonal items like corn stalks, Indian corn, gourds, and pumpkins, or the ceramic scarecrow and pumpkin garden stakes.
Caramel apples and chocolate chip-covered caramel apples are also for sale, to satisfy an autumn sweet tooth.
Along with wall decor, you’ll find the locally-produced Home Creations dip and pickle mixes, hand-made dried and silk flowers, ceramic items and candles.
The locally-made candles are smokeless, with as many as 50 distinctive scents available in votives, lovely ivy bowls, plant pots, iridescent mug sets, or unique lamps’a candle base topped with a ceramic shade. ‘They’re absolutely awesome,? said Trudy.
With reasonable prices and quick preparation ideas, Zach’s produce rivals the allure of ‘tin-can? eating, says Trudy, who keeps overhead costs at a minimum.
‘We keep costs down so savings are passed on to the customer,? she said.
Details: (810) 348-9304.