Taking Root
DENTON FARMER’S MARKET KEEPING IT LOCAL KEEPING IT FRESH
itting on the tailgate of his tan ’87 Toyota, farmer and former Navy man Perman Smith enjoys the morning weather while waiting for customers to arrive. The sweet musky smell of cantaloupe fills the air. Behind him in his truck is a pile of watermelons. Around him, the Denton County Farmer’s Market is coming to life. Men with weathered hands set up colorful tents and begin carefully stacking and ornately displaying peas, tomatoes, turnips and cantaloupes. They joke among themselves as they work.
It’s not a big farmer’s market, or fancy, but it’s authentic in an age when supermarkets sell plastic-tasting produce and bigger farmer’s markets, like Dallas, have succumbed to bulk sellers. Denton County is one of the few to require that farmers grow their harvest within a 150-mile radius. At the height of the season, June to August, there might be just 20 or so farmers who set up shop around 7 a.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in downtown Denton, next to the Historical Park of Denton County. What it lacks in size, it makes up for with intimacy. Everyone has a story, and they love sharing it.
“On Saturdays it’s me, my dad, my son, or my son-in-law,” says 49-year-old Brian Blalock, who just finished his two years as president of the Market Association. Every year, the Blalocks plant 4 acres of vegetables—8-ball zucchini, yellow squash and acorn squash, okra and peas, tomatoes and new potatoes, red and yellow onions. Lots of onions, in fact. Last year, Brian planted 15,000 onions.
The family tends 10 acres of fruit too, including melons, all of it in the small town of Pilot Point, north of Denton. “My dad does all of the cantaloupes and watermelons. He’s about 77 or 78,” says Brian. “Oh yeah, he’s been farming his whole life.” Brian, a Denton police sergeant, has been at it just eight years.
Despite the advance of the suburbs around Dallas and Denton, the Blalocks have managed to keep their farming in the family. Two generations work it now, and the third generation — Brian’s teenage son — sometimes helps out. (His daughter went off to college.) “I had my kids helping me until they grew up. Now it’s me and my dad,” Brian says, cutting open a melon with a knife and eating it.
Three times a week, Brian packs up his truck the night before market so he can get there for an early start around 6:30 a.m. “I think my products are simply better,” he says. “They are not shipped in from other countries halfway around the world.” Katie Garrett agrees. “A local farmer needs support in any way we can help them,” she says, putting zucchini, eggplant, cantaloupes and pears into her bag — for a grand total of $7.
Perman, 82, remembers the hard times his family had growing up. They farmed with horses and mules because they had no tractor. “We didn’t even have electricity then. We had to use a wooden stove,” he says. He does all his farming himself now — despite his age. “I put in 300 tomato plants and 2,000 onions.” He gets a kick out of people buying his tomatoes, onions and pears. He hates to miss even one day at the Denton farmer’s market. “I really just like meeting people … knowing them and meeting their families,” he says. “We need to thank those who buy out here. It means a lot!”
By Juana Iris Cardenas