About two years ago, I stopped buying regular meats, eggs and dairy at the grocers and switched to organic goods. It was a bit more expensive but very much worth it to me. My husband planted a small garden in our backyard when we first purchased our home, but it did not thrive in the nutrient deficient clay. Nonetheless, I opted for frozen veggies instead of those in the can (gotta avoid that BPA) and scoped out farmer's markets in the area for fresh produce. There is nothing like fresh fruits and veggies organically grown without any artificial enhancements. Even my nieces and nephew are on the bandwagon, picking 15lbs of fresh, organic apples from a nearby farm in their area.
I am once again finding myself shifting gears. While I was pregnant, I asked God to show me how to actually lose weight after I delivered. I am down from my pre-pregnancy weight and it is all due to the additional challenge of cutting dairy from my diet (my angel is allergic to milk protein). All of these adjustments made me start to think about all the organic goods we used to get from our local 'Fruit Man' when I was growing up. The 'Fruit Man' used to come by every Saturday to sell his fruits, veggies and sometimes meats to the families in our neighborhood. He would come with beans and collards, eggs and potatoes and all the wonderfully, delicious and unadulterated goods from his garden. He was a small business owner and he made a healthy bounty from all the families who would wait for his arrival each Saturday to glean foods from the back of his truck for their Sunday dinners. He knew his target audience, minority families, especially older women who needed a good deal on some good eats! I can see my grandmother now pulling a bushel of garden peas off of his truck and hauling them into the house. We all knew this meant the end of our outside play time and the beginning of a long evening shelling peas with Momma!
Other small, home based business owners included my Great Aunt Tunny who supplemented her income by making the best brown dogs in the land! Brown dogs are delicious sugar and peanut or caramelized syrup and peanut candies. Just thinking of them makes my mouth water. Everybody came to Aunt Tunny's to buy her famous brown dogs at $.50 each. When she made a batch they sold out in no time flat just from word of mouth sales.
And who can forget the 'Freeze Lady', Mrs. Maggie. Mrs. Maggie sold freezes and candy out of her house to supplement her income. She made the very best kool-aid freezes with just enough sugar in them to keep us running back to her house with our $.25 every day and sometimes twice a day. LOL!
Happy memories from my childhood. Very easy and simple small businesses, but small businesses nonetheless!
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