(This article first appeared in the June print issue of the Hendersonian)
On any given day when the Henderson Farmers Market is open, from May’s opening day until October’s last hurrah, the green-and-white checked tablecloth of Fresh Cut Farms is a beacon for homegrown goodness.
Depending on the point in the growing season, their market offerings might include sugar snap peas and sweet white turnips, scallions and shallots, white and red onions, garlic, several types of squash, white and red potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, eggplant, all colors and sizes of tomatoes, blueberries, okra, a rainbow array of peppers and more.
You might even find specialty items like the ever-popular citronella plants, cat grass and huckleberries. All of this from the hard-working hands of Donnie McLean.
You might sometimes see McLean at the market wearing a neat, button-down shirt monogrammed with “Dirt Farmer.” But more often it’s his family holding down the Farmers Market booth while he actually keeps his hands in the dirt at his Robards farm, producing more and more items to bring to the market and to customers he works with on a one-on-one basis.
One of those customers is Shawna Harrington, chef at Hometown Roots in downtown Henderson who regularly features Fresh Cut Farms produce in planning the restaurant’s menus.
“Donnie McLean is known around Roots as ‘The Collard Green Man’,” Harrington said. “He is in and out of our restaurant more than any of our farmers, dropping huge tubs of collards to us weekly (from mid-May to late December), along with all the other random things he grows for us.”
The chef said McLean will bring by seed catalogs in late winter and she will pick new varieties of vegetables she has been wanting to get her hands on to create tasty dishes for Hometown Roots.
“He loves a new challenge of something new to grow. I love the challenge of cooking with an ingredient I haven’t used before, such as the North Georgia Candy Roaster, an heirloom squash with a rich sweetness,” Harrington said. “We have become good friends over the last five years working together.”
McLean said he has been a gardener all his life. He recalls the sensory experience of plowing the earth in the springtime on their family farm and walking around in it barefoot as a youngster.
“That felt good,” he said. “We always had a big garden for family.”
When he retired after working 45 years at Gibbs, that “big garden” might have grown a little.
“We had more than we could eat,” McLean said, so about five years ago they decided to try the Farmers Market as a sales outlet.
Over those years of coming to the market three times a week, all season long, the garden has probably tripled in size, said McLean’s daughter, Shanna Bryant-Taylor, who operates the Fresh Cut Farms operation at the Farmers Market.
“He’s always trying something new every year,” she said, noting this year his experiment is celery and celeriac. Last year it was new varieties of peppers and radishes.
A market guide published last summer by the Henderson Farmers Market Association characterizes McLean like this: “He turned his love for agriculture into a family business.” Besides Shanna, family members who pitch in are his wife Rita McLean, Sydney Chambers and Dana Robards.
McLean acknowledges that the farm is hard work but there are benefits in stress relief and in keeping busy. He said customers enjoy talking and it’s good to get to know them.
“That’s the best part,” he said.
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The Henderson Farmers Market is open for the season from the first of May until the last of October on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Growers and producers set up from 8 a.m. to noon (as long as supplies last). The market typically includes local and fresh produce, honey, wine, meat, bakery goods and more. As the growing season advances, the variety of items and number of producers present at the market grows, too.
The market location is the Cates-Porter Farmers Market Pavilion at Henderson County Fairgrounds located on Sam Ball Way at Airline Road. Follow the Henderson Farmers Market Facebook page for updates.
