Humboldt folks eager to buy farm-fresh produce without driving out of town with Moons Market having closed soon will have an opportunity at the corner of Bridge and Third streets.
Paul Johnson will open for the season Squat & Gobble Produce about the middle of this month.
The outlet has been in business for better than a decade, including the past five years from a remodeled portion of his garage. In what may be the best kept secret in Humboldt, Paul depends on word-of-mouth to advertise his enterprise.
Paul and wife Jeanie purchase produce from watermelons and cantaloupes to green beans, corn, potatoes and tomatoes, as well as jelly, jam, homemade pies, even eggs from Mennonite farms in Bates County, Mo. They tow a trailer behind their small SUV early each Friday and are back by mid-afternoon with all their available space packed to the gills.
The shop today is a much better venue from when they sold home-grown vegetables from a stand bordering Bridge Street.
Their business grew one day when Lonnie Jaro, also involved in the produce business, was driving home from the Mennonite farms with a load of produce. He and his partner decided they had had enough.
Lonnie came by my house. He told me, You can have it (the produce) or Im going to dump it in the river.
That prompted the Johnsons to expand and take on the weekly trips to Missouri. Paul calls it a hobby, but admits the added income is a nice component.
With a bigger inventory, the Johnsons moved their produce to a long concrete patio along the front of their home. After Paul had a stroke, he opted to air-condition one half of his double garage and convert it to a vegetable stand. Its open daily except Sunday and on Fridays until after the Johnsons return from their weekly buying trips.
A feature Paul crows about: Everything the Mennonites grow is organic. No commercial chemicals are used. An example: Putting drops of mineral oil at the ends of young corn husks wards off worms.
When he was more able, Paul had a large garden, including as a kid helping his mother. He and his cousin, Randy Wade, honed their salesmanship skills by selling his mothers produce around town.
Me and Randy filled our little red wagons and had a route in south Humboldt. We usually sold all we had, usually taking in $10 or so.
The seeds of a future Humboldt business were sewn.
