Greg and Kay Burris started selling produce 25 years ago under an old pecan tree on the corner of State Highway 59 and County Road 64 in Loxley. It was like many other roadside stands —a few fruits and vegetables lining the pickup truck bed, a scale and a cash box.

Since then, the Burris Farm Market has grown into a destination for locals and tourists, attracting more than 850,000 people a year.

Although the Burrises don’t own the Baldwin County landmark anymore, it is still a family-owned and operated business, and despite its tourist appeal, the colorful, open-air farm market still retains small-town characteristics that make it popular with locals.

Divine providence

Eight years ago, Rick and Jeanine Stewart were headed back to Georgia from a funeral. Rick’s uncle, who owned a Pensacola fruit stand his whole life, had died. The Stewarts saw the Burris Farm Market on Highway 59 and decided to stop in to honor his memory.

“I just kind of felt impressed by God that there was something out here for me,” said Rick, who grew up in Chickasaw. “I was talking to the owner (Greg Burris) about dirt on potatoes, and I said, ‘Hey, you ever interested in selling this place?’ and he looked at me like he saw a ghost.”

But a few months later, Burris agreed to sell the business to the Stewarts. Two weeks before Christmas 2004, the Stewarts and their two children packed a moving van and drove from Ringgold, Ga., to Baldwin County.

“I believed that God had given me this opportunity, so I accepted it as a gift,” Rick said.

Jeanine, however, wasn’t so sure at first. 

“I did not have the faith Rick does — I’m more pragmatic,” she said. “What I did was look at the tax returns, and then I said, ‘OK, God does  want us to have this, and it is a good investment.’ And then I was all in. I hate to admit that, but that’s how I am.”

A love for farming

After years as a chief financial officer working with corporations across the Southeast, Jeanine decided she’d had enough of corporate life, and the Stewarts opened a florist shop in north Georgia. 

But Jeanine wanted to be around tomatoes again. She grew up on a 400-acre farm, and her family spent summers picking tomatoes, sometimes from sunrise until 10 p.m.

“I loved it,” Jeanine said. “It was my whole family, my friends — everybody was there. I thought of it as just the most fun thing ever. I wanted to be a farmer, but it was pretty difficult back then for a woman to even consider that. So I didn’t get an inheritance of the farm. I went to college and became an accountant.”

Jeanine still remembers those long, hot days picking tomatoes by hand, and she said she relates to the farmers who supply the produce she sells.

“Farming is just a hard life, but it’s a great life,” she said. “I identify with them so well. I know how hard they work for what we get. We’ve really tried to bond with the local farmers and buy as much as we can from them and help Baldwin County stay an agricultural county. It always has been, but I see it changing.”

Local farmers grow 70 percent of the produce Burris sells in the summer, Rick said.

Jeanine also tries to sell products made by regional businesses, like Stuart’s Pickles from Gautier, Miss., and Milly Ray’s Rolls from Montgomery.

“We’re not a grocery store,” Jeanine said. “We carry products that we are personally proud to carry. I taste every single thing out there — I have tasted every jar of pickles, every jelly, everything. I don’t put it on my shelves unless I think it is a great product.”

And that’s why, Rick said, people drive from as far as Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile to his farm market.

“It just amazes me that people will get in their car and drive all the way over here for fruits and vegetables,” Rick said.

Family atmosphere

In addition to building relationships with local farmers, the Stewarts strive to give the workplace at Burris a family atmosphere.

Burris Farm Market employs 65 people in the summer and 40 during the off season. More than half are in high school or working during a college holiday, Rick said.

“I’ve got some of them who start at 14 and I see them off to college,” said Tracey Burgess, Burris’ front-end manager. “It’s a bittersweet moment to know that you’ve helped instill work ethic and study ethics into these children.”

The Stewarts have also hired several nontraditional employees.

“They try to give people a chance that normally wouldn’t be given a chance,” Burgess said.

Burgess, who has worked at Burris for eight years, said one of her favorite aspects of the job is educating customers, something that the Stewarts made a priority from the beginning.

“When I bought it, my objective was to appreciate the customers and have all the employees understand that customers are so important,” Rick said.

Ann Black of Loxley has been shopping at Burris Farm Market for seven years. 

“The service is great, and you always find what you’re looking for,” she said. “Everything is fresher here, and it’s close to home for me.”

Black enjoys canning tomatoes, and she buys them at Burris every summer. She also buys pies from the bakery on her way to parties and events.

“Everyone is always very courteous,” Black said. “It’s one of my favorite places.”

All of the employees at Burris know that customer service is their top priority, Jeanine said.

“You’re not just a cashier— you’re an encyclopedia of knowledge,” she said. “We know how to answer questions about canning and freezing, we know exactly how to tell the difference between a golden delicious apple, a granny smith apple and a red delicious apple. We can tell the difference in jellies, jams and spreads and how to tell when a watermelon is ripe. It’s our job to know that.”

Not just a landmark

Although Burris is a tourist destination for the hundreds of thousands who travel down State Highway 59 to the beach every summer, the Stewarts are passionate about the community around them all year.

Burris Farm Market is often represented at local festivals and the Stewarts said they give produce at the end of the season to local charities and churches.

Burgess said she often answers questions about the temperature, gives directions and has other local businesses’ phone numbers on hand to give to people who ask.

“We’re not just a farmers market,” Burgess said. “We’re where people say, ‘You’re the only person I could think of that might know.’ We are the hub of local information.”

Rick said because he grew up driving past Burris Farm Market during his childhood in Chickasaw, he feels responsible to maintain the integrity of something that is so recognizable and loved by the community.

“It’s an honor,” he said. “When somebody introduces me as the owner of Burris Farm Market, everybody knows what that is. You have the responsibility now of something that’s been given to you as a gift from God—you’ve got be a steward of it.”