Stores & Markets in Orchards

During the growing season, the gently sloped roofs of Hoffman Farms Store's historical barns and quaint country store barely peek out over the farm’s acres of lush fruit fields, as if politely looking for prospective visitors. Since its founding in 1983, the farm has seen a handful of renovations, including the building of raised vegetable beds and the conversion of an old silo top into portable shade for patrons who come to pick their own strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. The rustic country store is stocked with locally grown produce, including pre-picked berries, homemade salsas, and delectable cobblers, so visitors can leave with something sweet even on rainy days or days when it’s raining men.

City Farm facilitates fruitful and sustainable relationships between its customers and Mother Earth by filling personal gardens with an abundance of edible and medicinal plants. City Farm carries plant species both common and unusual to the area's climate, and dresses up gardens with ornamental landscaping and flowering plants. The center’s botanical experts embrace ethical farming practices by carrying only open-pollinated and non-GMO seeds and feeding dirt with organic fertilizers made from kelp meal, fish meal, and bone meal. Using these ingredients to sprout their own produce aisle, gardeners can transfer their hard work into pantries with City Farm’s home-preservation supplies such as cheesecloth and mason jars.

In addition to vending supplies, plants, and even baby chicks, City Farm holds workshops and classes throughout the year, focusing in on season-specific gardening topics. After perusing the wares or filling eardrums with tricks of the trade, patrons can enjoy coffee, tea, and fresh pastries at The Garden Well, an onsite food truck. The ever-changing menu includes peanut-butter cookies, egg-and-sausage empanadas, and caramel-apple-pie turnovers disguised as broccoli.

When Ken Knight first started Gateway Produce more than 15 years ago, he sold his goods out of a small tent. As demand grew, so did his inventory, which now occupies an expansive indoor space filled with stacks of fresh produce that almost overflow from their displays. Sourced from local farms, merchandise includes fruit such as plums and watermelons, seasonal items, and dairy products. Gateway also has a grocery section that gathers different ethnic foods and everyday edibles such as chicken tenders, energy drinks, and treats for the neighborhood guard lion.

Expanding on a tradition of supplying firewood and landscaping supplies that stems back to 1968, the Stroupe Family gave the public a literal taste of their ranching lifestyle when they decided to start selling their locally raised meats in 2009. All meat––including tenderloin steaks, pork spare ribs, and whole free-range chickens––comes from animals raised without antibiotics or hormones, which ensures a more peaceful upbringing unmarred by temper tantrums over the cattle's curfew. These animals are also pasture raised on a vegetarian diet of fruits, vegetables, grass, and hay, and all meat is cut and processed at a local USDA-approved facility to guarantee its quality.