Each week, local produce market comes to shoppers

CHESAPEAKE

At just past dinnertime, pickup trucks formed a crooked line beside a tattered strip shopping center near the Norfolk end of Indian River Road. Men in ball caps and blue jeans cut their engines and dropped their tailgates to showcase what they had brought.

Boxes of shiny red peppers. Crates of string beans and corn. Flats of furry okra. Mounds of melons and eggplant. Peaches, peanuts, grapes, figs, onions and a melting pot of squash and gourds.

Welcome to Thursday night at Gene Daniels Auctions in Chesapeake, where farmers from southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina gather each week from June through October to sell just-picked crops to the highest bidder.

Anyone who wants to witness the front lines of local farmers' battle to show that their products are better than those trucked in from other parts of the country can just come here.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, c'mon down," said auctioneer Gene Daniels, a former farmer himself. "Let's get started here."

Like a circus ringmaster, Daniels stood under a spotlight in an open tent rimmed by boxes and crates of still more fresh produce. A crowd of about 100 - home canners, avid cooks, restaurateurs, produce-stand operators, spectators and children - merged into a loose semicircle around Daniels. He began last Thursday's auction by reminding the crowd that the local growing season is far from over.

"We're just starting to make the change from summer to fall," he said.

Then came a short sales pitch: "Buy from these farmers and you know where your food comes from. Most all this produce is local, from Edenton, the Eastern Shore, Virginia Beach and right here in Chesapeake."

First up: a bushel of okra. After a few bars of machine-gun-fast patter from Daniels, it sold for $17.49.

Next, a farmer in a red NCSU ball cap pulled 5-pound baggies of shelled butter beans from a cooler.

"Grown himself, picked this morning in Pungo and shelled," Daniels said to tempt bidders. They went for $14 a bag.

Next: flats of scuppernong grapes, iridescent purple and gold orbs from Blackwater Vineyards in Virginia Beach.

"They look like they've just been picked," Daniels said. "The leaves haven't even wilted."

The potential buyers - some gripping scraps of white paper with their bidding number scrawled on them in orange - migrated to waist-high boxes that were brimming with pumpkins.

Then, one by one, the farmers pulled their pickups under the tent. The first truck, from Poquoson, showcased tomatoes, corn, okra, red peppers and green beans.

Daniels started the produce auction five years ago to help local farmers by providing an outlet to sell their harvests. Throughout the night, he reminded the crowd that farming is a tough way to make a living and occasionally chided them for dirt-cheap bids.

"I want to tell you a story about when I graduated from high school," Daniels said while working through a truck filled with all manner of melons. "Fertilizer was $29 a ton. Now it's $449 a ton. If you think that's not hurting farmers..."

Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, bidders previewed the produce piled in the trucks still waiting in line.

Vernon Crump Jr. of Portsmouth stood near one pickup with North Carolina plates. Two coolers of shelled butter beans sat on the tailgate. Crump was waiting to bid on one of the 5-pound bags.

Near the end of the line of trucks, Lucinda Williams of Norfolk was poking around for a certain variety of melon that she bought a few weeks back with a taste so sweet she just had to have more.

"I'm here just about every week," she said. "The folks who come come every Thursday night."

She likes the camaraderie, but what she's looking for is fresh produce at low prices.

"Sometimes you might pay a little more, sometimes you pay a little less," Williams said. "But it's always cheaper than what you get out, and better quality."

Plus, it's fun.

"I like auctions. It's kind of like an addiction for me," said Doug Arcidino of Virginia Beach, who had just scored 25 pounds of tomatoes for $19 and a couple of seedless watermelons for $1.50 each.

But Arcidino warned that it's easy to get carried away, like just last week when he spent $120 and drove home with enough zucchini and acorn and butternut squash to last him through the winter.

Mindy Kopenhafer, an auction-house cashier, had a few bits of advice for first-time bidders.

First, stop by the auction-house office to get a bidding number. Then, when you get under the tent, pay attention.

"Make sure you know if it is one box you are bidding on or 10 boxes," she said. "And if you aren't sure, just say, 'How much?' Gene has no problem with that.

"Ask first and bid second."

It's also good to bring a friend or two to split purchases with, she said. And people don't mind selling a piece or two of produce out of a big box they've bought. Don't be shy about asking.

"You can buy here well under market value," Kopenhafer said. "Even if you pay $2 more on accident, you still have an incredible deal, and the food is straight from the garden to the table."

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com