For small children, eating healthy can be considered a chore. For some people, eating healthy is part of a daily routine, but for others eating healthy is a career.

Farmers set up shop to sell their homegrown produce in weekly town markets around Charleston’s Square, in parking lots of other businesses and just Outside their houses with “honor’s system” posters and a jar for donations.

However, they are faced daily with many consumers turning to Wal-Mart or County Market as their main sources for vegetables, fruits and all other fresh foods.

But off-campus students may not be getting what they think they are paying for.

“A lot of super markets will stamp something that says it’s local-grown,” Bob Winkler, owner of Sugar Mountain Farms, said. “I can go through, and I’d be like, ‘well that doesn’t grow in Illinois’ or ‘that isn’t even in season.'”

Winkler has tried his hand at many different forms of produce sales including six years visiting farmers markets and setting up tents at street corners.

Sugar Mountain Farms, named after the Neil Young song “Sugar Mountain,” has found his business’s home at 1000 18th St. in Charleston.

“Farmers markets are ok, but they are only one day a week. That’s the downfall of it. If people miss it or they don’t go or it’s not a convenient time for them, they can’t make it,” Winkler said.

Sugar Mountain Farms, according to Winkler, offers consumers a place to find fresh produce and herbs, as well as Americana knick-knacks.

The vegetables and fruits offered are typically grown locally, in season or occasionally from big businesses that Winkler sees fit.

“A lot of my produce comes from Amish growers and local orchards,” Winkler said. “I have several local growers and old timers as well bringing me in their garden surpluses. This year I’ll plant about 10,000 cloves of garlic for next year.

“I’ll also be growing a lot of stuff here on the property and in the back, in addition to what I do at my house about seven miles out in the country. So that way I can still have the Amish guys, that grow a lot of the staples like potatoes and zucchinis, and I can grow purple and yellow beans, the niche kind of stuff that nobody grows and you can’t find anywhere.”

Sugar Mountain Farms is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Another homegrown and healthy eating option is at a location people might be more familiar with. Family Video has opened up its parking lot for local farmer Shawn Stevens to sell his produce.

“Before we just sold out of our house in Bushton,” Stevens said. “We noticed a man out here selling Bonzi trees. We talked to him and then the people from Family Video and then we decided to come here (to sell).”

Stevens began farming practically at birth. He follows in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps as he continues to grow and sell produce to the public at a cheaper cost than the super markets.

“I look at the produce I’m going to sell then I create a price that I think is fair for what the products look like,” Stevens said. “I generally try to stay about half the price Wal-Mart is asking.”

The Stevens’ set up nearly every morning and don’t break down their tent until 5 or 5:30 p.m. According to Stevens, his customers stop in almost every four or five minutes, and a lot of those customers are students.

“Sometimes I get like a 20 minute break, but not that often,” Stevens said. “I get about 10 or 12 college students a day, but they don’t just buy one or two things. They always buy quite a bit of stuff. I think it’s because we’re closer than Wal-Mart.”

Stevens half smiling grabs a customer’s box and helps carry it to her car.

Upon his return I ask him one final question, “How do you like to cook your corn?”

“I like soak it in water with a little bit of hickory or another type of flavorful wood,” Stevens said. “That’s how dad likes it, and that’s how I like it.”

Brad York can be reached at

581-7942 or bayork@eiu.edu

Bill Cornwell has been producing a large variety of fruits and vegetables for more than 40 years. Cornwell has sold produce at the Charleston farmers market for more than eight years in the Square from 6 to 11 a.m. every Wednesday. (Alycia Rockey/The Dail

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