“How’d Horse & Buggy Produce get started?” I get that all the time. And if you’re willing to sit for a sec or two, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version as best I can.

I grew up on a farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley (my mom still lives there) where, amongst other things, I raised sheep.

I’ve done many different kinds of work, but despite my Yale education, agriculture and the natural world have always been my great loves.

So, several years ago I noticed an old abandoned apple orchard in Crozet, VA which was slated to be razed for a housing development. Now if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s waste, and if there’s one thing I’m in awe of, it’s abundance, that is, the tremendous amount of food that the land can produce. Well, I couldn’t let all of those apples go to waste, so I started knocking down briars and brush, and I began picking them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, but being the resourceful fella that I am, I learned that there was an old family apple cider mill in Verona, VA. And so, I pressed all of those wonderful apples, and made the best darn cider I’d ever tasted – tart, not like that “liquid cotton candy” stuff that other folks were peddling.

Folks really started craving the stuff at the farmers’ market and beyond, and I began making a bit of a name for myself. I’m proud to say, I still make my cider the same way I did when I started – tart apples only – and folks still go nuts over it.

Anyway, from there I started growing spray-free tomatoes for local chefs. It was just a hobby, but soon my tomatoes became so popular, I couldn’t keep up with demand. So, I asked some local farmers if they knew anyone who was growing spray-free tomatoes that I might be able to buy. Finally, one told me he’d heard about a community of Old Order Mennonites living in the (Shenandoah) Valley who had just started a produce sale/market. I contacted their sale manager immediately, and he explained that all the farmers in their community were bringing their surplus fruits and vegetables from their personal gardens to a “local gathering spot” and selling everything auction-style. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

The next week I arrived at an old equipment shed in the middle of a corn field, surrounded by horse and buggies, tractors with small trailers, and lots of Mennonite men, women, and children all attired in traditional dress. I sort of felt like I’d stepped back in time.

When I walked into the equipment shed, however, I felt like I had stepped into heaven! There were antique, steel-wheeled, wooden carts in nice, neat rows completely laden with the most beautiful produce I’d ever seen.

I bought so much stuff, I barely was able to fit it all into my subcompact car (heck, I was so loaded down, I was barely able to make it over Afton Mountain!)

The next week I brought a borrowed pickup truck, and within one month, I went from servicing about five restaurants to about twenty-five!

Then later that Fall, a young mother happened to see the back of my truck while I was making deliveries in Charlottesville, and she inquired about what I was up to. I explained my good fortune in discovering the Mennonites, all the while noticing her being distracted by the plethora of beautiful produce riding in the back of the truck. She explained that she was a member of a local CSA, but was very disappointed with its lack of variety and volume, and that she knew forty other mothers who would love to get my great produce every week. And so the seed was planted.

I realized she was absolutely right. I could select and buy from over 100 families’ gardens and orchards, and bring folks a huge array of wonderfully fresh food each week, without being constrained by the limitations of having to grow it myself. (Little did I know that during the first year, 2006, I’d work 14 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for seven and a half months straight – yikes!)

So, in the Spring of 2006, I got a website together, did a little marketing, and ended the season with about 285 subscriptions. In 2007, April Muniz became my first full-time employee (she’d been a subscriber the year before) and she was nothing short of a godsend. That year we added Lynchburg to our destinations, began offering local beef and chicken, and ended the season with about 850 subscribers coming each week. In 2008, we peaked out at just over 1150 subscribers. Thank god I had the good fortune to find several more amazing people – Carly and Christine - to help me get everything done.

In 2010, we began delivering to Richmond. We’ve gotten requests to come to Northern Virginia, and while the notion is tempting, I want to make sure that we pace our growth so that no matter how big we get, I can maintain my commitment to bringing folks produce that’s fresh, fresh, fresh (12 to 48 hours young) and local, local, local (grown no more than 100 miles from Charlottesville).

I hope you join us in celebrating the amazing variety, unimaginable flavors, good fortune and health eating locally provides. You have no idea how good fresh food can taste, until you try our delicious fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and trout. Please accept my invitation to give us a try.

~Brett Wilson