There are flashing pie tins and a scarecrow in the sprawling garden behind a tidy white house on Price’s Fork Road just outside of Blacksburg.
Every summer for years, produce is for sale on the table under the pear tree in the front yard.
A blue Maxwell House container with a hole sawed in its magic-markered lid says $ CASH CAN $, and a sign in the same magic marker says “Zucchini and yellow squash 50 cents each. Bags in tree.” There’s a bag of plastic bags hanging in the fork of the pear.
“How’s business? “
“Well, it’s squash. So, it’s kind of slow,” says the gardener. He expects it to pick up, though, when the tomatoes come in. About July.
“Some people come every day. Sometimes twice a day — older people who can’t get around in a garden anymore, but they want good produce. Nothing like a ripe tomato.”