The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree

The story of the Edens family is one of love.

Talking from in front of the Scotts Hill house he grew up in, Ronnie Edens recollects that the family produce stand he’s looking at used to be just about in the middle of the southbound lane of U.S. Highway 17 before the roads were straightened out.

It’s a busy spot. Poplar Grove Plantation and Abbey Nature Preserve are just across the highway on the east side, and the Wesleyan Chapel and cemetery sits just across Sidbury Road to the north. There, just past the light on U.S. Highway 17, sits the family produce stand, known for juicy peaches and mouth-watering tomatoes.

“We’ve had a stand here for more than 100 years. It’s moved just a little bit around the acreage due to the roads,” says Edens. Both his grandparents were named Edens, but were not related.

 “My dad’s dad, James Edens, started it a long time ago. This was called the Edens Hill, about 15-16 acres before it was split up. He would pick stuff, put it on the truck by the road and just leave a tin cup for people to put in their money. That’s how it all started.”

Ronnie’s mom, Doris, was one of eight girls who ran the whole farm in Holly Ridge where they grew corn and tobacco for cash and everything else to feed the family. His dad, Jimmy, was also a proficient farmer.

“Mom could plow the straightest rows. She and Dad grew sweet corn, peas, beans, everything to feed a family. They did well for themselves. Mother also worked for Southern Bell for 20 years,” he says.

 That Holly Ridge farm is where Ronnie and his wife, Sharon, with the help of their sons, still farm about 60 acres of fruit and vegetables.

Ronnie and Sharon started dating while students at Laney High School in Wilmington, where he was a baseball player and she was a band majorette.  Sharon hints that it was those delicious tomatoes that made a difference in their love story. “He would come to our house bringing homegrown tomatoes and corn, I knew what homegrown tasted like,” she says. 

Sharon herself comes from a three-generation farm in Chadbourn, Columbus County, where the family farmed 80 plus-acres. They grew tobacco, soybeans, strawberries and raised cows, bulls and chickens.

“I even rode a bull at 3 years old,” she says.

Her grandfather was the minister at the Hope Baptist Church in Whiteville. Her father, William Richard Caines, was the oldest of eight boys. As the first girl born in a generation onto the family farm, Sharon was spoiled by her seven uncles.

Literally I was the queen. It was a millionaire childhood on a farm. It was the best you could ask for just because of the love. Money doesn’t make us rich. It’s love. We ate what we grew.  It was a wonderful life,” she says.

The family left Columbus County for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where her father, an engineer, was employed at Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant. The Amish country of Lancaster is a big farming community.

“The Lord just placed us there. It was a wonderful place,” she says. 

After three years in Lancaster, the family came back to Wilmington where Caines went to work with GE.  Sharon met Ronnie in high school.

Sharon was a majorette. Every Friday they would march in front of the stands during football games. They practiced there during the week.

“I knew who she was, and I’d seen her twirl the baton. I thought she was a right pretty little thing. She’s still a pretty thing,” Ronnie says.

  Sharon approached Ronnie one day to say she had a friend who liked him.

“Ronnie said, ‘She isn’t who I want to go out with. I want to go out with you, how about Friday night?’” Sharon says.

When Sharon reported back, her friend planted doubt about Ronnie’s intent.  “Oh Sharon, it is April Fool’s, so he’s probably just playing a prank on you,” Sharon says.

Knowing that he loved to joke and laugh, and not wishing to be stood up, she laid her clothes out, got ready, but answered the door in her robe.

“He said, you’re not ready?”

She replied, “Give me 10 minutes.”

The rest is history, as they say. On the very first date Ronnie told Sharon, “I will treat you like a princess; I will always put you on a pedestal.”

On the second or third date he said, “I’m going to marry you.” She said, “buddy you had better slow down. I want to go on to college.”

The couple will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary in June. Together they continue the family legacy of farming.

“You can grow produce anywhere you can grow tobacco,” he says. “I’m very lucky. We have a little clay content in my soil; it makes good tomatoes. And we’re close enough to Topsail to get that nice sandy mix which affects the taste.”

Talladega is one of his favorite varieties.

Collards and peanuts are the main late fall crops. During December the stand was filled with Christmas trees and wreaths from Avery County.

Planting resumes in March or April, depending on the spring weather, and loyal customers will flock to the stand Sharon manages, while Ronnie typically mans the family’s wagonload of produce at the Wrightsville Beach Farmers Market.

A few of the family’s loyal customers happen to be very well known. Television’s Doctor Oz has visited the stand many times while at his home on Figure Eight Island. Ronnie says Oz loves the peaches and has even taken some to his friend, Oprah Winfrey.

“He (Dr. Oz) is a scholar and a gentleman. He comes to the stand with his whole family. He’s wonderful, and very kind and nice to anyone who recognizes him. He has often taken our peaches back to Oprah,” Sharon says.

A man of many talents, Ronnie is also a commercial fisherman. He used to be a seafood broker at J.H. Lea & Sons, now Atlantic Seafood.

“My dad ran a mullet crew on the backside of Figure Eight Island when I was 5 or 6 and there weren’t probably five houses on the whole island,” he says.

The sales — cash only — from what the family grows come mostly from word of mouth. Ronnie has been running the business that way for close to 35 years.

“We’re not big Facebook people,” he says. “I still use a flip phone if that tells you anything. But come try the produce one time, you’ll be sold.”

Whatever the magic is, aside from a love of farming and raising three sons, they’ve found a winning combination.

Farming, fishing and managing the produce make for long days, but Sharon says, “The people that come visit just make this so wonderful.”