What started as a simple hobby has grown into a full-fledged business.
On Saturday, June 22, Hedges’ Farm held its Grand Opening at their farm stand. The quaint little farm store is located on the Hedges’ family property, which boasts 40 acres of land and is located between Sadler and Gordonville. The stand is perfectly situated right next door to their home. It is a cash-only farm stand that goes by the honor system.
During the grand opening, the Hedges had numerous samples lined up on tables under the front porch of the stand. These included different flavored pecans; a variety of dips that they make and sell, with crackers and tortilla chips; pineapple bratwurst and a delicious assortment of cheesecake samples from their vendor, Chubby Cheeks Cheesecakes & Bakery.
The Hedges’ story began with a teacher and her desire to share. Amy and Darryl Hedges first moved into their house on the farm on February 2, 2002. Today’s farm stand began as an office, which later became a pool house that was only used for storage. Amy was a teacher at Whitesboro High School. She began a Facebook page named Hedges’ Farm, LLC.
Whenever she had anything to share with others, she would post on Facebook and place the items on her front porch for people to swing by and pick up.
At first, she was only able to offer peaches, pecans and beef. Friends, family and coworkers would order what they wanted from her and leave cash on the porch. More people began placing orders and the business began to grow. Amy says that Darryl (or “Farmer Darryl” as he is known on their Facebook page) has a motto: “If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly.”
She said he grizzlies everything up – including a particular crop of tomatoes.
“Everything he does is big, above and beyond,” Amy said.
One day, Amy decided she wanted to place a table on their front porch and add more items to sell. After all, she thought, they already had their Facebook farm page, they had established customers and had an abundance of tomatoes. They decided to bring a small fridge out so items would last longer. Maybe they would sell a few other things.
“We never figured we would last this long,” Amy said.
The Hedges already had bees on their property. Those bees began to pollinate their berries, blossoms and peach blossoms, allowing them to eventually harvest the berries and begin to make jellies, glaze and canned honey. Amy also started canning peppers. Pecans started coming off of trees on their land and she began to sell praline pecans. She has made over 300 pounds of praline pecans. They have also sold farm fresh eggs for a very long time. Amy said their farm has over 150 chickens that provide their eggs.
Once they realized how much they had started to outgrow the front porch, the Hedges decided to begin renovating the pool house. Farmer Darryl did all the renovations in correlation with their main house. They removed a window, added a front door and the farm stand was born.
Hedges’ Farm likes the old-fashioned type of payment system and only accepts cash. Purchasing products is as simple as choosing the items that you are shopping for, checking them off on a piece of paper that the Hedges provide, stapling the cash to it and leaving it in a slot they have inside the farm stand.
Amy and Darryl have a son, Jadin Hedges, who is the fourth generation male farmer on FM 901. Darryl’s grandfather lived and farmed on FM 901, Darryl’s father (owner of Hedges Florist in Whitesboro) raised Darryl and farmed on FM 901 and now Darryl is raising Jadin and farming on FM 901.
All the beef, vegetables, fruit and pecans are raised and grown at the farm. They also provide canned vegetables and fruit. The farm has 4,000 tomato plants, 25 pepper plants, two fields of corn and five to six acres of planted vegetables. All vegetables are planted from seed and are non-GMO. Amy said you can only find the vegetables they grow at their farm stand.
“At the rate we’re going, we are really thinking that we may outgrow this place here fast. Five years may bring a bigger building. We would stay here on the farm,” Amy said.
The farm stand is located at 12808 FM 901. It’s open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
All details about the farm stand, including location, hours, payment options and products, can be found on their website at www.hedgesfarm.com.
