DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9709010100

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   59 lines

PRODUCE STAND ON GREEN LINE CLOSES SHOP DAVIS FARM OWNER BLAMES INCREASED COMPETITION, POOR GROWING SEASON.

The yellow wooden shutters have been latched down for the last time on Davis Farm Produce stand, the landmark that stands as the gateway to old Princess Anne County.

For close to three decades, folks passing the intersection of Princess Anne and Sandbridge roads in summer have been greeted by a cornucopia of fresh produce.

As if by design, motorists crossing the Green Line - the imaginary boundary separating the city's developed northern half from its farms to the south - would immediately see some of the best that old Princess Anne had to offer.

They could count on finding wagon loads of sweet corn, bins of tomatoes, peppers and other fresh vegetables, as well as some of the sweetest peaches and figs around, all grown by Dean Davis on his Gum Ridge and Muddy Creek road farms.

Next growing season, customers still will be able to shop at Davis's New Bridge and Indian River road produce stand. He also hopes to open a second fresh fruit and vegetable stand somewhere else but it won't be at the old familiar location.

Three decades have brought a lot of change to the intersection, Davis explained, and business is not as good as it used to be. There was a time when he could sell between 1,000 and 1,500 dozen ears of corn a day.

``This summer we sold 200 to 225 dozen,'' Davis said.

So when the amount of home-grown produce from his farm began to dwindle in the fading days of summer last week, Davis called it quits.

He blamed several factors, among them the proliferation of roadside stands. In addition, he said, curbing, installed by the city around the parking area of his market a few years ago, has virtually eliminated northbound customers.

And the rent at that location has become too high, especially when the stand needs extensive work, Davis added. ``The old stand is about to fall down,'' he said.

Though it's a little rickety, colorful Davis Farm Produce has come a long way from the days when it was an 8-by-8-foot structure set out under the shade of two cedar trees. Davis pointed out one of the gnarled old cedars still standing in the corner of the parking lot.

When he opened, farm land was all around and Davis could count the number of cars that went by on the way to undeveloped Sandbridge. Although both Williams and Oliver farm markets were operating in Bayside, Davis was the first farmer to sell roadside produce in the southern half of the city.

Over the years, Davis Farm Produce grew in size and popularity. And so did the area around it. Housing developments, a school and a Food Lion are now part of the landscape and today, Davis couldn't begin to count the thousands of cars that pass in summer heading for Sandbridge.

Despite the changes, Davis, 60, is not ready to retire. ``I don't know where I'll be next year,'' he said, ``but I'll definitely be somewhere. ILLUSTRATION: CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Dean Davis has closed his Davis Farm Produce stand located at

Princess Anne and Sandbridge roads. Davis was the first farmer to

sell roadside produce in the southern half of the city.

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