Dirt to Dollars
Agriculture, farming, and rural issues in central Kentucky.
Dirt to Dollars
Episode 50 - Phil Howell from Phil's Produce
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We enjoyed having Phil Howell on this week to talk about his career in the seed business and his produce business, Phil's Produce. Stop and see them at 813 N Mulberry in Elizabethtown.
Thanks to Spraytec for sponsoring this week's show. Find a dealer near you at spraytecusa.com.
And thanks to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations. Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.
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SPEAKER_03Welcome back to Dirt the Dollars, where the news is real, the facts aren't made up. And unlike his jokes, Daniels Rannants are listener approved.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like you've chat GPT that.
SPEAKER_03I did not.
SPEAKER_02I think this is like the third time you've been accused of using AI.
SPEAKER_03Today. Today. Yeah. Probably. Well, you know what's not AI? What's uh this week's sponsor? Oh, it's gonna pay much cheap. Okay, go ahead. Low rates, high yields. Spray tech technology helps you maximize your crop performance. Are there innovative solutions? Bring together application technology, nutrition, and plant health. Use it once, trust it always. SprayTech's exclusive technology enhances the absorption of the nutrients by delivering the right form of the element along with the polarity that activates plant metabolism, making them more efficient on utilizing all active ingredients. Visit spraytechusa.com to learn more or call Dawson at 573-979-3716.
SPEAKER_02Really appreciate them sponsoring this week's episode, and we've got a really good one, and I'm excited about it. So uh why don't we just go ahead and get into it? Mark, why don't you go ahead and give our guests an introduction?
SPEAKER_03All right, today we welcome a man who's no stranger to agriculture in Kentucky. Some might call him a legend. Over his career, he's sold all across sold seed all across the U.S. wearing a few different hats. Most recently, he can be found on TikTok and Facebook promoting his local business. From the corner of Mulberry and French Street in Elizabethtown, welcome Phil Howe from Phil's Produce.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much. Thanks for inviting me.
SPEAKER_03You know, if you'd have told me, and you and I talked about this the other day, if you'd have told me 10 years ago that you'd be on Facebook and TikTok promoting Phil's produce, I'd I'd have told you you were you were silly, but you you've been doing that for uh the last several months, and I I think it's been good for business.
SPEAKER_01Uh it has been very good for business, and uh, and you need to be thanking my wife for it. Uh that's that was her idea. And I said, ah, we really don't need to do that. And she said, Yeah, we do. Well, I said, okay, we, you know, uh all three of y'all know me well enough to know that I I don't usually have trouble talking in front of groups or to people, and uh sometimes I don't know when to shut up, I guess. But uh no, they it's been good. Uh I've enjoyed it. Uh I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it. Uh I I get to I get to thank people that uh have helped me out there, like Nick Stucker, for instance, bringing me sweet corn, and uh I don't have to go to the field and pick it and all that good stuff, and uh uh Amish Lady in uh in Sonora raising green beans and squash for us, and I don't have to buy it all sale in Hart County. And uh the Hart County produce people uh they've have been a great help to me too over the years, and uh uh it's just been uh it's been great. Uh and if you'd have told me back in uh probably uh 1990 when we sold sweet corn for Elizabeth Town High School band as a band booster project that Phil's produce would be what it is today, I would tell you that you're crazy. But it is, and uh we've enjoyed building it. And uh yeah, uh if if I leave it to uh son and two grandsons and one granddaughter and they carry it on, then then my my legend will live on for a while, I guess.
SPEAKER_04So we uh we'll talk a little bit more about the produce side a little later, but just to start out, why don't you, you know, a lot of people listening out there locally probably know you from a different hat that you wore uh in the past. Why don't you tell a little bit of the story about how you ended up in Elizabethtown?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh we'll we'll back up and and and and thank some folks that got me into the agriculture business in the first place. Uh my granddaddy milked cows, and uh I was raised by my grandmother and grandfather, and uh summertime we of course worked on the farm and of course went to school with uh 27 kids, graduated with 27 kids in 1967 at Cornersville, Tennessee, which is in Marshall County, 60 miles south of Nashville. So that's where I grew up in that part of the country. Well, my senior year, I wasn't going to college. And at Christmas time, I still wasn't going to college. My FFA advisor talked to me. I was president of FFA. He said, Phil, you need to go to school. I said, Well, Mr. Harper, I said, I'm gonna farm my granddaddy. And he said, Well, that's all fine and good, but he said, Your granddaddy's not gonna always be here. And uh, you don't think about your granddaddy dying back then when you're 16, 17 years old. But to make a long story short, I went to Middle Tennessee State University and I graduated with the Ag Business and Ag Econ degree. Now, when I started Ag Business and Ag Econ, did I know what I was gonna do? No, I did not. Did I think I'd be a salesman for 40 years? No, I did not. But it turned out that way. Well, when I graduated in 1971, I got a job with Oakist, which is southern states and Alabama and Georgia and all that. So I moved to Moulton, Alabama. Well, we're talking about cotton country. Now, you know what a boy from the middle of Tennessee knew about cotton. That was next to nothing. I knew what the plant looked like. That's what. So we uh get a get acquainted with a lot of people down there, and and uh and we worked for Gold Kist at Moulton, like I said, and enjoyed it and became assistant manager, and uh lo and behold, uh uh met a young lady named Rhonda. And uh uh, you know, getting married was not on my top 10 list anywhere. Uh I had a new car, I had a college education. Getting married wasn't on the top 10 list, but in June 17th, 1972, one year later, Rhonda and I got married. And 54 years later, I'm proud to tell you we're still married. So anyway, it must have been the right thing to do. Okay. A friend of mine worked for Ralston Perenna in Middle Tennessee, and he said, Phil, we got an opening in Middle Tennessee. Why don't you apply for it and move back to Middle Tennessee? So I applied for a job with Ralston Perena, got the job with Roston Perena, went back to my home county and two other counties, worked for them for a while. They moved me to East Tennessee. And not that I wasn't a big orange fan, but I just wasn't an East Tennessee fan. So anyway, we did that for about two years, and a dealer of mine in Spring Hill, Tennessee, said, Why don't you come and go back to work for me? So we moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee, and I went to work for uh Spring Hill Feed and Seed. Well, that's how I got acquainted with NK Brand. The salesman there, the he said, Hey, if you ever want to get back in big business, uh, I think I can get you a job with within K Brand. And I said, Well, okay. So anyway, Mr. Fry decided he's going to sell Spring Hill Feed and Seed, and Phil couldn't afford to buy it. So I applied for a job with NK Brand in Alabama. Well, I was applying for a territory sales manager's job in Alabama, but they decided that I could be district sales manager. In other words, this salesman that I was calling on us, I was going to be his boss. So anyway, he called me and he said, Well, how'd you interview go? I said, Well, it went real well. He said, Where'd you get the job? I said, Well, I got eight guys. He said, What does that mean? I said, They hired me as a district sales manager.
SPEAKER_00He said, Are you my boss? I said, Yeah. He said, Well, if I'd have known that, I'd have never got you the application.
SPEAKER_01So anyway, that's how we started with NK brand. So then uh we moved to Dalton, Georgia in 1983 with NK. Uh was there two years, and then that's when the powers at B decided that uh, I was a district sales manager, decided that uh I need to move to Southern Illinois and work with 11 salesmen. And so we did that. We moved there in 1985, uh at Christmas time. Tracy and Nicole wasn't real thrilled with that. But anyway, it happened. We did it. Uh 18 months later, we bought Stoffer Seed. The Stoffer Regional Manager had been there forever and ever. Amen. So Phil got the opportunity to move to Elizabeth Town, Kentucky. And I took the that opportunity and gladly. I was glad to get back on this side of the Mason Dixon line and uh and work for I didn't have Levin Salman no more. I had one, and it was his name was Phil. So I saw after what I did, I got to go to all the high school football games and all the band contests while the kids were in high school at Etown High and uh thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh Dennis and Greg uh came along in 1988 at Cecilia, and we built a pretty good business down there with NK Brand. And uh uh uh so anyway, that's how all that came to be. Uh obviously met a lot of farmers in Harden County and surrounding counties, and I had East Kentucky too, but you know, you don't have to go to East Kentucky too often, just every once in a while, and kind of kind of uh depend on the where the acreage is. And of course, Harden County was the biggest county for me. And uh uh so that's how uh NK career went. Uh we've had some great times with it. Uh uh we've been a lot of places that we would not have got to go if it hadn't been for NK and working for NK over that uh 26, a little over 26 years.
SPEAKER_03You know, you talk uh about building an NK brand here locally. You know, AgriGold now is is huge around here. And when Agrigold came in, I believe it was when Curtis Bivens came in, he said, I don't want to be the top sales at Satic Farm Service. I just want to be number two behind NK. And and they were number two behind NK for a long time in the area. So they were you you guys had a had a foothold here that that took a long time to to lose.
SPEAKER_01So well and uh and I need to tell you this too. Uh one day Dennis called me in his office and he said, I need to talk to you a minute. I said, okay. So I went in his office and he said, uh, well, Pioneer Boys came by, uh, Barney Boer and uh had his boss with him the other day. I said, Really? He said, Yeah, they came in to visit and said, uh, his boss says, uh, well, I'm just gonna be real blunt with you and just ask you right up front. He said, What will it take for you all to put NK out and let Pioneer take over here? And Dennis said, I told him, he said, Well, there's two reasons that that won't happen. And he said, Well, what's that? He said, one of them is uh your soybeans aren't up to NK brand soybeans today. And the other one is Phil Howe said, there's no way we would do him that way. And he said, We like Barney. We we work with Barney, but he said, if you're asking me to put them out, that ain't gonna happen. So that made me feel pretty good. And Barney and I were good friends. You know, I had I know he was a pioneer man, he knew I was an NK man, and and we w we were very cordial competitors. Now, there's some others that I can't tell you out about, but we won't call their names.
SPEAKER_04So we've got the backstory there on how you got to Elizabethtown. How did you end up in the produce business? Because you did both jobs for quite a while, right?
SPEAKER_01Quite a while, which we did. Well, uh Chuck Smith came to Etown to be band director in 1990, and Nicole was a freshman, and she was in the band course that she played football. Well, they were broke, like most bands are, and uh they uh band boosters had to do raise a lot of money if he was going to do very much and be successful as a band, because uh Harden County and Elizabeth Independent School Districts both don't support them that much. Not as much as they need to, anyway. Okay. So Jim Miles was raising sweet corn, and I said, you know what? I believe these kids we could sell a lot of sweet corn if uh if we had somebody to raise it. So I talked to Jim and he said, Well, yeah, I'll raise it for you. So Wayne Walters and myself, we were a farm connection to all these city folks up here. Uh, we got them kids up at 6 o'clock, and we cared about Jim Miles, and we picked sweet corn. And at that time we had that car wash out on Dixie Highway. I've forgotten the guy's name that had it, but anyway, that's where we sold that sweet corn. And them kids made some pretty good money on weekends picking sweet corn and selling sweet corn. Well, we did that for four years, and Nicole graduated in 1993. And uh after Wayne and I both graduate or our kids graduated, uh, the city folks wasn't gonna get up to 6 o'clock and take anybody to the cornfield to pick corn because they didn't know how to do it yourself. So anyway, we uh uh Jim called me and he said, What am I gonna do now? I said, They're not gonna sell my corn. I said, I tell you what. I said, our me and Wayne, our families will sell corn for you on weekends, so just keep raising sweet corn. So that's how we got started. So we would advertise in the paper that we're gonna be across this lot where scooters is now at 10 o'clock with a load of sweet corn. So we went and picked that sweet corn, got over there at 10 o'clock, and the first day we went over there, there was 33 cars sitting on that lot when we got there. I never touched an ear of the corn on the truck. They bagged their own, and all I done was collect money. And uh and Mark, then we were selling sweet corn for eight dollars a bushel. But you remember we're talking about 1999. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. So uh anyway, we've come a long way since then, thank goodness. Thank goodness. But uh, so that's how we got started. Well, so we we kept doing that along there, you know, and then Wayne and Betty decided if they were going to sell at the farmer's market. So obviously we had the part ways, and uh we kept selling sweet corn, and people said, Well, ain't you got no tomatoes?
SPEAKER_00Well, ain't you got this? Well, ain't you got that? And I said, No, ma'am, because I've got a full-time job and uh we we just don't have time for all that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I started working in East Tennessee a little bit, a part of it. And in Granger County, Tennessee, there's a lot of tomatoes growing over there, and that's right outside of uh uh Knoxville. So I started bringing tomatoes back from Granger County when I was over there, and so we now we're in the tomato business too. And we started doing it on the carport here at the house, and uh, well, that worked out pretty good for a while, but then we decided that, well, we're gonna expand that a little. And we where Mr. Gaddies is, we had an old old set of scales hanging in a tree and wet, and you can imagine how accurate them were. So, anyway, that's how we got started selling tomatoes. And uh so in 2007, when I retired from NK, that's when we put this building up, our double-wide carport, and uh kind of went full blown into uh into the produce business with the intent of doing that all the time. But crop production service got in the way of that a little bit. But uh anyway, uh it all worked out. We we got enough people to to help us to get it through it until I could get home in the afternoons and and see about it the next day. And uh so that's how we got started. And uh I told you guys, some of you earlier, if uh if you'd have told me it would ever be what it is today, I would have said, no way that will ever happen. And uh then this TikTok and Facebook shenanigan stuff, uh, if if I'd have known it was that easy, I'd have done it three or four years ago. But uh anyway, uh we got a lot of new customers out of it, and uh uh we've got a lot of customers that share that uh on their Facebook page, and you can imagine what that does to uh people as Fallen Fields produce, and uh uh we're certainly happy they are, and uh uh we've certainly enjoyed uh our customers 20 plus years.
SPEAKER_04So you talked about uh the business it's grown into today. Do you have any numbers as far as how many customers you all will serve in a year or how much produce you'll move, or just to give an idea what the scale of it is turned into?
SPEAKER_01Well, well, you you know, we we open basically April 15th and we close November the 1st. We go through Halloween and pumpkins and mums and and we sell hanging baskets and all that in the spring for for Mother's Day. Uh, but just to tell you uh on an average day, we'll wait on uh 150 people. That's that's an average day. On the weekends it'll be 250 people most of the time. Uh and uh we we've gone uh we've gone to uh 200,000 plus uh for the for the six months. That's yeah, you know, I you know that that that counts sweet corn, that counts moms, that counts everything, but uh yeah, it's a it's a pretty good business.
SPEAKER_03I was in there earlier this week when we when we were talking about getting you on, and it it never was overrun. You know, there was one time it got backed up a little bit, but it's just steady all day long. Just you know, two or three might come in and and park, and then then there might be gone and and another, you know, slide in. And so, I mean that that makes the day go by faster when it when it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_01It is a pretty steady flow. It's a pretty steady flow. It makes it go by a whole lot faster. Yes. On weekends, 90% of the time there's two of us down there because you can't keep the table stocked and uh cornbagged and uh answer the questions and take all the money and weigh everything, and uh you know, you one person can't do that. It's it's not possible. So uh we usually keep two people down there, or at least somebody rotates down there, either either our youngest grandson, Vennett, that goes down and bags up corn for us and and restocks the table. And uh, but uh we only run one set of scale and one cash register. So uh sometimes we look like Walmart, you get lined up a little bit and and uh have to wait to get checked out. And and I I encourage people to be patient, and they are, uh, but most of them have been with our customer for a long time. And uh we believe in greeting everybody that comes in. Uh when I and I tell anybody that works for me, I said, I don't care if you just say good morning or welcome to Phil's produce or whatever you want to do, but you just recognize that they're there and uh go on and make going about business.
SPEAKER_04So uh you mentioned Granger County tomatoes a while ago, and I know that was one of your all's kind of signature items there at one time. Do you still go to Granger County and get tomatoes or are you getting them more locally now?
SPEAKER_01Or I hadn't been to Granger County to get tomatoes in 10 years, probably. Uh when Hart County Produce Auctions went in down at uh down at Cub Run, uh they got my tomato business pretty quickly. Uh and before that, I was going to crab orchard in Lincoln County. And uh I'm I'm so thankful that Hart County went in at Cub Run because it that saves me a lot of time and a lot of miles. And uh I also have an Amish lady in Sonora that raises heirloom tomatoes for me and some red, but uh she took a lot of pressure off of me at the Hart County Produce Lum because they, you know, don't have a big supply of heirlooms. And if you got 10 people trying to buy them, they get kind of expensive. And uh some of our uh wonderful people from Louisville that have produce businesses in Louisville, come down there once in a while, and uh most of the time they have them on their truck when they go back because they have a bigger checkbook than I do, apparently. And uh and I'm sure they're selling them for a lot more money than I do, too. But uh anyway, it's uh it's been great to know uh other than the early tomatoes that we get from Florida or Georgia through Budge produce, they're all grown in Kentucky now.
SPEAKER_04Well, and to be honest, you know, lately, the probably the last five or ten years, it's kind of become the trend, right? That people want to know where they come from and they want it just as close to home as it as they can. So that's probably kind of went along with that business model.
SPEAKER_01You you wouldn't believe how many people say, Oh, they right. Uh of course they have a uh down at uh Hart Candy, they have a lot of high tunnels, which uh, you know, it's a it's a yes, it's a hot house to an extent, but the tomatoes are planted in the ground, not not up on a table. So they're not really hothouse tomatoes. And And uh a lot of people nowadays, you know, if if if a tomato is real pretty and has no blemishes, oh, this is a hothouse tomato. I said, no, ma'am, it's not a hothouse tomato. It's raised in a high tunnel. Well, what's a high tunnel? Well, you explain to a high to them what a high tunnel is, and I said, it's planted in the ground. The plant is in the ground. It is grown in the ground. Yes, it has some protection from the from the uh outskirts, but it's grown in the ground. And that's why that tomato is pretty, because it don't get all the rain falling on it, it don't get all the blistering sun outside, all this kind of stuff. So uh, but it's that's been an education to a lot of our a lot of our uh customers. Uh and I like I like red deuce. It's a red tomato that holds up good, it ships good, it slices good, and it eats good. And if I can, I don't have anything on my table in the red tomato line other than red ducks because my customers really like it.
SPEAKER_03You gotta give the customer what they want.
SPEAKER_01That's right. I'll also go by the blasphemy, and Mark, I know you've heard me say this, and and Daniel, you and uh Matt probably have too. If it ain't broke, you don't start fixing it.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_01So far, it we ain't broke doing what we're doing, and uh, so we're gonna we're we're not gonna start trying to fix it.
SPEAKER_03That's right. You know, you and I talked the other day, you know, going back to how you know all of us got in the sweet corn business. A lot of that started out planting it at the end of your NK corn plots to be able to get it off because you wanted to get some signs up out there to to showcase that seed. So and we were growing uh NK199 and sweet G90, and then we came across uh Peaches and Cream, and then Serendipity. And and Serendipity is still around today, and it's it's still one of the best corns around.
SPEAKER_01So absolutely. I I don't know exactly when we started selling serendipity, but it was it was a long time before I retired, I know that. Uh probably maybe around 2000 or 99, somewhere along along there. Uh, but uh it's uh it's been a mainstay for a while, sure as.
SPEAKER_03And and it goes back to just what you said. It it's not broke, so don't fix it.
SPEAKER_01Right. Exactly. Exactly. Well, there's there's a lot of Amish people in uh in Sonora area that that raise there are raise and sell serendipity, and you know there's a reason for that. It A, it's good corn, and uh B, it's a it's a good showy year, and Mark, you know that as well as I do, and uh it's it's just uh it's just a good variety. NK should have done real well. The the vegetable seed division should have done real well with serendipity.
SPEAKER_03Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So Phil, you've been doing this a long time. What's uh what's one of the biggest changes that you've seen since you started selling produce to today in that location where you're at? What's the biggest changes I've seen?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. Uh I we kind of go by the philosophy uh, you know, not only do we welcome you to Phil's produce, uh I never have tried to sell junk and not going to start trying to sell junk. So if it's not something that I wouldn't buy and bring home to eat, I'm not gonna try to sell it to you either. And uh I think a lot of my customers realize that and recognize that, and that's why they keep coming back. Uh and I hear all these horror stories about other things and other places, and and it's especially watermelon cantalows. I use watermelon for an example.
SPEAKER_00Well, I bought five watermelons this year, and I ain't got a good watermelon yet. I said, Well, did you buy them for me? No, I didn't buy any of them from you. I I bought them elsewhere. I said, Well, have you ever thought about it?
SPEAKER_01It ain't got nothing to do with you. Can't pick out a good watermelon, but it the fact that they ain't got a good yacht watermelon. I said, We back our watermelons. We back everything we sell. Matter of fact, if you can get a bad watermelon, you come back and tell me you got a bad watermelon, we're gonna give you another one.
SPEAKER_00You know, well, will you do that? I said, Yes, ma'am, we'll do that. We've been doing that ever since we've been in business. But I said, Did you go back and ask that produce manager if he would replace the one you got that wasn't any good? Well, no. I said, Well, why not? Well, because I figure they're not gonna replace it. I said, Well, they may not, but I said, you ought to go back and tell him his watermelons ain't no good anyway.
SPEAKER_01So I and with all this news media stuff that gets out there about salmonella and about XYZ, I tune all that out because I don't think we've got any of that in fields produced. I hope we don't. Uh, and I know exactly where everything I'm selling out there came from, and it ain't Mexico, and it ain't California either.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, well, these cantaloupes, them western grown cantaloupes taste like a piece of wet leather. I said, Yes, ma'am, they will next time too. But I said, I don't I don't want to down them, but I said uh if if if you pick that thing in California and you put it on a truck and it went to Louisville and it comes to Lisboa, how long do you think that cantaloupe's been picked?
SPEAKER_01Well, several days. I said, yes, ma'am, several days. So they picked it green, right? Yeah. And it probably ain't never gonna ripen, right? Yeah. I said, okay. I said, if it says Western grown, you better leave it laying there. I saw some California peaches the other day, and I said, you better leave them laying there too. But I know. I didn't sell those. I sell South Carolina peaches, by the way. Anybody seeing this podcast, not south, not California.
SPEAKER_04I know one question I've always had uh with you being right there in the middle of town, do you ever have any trouble with any kind of theft or anything? Anybody trying to come through at night and sneak a few tomatoes out the sands?
SPEAKER_01They could do that. Uh of course I don't leave anything out on the table. We put it in boxes, but it's sitting under the table. And you know there's a little yellow plastic chain stretched across there, and yeah, you can buck under that or take it down and put it back up. Uh but we haven't missed we haven't missed a lot of stuff. And uh I I I kind of figure if somebody needs a tomato that bad and and they're willing to take the risk of all them cars going up down 62, and and many customers that we have uh that might see them and might call the law on them, then uh I'm not gonna miss one tomato or one cantaloupe or one one watermelon. And and I can tell you a funny story about this. We got time anyway. Uh we had uh we had a man that used to buy watermelons from me all the time, and and uh he worked at his old old uh restaurant out on uh Dixie Highway on South Dixie, and uh he said, Sometime when you're closed, can I come in here and get a watermelon and tell you the next day? I said, Well, sure. So lo and behold, he was in the in the stand, he ducked under the cord and got the got the watermelon, and one of my customers saw him and they called the law, and the law stopping. The law stopped him, and he explained to them about our mind of his situation, and uh so the next day the customer that called the law on the man came in and told me what he did. I said, Oh my god. I said, That's watermelon man. I called him watermelon man, and I said, Oh no, no, surely not. He said, Yeah, the law stopped him. I know they did. So the next time the guy came in there, he said, I ain't gonna do it no more. I said, Well, what did they do? I said, I explained to him mighty ordeal, and he said it they said, Well, okay, just be sure you go by there and pay. And I said, Well, thank goodness I'm glad you had the right city cop that would believe you, at least. But so uh uh if if you're gonna be a thief, you might want to be careful about it. And I used to count all the mums. I counted the mums at night and counted them next morning, I wasn't missing none, so I quit counting. But it it'd be easy to pick up a mum. You know, I hope nobody does that. But uh anyway, we we've been forcing it, and uh uh and so anyway, we uh uh we we thoroughly enjoyed it, and it uh and at almost 77 years old. Uh a lot of my customers say when you're gonna retire, I don't know when I'm gonna retire. As long as I still feel like it and I'm still having fun doing it, uh, and I'm enjoying doing it, I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it's pretty neat that you've you've basically gone, you you've made a career and you started by selling like a seed that starts the crop, and and then you've sort of transitioned over into this job where you're selling like the end of that crop as it ends up on somebody's table. I think that's a pretty neat just career evolution as you've gone along. And and I probably know the answer to this, but like I I know you I imagine you probably enjoy selling produce more than you enjoyed selling seeds. That'd be right. Absolutely. So, and and I know not, you know, I know you enjoyed working with farmers, don't get me wrong, but like with in the produce side of things, like what it like what's one thing about it that you enjoy the most? Like, what gives you the most joy about uh being in the produce business?
SPEAKER_01Uh listening to satisfied customers saying, we sure are glad y'all are here, and we appreciate all the effort that y'all do to keep good stuff out of here for us. And uh, and I always say, uh, come back to see us, and uh they always say, Now, you know I'm going to. I always will as long as y'all are here. And uh some of them when when McDonald's used to be across the street, I'll say, Y'all come back to see us, and say, Oh, we're from Ohio. Said, we saw those red tomatoes on the table, and we ain't got red tomatoes up our way yet. So we we we were at McDonald's, so we drove over and got some red tomatoes. I said, Well, that's why them red tomatoes are right there next to the road on that table. So for that purpose only. So uh but it's uh it's fun. Uh I I see a lot of people once a week, twice a week, that uh that we've been doing that for 15, 20 years, and uh uh and all the new ones that are coming now, we we appreciate them too and uh appreciate their comments. Well, we saw you on TikTok. We thought we better come by and see about them watermelons. I said, Well, I'm glad you did, you know. So uh I I had no idea it was uh supposed to be that easy, but uh anyway, I'm glad it was.
SPEAKER_03We we did we have I didn't buy watermelon the other day. We've got some in the garden that are about in, but uh while I was there the other day, I helped carry a couple out to some people's car for you. And those things were were the sugar baby watermelons, and they are solid, they're heavy, and they were still cold. Yep. So if you're looking for a sugar baby watermelon, go buy Phil's produce and get one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I get some from Bud's produce every once in a while because they've been in his cooler, and uh uh you if you want a cold one sometime, we'll have a cold one. Not always, but uh because I buy most of them in our county, but when I start running tight, why I try to uh be a good supplier and uh and and have them from somewhere.
SPEAKER_04So, Phil, we've we've really enjoyed talking to you today. Uh, real quick before we go, tell everybody exactly where you're at again and kind of what your season is and what your hours are so they can come and see you.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. Well, we're on North Mulberry Street, uh 813 North Mulberry Street, uh corner of French and Mulberry, uh close to the new fire station, uh, close to Scooter's Coffee. You can get you a cup of coffee and come over. Or you can go to flower shop and get you some girlfriend some flowers while we're while you're there too. Uh we're uh we're open nine to six Monday through Saturday, uh 10 to 4 on Sunday. Uh we're open on Sunday for mainly because of uh mums and flowers in the spring of the year. And it's hard to uh get out of being open on Sunday the rest of the time because people eat tomatoes and other things and corn and on Sunday too. So uh anyway, uh so that's that's kind of it. Uh I'm there quite a bit of the time, not all the time. I have to go to Hart County Produce Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to restock. And Tracy's usually out there then, or Rhonda or Kobe or Bennett or Brianna sometime. It's a it's all pretty much a family thing. We got a couple of people that help us out in a pinch that uh that's not family, but uh it's uh it's mostly the Howe family. And uh we we're just glad that we've uh been successful at it and uh and uh glad we've had the support of the county and uh surrounding counties actually. Uh we used to sell some at the uh the uh uh flea market in uh awesome flea market in uh sh uh Shepherdsville. Uh we don't go up there anymore, but we got people that still actually come by uh serendipity sweet corn because of our relationship with them at the awesome flea market. They'll they'll call me on the phone and say, we got serendipity today. Yeah, come on now. So anyway, it's it's great. Uh we got a lot of friends in the in the produce business, and uh uh it it's just been great for several years.
SPEAKER_04All right. Well, we appreciate you coming on, Phil, and thanks for talking to us. And if any of you want some produce and maybe even hear a good story or two, swing by and see Phil.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_03Thanks again to Phil Howe for joining in with us this week. Uh that was hope you all enjoyed that as much as we did.
SPEAKER_02I really enjoyed a lot of the name drops in there, just a lot of names that uh a lot of people hadn't thought about in a long time. Yeah, yeah, same. I was happy to I got to work with Phil for you know a year or two, and uh we were both at Sisi at the same time. And I just always enjoyed his stories and and how he uh uh you know communicated with customers and and people when they came in. I I always always liked working with him.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'd known Phil forever when I used to help Mark and the Thomases pick sweet corn in high school, of course, got to know him then and then worked with him as a seed rep when I worked in Extension and as a customer as well. But yeah, uh one of those that when we brought that up a few weeks ago about the possibility of getting him, we were all like, why have we not thought of that before? That's uh we knew that'd be a great guest and a great story a lot of you would enjoy. So hope you all enjoyed that as much as we did.
SPEAKER_02So he talked a little bit about his time in in Sicilia and and him working there. And uh just here in the last this last weekend, we had uh the annual Sicilia Days Festival. Did any of you all get to make it this year?
SPEAKER_03I did. I went down uh Saturday night late. We went down and had dinner, and uh Kyle Mobley had already shut down the the ice cream trailer so we couldn't get vanilla ice cream. My kids were very sad about that. So he missed out on Kyle. But uh yeah. Come on, Kyle. But uh, old man and Uncle. No, so he's he one of his he's threw it in president and and under his uh uh purview of what he can do, ice cream trailer was was his deal. So okay. Yeah. I think they were out. They had they had a little tribute for Dennis of all his years of the of the Almost Talent show. So uh that was that was very good. Um that'll probably be available on on Facebook at some point. Um I don't know when, but um check it out if you if you get a chance.
SPEAKER_02But they also elected a mayor, right?
SPEAKER_03They did.
SPEAKER_02So who is the official Cecilia mayor now?
SPEAKER_03Well, uh Lisa Terry, Lisa Thomas, Lisa Terry Thomas, um that which which would make um former sponsor of this show and uh guest on this show, the um I don't know what would you what would you call him? First man, first man, first man of Cecilia.
SPEAKER_02First man of Sicilia.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So can he beat First Man?
SPEAKER_02Because he actually got beat. Because he was he what you know he was in the further running too. He just got she got the money to get competitive.
SPEAKER_03No, he was not. But he's the only one that actually tried to get people to elect him.
SPEAKER_02I think the harder he tried, the more money went to Lisa.
SPEAKER_03He made a desperate uh he made it even said it in the paper that that sometime between riding around on a side-by-side, he he made a desperate attempt at a Facebook post to drum up some business to to be elected as mayor. So uh, but anyway, she she got elected and and uh Daniel, you want to tell him she made some campaign promises or some uh new office promises.
SPEAKER_02I think she promised no roundabouts in Sicilia. So that's that's good news.
SPEAKER_03And and you know, she better be careful because with promises like that, she might be mayor for life. She could be. She could be.
SPEAKER_02I did I do always enjoy Sicilia days, and I tell you what, you're you'll be hard pressed to find like a like a small festival like it is to have a better parade. I mean, tractors lined up of all kinds, and then all the local school kids getting involved. Uh, you don't see that a lot because a lot of times a lot of these communities have lost their schools, have lost their um things that had kept those small towns alive. And I'm glad, you know, uh we have you know, West Harden and Cecilia nearby and um or Cecilia Valley nearby, Cecilia there, and and a lot of just a lot of involvement from them and local businesses that call Cecilia home was good to see. It's it's heartwarming.
SPEAKER_03It was, I believe, the 55th year, 55th festival. Uh of course they've only missed 2020 through COVID. Yeah. Uh, but it started out as uh a hot dog and two cokes for two bits, I think is what it started out at 55 years ago.
SPEAKER_02So I know it's a lot of work, and the Cecilia Rear Tan does a great job at that um every year. And uh hats off to them and Kyle, the president of that Cecilia Rear Tan, they do a lot of good work and just appreciate them putting it on every year.
SPEAKER_03I heard he did such a good job that they were going to make him at least a two-term president. So that's what I heard.
SPEAKER_04That's what you get. So yeah, we're uh I think we're almost out of time, but Mark, you want to thank our sponsor again this week?
SPEAKER_03Yep. Thanks again to Spray Tech Technology. They help you maximize your crop performance, your innovative solutions, bring together application technology, nutrition, and plant health. Use it once, trust it always. Visit Spray Tech USA to learn more, or call Dawson. Visit spraytechusa.com to learn more or call Dawson at 573-979-3716.
SPEAKER_04Man, you left out the best part on that. Low use rate. Let's get a little bit more than a little bit. Low rate high yields. Okay. Low use rate. That's all you need to know. Thanks for listening this week, and in memory of our late friend Dale Dawson, life is good.
SPEAKER_03You are appreciated.
SPEAKER_04See you next week.