Katie Stoops Commercial Photography

I was on my way home yesterday from North Carolina desperately trying to find something good to listen to on XM Radio…what gives? when I drove past a random tiny farm stand in Amherst, VA. There was something that told me “you should go back to the stand” so I did. I swung the car around and hopped out on the side of the road in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. The older I get, the more & more I’m interested in people. When I was younger, I think I was drawn to certain folks who I admired because of their job or what they had. I know, I was stupid…and young. However, now I find myself hopelessly in love with hearing how people…anyone- got to where they are today. The story behind the person.

The moment I got out of my car and walked up to the farm stand, I knew instantly that the older man resorting the tomatoes was someone I needed to meet. I’m not sure why but I knew I had to. I came to find out that his name was Ollie and was originally from Newport News but had not been back in decades because he married a girl who lived in Amherst and that’s all he needed. You could smell the fruits and vegetables in the heat, particularly the peaches. I picked one up and Ollie said”Those are as sweet as honey” and he peeled back the skin and handed it to me. He couldn’t have been more right. They were by far the best peaches I had ever tasted. The ten or fifteen minutes that I was there left a huge mark on me. In the world we live in today, there are so many people who aren’t as nice as they could be. However, here was a man who was as pure & genuine as they come. Sweet as honey himself.

As I left, he told me “Now Katie, I wish for all of the good things in life to happen to you today” and to everyone reading this-that is what I wish for you.

When I got home, we had an impromptu bbq with all of the veggies and peaches I had bought. Here is a caprese salad with Ollie’s gigantic tomatoes:

A refreshing cucumber salad with his cucs:

I threw some balsamic vinegar on the peaches and put them on the grill for probably 20 minutes (it shouldn’t take that long but the grill was cooling down). SO good!

Then I put the peaches on top of a hot blueberry pie. Nothing says “Summer” like pie.

The dog on the left is Chewie. She lives next door to us & is Jack’s best friend (our black lab/pit). Des, our insane puppy, is on the right. They all got to play together yesterday!

And chew on sticks…