Reinventing The Farm Stand

Reared in a watermelon-bin playpen, Craig Schmidt has been tumbling about and hanging around produce since before he can remember. He worked his own fruit stand in kindergarten selling bananas, apples and oranges to little rascals only "yea" high. And, now as an adult, Schmidt has spent his career handling fruits, veggies and plants of all kinds.

Barrels of juicy California peaches and nectarines drew The Produce Station's owner, Rick Peshkin, and Schmidt together 15 years ago when they bought soft produce for their respective companies. Schmidt sold his share of specialty food store in Plymouth in 2000 and began working at The Produce Station, a former Sinclair oil depot turned popular food market in Ann Arbor.

Schmidt and Peshkin’s love affair with nature's bounty oozes out like syrupy peach juice, but that hasn’t hindered their business-savvy.

"People [in Ann Arbor] are well traveled, and they demand high quality food," Peshkin says. "And they have some disposable income to spend."

Over the past decade, Schmidt and Peshkin have heeded the emerging foodie culture in Ann Arbor and nationally. The store’s gradual makeover from a no-frills produce stand to an upscale foodie market have led to product merchandising with a rustic, farm market vibe and a more diverse store selection.

"The industry has grown as much as we have grown," Peshkin says. "When I started out you really didn’t get so much product coming in from overseas. In the wintertime, you weren’t getting cherries and grapes…It was more of a local deal then. So the industry has also dictated how we’ve changed."

The duo keep abreast of current foodie trends by visiting food shows and traveling everywhere from the East Coast to the West Coast to see what different communities and cultures are doing. Not a bad idea, especially when trying to relate with Ann Arborites who can hail from all corners of the globe.

"That has been a real asset in what we’ve done here,” Schmidt says. “We try to take bits and pieces of concepts and conceptually put it into our culture. I think constantly trying to recreate ourselves is important."

Some ideas, like the full-scale kitchen added in 2001, crept in little by little. Equipped with a salad bar, The Produce Station began making guacamole and salsas. Adding a full kitchen brought it to the next level. Three chefs now bake cookies and scones, as well as whipping up salsas, cold salads, soups and entrees for the hot bar and take-home meals.

Other ideas just didn’t pan out. Offering pre-made pizzas to customers seemed like a no-brainer to Peshkin, but it never gained popularity. Adding a sit-down café with plated meals also seemed like a viable direction for the store and its talented chefs, says Peshkin. Ultimately, "it was just way too complicated for us," he says.

Now with its loyal customer base getting older, a section of wine and microbrewery beer has popped up in one of the store’s corners to attract a new fleet of 20- to 40-year-olds. 

"You start to get a vision of what you think you can do well, some of them you pass on and some of them you act on," Peshkin says. "Some work out, some don’t work out. It’s all kind of how a business grows."

Summer bounty

With summer in full swing, flora and fauna displayed outside the store engulf it in greenery and attract a steady flow of patrons.

Schmidt is the brainchild of this nursery. Early on, he saw the opportunity to offer something uniquely different than other Ann Arbor grocers. He envisioned featuring a small section of "commodity plants" – "the marigolds and tomato plants of the world" – in addition to specialty annuals and perennials, such as red delphiniums.

"As the culinary world came along, there were specialty products that [people] really couldn't get at the stores, and they would have to grow," Schmidt says. "So we kind of started catering to those needs and found a niche in the community."

The nursery has grown and diversified into a commercial Garden of Eden. Flowers in a kaleidoscope of colors perfume the greenhouse, while potted herbs and Christmas-tree-shaped shrubs line the parking lot.

"You come in here, and we have 15 different kinds of cherry tomato plants: orange ones, yellow ones, black ones, chocolate ones, oblong ones, square ones," Schmidt says. "It makes it fun, and it brings the agricultural part into it."

The basics count

Owner and chef for local business Soups from Scratch by Melissa Melissa Reid has frequented The Produce Station since 1988. She comes back regularly for the consistent quality produce and knowledgeable staff. Some of the gourmet items even inspire her cooking.

"I've seen some beautiful snow peas," Reid says. "They looked so good, and I made a batch of Asian noodle salad…And in the wintertime, the basil is so nice, and it makes me think, 'Oh! I’ve got to make a tomato basil soup.'"

Over the past 30 years, Peshkin has created relationships with farmers around the state. They visit familiar growers at the Benton Harbor Fruit Market in the first week of July for peaches "just because we can get a really nice tree-ripe peach." And Schmidt drives to growers across the state to check out opportunities for the bedding plants section.

Peshkin describes the store's ambiance as "touchy, feely." Located off an old railroad spur on State Street, the space is small but cozy. Friendly staff will cut fruits and veggies on the spot for curious customers to sample. And visitors bump into each other while perusing neatly stacked nuts or salad dressings in the tiny aisles.

"We're a comfort store of good food and people that know you," Peshkin says. "That's part of the whole experience of being here as opposed to the harsh, cold large stores."

This personality helps the store differentiate itself from other Ann Arbor specialty stores like Morgan & York, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Plum Market. Sure, these stores have more indoor square footage to display products, but Peshkin feels his business fits well in the Ann Arbor market.

"Ann Arbor has always supported local things, and now there's even more emphasis on that," Peshkin says. "Take a look at Whole Foods' stock. It's kind of gone the way of Starbucks. It's just not as compelling as it was a few years ago."

Peshkin keeps one eye on the competition to avoid being left behind, but he never tries to mimic them. Schmidt adds that the store purposefully tries to go in different directions than competitors.

"It's worked for us because we're a small store," Schmidt says. Keeping up this store’s legacy is high on his list as he prepares to take over the store in 2010.

"It's going to weigh on my mind to continue the culture in that and to build on the culture," Schmidt says. "It's an exciting and exhilarating feeling that I just can't explain."