Griffin Farms' Allure Spreads Across Generations

For 27 years, Griffin Farms has been selling fresh, local produce in the Powder Springs area.

With help from other members of the family, the three living Griffin sisters operate their business at 3625 Powder Springs Road in old-fashioned ways—word-of-mouth advertising, no websites, not even a phone.

"We don't have nothing. It's just word-to-word, mouth-to-mouth advertising," says Peggy Morris, one of the Griffin sisters.

She adds with a chuckle: "We do have a mailbox."

Griffin Farms is open from mid-April to mid-December between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. seven days a week. Payment is by cash or check only.

The sisters' father, Jack Griffin, had operated a meat store just down the street, where Bank of America is located now on Powder Springs Road near the East-West Connector and Waffle House.

"Everybody knew my daddy," Morris says lovingly. When he retired, "he had to do something, so he started Griffin Farms."

Other daughters involved in the family business are Martha Griffin and Terrie Thomas. Another sister, Becky, passed away last year from a heart attack at 62.

Five years ago, Jack Griffin died at 84. Eight years ago, their mother, Essie Caldwell Griffin, passed away at 80.

"We raise a lot of our own stuff," Morris says of the three-acre farm. Among the vegetables they grow are corn, tomatoes, squash, okra, zucchini and cucumbers. There's also sunflowers and boiled peanuts cooked by Morris's husband, Richard.

They also sell produce from local farmers: vidalia onion relish, chow-chow and barbecue sauce from Hillside Orchard Farms in the North Georgia town of Tiger; jams and apple butter from The Dutch Kettle in Hamptonville, NC; and wildflower honey from Bob Binnie Jr. of Lakemont, GA.

Their biggest summertime sellers are peaches and tomatoes, with prices established by market rates. Martha's son-in-law buys peaches from South Georgia farmers.

Earlier this month, the sisters were selling their peaches and tomatoes for $4 a basket or tomatoes for $1.99 a pound. (There were about 8 large-sized peaches in my bag from the basket I bought.) Fresh-shelled peas and beans were selling for $4 a pound.

On their way back from the , Roger and Astrid Roley of Marietta stopped by for their first visit. Roger says, "If I see the price and the quality looks good, we'll stop. We'll be back."

Morris says, "We have worlds of second- and third-generation customers, especially when they bring their children to the pumpkin patch."

Just then, Alma Dorris of Powder Springs stopped by, just as she has since Griffin Farms first opened. "Everything has always been good. I've never had a problem."

An IRS employee, Dorris says her family used to take their hogs to Jack Griffin for him "to grind up the sausage for us."

Also stopping by was another regular customer, Powder Springs native Ken Harris, the activity director at Anderson Mill Health and Rehab in Austell.

"The ladies at the nursing home want tomato sandwiches on white bread with mayonnaise, so I'm going to bring them some tomatoes," Harris says. "I buy them tomatoes every summer, but they tell me, 'Don't go to the grocery store because they're not the same.' "

A while back, Harris stopped by to purchase Vidalia onions for nursing home gals for more sandwiches—also on white bread with mayo.

It's not just tomatoes and onions that attract Harris to Griffin Farms. "I've been coming here for years for watermelon specials and pumpkins for carving and cornstalks for decorating."

Morris says the farm receives letters of thanks, which are cherished. One of her favorites came from "Big Harry," who "sent us the best-written letter at Christmas before he died."

When Big Harry was too sick to get out of the car, they would take his vegetables to him, Morris explains.

They also treasure the letter they received from the curators of the Margaret Mitchell House, who wrote of how many people enjoyed their fall decorations several years ago. Morris says she still doesn't know how the curators found out about their farm.