Farmer's Market staples all year long

He sets up his stand at City Commons Park every other Saturday between April and November like clockwork.

He lays out his bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, all grown pesticide-free, and waits for his regular customers, many of whom won't buy their produce from anybody but him.

David Barnhart and his father have been traveling from their home in Jefferson County to Port St. Joe for the Salt Air Farmers' Market since it began, and although the market has closed for the season, with the help of local hotel owner David Warriner, Barnhart and his father will continue selling produce in Port St. Joe through the winter.

Warriner has offered Barnhart a space in front of the old bank building next to the Port Inn on the corner of Sixth Street and U.S. Highway 98, so he can continue setting up his stand every other weekend in Port St. Joe.

Barnhart will be at that location this Saturday selling produce from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. ET.

"The fact that we don’t have a farmers' market here (in the winter) doesn't mean that his stuff stops growing," Warriner said. "We're trying to find him a place that's a little more visible in the off-season."

Warriner said he is also in the process of revamping the old gas station parking lot, next to the former Dollar General on U.S. Highway 98, which could also offer a potential location for Barnhart's produce stand.

Barnhart is just happy he and his father can continue coming to Port St. Joe on the first and third Saturday of every month.

"I just want to come over and bring my produce," Barnhart said. "The people here are just so great and so welcoming."

Barnhart's father, Willard, has been fighting cancer, and traveling to different markets around the state helps him regain lost energy, Barnhart said.

"This has been a real good market and my father loves it," Barnhart said. "This really energizes him; he loves it over here."

An entomologist by trade, Barnhart uses his knowledge of insects to grow produce without using any chemicals or pesticides.

"For me, insects and plants went hand-in-hand," Barnhart said. "That's how it all happened."

For fertilizer, he uses a fish emulsion, a nitrogen-rich substance made by decaying fish in the sun.

Barnhart said the pilgrims and Indians used a similar process to grow crops for the first Thanksgiving nearly 400 years ago. 

Barnhart describes it as a natural Miracle Grow.

The emulsion has helped Barnhart's winter crop pop up plenty of fresh produce, including broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, carrots, rutabagas, radishes, spinach, arugula, kale, tangerines and much more.

Barnhart likes to specialize in growing the unfamiliar and exotic. At any point in the season you might come across red okra, garnet mustard, curry leaf mustard, pineapple, kiwis and a variety of melons. He also has avocado trees that tower above his 6-foot-something frame.

The Barnhart family owns a combined 160 acres of farmland in Jefferson County, and harvests about 50 acres at a time of whatever is in season.

The Barnharts were also named the 2011 Jefferson County Farm Family of the Year by the Jefferson County Farm Bureau back in September, for their exemplification of rural values.

Last Saturday, Barnhart visited Port St. Joe with a different objective: to help a local woman with a garden of her own, something he said he is happy to assist with.

Back in September, Barnhart came down with a helper and brought plants and seeds for Jeanette Palmer's garden, located on the corner of Dolphin Street and Porpoise Avenue in Highland View.

Since then, the crops have filled in, with cabbage, broccoli and collard greens sprouting from the earth. Barnhart returned last weekend to help Palmer till and weed her garden.

Palmer, an advocate for local, fresh produce, hopes the crops from her garden can help Gulf County People Helping People, also located in Highland View, by providing fresh produce for the food pantry.

"What goes around comes around," Palmer said. "I just want everyone to have access to local, fresh produce."