MOUNT CARMEL — Darrell Doyle, a resident of Mount Carmel in Fleming County, grows a variety of produce with the help of his family. Much like many other farmers in the area, agriculture is simply a family tradition.

“My grandfather did this and my parents did this as well, so I just kind of picked it up and started going with it,” he said.

With the help of his parents, fiance and her son, Doyle said the business has stayed in the family, but mentioned that there may be a time where he might need to hire outside help.

Together, the family raises crops like tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers and corn — with a more recent addition of chrysanthemums.

“My mom, she helps out a whole lot as far as she’s done this for so long, and my dad has done this — both have done this for so long,” he said. “It would be really hard to keep track of everything that I need to do. They’re both really good about letting me know what needs to be done.”

Typically, Doyle and his family sell their products at local farmers markets, but there is also a small shop they run by Doyle’s house, called Doyle Family Produce, that has been open for about three years.

“The farmers markets have been so good to us over the past — people that come out have been so good to us that we really hate to give up on going to farmers markets,” he said. “But on the other side of that, if we have an excess, we’ve been trying to sell some out here.”

In the business of selling produce to customers wanting a locally grown product, Doyle said business is good.

“At this point, in the past few years, we have not had any issues selling anything, really. Most generally whenever we get harvest, we pretty well get it sold,” he said.

Oct. 29 marked the last day of Doyle and his family selling produce at the Fleming County farmers market for this year, moving now to start their winter market, selling crops such as lettuce, turnips, kale and beets, to name a few.

“We’re dealing with so many crops, not just one crop, we’re dealing with several different things,” Doyle said. “You could sell just tomatoes and beans and corn, but there’s not everybody that wants just tomatoes, beans and corn. Those seem to be the most popular items but you’ve also got a lot of the other niche items that go along with it, and if you keep up with it start to finish you pick up a lot more customers.”

In Doyle’s eyes, agriculture’s importance to the area is evident when one decides to just look around. Seeing farm activity everywhere you look is evidence enough that it serves as a staple of work in the community.

“In this community, farming has been it,” he said. “It’s one of those type of things that you can just wake up every day and there’s something going on all around you. There’s always something farm-related that’s going on.”

Doyle also remarked that much of the farmland around him was once used to raise tobacco, and now they are being used to grow crops similar to his — a diverse collection of crops.

“Seems like things make a full circle, it seems like now we’ve got people in the community that are raising a little garden themselves moreso than they used to be,” he said. “But at the same time hemp and things like that — hemp was around years ago, there were people growing hemp, and it seems like things are kind of making a full circle to where it goes back to doing the things we used to do.

“It seems like farmers in the community either diversify, or have added on or they’re just doing something totally different than what they did before. With the decline of tobacco, it just seemed like a thing farmers kind of picked up where they need to and jump in where they need to. It’s really a good thing on how farmers can kind of pick up on what they need and what they can sell what people need.”

Darrell Doyle works with his family raising, harvesting and selling various produce to a number of local farmers markets.
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_IMG_9934.jpgDarrell Doyle works with his family raising, harvesting and selling various produce to a number of local farmers markets. Jonathan Wright, The Ledger Independent

Jonathan Wright

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