Fulmer’s General Store:
By Glynda Phillips
Step Back in Time
A
visit to Fulmer’s General Store in New Augusta is like stepping back to a simpler time when a country store served as the hub of a rural community, providing the necessities of farm life and a place where folks could visit, catch up on news, and even post their mail. Although Fulmer’s doesn’t offer a post office, you can purchase groceries, farm supplies and equipment, or browse through handmade Amish crafts, or simply visit neighbors over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. If you time it just right, you can even have lunch. After lunch, you can sit out on the porch and watch the chickens scatter across the yard, or you can wander the grounds of this 40-acre working farm nestled beneath the shaded, spacious branches of a 30-acre pecan orchard. 12
A Simpler Lifestyle Fulmer’s General Store is the realization of a dream for Ken and Jeanette Fulmer and son Carey. Amidst the hustle and bustle of modern-day life, the store reflects the family’s strong traditional values and offers a quiet respite. “People today are hungry for a simpler way of life,” Jeanette said. “They also want to be self-sufficient, especially with the economy the way it is right now. There is a movement in this country to buy food in bulk, to home school children, and to purchase from farmers markets.” Fulmer’s General Store carries hard-to-find items that can be purchased in bulk, including homemade granola, natural, preservative-free grains and flours, pickled eggs, dried fruits and vegetables, beans, jellies, honey, and canned goods. You will find fresh Country Girls Creamery dairy products, red rind cheese, homemade butter, old-timey pots and pans, handmade crafts, and vine-ripened vegetables grown naturally right on the farm. Pecans are, quite naturally, also sold here. The store carries horse-drawn equipment like plows, rakes and buggies, because the Fulmers are Pioneer Equipment, Inc. dealers. The Fulmers and their employees bake pies, cookies, cakes, breads and cinnamon rolls six days a week, and their loyal customers gobble them up. The store also serves soups, salads, sandwiches and hot lunches Monday through Saturday. The tomato pie is a top-seller. The homemade chicken salad is also a favorite, especially when served with fresh-baked bread Out on the grounds, antique log houses and a corn crib sit beneath the branches of the pecan trees. The Fulmers dismantled and moved the buildings from other locations to lovingly reassemble them here. The houses are furnished with old-timey items like a wood stove, a loom, a wringer washer, a butter churn, a hooked rug, and an iron bed.
MISSISSIPPI FARM COUNTRY
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER