BITES & DRINKS // provisions
A Farm-to-Table Heirloom // by Michele D. Baker
Michele D. Baker
Now in Pearl, the market continues to feature what it’s always been known for: fresh fruits and vegetables and Michele D. Baker
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t least two dozen people are shopping for fresh vegetables on a beautiful sunny Saturday, May 2, as I walk about. The small parking lot is packed with cars, and more are lined up on Highway 80 waiting to pull in. Most shoppers are wearing protective COVID19 masks and carefully selecting from generous mountains of fresh produce on freestanding displays. This is Doris Berry Farmers Market, a local whole food—and woman-owned—institution in the greater Jackson area that has been active for about seven decades. Doris Berry opened her market in the 1950s and moved the operation to Pearl in 2017. She posted the move on Facebook: “It is with a heavy heart that after 68 years I regretfully announce that I have closed … the old farmers market on Woodrow Wilson Boulevard. I will miss the many friends that I have had the great pleasure of serving for so many years. Many of you are second, third, and fourth generation customers. I have watched you grow up, have children and grandchildren of your own … (but) it is time to turn the page. I am not retiring; I’m just making a change.”
Doris Berry’s son John and his wife Brenda rest in rocking chairs at the family-owned farmers market.
frozen veggies ready to take home and cook or stash in the freezer. Fifteen farm families from nearby Morton, Magee, Bassfield and Crystal Springs produce the bounty—just some of the farmers that form the backbone of central Mississippi’s fresh food supply. The market also sells Amish-made products (pepper jelly, cane syrup, butter, cheese, cottage hams and summer sausage), Pennington Farms Mississippi Wildflower Honey,
vegetable soup stock, chow chow, pickles, canned tomatoes, homemade jams and jellies, fresh brown eggs, and a variety of potted plants and flowers. Berry passed away at age 89 in 2018, but Marcie Bullock, Berry’s niece, still works at the market. She attributes the stand’s enormous success during the pandemic to the fact that with people at home, more and more people now have time to cook. “I’d guess our business has doubled,” Bullock says. “More people are cooking now, and they want fresh and local. They don’t necessarily want to go to the grocery store, and they enjoy the people and the open-air market here.” Doris Berry’s son John and daughter-in-law Brenda are at the market most days, relaxing in rocking chairs and adding to the friendly atmosphere. “It’s all about customer service,” John says. Before retiring, John was a farmer, so the family knows supporting local farmers is important. “We do it for the people,” Brenda Bullock explains. “Like Doris, we know that the customers are more than customers. We know their families. We just come here and spend all day talking to friends.” Doris Berry Farmers Market (3615 Highway 80 E., Pearl) is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, find the market on Facebook. Michele D. Baker is a travel writer and photographer. For more on her work, visit MicheleDBaker.com.
ARTS // photography
I See You, Now See Yourself
Jackson resident D’Artagnan Winford is a fine-art portrait photographer.
The Itta Bena, Miss., native enjoys taking portraits because of his admiration for the human face and how he can just sit and talk to people as he shoots them.
“Art is my relaxation. It’s my getaway from daily designing on the computer. I get to interact with people and just sit and talk,” he says. Winford’s favorite part about being a fine-art portrait artist is that he can help his clients see themselves as he sees them. “I remember this one time, I did a shoot for this girl who was a nurse, and while shooting, I showed her some of the pictures on the camera and she made a comment like, ‘Who is that?’” he says. “I thought she was just playing, but then later on she sent me a video that was like, ‘I’ve been going through depression the last year, and when I said that I honestly meant it—like who is that girl?’ And she was so thankful that I helped her see herself again, and she hadn’t seen that person in a while. It made it all worthwhile to me. “To me, with that camera, I’m able to give back to people, and just show people
how I see them,” Winford says. In the future, Winford aspires to one day have a book of his photography in the Mississippi Museum of Art and for sale in the gift shop, perhaps the type of thing you would see on a coffee table, he says. “Most of the people I shoot are Mississippians, and part of the reason I do that is that I just want to show Mississippi in a different light than what we naturally get known for,” he says. Winford lives in Brandon with his wife and four children. Outside of work and photography, he likes to travel, hang out at the Rez and spend time with his kids. This month, Winford will be releasing new photos for Lupus Awareness Month. Most of Winford’s work can be found on his Instagram page @DartagnanPortrait. To learn more, visit the photographer’s business page on Facebook.
May 13 - 26, 2020 • boomjackson.com
courtesy D’artagnan WinforD
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’Artagnan Winford has been an artist since he was a kid, growing up taking art classes in school and being admitted in a gifted arts program throughout middle and high school. While he now runs his own portrait photography business on top of serving as the senior art director at the Ramey Agency in Fondren, Winford says that he never saw himself as a photographer until he started working at Mississippi Valley State University, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 2002. “I worked at Valley after I graduated, and there were times we had to take pictures because we didn’t have a photographer on staff. I just figured I needed to learn how to use a camera, and it didn’t really click until 2012 or 2013. My wife bought me a camera, and I just started taking pictures of my kids. It just kind of blossomed from there,” Winford says.
// by Jenna gibson
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