Grocery Life March 28, 2015

Grocery Life March 28, 2015Erica Lauren Tyson Beach 2015

By Tom Butler 

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. Based on business last week, I think a lot of you were out of town on spring break. I was gone myself. Our family went to Apalachicola, Florida which is where we go about every spring break.
 

I have been fishing down there for about thirty-five years and since I have gotten married and had kids, I have combined my fishing trip with a family vacation. When the family goes, we stay on St. George Island which is just across the bridge from Apalachicola. When I go without them, I stay at Bay City Lodge which is right on the Apalachicola River. If you have never visited Apalachicola, you may want to put it on your “bucket list”. It is a small picturesque coastal town where a river meets an ocean. It is most famous for its oysters but that is just the beginning of what it has to offer.

tom with fish appalachacola
   

I like the local people there. Some are nice, some are not so nice. They don’t seem to mind you visiting their town, but they are not going to put a lei around your neck when you arrive.
       

Most all of them depend upon the bay and ocean for their livelihood which appears to be a pretty hard scrabble life. You can see it in their leathery faces, broad shoulders and thick, powerful arms and hands. I have figured out that as long as you don’t get in the way or try to change their way of life they are glad to have you in town.
   

Out-of-towners have tried to come in and change the town to promote tourism without much success, probably because the locals aren’t interested. They even shot part of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in Apalachicola a couple of years ago, and I bet the locals got up, went to work on the boats and didn’t even notice.

 

appalachacola boats 2
   

I hope the town and the people never change. It is a special place with truly authentic people which is hard to find these days. I have benefited greatly from all my time spent there and I hope my children will come to appreciate it as well. I know they have started to because this trip they both fell in love with eating raw oysters.

 

tyson eating oysters 2
     

Next Sunday is Easter and just as a reminder, we will be closed on Easter Sunday. It is one of the three days we close every year. The other two are Christmas and Thanksgiving.
     

We have several varieties of lamb and ham for your Easter meals. You can call ahead and order your meats or just come on down and we can help you pick out what you need. We will also have several things in our deli/bakery prepared to go along with your main course. Our top seller will probably be our coconut cake and it just happens to be on sale. If you want to make your own cake, our Betty Crocker cake mix is on sale also. We have a lot of other holiday items on sale that you can find in our ad by clicking here.

 

easter coconut cake
     

Now that the weather is warming up a lot of our local producers’ supplies are improving. I talked to both Cruze Dairy and Tickiwoo Farm eggs today and they both told me we should have good supplies the rest of the warm season. Brent, our produce manager, has already talked to some of our local growers about fruits and vegetables and said they are already gearing up for the season.
     

We love doing business during the warm months because we have so many more local folks we can buy from. I love getting to know them as well as supporting their products.
   

When I was in Apalachicola I bought a tee shirt from a local business I like down there and on the back it says “buy local”. Maybe I should have some of those printed up for our store?
   

Have a great weekend!

 

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Respond to:tom.butler44@gmail.com

Click here to view past blogs

 Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

2 Comments on “Grocery Life March 28, 2015

  1. We LOVE Apalachicola even though we only went once while we too stayed at St George Island. You described it perfectly and that is the very reason we enjoyed our stay. Our favorite thing we did was the boat tour through the estuarary. So very interesting and we learned so much. So glad you had a good spring break building memories with your family.

  2. I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of Apalachicola. It’s a very special place for us,too.

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