Vegetable stand becomes wedding venue

Submitted photo Newlyweds Betty and Harold Moreland were married July 12 at their Try Me Fresh Vegetable Stand.

Special to the Daily Mail

Harold Moreland runs the Try Me Fresh Vegetables stand west of town and he wants everyone to know he can spell "cucumber" just fine and that the hillbilly "qcunebur" sign posted at his stand last month that made the front page of the Nevada Daily Mail and the rounds on Facebook was just "a big joke."

"At first I was mad. I didn't know who did it and I was afraid people would think I couldn't spell c-a-t. But I found it was a customer playing a joke and I got over it," he said.

Harold feeding Betty a piece of their wedding cake. Submitted photo

Jokes come easy for Moreland, who at 76, has told a world of them in his lifetime, early on as a clown entertaining kids and then working as a civilian barber for the U.S. Army at posts around the country. One of the posts was Ft. Carson, not too far from his hometown of Woodland Park, Colo.

"As a barber you hear lots of jokes," Moreland said. "Everybody wants to talk and I was so busy I finally put a sign up by my barber's chair that said, 'if you've got nothing to do don't do it here!'"

Moreland moved to Richards in 1991 and has run the vegetable stand the past four years with his new wife Betty and their pet dog Koalee. The neat and clean roadside stand sits on the old Echo's parking lot at 1819 W. Austin Blvd., a site owned by Don Adams. "He offered me the space and I'm sure glad he did. We were across the street for awhile but we get a lot more traffic here."

All summer the Morelands have been selling vegetables to regular customers and travelers on U.S. 54 who pull over to see what's for sell. There's a variety of fresh produce: cucumbers, cantaloupes, tomatoes, new potatoes, a variety of squash, watermelon, plus sweet corn and green beans in season. Moreland buys it wholesale from Amish farmers west of Compton Junction, making three trips a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

"I buy whatever they have for sale and resell it retail," he said. "I don't care about the size or shape. Take this tomato," he said, picking up a family-sized specimen. "Now it's too big for a super market to sell because a supermarket wants tomatoes all the same size. Doesn't matter to me. Besides, the bigger ones are juicier."

Moreland has a big heart for helping people in need. He gives away any excess produce to community agencies. Sometimes he will trade bags of ice and ice cream in summertime to the Amish farmers who do not have electricity.

The stand will be open everyday but Sundays and holidays until mid-October and then Moreland will turn to wintertime work. One of his favorite pastimes is mounting antlers and horns for his hunting customers.

This summer has been a special one for Harold and Betty who have known each other for a long time. They decided to tie the knot in a ceremony attended by about 40 guests, many of them customers, celebrating with a big wedding cake baked by a customer for the occasion.

And where was the ceremony?

Where else but the Try Me Fresh Vegetable Stand.