WADESBORO — Amid growing anxiety over food shortages, a produce and ice cream stand in Wadesboro, wish to reassure their customers that they have experienced no difficulty supplying Anson County with fresh, local produce daily.
Calvin and Tracie Phillips opened Peaches n’ Cream in 2004 as a way to move the produce they grown on Phillips Farms, which Calvin’s family has owned for five generations.
Located near the McFarlan NC/Cheraw SC border, Phillips Farms grow blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers on the property.
Tracie, a native of Peachland, met her husband Calvin, who was raised in Wadesboro, while she was working as a CPA in Greensboro
“We decided that we would get married,” said Tracie. “When I moved home, the option was to drive to Charlotte and continue my accounting business, because I worked in accounting for ten years, or go out on a limb and try something new.”
That “something new” ended up being Peaches n’ Cream. Calvin works on Phillips Farms year round while Tracie operates Peaches n’ Cream.
“The original plan was that I would sell our fruit at Peaches n Cream in the summer and do tax work in the winter,” said Tracie. “The farm requires year- round work and has for over 80 years.”
“We did that for a little while,” said Tracie, “now I just do this, which is a lot more fun than sitting behind a desk.”
Not only is Peaches n’ Cream stocked with fresh vegetables daily, they also serve eight homemade ice cream flavors made fresh each day as well as peach cobbler, pound cakes, and waffle cones.
“Ice cream was almost an afterthought,” said Tracie. “It was the answer to, ‘what do we do with the ripe fruit?’ We decided Ice Cream would be a good outlet for that and the rest is history.”
Though they’re known locally more as an ice cream shop, Peaches n’ Cream’s sales are pretty evenly distributed between the produce and ice cream offerings.
Produce sold at Peaches n’ Cream that isn’t grown on Phillip’s Farms is sourced from the area, if possible, according to Tracie.
“We have a lot of local farmers that bring us produce on a weekly basis,” she said.
This time of the year, however, much of the produce comes out of Florida.
“It’s just too early,” said Tracie. “Except for strawberries, right now we’re picking strawberries in McFarlan.”
Normally, Peaches ‘n Cream is closes in November and reopens in March. This year has been anything but normal. “We opened march 13, which was about the time all of this hit the fan,” said Tracie. “So, we really started with it this season.”
Given it’s location on Highway 74, tourists going to and from the beach made up a majority of their customers. But with the stay-at-home order in place, they’ve relied on their local support.
“I had always thought (vacationers) as being our bread and butter,” said Tracie. “But, really and truly, since COVID-19 came along, it’s been our local support that has kept us in business.”
“Our sales are up,” explains Tracie. “I think that’s because people feel safer coming in an open-air market to get their produce. The can get in and out really quickly.”
With a drive-thru and three service windows in place, Peaches n’ Cream is set up ideally for business during COVID-19-thru. Their drive-thru, which did very little business before the pandemic, has become one of their most popular features.
“It’s been amazing,” said Tracie. “You can really see that people are thinking about local businesses. People want to come and shop local and the mom and pop stores. We cannot express how thankful we feel to the community for supporting us all these years but especially now. Anson County has been wonderful to us.”
