Bill’s Produce Two brothers offering fresh grown produce

Most everyone can go to the grocery store to pick up vegetables and fruit to eat, and typically the grocery store sells produce from all over. But there’s nothing like a fresh local produce market. Located at 401 S. Houston Lake Road, two brothers, Bill and Les Souter, own and operate Bill’s Produce.

“We are a family run business,” said Les. “Of course, my brother and I; my wife, Mary; my two nephews, Thomas and Lee; and our sons, Bennett and Hud, all help run the business.”

Les said his brother was in Albany Tuesday working with the pecan farmers, which is their main feature that they sell right now.

“Our main line of business is the locally grown produce,” said Les. “We will carry tomatoes, peaches, watermelons, cantaloupes, squash and beans. We also offer fresh eggs, cheese and butter.”

Les and his brother use to be in the line of construction and real estate. They both decided when the downturn came in 2008 that they needed to do something else.

“My brother-in-law was a watermelon farmer and we had a good friend who was a vegetable farmer,” said Les. “Well, one day Bill and I just thought, ‘Hey, maybe we could run a roadside market.’ So, we tried it and haven’t looked back since.”

Les and Bill started their roadside market five years ago. They both come from Montezuma.

“We decided to come to Warner Robins because we felt like it was a good central location,” said Les. “As far as the name (he said laughing), one time when we were visiting a farmer, he said out loud ‘Bill’s produce’ and we both just liked the name.”

Bill and Les buy from farmers all over Georgia and occasionally will buy from some in Florida. Les said it depends on the crop; for example, they deal with four different peach farmers and with tomatoes, they deal with seven to eight farmers.

“The key to our success is keeping all of our produce fresh,” said Les. “If it’s in season, we will try to have it. One unique thing about us is aside from the produce, we have our Georgia Store where we sell products that are grown and produced all over the state. For example, we have peanut butter from Atlanta, salsa and jams from all over the south part of the state and we also have local honey. During our fall/winter time, we sell firewood, Christmas trees and wreaths.”

Bill’s Produce will end their fall/winter season at the beginning of February but will re-open back the first of May. When the roadside market is in season, they are open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in fall/winter and in the spring/summer hours are extended until 6 p.m.

“We pride ourselves in the produce that we sell,” said Les. “We invite everyone to come see us.”

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