ON HEALTH

She may not be the original Veggie Lady, but Clara Stanley is no less enthusiastic about bringing fresh food to the table.

Stanley started working with the original Veggie Lady, Merilee Rose,  in The Woodlands in May. When Rose moved to Broaddus in August to be closer to her granddaughter, Stanley took over the business.   “Anyone who knows Merilee knows she can’t sit still for long,” Stanley said with a laugh. Now Rose runs a Veggie Lady stand in Broaddus while Stanley runs the original.   The Veggie Lady stand, at 3100 Sawdust Road in the parking lot of Sawdust Road Baptist Church in Spring, is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. “rain or shine, but no lightning,” Stanley said, noting the metal tent might attract lightning.   The business plan is simple: “Good, fresh veggies. Not ones that have been in a warehouse or in a cooler for months, but ones from a local farm,” Stanley says. “If it’s available in Houston, then that’s where we get it from, right off the farmer’s truck.”   The Veggie Lady works in concentric circles to get her produce, which takes into account the growing seasons. If produce is available in the Houston area, she buys from local farmers. If she has to go further into Texas to get avocados or grapefruit, then she’ll get them as soon as trucks arrive to deliver their goods to local markets.     Her apples are from Washington, and her oranges are from California, but they’re right off the truck and as fresh as possible, given the distance they travel. If she has to go to Mexico or Central or South America for a product, she will, but that’s not her preferred method of business.   Area farmers have been very open to Stanley and her farm-to-market business model. “We’re all in this together, to get people to eat better,” she said. “You would think that we live in a society where anyone trying to make it against big companies wouldn’t get help from anyone else, but all the farmers have been very friendly. They drop off a box of vegetables to me on their way to the warehouses in the bigger markets.”  

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NAME: Clara Stanley OCCUPATION: Operates the original Veggie Lady stand on Saturdays in the parking lot of Sawdust Road Baptist Church ADDRESS: 3100 Sawdust Road in Spring COMMUNITY CONNECTION: Replaced the original Veggie Lady, Merilee Rose, who moved to Broaddus FAST FACT: Stanley suggests using the Fooducate app to receive nutritional information on your smart phone