Antiques and tomatoes spilling out of Sperryville
Sunny and Brenda Anderson for years ran a quaint antique shop, a treasure trove for folks like me, and now Michelle and John Jenkins are running it.
Brenda is in fact Michelle’s sister in law. Nestled in Sperryville on Route 211, situated just before the Glassworks Gallery, the little fairy tale building houses myriad gifts, from paintings to glassware and all manner of collectible items.
Outside the tables are overflowing with additional wares and not to mention John’s passion, namely extraordinary heirloom tomatoes, for which he is known throughout the county, fresh fruits and vegetables, piled high in wicker baskets, and of course the sweet cantaloupe are the size of basketballs and color of a light pastel orange.
They are open every weekend, no set hours, always early morn, but sometimes open as late as 8:30 p.m. depending on customer traffic. John and Michelle are Rappahannock raised,
families with 4 generationial pedigrees, hollows so named Jenkins and Weakley Hollow. Michelle is a Weakley.
Coincidentally, Michelle and John met across from the Glassworks Gallery, where the old Horseshoe Hills Restaurant was once located, so close to where their store now sits. They’ve recently celebrated their 30 year anniversary, the parents of two boys, Hunter a young man already, and little Johnny Jr., a little boy given only a day to live who through great parental love and nurturing survived until the age of 12. Michelle and John have given many a scholarship in his name to graduating Rappahannock seniors.
Michelle runs a cleaning business, C-Me-Clean, and a catering business specializing in Southern country food, much enjoyed at Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department events, where in fact both John and Michelle have volunteered for many years.
Not only is John known for his organic vegetable gardens but also his expert landscaping ability, including tree work, mulching and regular lawn care maintenance. He laughingly shares that he’s a starving tomato farmer. Dunno how long that’ll last, I plan on being there every week to purchase them!
Not familiar with the history of the heirloom, John explained the seeds are 50 plus years in the making. The seeds he tells are what make an heirloom tomato an heirloom tomato. They are passed down from season to season, taken from the tomato plants that produced the best fruit. This process allows farmers to select for certain desirable traits like juiciness, size, shape, or color.
Heirloom tomatoes are also often open-pollinated, which means that they are pollinated naturally by birds, insects, wind, or human hands. Basically, heirloom tomatoes have potential for greatness because their DNA hasn't been manipulated in the same way that the genetics of a lot of mass market 'maters are.
Most tomatoes that we find in the grocery store have been bred to look like cartoon tomatoes.
John shares that his favorites are Pink German, Brandywine, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Cherokee Purple Yellow Ridge and Georgia Streak.
Contact Michelle and John at 540987-9440 for catering, cleaning and landscaping needs!