Ware Neck Produce, a beloved cornerstone of Gloucester Main Street, is celebrating its 40th season in the community.
“We’re grateful, the way we’ve been accepted here … supported,” said Jim Williams. He and his wife, Kim, opened Ware Neck Produce in 1985 and began growing fruits and vegetables for the produce market on their farm. “We raised our family, our kids are gone now, but we raised them with the money we made here,” he recalled. “It’s lucky that you can stay for 40 years anywhere, ’cause things change all the time.”
Though changes are inevitable, the store has continued to be a dependable source of fresh, local goods. “We were here before Walmart or anybody else. We were here when Main Street, that’s all there was, was Main Street,” Williams explained. “I have kids working here that their parents worked here” too, he said.
It is the quality of produce sold at the market, Williams said, that makes Ware Neck Produce stand out to the community. “We do have fresh stuff, good stuff,...