City Produce
CONTINUING THE LEGACY OF FRESH FOODS
By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com For 36 years, Leslie Callaway has owned and operated City Produce. In those years, Callaway has grown her business from a humble roadside stand into locally loved produce storefront it is today. As fourth generation produce stand owner, Callaway said she’s been operating City Produce for the majority of her life. “My great grandma grew her own produce, back in the day when they had to grow food to make a living,” Callaway said. “They would eat some of the produce, can some of it, and take the rest of it to downtown Atlanta to sell.” Callaway’s great-grandmother passed the produce stand business on to Callaway’s grandfather, who in turn passed it on to Callaway’s mother. And according to Callaway, at that point the business was little more than a stand, picnic tables and gazebo. “My mother ran her stand in Sandy Springs,” Callaway
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said. “It was called ‘Cowgirls Produce’ because that was her nickname — Cowgirl.” While her ancestors grew their own produce to sell, Callaway purchases hers from the Atlanta State Farmers Market. She drives the 124-mile round trip to Atlanta every other day - sometimes every day - to hand pick out the freshest fruits and vegetables possible to sell her customers. “People follow me around when they see me at the market to see what I’m buying because they know that I only pick out the best,” Callaway said. Callaway’s reputation for always having the best produce has earned her nicknames such as “produce queen” or “tomato queen”, a nod to her best-selling item — tomatoes. In her time in the business, Callaway has grown City Produce from a produce stand in downtown Cumming to a stand at the Dixie Flea Market to a storefront at the North Georgia Premium Outlet Mall. “I started out with an outdoor produce stand, but it became harder and harder to keep an outdoor stand
