Lakeland’s Fulwood Farms Carries Everything but the Squeal

Ask Ed Jackson, the butcher at Fulwood Farms Meat & Produce Market, to recite a list of the meats he carries and you’ll get this:

“We carry everything but the squeal, and it’s on the way.”

That statement may sound humorous, but it’s also not far from the truth.

Fulwood Farms- a small grocery that carries meats, produce, deli items and a limited number of products related to those three staples- opened its doors on Feb. 27. Business has increased weekly since then, said Todd Kjeer, who co-owns the store with Chad Fulwood. The store is a subsidiary of CF Produce, a wholesale produce company in Plant City.

The grocery came to be in a round-about way.

“We were looking to open a retail produce store in Apollo Beach,” Kjeer said. “This place became known to us, loaded with all the equipment and registers. We just needed new software and refrigeration.”

The building that houses Fulwood Farms, located at 925 N. Lake Parker Ave. in Lakeland, once was a Hispanic market.

So what possessed Fulwood and Kjeer to start a new business during these tough economic times? Getting to the root of that took some cajoling.

This was Kjeer’s initial response: “We’re not making any money, but we’re keeping people happy.”

I thought I could hear Kumbaya off in the distance.

“Come on,” I said. “You obviously started this business to turn a profit, right? I mean, it’s not a non-profit organization.”

Slowly, he came around and it quickly became clear to me that the partners had picked perhaps the best of times to embark on this business venture.

“This is the kind of thing people need in these economic times,” Kjeer said. “They have to buy groceries somewhere and we supply a service that’s second to none.”

Fulwood Farms carries a limited number of items. They specialize primarily in meats and produce. Because they don’t carry the same variety of items that a major chain such as Publix carries, their overhead, staffing and advertising costs are different, he said.

I conducted an informal cost comparison with Publix of several items Fulwood Farms also carries, and was astonished by the results. Here are a few examples:

- 1 pint of blueberries (the same brand is carried by Publix and Fulwood Farms)- $2.49 at Fulwood Farms; $5.99 at Publix.

- Beef cubed steak- $3.19/lb. At Fulwood Farms; $3.49/lb. at Publix

- Ground chuck- $1.49/lb. At Fulwood Farms; $3.49/lb. at Publix

- NY Strip- $3.99/lb. at Fulwood Farms; $11.59/lb. at Publix

With prices like these, it’s no surprise that sales have increased weekly and really began to soar once the grocery began accepting Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, the food stamp program.

Although the times have necessitated an increase in penny-pinching among plenty of Polk County families, folks from all walks of life are shopping at Fulwood Farms, “from one end of the spectrum to the other,” said Store Manager Gina Burns. Customers have ridden up on bicycles and arrived in a Rolls Royce.

And they ask for everything when it comes to meats. A few items Fulwood Farms carries that might be considered “off-the-wall” to some and hard to find in mainstream groceries include pork brains, hog maws, goat, beef tongue, beef tripe, ox tails, rabbit, scrapple, souse, chicken feet, chicken livers, pig tails, pig feet and pig ears.

Remember that “we carry everything but the squeal comment?” Not so far off, huh!

Knowing that, it’s a bit unfair to compare Fulwood Farms to Publix and other large chain grocers. In fact, the small grocery is more akin to Green’s Market Meat & Produce or Felton’s Meat & Produce in Plant City.

While the future may look bright for Fulwood Farms, there are no plans for additional grocery locations, Kjeer said. But he would still like to have that produce store in Apollo Beach.

Current hours at Fulwood Farms are as follows:
Monday-Thursday- 9 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Friday- 9a.m.- 7 p.m.
Sat- 8 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Sun- 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

For more information, call 863-688-0637. Interested customers can be placed on a fax list to receive a list of weekly specials. Kjeer said they also are working on creating a weekly e-mail list for specials.