Imported meats, cheeses and breads? Goat milk soap, CBD oils and other all-natural elixirs? Vintage wines, live lobster tanks and an authentic New York-style deli?

Such rare items might not have been available at the roadside produce stands of the past. But with the growing farm-to-table trend and the demand for hard-to-find foods and wellness products, they are more likely to appear at the farmers’ markets of the future.

In fact, they already can be found at the markets in the Pawleys Island area. While they also stock the traditional fresh fruits and vegetables of the day and highlight the bounty of local and regional farms, today’s markets go the extra mile to provide unique items that help the community stay healthy and happy.

Whether you long for a home-grown tomato, crave the flavor of farm-fresh eggs, or miss the hoagies from back home, local farmers’ markets have your taste buds covered from apples to zucchini – and a whole lot in between.

‘Everyday to Gourmet’

Step inside Lee’s Farmers Market in Murrells Inlet and you will see a friendly fella known as “Skeeter” holding court behind the counter – perhaps what you might expect at an old-timey farmer’s market. But look around the spacious facility and you quickly realize that this isn’t your typical produce stand filled with dusty old jars of pickled everything.

The deli counter is lined with European-cured meats and sausages, USDA steaks and chops, and hundreds of specialty cheese wheels. They make classic sandwiches in the New York deli tradition – thinly sliced cuts of Schaller & Webber meats and international cheeses – including corned beef sandwiches shipped in from New York’s famed Carnegie Deli.

“Even the bread comes in fresh from New Jersey,” said co-owner Scott Lee, a Garden State transplant himself before opening the farmers’ market with father-in-law Skeeter Dombrowski more than two decades ago.

“We have so many people who move here from somewhere else and they can’t find the foods they’re used to. They come in and ask, ‘Do you have this?’ or ‘Can you get that?’ and we do our best to get it.”

The store also stocks live lobsters and fresh local seafood, specialty pastas and sauces, and a limited but diverse selection of wines, as well as more traditional farmers’ market fare like chow-chows, dried beans, baked goods and, of course, fresh produce. Lee uses the same approach as the deli when it comes to obtaining whatever is in season; no distance is too far to find the freshest.

“We try to stay as local as possible, and we do get a lot of our produce from farms here in the area,” he said. “But you have to go with what’s in season. If you want a good tomato (when they’re out of season locally), it’s probably coming from Florida or Mississippi. We work with farmers from all over to find the freshest we can get.”

Tastes Like Food-Court Victory

How’s this for irony? A cooperative of farmers, artists and health-product distributors is setting up shop at Inlet Square Mall in a space previously occupied by a candy store. Yes, the same mom-and-pop operations that once were crowded out of the marketplace by mass-commercial malls are now sprouting up in the belly of the beast and substituting sugary snacks with healthy foods.

“It’s God’s candy,” joked Lulu Kearney, who operates K-Bar Farm in Loris with her husband, Chris, and their four daughters. “People are starting to realize that just because something is good for you doesn’t mean it tastes bad. Look at all the flavors of candy – watermelon, strawberry, blueberry. Instead of eating that stuff, why not just eat the real thing?”

The Kearneys are certified South Carolina master farmers, but not your average ones. Part-time farming near St. Louis just over six years ago, they decided to give up a “real job” and move to the country to be closer to family and for the warmer climate to raise their own food and give full-time farming a go.

“It’s something we had been wanting to do, but Chris had a good job with insurance and benefits so it was a big step,” Lulu Kearney recalled. “One time it snowed 13 inches in 24 hours, and we were out.”

What started as a small farm has blossomed into a thriving operation that provides fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, flowers, health products and their homemade elberberry syrup that’s as good for the common cold as it is to sweeten your morning oatmeal.

K-Bar Farms recently started taking part in a monthly market at Inlet Square Mall, which has suffered from the national retail bust. But the first weekend of the month turned to weekly appearances on Mondays, and their presence has been so well-received that they are in the process of opening K-Bar Farm Homestead Junction, a daily Edible Arts Market in conjunction with other vendors.

“A cooperative allows all of us to work together for the benefit of everyone,” said Lulu Kearney, whose partners will include artists, jewelry-makers, CBD distributors, and health product vendors. “We have lots of local independents that don’t have the time or the manpower to work their farms, make their products, raise their families and find time to sell. It’s a win for everyone.”

Back to the Basics

For all the fancy international foods and new-look items invading the shelves of your local farmers’ market, don’t get it twisted. Providing fresh local produce is still the top priority, and you will find lots of it at the aforementioned markets and other shops scattered in the area, like Pawleys Island General Store and the Waccamaw Market in Georgetown.

“We’re not a commercial farm. We hand-plant and hand-pick everything,” Lulu Kearney said. “If we don’t have something it’s because we didn’t plant it a few months earlier. That’s why the co-op approach is so great. We do a lot of trade-outs with other farmers so everyone has access to healthy foods instead of buying food in a bag or a box.”

The fall harvest means an increasingly busy time for local providers as squash, zucchini, peppers, pumpkins and corn stalks start to roll in. And while you’re there, check out some of the off-the-wall items lining farmers’ market shelves these days.

“We have everything you need for the holidays — free-range turkeys, bone-in prime rib, bacala (dried, salted cod), oysters (for stuffing) and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving dinner,” Lee said. “It’s the only place you need to shop.”

Indeed, farmers’ markets are the shortest distance from farm-to-table as the non-farming folks of Pawleys Island can find, and you will likely discover a lot more in the store than you bargained for.

And don’t forget to say hi to Skeeter’nem.