Something Fishy in Floyd
The following was published in The Floyd Press on September 6, 2007 with the title “They Specialize in the Catch of the Day.”
I’ve nicknamed them the Indigo Girls, after the female singing duo from Atlanta. But this Floyd County duo goes by the name of Indigo Farms. Indigo Farms owners, Teresa Nester and Susan Handy, don’t sing. They don’t make CD’s. They sell fish.
From the back of their white refrigerated truck, they sell everything from Artic Char to Wahoo; from salmon, scallops, and snapper to catfish, crabmeat, and cod. But it all started with shrimp.
On a warm day in late August in front of the Harvest Moon Food Store, a popular stop on their fish truck route, I learned the history of Indigo Farms. What began with recreational trips to the North Carolina coast to visit Teresa’s sister became Indigo Farms in 1993 when Teresa and Susan began supplying fresh seafood to the Pine Tavern Restaurant, back when Michael Gucciardo was the chef.
Now they make weekly treks to the coast, bringing back seafood for restaurants from the Château Morrisette to those in Mountain Lake and a few in Roanoke. They also sell to the public. Besides the Harvest Moon and other Floyd locations, they make retails stops in Riner and Blacksburg. Their schedule is outlined in detail on their website, where they also share seafood recipes and photos of their trips, complete with ocean sound effects.
As the Pine Tavern began incorporating fresh seafood into their menu and receiving positive feedback for it, others started making requests, Susan, the former Floyd recreational department director explained.
“In the beginning it was only shrimp. Now we’re into octopus and squid,” Teresa joked. The best part of running their own business has been the people they come in contact with, she told me.
“We’ve become part of their lives and they’ve become part of ours. We’ve watched their kids grow up,” remarked Teresa, who was previously employed as a technical writer at the Radford Arsenal.
“Even the customers get to know one another,” I responded. “I’ve met some new people and caught up with old friends while standing in line waiting for fish. I’ve been in a line of as many as four people. Do you ever get lines longer than that?” I asked.
Teresa’s answer surprised me. “Oh, at least twenty and we’ve probably served as many as two hundred in Blacksburg in one stop.”
“Blacksburg people love fish!” she said.
Their Blacksburg connection started when a woman asked them to make her house one of the stops on their route. “If you come, I’ll tell my friends,” the woman told Susan.
Susan and Teresa know many of their customers by name and some are on nickname basis, like “Salmon Man,” who I met soon after Susan mentioned his name when he pulled up for his weekly purchase of salmon. Earlier, a customer shared details of her recent fishing vacation; another one remarked that she started buying fish from of the back of the Indigo Farms’ truck when her now teenager was a baby in diapers.
In the winter the women wear insulated jumpsuits to keep warm as they work. In the summer they carry extra ice and pack it in with customer orders.
“I’m like the family butcher,” Teresa said, referring to the fact that she knows what their regular customers like. Some order ahead. Others mosey over to the truck and check out the list on the Indigo Farms dry erase board before making their menu decisions.
It was late in the afternoon on Saturday, so many of their most popular offerings had sold out, as evidenced by their names being crossed out on the board. The blue flag on top of their truck flapped in the breeze as I settled on a pound of catfish for my order. I snapped a photo of Susan in her Indigo Farms blue T-shirt talking to “Salmon Man,” as Teresa bagged up my fresh fish. She packed it with extra ice.
Post Notes: Visit www.indigofarmsseafood.com for more information. This story went online HERE. Another fish story is HERE.
September 11th, 2007 9:22 am
you guys can get about anything and everything there in floyd! fresh and whole, too! lucky you! do you know of any IT jobs for my hubby there? 🙂
i love stories like this….about people. since you have mentioned the ‘indigo girls’ several times in posts, it was neat to get to read more about them.
September 11th, 2007 9:28 am
Wow, you have a good memory. I have mentioned them several times before. I think they look like a female version of the Blues Brothers here with their dark sunglasses on. I love the creative self-employed lifestyle they have created for themselves. Love the fish too!
Does IT mean it or I.T. like GE or something?
September 11th, 2007 9:46 am
I love your vivid stories of life in Floyd. I’d say this “fish story” is a “keeper.” It “hooked” me from the opening “line.” It is just so “reel.”
(Sorry! I couldn’t resist. I love puns, even really bad ones.) 🙂
September 11th, 2007 11:17 am
Great article, Colleen. You really are good at bringing Floyd’s life to life!
September 11th, 2007 11:21 am
IT as in Information Technology/Computers…..
September 11th, 2007 11:57 am
Great small town feel and good reference for people there. I love my small town feel…yesterday, on the main street, I passed the pharmacist who told me my needle tips I liked for the insulin pen had come in and I could pick them up! I love it.
September 12th, 2007 5:08 am
LOVED this post Colleen…I remember you writing about buying fish off of a refridgerated truck quite a long time ago….I was intrigued then and I remember asking you about the prices…It was just terrific reading about these two ladies and how they began and how involved they are with their customers…It really is like ‘the old days’, when I was growing up, and we had these little Mom & Pop stores—The Fish Market, The Meat Market, The Grocer, etc…and they knew all their customers by name, etc. It is wonderful to read that this kind of thing is Alive & Well in Floyd and surrounding areas…!
September 12th, 2007 10:42 am
I can no longer eat fish except pureed and I miss it so good for you. Lots of trucks around Fl and that bothers me in the inteense heat . love the hokey pokey upgrade
September 12th, 2007 3:36 pm
I was excited thinking they could bring our pond fish until I read further. You guys are lucky to have these ladies bringing in such good stuff!