Robert is Here

When it comes to promoting your own products, a restaurant may work for some, but others have taken a different route. One example can be found in the Sunshine State.

The sign looms large on the Dade county horizon. It says, “Robert is Here.” The “here” being just off highway U.S. One on Palm Drive in Florida City, Florida. And folks who stop by this unusual produce stand quickly find out who Robert is and why he’s here.

Robert Moehling is the "Robert" in "Robert is Here”. Grower, marketer, salesman, store clerk, Robert’s been doing it right “here” since he was six years old. That’s when his dad set up a stand for passing motorists to buy the cucumbers the Moehlings grew on their small farm. Trouble was no one stopped. His dad thought, “Well maybe they didn’t see him”

As Robert tells it, “So the next day dad pulled some hurricane shutters out of the barn that are normally used for the house and wrote on there with spray paint. ‘Robert is here’ and put one on each side of me to let people know that I was there."
    
The signs worked and, more than 40 years later, Robert is still here. Today, the stand sells produce and more. Tapping into a growing trend across the country—consumers looking for fruits and vegetables fresh from the field.

As Robert points out, “You can buy fruit anywhere you want to. It's all over the place. There's no reason to come to ‘Robert is here.’ But we try to make it special. We try to have—if we have mangos—we try to have the largest or the best mango that's available. Papayas, the same way. The tomatoes, the largest and best available.”

Robert offers a wide range of fruits; sapodillas, carambolos or star fruit; avocados and a square persimmon called a fuyu.

As for vegetables, Robert says, “Lima beans, and the squash and the stuff like that, my family used to grow as a kid. But to run a roadside market and to farm. You just can’t do it like you used to.”

Robert can’t do it all, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Besides the fruits and vegetables, the jams and jellies the exotic fruit milkshakes, the homegrown sunflowers, Robert keeps visitors entertained with a petting zoo where you’ll find emus, geese, donkeys and iguanas. They all get along the donkeys run the pen.

Robert’s farming operation is a year-round commitment. The stand closes in September and October, but stop by any other time and “Robert is here.” And they have been every Christmas since 1959.

Robert’s loyal following of customers includes tourists who stop by on their way to the nearby Everglades National Park.  As Michele Bettis puts it, “We decided to come down here for the winter where it's warm. So now we are heading to the keys. And the Everglades were great. I usually like to get my husband to stop so we can shop. But he doesn't like to do that. So he pulled in to surprise me. He said, ah you will like to stop here!”

A visit to “Robert is Here” isn't just an opportunity to buy fresh produce. It's a trip around the tropics, with Robert as the tour guide. Whether it’s sharing his passion for passion fruit or cutting plain old broccoli from the field, Robert will be here

Sunshine State Variety
Florida may be best known for citrus crops, but the state’s agricultural products include everything from tomatoes to beef cattle. And while Florida winter temperatures average around 60 degrees, Florida has more than two dozen farms that specialize in Christmas Trees.