A local group intent on developing an on-line community of growers, gardeners in the Globe-Miami region will be launching a facebook page called,”Homegrown-A Farmers Market” this month.  The only restriction is that it will be limited to only those products which come from the ground. This is a food-only Farmers Market. There will be a planning meeting for all interested parties on Saturday, May 22, at 9am at Vida E Cafe. see HOMEGROWN.

For local gardeners, who grow more than they can eat or give away to friends, this will be a site you can find outlets for your produce, or simply let people know what you have, and what you’d be willing to sell, trade or give-away.

For local growers, we invite you to let us know what you grow and where you are selling your produce. Can we come to your farm to pick apricots? Or drive out to snag a bushel of tomatoes from your place? Or do you offer your product at certain stores etc in the area?

We will discuss the logistics of networking our produce, resources and needs. And we want to hear from you. So please come on Saturday to ‘plan and plot’ a local – but virtual – Farmers Market for our region. If you can’t make it though, there will be minutes from this meeting posted on the site.

By: LCGross

This is an excerpt from a 2006 story we did on the Berstein Family who recently celebrated 65 years in business.

In 1908 the future looked bright indeed for the Globe-Miami area. There were nearly 35 mines operating in the area and the “Queen of the Western Mining States” was attracting business near and far. But it was neither the mines nor the business in the area which brought Abe Bernstein out west in the spring of 1910. It was baseball.

Around the turn-of-the Century there were two primary forms of entertainment:
Theater (of which there were five in the area) and baseball. Both packed the house. The mines themselves often sponsored amateur and semi-pro teams. The Globe-Miami Browns were a major contender then in the world of semi-pro teams and games drew large crowds every Sunday as fields filled with spectators and players.

It was here that Abe first met Kathryn Federick who gave him a reason to stay in Globe. He initially opened Bernstein’s Jewelry at 266 Broad and continued to play some ball in the area, but in 1925, when another young jeweler, Ray Bedillion, approached him about combining stores, Abe accepted. At the time, Bedillion had United Jewelry and Loan Company and together Abe and Ray expanded their business to include fine watches, clocks, radios, sporting goods and more.

When the Great Depression hit, the mines virtually shut down. Miami Copper drastically curtailed operations and the Inspiration Copper Company and Old D shut down completely. The Old Dominion never re-opened. It was a bleak time for businesses in the area and over at United Jewelry, there was not enough business to support two families.
Abe, along with hundreds of others were forced to leave the area to look for work. He took Katie and their son to California, where he found work in another jewelers shop for the next 15 years. There, they raised a family of 4 boys.  In 1945, Ray died and his widow called Abe in California and offered him the store. He accepted.

Abe and Katie returned to the area in ’45 to take over the store and Jim, the oldest son, returned from WWII in the summer of ’46 to join his father in the jewelry business.
(Brothers Bob and Kenneth were both killed in unrelated, tragic plane crashes in the ensuing years and youngest son, Mickey settled in Phoenix and became an attorney)

In 1947 Jim met Mary Karoglan, a Miami native, when she walked in to pay for a lay-a-way. It took only two dates for Jim to be convinced that Mary was the girl for him and they married in 1948. Mary helped Jim and his father in the store from day one. As she explained, “I’ve always liked serving people.  I started out working for Woolworth, and later I was at the Miami Commercial Company. I just loved being behind a counter.”

It was a good time to be in business. The war had just ended and the entire country felt optimistic about the future. Jim and Mary invested $7500 to remodel the interior of the United Jewelry and started a family which would come to include 2 sons; Jim and Kenneth and a daughter, Kathy.

United Jewelry in 1925

At the time, the store was officially called the United Sporting Goods and Jewelry Store. Jim expanded the business into sporting goods, athletic shoes, and team uniforms, in addition to the full line of electronics, musical instruments and jewelry which his father had always carried. In 1979, after nearly 3 decades of running one store together, Mary talked Jim into letting her open a second store on the highway in the newly developed Cobre Valley Shopping Center.

It was in a good location on the highway and, as Mary says, “I was tired selling rifles, TVs and music I knew nothing about. Plus they were heavy,” Mary said. “I liked the jewelry.”

A few years later, when Wal Mart moved into the area, the Miami store dropped their line of sporting goods and athletic shoes and began to concentrate more on those items which Wal Mart did not handle: i.e.: collectible guns and musical instruments, while Mary operated her jewelry store with the help of daughter Kathy.  “I carried the same quality pieces, just less of it. And I would try to carry what people wanted.”

Jim Jr, who ran the store with his father, and now handles the collectible gun sales and musical instruments for the business, says  “…it used to be that the average person might have one shotgun and maybe a rifle in the house. Now, that same person may have 7-8 shotguns or rifles and 15 handguns.”  It seems gun sales have had their ups and downs, at one point surpassing sales of jewelry in the store, and at other times taking a back seat. And despite Wal Mart cornering the market on the rifles for the hunter, Jim’s business is now strongly entrenched in collectible guns and hard to find ammunition.

In 1998 the family, decided to combine both stores into one location and settled on the old Woolworth building on Broad in downtown Globe. It was the last of the Woolworth stores to close in the Southwest and had been on the market for a few years. Mary knew the brothers who owned it and had been in the same sorority with their mother.

The imprint of United Jewelry in Miami still remains

“So, I got a good deal on the building,” she says with a smile. It was also in ‘98 that Jim Bernstein retired altogether, and Mary, along with her daughter, Kathy and eldest son Jim, took over the reins of the business. Once again the gun business, musical instruments and jewelry were all under one roof. Granted, it is an unusual combination of merchandise for most visitors to grasp: mixing Remington rifles, fine diamonds and Gibson Guitars. But for the unique variation of merchandise found in the store, one thing remains uniform. And that is service. Ever since Abe Berstein first went into the jewelry business, the family has been taking care of each customer as if they were going to know them for a lifetime. And in Globe-Miami that makes for quite a few generations of customers.

By: Holly Brantley

This is an excerpt from GlobeMiamiTimes Spring 2009. Holly’s aaprons have become so popular that The White Porch now structures a social event around her aprons!  This Friday from 5-6pm, everyone is invited to the Porch to discover the new ‘Valentine’s Aprons’ and sample some goodies.

In Search Of Comfort

Times are a tad bit tougher these days than most young people have ever seen. But many generations before have seen such hardships. The lesson learned from those times gone by is that with hope and sacrifice the tough times will pass and we will be better for the strength we gained going through the process.
O.K. with that great piece of wisdom out of the way, a question popped into my mind.  What will bring us comfort in this uncomfortable time? I searched the place that brings me most comfort, my childhood. There in that world existed the memory of my Grandmother. She was the matriarch of our family. She is who cared for us when our Mother was working. She is who watched over us, fed us, refereed us and comforted us when we needed it most. There’s that word, comfort. You ask how? When we got hurt she wiped our tears and our booboo’s with that wonderful tool that she always wore, her apron.
Memory serves up Grandmas apron collection. There was the every day cotton, the clever dish towel design, the for special occasion only chiffon, the Christmas apron with poinsettias and of course the cute cocktail ones with the martini glasses. Grandma was quite stylish in her aprons and always ready to take care of someone’s needs.
This thought brought me comfort in a time of craziness. I decided to give birth to my idea of comfort, I decided to create and make aprons. Now aprons have gotten a bad rap in the past as a representative of nothing more than a sign of servitude. Well I wanted to put that horrible picture out of every ones mind and stress the memories of comfort an apron can bring to us from our childhood. I thought of a logo and decided that my aprons would celebrate the one who would proudly wear an apron. The ones that will wear my aprons will be forever remembered as wearing a “Home Hero Cape”. On February 5, 2009 the apron business was born in my craft room in Ice House Canyon, Globe, Az.
The first apron I made was an original design. I wanted it to be girly so it’s red and white, just perfect for Valentines Day. But it didn’t come out so well. I keep it to keep me humble. The 2 aprons after that were made from a pattern and they were shapely and colorful. When I walked into The White Porch, the shop located at 101 N. Broad Street in Globe were I work on Fridays, I never even got to put a price tag on them before they were both bought right off of their hangers. I was comforted in knowing I had finally found my nitch.
I love the thrill of finding the fabrics for my creations. Some I buy and some has been given to me by some really great Ladies who have no idea what to do with their fabric stash. I take great care in finding and developing new apron patterns. Coordinating the fabrics so that the apron sings is sometimes easy and sometimes it takes a while. I do know that with every apron I make it is designed for that one special person who will love it always even if I have never or will never meet them.
You ask if I have a collection of aprons of my own? YES I do. Sometimes I find it hard to let a certain apron go and it gets added to my personal collection. I have holiday aprons and fashion aprons and even my shop apron. I own books on aprons and people e-mail me facts about aprons. Aprons are fun and every one of my daughters will have one before the year is out. I believe in sharing the love.
I did my research before starting on this path. I googled aprons and do so regularly to keep on top of the fresh and the new. At the time of this article there are roughly 4,500,000 sights listed for aprons. I guess there are a lot of people looking to find the childhood comfort zone in these crazy times.” Thank you Grandma for the special memories and the strength to go forward.”
Holly Brantley

“Home Hero Capes” can be found at The White Porch” located in the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts at 101 N. Broad in Globe, Az. Holly is there on Fridays and she takes special orders. Molly is there every other day except Tuesday and Wednesday. She can take your orders too.