Sharon Creekmore Mosley runs Creekmore’s Place with her husband, Dion, at the Virginia Beach Farmers Market. Mosley’s parents started the produce business in 1964 and moved it to the market in the 1970s.
Five years ago, the couple expanded their agricultural efforts by starting Creekmore’s Place at Indian River, a second market location that is also a small farm on nearly three acres along Indian River Road. Customers can shop while they see crops growing — garlic, kale, squash, strawberries and more.
The building at the heart of the new location bears the names of her parents, Linwood and Elsie Creekmore.
The newer venture grows while the market endures, and the Mosleys are now being recognized for both. They’ve earned the farmer of the year award from the Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program. The award will be presented later this month.
Sharon Creekmore Mosley said the recognition is a validation of what she and her husband have worked to build in addition to the longstanding family marketplace.
“For them to recognize that we’ve taken the time and built what we thought would be an ideal farm is a great thing,” she said. “We’re proud.”
The award is scheduled to be presented during the Small Farm Conference Oct. 16-17 in Norfolk.
Ben Dukes, regional program assistant with Virginia State University’s Small Farm Outreach Program, said the Mosleys were picked for the strides they made developing their new farm while carrying on the legacy of the market.
He said they used resources and best practices to improve operations on their farm.
“It’s keeping a small farm so that you know the quality is still there, but they still have quite a few customers that are loyal to them and have been over the years,” he said.
The original business evolved from food grown for the family to sales at a local market. Later, Creekmore’s Place became one of the original tenants at the Virginia Beach Farmers Market.
From childhood on, the Creekmore children— and later spouses and children — helped the family business.
Elsie Creekmore, who was predeceased by her husband, died in 2018 at the age of 98, and Sharon Creekmore Mosley’s sisters and other family members wanted the business to continue. She said she and her husband were able to do that.
Dion Mosley is retired from a 40-year career as a UPS driver, and Sharon Creekmore Mosley is a retired teacher, reading specialist and school administrator.
“That’s what we wanted to do after we retired,” Sharon Creekmore Mosley said. “We thought we’d keep active, and, boy, are we active.”
They find the work rewarding.
“The plants are like the kids,” she said. “I plant the seeds. I get to nurture them, watch them grow.”
“It’s hands on all the time,” Dion Mosley said. “Being hands on, you can see the results.”
He said they are working to keep the farm productive, using practices such as cover crops to help maintain healthy soils. They also want to continue to attract their neighbors to the market along Indian River Road.
“We really want to be a neighborhood farmers market here so that people that live around have somewhere to come and get fresh fruits and vegetables,” Sharon Creekmore Mosley said.
She and her husband want the farm and markets to someday continue in the hands of loved ones.
“We hope to keep it going from generation to generation,” she said. “That’s our plan.”