A couple’s weekend produce stand grows into a full-time business in Collinsville
A roadside produce stand that opened last April in Caseyville has a new home in Collinsville.
Mike & Sarah’s Produce now has a brick-and-mortar location at 116 N. Bluff Road, where owners Mike Freukes and Sarah Sadtler offer an amazing variety of fresh fruits and veggies.
I’m talking about more than enough beautiful fruit to outfit an army in Carmen Miranda-style hats. It’s glorious.
The store officially opened Friday, March 14. I visited the couple the following Monday and, upon entering, immediately caught the scent of fresh strawberries.
Sadtler, who I met first while Freukes was assisting a customer, said the strawberries are their best-selling item. I believe it. Up close, their fragrant sweetness was hard to resist.
I asked her how it feels to finally be open. She’s excited and happy to see their previous customers again.
We agreed to meet on Monday, thinking that business would be less busy than during the weekend. It was still busy, as a steady stream of customers came and went during the time I was there.
Some were on their way home from work or picking up kids at school. All seemed pleased — impressed, even — with the selection of fruits and veggies. I never saw young people so excited about grapes before.
What’s available?
Around 1,800 square feet of the 2,500-square-foot building makes up the retail space, most of which features tables filled with goods, mainly from local Illinois and Missouri farms.
There are also Amish canned goods, including jams, jellies and pickled vegetables from Blackberry Hill Farms in Rich Hill, Missouri.
Exceptions to local or regional goods include pineapple, avocado and bananas, which prefer tropical climates to thrive.
The goal is to shoot for getting what’s affordable and of good quality, said Sadtler, who enjoys sampling the produce as she works. (Quality assurance is important.) She likes that she can accurately describe how everything tastes to customers.
Produce currently on offer:
Apples (multiple varieties), bananas
Grapes (red, black and white), blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
Oranges (multiple varieties), grapefruit, lemons and limes
Pineapple, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe, honeydew melons, avocado
Tomatoes (beefsteak, heirloom, green, grape and more), tomatillos
Lettuces, cabbage
Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower
Peppers: jalapeño, banana, bell, sweet
Squash: zucchini, summer/yellow, butternut, acorn, spaghetti
Green beans, asparagus, eggplant
English cucumbers, pickling cucumbers
Potatoes (russets, red, Yukon gold, sweet, rainbow), beets, turnips
Onions (red, white, yellow and green), garlic and the biggest ginger roots I’ve ever seen
Plus, carrots, celery, sweet corn, mushrooms with more yummies added all the time.
One customer was delighted to see that green tomatoes were available. Freukes told her that he’ll try to keep them in stock, no promises.
“I’ll be here all the time,” she told him.
Coincidentally, I watched “Fried Green Tomatoes” the night before my visit. Idgie Threadgoode and Sipsey would’ve been pleased with these green toms.
I didn’t realize that, aside from fried green tomatoes, they had so many uses. A quick online search resulted in a long list of recipes including salsas, relishes, ketchup, pickles, soups and even breads and pies.
The selection of ever-popular strawberries thinned out quite a bit during the hour to 90 minutes I was there. Sadtler and Freukes constantly replenished the fragrant berries and other goods while talking with me and assisting customers.
Flowers are starting to arrive with more to be added to the selection over the coming weeks. By April and into May, the parking lot will feature a display filled with Easter and Mother’s Day flowers.
Sadtler said they’ll soon add seafood items – shrimp, crab legs (all frozen) from the New Orleans and Biloxi areas. Cut fruit is also on the way, and they will eventually offer fruit platters by advance order only.
People are spreading the word about their indoor produce stand. A lot of their customers who came to the stand when it was located on Route 159 are glad they’re back and doing well, according to Sadtler, who added that much of their customer base is built on word of mouth.
While there are many great foods available, Sadtler and Freukes welcome suggestions and requests from customers. There’s a suggestion book at the checkout counter. This is how they came to add English cucumbers and banana peppers to their tables. Customers recently asked for kale and spinach on the store’s Facebook page.
The store is the customers’ place to mold and shape into what they want it to be, said Sadtler.
With so much available produce, I asked what they enjoy the most. Despite the difficulty of choosing one favorite, Freukes said he likes plums a lot.
At the moment, Sadtler is excited about their homegrown cantaloupe, adding that the best ones arrive in June as they grow larger and are sweeter.
“It’s like eating candy,” she said.
She took it a step further and suggested taking a cantaloupe and cutting it in half. Scoop out the seeds to make a bowl and add vanilla ice cream.
May and June are the “most exciting time for us,” she said. This is when they start getting watermelon, more tomatoes and berries.
“Berries in the springtime are the best,” she said.
The first year
Mike & Sarah’s Produce opened April 19, 2024, as a roadside at 7905 N. Illinois St. in Caseyville.
The stand operated 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays-Sunday and offered locally grown produce, jellies and local honey. Flowers were sold in May for Mother’s Day.
By late May, the couple had to move multiple times due do zoning issues and other rules surrounding produce stands and farmers markets. They bounced up and down Route 159 before deciding it would be best to find a permanent location.
They announced on Sept. 28 that they were moving to 116 N. Bluff Road in Collinsville.
In October, they opened every weekend at the new location, setting up in the parking lot to sell fall produce that included pumpkins, corn and cornstalks, pumpkins, squashes, pumpkins, apples, grapes, tomatoes and other goods. Including pumpkins.
The Bluff Road building was vacant but had housed multiple businesses over the years, including Two Men and A Truck, All About Golf, Glamour Fashions & More and McDonald’s, before it moved to its current location at 520 Ramada Blvd. in the mid-1990s.
And based on the brick arches inside the building, it also looks like it may have been a Taco Bell once upon a time. I mentioned this to Sadtler, who couldn’t confirm it but mentioned that multiple customers said the same thing.
Sadtler said the renovation was done over the winter, starting in mid-January with most of the work taking place just before Valentine’s Day. Rushing to get the work done by then allowed them to sell roses, teddy bears, cards and chocolate-covered strawberries, which were requested by more than one customer during my visit.
She and Freukes agreed that they picked up a few new skills during that time. Sadtler also said they will spruce up the shop a bit each year, likely during the winter.
A family trade
Freukes, 22, and Sadtler, 20, reside in Missouri and own the business together. Sadtler said they met in 2022 when she visited Orlando Family Produce, another produce stand in Arnold, Missouri, owned by Freukes’ parents, Ruthie Orlando and Richard Freukes.
Sadtler said she got to talking with Orlando and the two got along immediately. Orlando offered Sadtler a job, which she eventually accepted. She ended up working with and getting to know Freukes that summer.
Freukes comes from a large Italian family that gets together regularly for dinner. His grandmother always makes a lot of food, said Sadtler. Table talk with the family is mostly shop talk since they’re in the same line of business.
The business started with his great grandfather, an Italian immigrant who had 10 sons and two daughters, according to Freukes’ July 6, 2024, Facebook description of how he got into this business.
As a young man, his great grandfather “pushed a cart full of produce and knocked door to door to sell produce … to provide for his family.”
Freukes’ grandfather, Frank Orlando, sold at St. Louis-area flea markets. In time, Frank’s daughter, Angie, suggested they should open a fruit stand at a set location and sell daily. They opened Richard’s Produce in Festus, Missouri.
From there, more than a dozen other businesses were opened by the family.
Freukes’ parents opened Orlando Family Produce in 2007. Working there was Freukes’ first job. He learned more about the business and took on more responsibility.
“I always knew I was gonna do this,” said Freukes.
About Mike & Sarah’s Produce
Mike & Sarah’s Produce is located at 116 N. Bluff Road in Collinsville. Hours of operation are 9 a.m .to 7 p.m. seven days a week. For updates and information, call 314-686-3399 or visit the business’ Facebook page.
Fried green tomatoes recipe
Since I brought up fried green tomatoes in this column, I figure the least I can do is provide a recipe. The following is one of many recipes included in Fannie Flagg’s, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.” (The 1991 movie is great, and Kathy Bates’ performance is *chef’s kiss*. Towanda!)
Ingredients:
1 medium green tomato (per person)
Salt
Pepper
White cornmeal
Bacon drippings
Slice tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick, season with salt and pepper and then coat both sides with cornmeal. In a large skillet, heat enough bacon drippings to coat the bottom of the pan and fry tomatoes until lightly browned on both sides.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
