Making a living off of the land

Like a turn down a country road he didn't see coming, Farmer Bill Willmon's mid-life career change has taken him a bit by surprise.
For years, his father, W.R. Willmon, was known as the tomato man," selling homegrown tomatoes to area stores. Mom Maxine sold from a stand at the front of their property off U.S. 59 near Splendora.
Bill Willmon, meanwhile, relocated, raised a family and worked in the wall-coverings business. In 1995, he came back home to help his father plant and harvest his last garden. After W.R. died at 83, Willmon and his mom tended the garden on a much smaller scale.
She was used to selling a few tomatoes; it kept her busy," he says.
About this time, Bill Willmon began making and selling jars of his homemade salsa at the roadside stand where customers often helped themselves and left money in a box.
Bread and butter pickles and other homemade items began sharing table space with eggplant, corn and peppers. Sometime after his mother passed away, the number of tomato plants tended by Farmer Bill" multiplied exponentially. Willmon Farm" was taking more and more of his time.
They're sooooo sweet; oh man, they're delicious," he says, presiding over a table full of hard-to-come-by Florida produce that has to make due until the real thing is harvested in Texas.
Come mid-May, more than 1,000 tomato plants growing in sandy loam will start ripening, along with cucumbers, onions and other vegetables he grows in neighboring fields. A stream of customers from Kingwood, Humble and beyond will head northeast in search of homegrown tomatoes and more.
They're ain't nothing like the tomatoes that come out of this garden," he says as a few early bird customers come by, sharing tales of woe from their last visit in late fall when they found that the season had ended and there were no more fresh vegetables to buy.
They were all just devastated at home that there wasn't nothing we could fry!" fusses Brenda Hill of Huffman, who'd come by with her daughter.
Success has meant Willmon has been contemplating extending his growing season and being a farmer full-time. He's also working toward producing organic produce. Willmon nurses his tomatoes in a hot house all winter, growing Viva Italia, Celebrity, Sugary and Whopper varieties from seed.
Business is so good that it doesn't pay for him to take the time to pack up everything to visit area farmers' markets, Willmon says.
This place is just blowin' and goin' through the summer," he says.
Willmon has the help of sister Sherwin Campbell and some seasonal helpers, he says. Otherwise, he's a one-man operation, printing up labels, as well as babying young plants through weather crises.
It's getting toward that point where I'll make it a full time deal and be open longer," he says. I'm working on it."
Willmon Farm will likely have green tomatoes by the first of May, and ripe ones by mid-May. The farm is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. For more information and directions, visit www.willmonfarm.com.