The Farmer’s Shed is a family owned produce market and restaurant located in Lexington, South Carolina. The Farmer’s Shed was opened in the summer of 1999, but the family has been in the farming business for over seventy years.
Armand C. Sease Farm was started in 1947 by Armand and Roselyn Sease. The farm’s initial main crops were sweet potatoes and peaches, but the farm itself was mostly self-sustaining. The family’s meat came from the livestock they raised and Roselyn had a garden and canned vegetables for the family to eat in the winter. The extra produce, cream and eggs were sold to customers in the Columbia, S.C., area.
As the years progressed, collard, mustard and turnip greens were added and quickly became the farm’s main source of income. The addition of green onions was made in the 1960s as a result of encouragement from a buyer from the Winn Dixie supermarket warehouse. After some experimentation, green onions grew from a spring crop to a year-round crop for the farm.
In 1970, Armand and Roselyn’s son and daughter-in-law, Clinton and Shirley Sease, were married and became very active in the farm. In 1978 Clinton and Shirley took over ownership of the farm, which continued to prosper with greens and green onions as the main cash crops.
In 2000 the Sease’s expanded their operation with the opening of The Farmer’s Shed produce market and garden center. Soon the restaurant opened, offering home-style meals featuring produce grown on the family’s farm.
In 2004, Carrie Dalton, Clinton and Shirley’s youngest daughter, encouraged the family to diversify the family business even more by adding a corn maze. The eight-acre corn maze, which is located on the family’s farm land, contains over 3.5 miles of pathways and allows guests the opportunity to “get lost” and enjoy time on a real, working, family farm.