Fire hasn’t stopped Shiver’s Farms

GORDON, Ala. — Beth Shiver is accustomed to people driving through her gate and up to her house. She had five waiting for her one recent morning when she unlocked her gate at 5 a.m.

“People know when the gate’s open, I’m open,” she said.

They’re coming for the peas and butter beans Shiver’s farm is known for throughout the Wiregrass. She hopes by next week she’ll have something to offer them.

But Shiver’s Farms on U.S. 84 East in Gordon has not had an easy year so far. On March 3, a fire destroyed the large wood building used for shelling, storing and cooling the farm’s produce. Later on, heavy rains washed away most of the seed from the fields, forcing Shiver to re-plant. So, the crops that normally would have been ready in May are just now ready to be picked.

Shiver refuses to give up.

“I’m not going to let this fire put me down,” she said.

Around 7 a.m. on March 3, Shiver heard what she thought were gunshots. She stepped outside her home and saw a white car by her gate and a man running from her produce building. She went inside and called the Houston County Sheriff’s Office. About 15 minutes later, an acquaintance knocked on her door to tell her the produce building was engulfed in flames.

The fire, pushed by a north wind, took the produce building, coolers full of produce and all the shelling equipment. It damaged a second large cooler and singed Shiver’s home, which is next to the produce building.

“I lost everything I had,” she said.

She’s still waiting on an insurance payment so she can rebuild and replace her equipment.

Shiver and her husband, Jerry, started Shiver’s Farms in 1979, selling peas and butter beans under their carport. It was a business that had always been in Jerry Shiver’s blood. His parents farmed and sold fresh produce as did his grandparents. Beth Shiver learned the business over the years, and took over full management when Jerry became ill with pulmonary fibrosis. He died in 2004 waiting for a lung transplant. Beth Shiver’s parents also died that year as did several other family members.

Beth Shiver has always been able to cope with problems and loss. The March fire is no different, she said.

She may not have a building, but she has the same carport she and Jerry started under 30 years ago. She’ll set up coolers and book people as much as she can for when they can come get their peas and butter beans. And along with the butter beans, zipper peas, pink eyes and white peas, Shiver plans to have watermelon, cantaloupe and corn.

“We did it before; there’s no problem to it,” Shiver said. “It’s just cramped, but we can do it.”

Despite people telling her to quit after the fire in March, Shiver plans to keep going and hopes her regular customers don’t give up on her.

“It’s just in my blood; I can’t stop it,” Shiver said. “ ... There’s something about produce. When it comes in, it just gives me the fever.”