Robert Is Here: A cornucopia en route to the Everglades

January 3, 11:26 PMMiami Food and Drink ExaminerRosalie E. Leposky

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The antique car at right is a
1913 Detroiter © George Leposky
 

Exactly 2.1 miles from the main entrance to Everglades National Park,
Robert Moehling Jr. tempts your palate with an unparalleled array of fruits and vegetables. His produce stand, Robert Is Here, has been a landmark on the road to the wilderness since 1959.

Located west of Florida City at the intersection of SW 344th Street and SW 192nd Avenue, Robert Is Here attracts locals and tourists alike with an amazing array of unusual fresh tropical fruits; traditional fresh fruits and vegetables; jars of honey, jams, jellies, preserves, pickles, sauces (including tropical flavors), and other prepared confections and condiments; candy and snack foods; and fresh made-to-order tropical-fruit drinks.

The drinks can be thick milk shakes made with ice cream and one fruit flavor or a combination of two, or smoothies with ice and fruit for people with dairy allergies. Flavors include fresh black sapote, key lime, mango, mamey, and strawberries. “Our shakes are made with chopped fruit,” says Robert. “We do not puree our fruit first.”

Robert Moehling Jr., tallies a
customer’s purchase © George Leposky
 

Robert Is Here also sells souvenirs that include decorated coconuts, but no tee-shirts.

The power of advertising

Robert Is Here opened for business when Robert Moehling Sr., a farmer with an excess of cucumbers, created a vegetable stand to keep his six-year-old son busy and out of trouble. They set up the stand – a piece of plywood atop a field crate – in a corner of a neighbor’s property.

 “The first day, a Saturday, no one stopped,” remembers Robert Jr. “The next day, Sunday, I pulled out an old hurricane shutter from my parents’ house and spray-painted a sign on it that said ‘Robert Is Here.’ By 1 PM I had sold all of my cucumbers and walked home. 

Customers at the milkshake
stand © George Leposky
 

“Beginning on New Year’s Day in 1960, my parents sent me out every day to sell locally grown vegetables and fruit.”

Robert Sr. let his son keep any money he made, never imaging how quickly the produce would sell out, how much Robert might earn, or how long the job might last.

The stand was profitable from that first Sunday. Robert Jr. worked there on weekends and after school. During school hours, Robert Jr. and his mother put out a coffee can for shoppers to leave their money – and they did.  Later Robert Jr. hired a retired woman to help while he was in school.

When Robert Jr. was young, his mother, Mary, would walk him to the vegetable stand in the morning or after school, and walk him home at dark.

Seeing what was happening, neighboring farmers and family friends started dropping off crates of tomatoes and other produce they had grown. Robert Jr. sold anything he received.

Jars of honey and other prepared
 foods © George Leposky
 

From that simple produce stand, Robert Is Here has grown into a community institution. The current building dates from 1979. “Before that,” says Robert Jr., “we had a thatched chickee hut with little structures on wagons that we took home every night.”

About 12 years ago Robert finally purchased from his neighbor the 10 acres of land on which Robert Is Here stands.

Zoo and vintage vehicles

Robert is here still has the simple rustic exterior I remember from the early 1980s, with plywood tabletops holding displays of fruits and vegetables. Robert sells locally grown produce when it’s in season, and fills in with produce grown elsewhere to provide a broader selection.

Avocados, oranges, and strawberries share space with such less common tropical fruits as black sapote (chocolate fruit), carambola (star fruit), monstera deliciosa, and passion fruit. I like walking around to choose my fruits and vegetables, just as I do at a farmers’ market. If I don’t recognize something, or don’t know how to use it, all I have to do is ask. Robert or a member of his staff will have an answer.

Animals in the zoo behind the
 produce stand © George Leposky

Behind the produce stand is a small zoo where Robert keeps farm animals such as chickens, ducks, geese, goats, a donkey, and turkeys; and more exotic creatures including emus, parrots, tortoises, and turtles. “People give us birds all the time,” Robert says. This is not a petting zoo; cages and fences separate the animals and birds from visitors.

In front of the produce stand, Robert displays vintage vehicles, including a 1913 Detroiter automobile, a 1939 John Deere tractor, and a 1955 Ford pickup truck. A local band sometimes plays on weekends.

The staff proudly distributes tourist information for Everglades National Park, Homestead, Florida City, and the Historic Redland Tropical Trail on which they are a stop.

Robert Is Here, 19200 SW 344th Street. Homestead, FL 33034. 305-246-1592 Open daily including holidays 8 AM - 7 PM, except closed September and October. fresh@robertishere.com