Oddities abound at Barberville Produce

Oddities abound at Barberville Produce

Postcards from Florida

November 13, 2009|By Jim Abbott on Florida Travel, Postcards from Florida

It’s not everyone that needs a 10-foot ceramic rooster, but it’s nice to know you can find one in a pinch.

The phenomenal fowl is the iconic image at Barberville Produce, a two-acre menagerie of oddities in wrought-iron that renders such a humble name inadequate.

Standing at the corner of U.S. Highway 17 and State Road 40, along one of Central Florida’s most traveled rural roadways, the stand does stock peanuts and honey, but it’s bizarre big ticket items that have kept it in business for almost 20 years.

Cast-aluminum Clydesdales, buffalo, bears, lions and alligators are silent sentries in the dirt, as if it’s like its the boarding area for Noah’s Ark. They beckon drivers to stop and maybe buy a giant street lamp, scale-model of the Statue of Liberty or some other kitschy collectible that would qualify as the ultimate impulse purchase.