CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 47 W henever I feel the need to nurture my soul, I head to a garden center and walk among the flowers. I don't even pretend to have inherited a green thumb from my mom, who could turn weeds into luscious blooms. She was the plant whisperer. For several years, my nursery of choice was the popular Carolina Market on Raeford Road near Montclair, a fixture since about 1990. Like many locals, the rites of spring included a trip for red, pink and white geraniums to plant in my window boxes. Fall signaled a time for mums in golden and burnt orange hues. A stroll among Christmas trees — in all their natural, healing aromatherapy glory — ushered in the holiday season. When I wanted produce, that was another trip. All the way to Reilly Road Farmers Market, where the pickings were fresh and the service friendly at the market open since 1982. Once, I was so enamored by the selection, I photographed bundled stalks of asparagus that looked like dancers and captured other lush specimens of goodness. e muscadines always shined like purple and green jewels. e workers there thought I was a bit of a weirdo, but hey, what else is new? What I didn't know at the time is that both businesses were owned by Mike Pate, a 1981 graduate of South View High School who started out as a teen selling peaches by the side of Cumberland Road as a way to boost his income laboring at the nearby textile mill. Pate was always thinking big. He had a dream of combining his two businesses into one giant location called Pate's Farm Market and adding more stuff to, well, feed our souls. Not a natural disaster, a coma or a pandemic would stop him. He is forevermore a man with a big dream, a good woman by his side, and the people working with both of them who have believed all along. The Pate's experience On July 30, 2021 — during the height of the COVID pandemic — Mike and his wife, Rochelle, and their dedicated team opened Pate's Farm Market on the corner of Raeford and Bunce roads in western Cumberland County. Spanning 10 acres, the operation includes a Disney World of garden centers, ripe for exploring and complete with

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