Chuck Cunningham knows produce.

He is the produce manager at the Boothbay Harbor Hannaford, and his family has been in the business of growing and selling farm grown produce for a long time.

After being closed for six years, Cunningham's wife, Nancy, has reopened their produce stand on Route 27 at 297 Wiscasset Road, Boothbay, just south of the Boothbay Animal Hospital.

The stand opened originally in the 1960s, but Cunningham said there's always been some sort of a stand on the farm.

“I have a picture of my great-grandmother selling produce out of here, and I got my first taste of saving money by having a table out here and selling blueberries, raspberries and blackberries that I picked out back.”

“Last year my wife asked me what I thought about her reopening the stand,” Cunningham said. “We kicked it around, and this year she decided she was ready to do it.”

Nancy's mother, Renie Lowell, is helping run the stand this summer. “She drives all the way from Wales to help her Nancy out,” Cunningham said. “She's been a great help.”

Now the Cunninghams are slowly gaining on inventory to bring it back to a popular spot for people to stop on their way into or out of Boothbay Harbor and pick up some fresh-off-the-farm vegetables and fruit.

There are four raised beds next the stand that contain “pick-your-own” lettuces, summer squash and a few other vegetables. Nancy came up with the idea for the raised beds as a way to enhance the stand. Cunningham said they came from a man in Brunswick, who built the frames and the lightweight woven covers over them.

The Cunningham farm has been in the family since the 1800s, when Chuck Cunningham's great-great grandfather purchased the land, between Route 27 and Cross River. Cunningham said that much of the 36 acres was originally farmed, with animals and vegetables.

There are still several gardens planted with a variety of vegetable, but no farm animals. Cunningham and his wife tend to the gardens, when he isn't working at his full time job at Hannaford or his duties as a selectman for the town of Boothbay. The stand uses local farmers to supplement what they can't grow.

Cunningham has lived on the property his whole life. “I was born at St. Andrews, and brought here, and I've lived here ever since,” he said.

“When I was in the fifth grade my father purchased the red house on the hill from my uncle Guy, so we moved up there. Then when I got out of school I moved into the trailer that dad had been renting out.” Now he and Nancy live together on the property.

Cunningham said the small produce stand on Route 27 is misleading. “It's a misconception of a lot of folks that what you see when you drive by is the farm. The farm goes all the way from 27 to the Cross River.”

Cunningham pointed out several plowed fields during a drive around the 36 acres in his pickup truck. “Next year the gardens will be a lot bigger,” he said. “I'm going to plow under one of the large fields and plant corn.” Right now there are gardens with tomato plants, summer squash, zucchini, spinach, peas, radishes, beet greens, and yellow and green beans.

Mathew Parent, from Marshfield, Massachusetts, stopped by the farm stand on his way in to the harbor for a visit. “Might as well get some good, fresh stuff, right?” he said.

Cunningham said he never wants to sell his land and see it developed. “We don't have kids, so now it's up to me to figure out, with Nancy's help, what we're going to do with it when we're done with it.”

Cunningham Farms is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit them on Facebook.