
Dubbed the “Disney World of fruit stands,” Robert is Here in Homestead, Fla., draws scores of area locals and tourists from far and wide to this family farm stand unlike any other.
And the name of this one-of-a-kind produce market is as curious as its incredible selection of exotic and tropical fruits.
“I am Robert, the little kid that opened a farm market in1959, and that is Robert is Here,” Robert Moehling told The Packer.
Moehling was just 6 years old when his father asked him to sell some cucumbers by the side of the road.
“I sat here all day long with no customers,” recalled Moehling.
“The next day my dad was told by my mom to make me more visible. So, he put up a big sign: ‘Robert is here.’ I sold out and walked home,” he said.
The next weekend Moehling returned to his well-signed roadside post and sold out of produce right away. And he’s been selling out of locally grown and imported fruits and vegetables ever since.
“Most of it comes from here in South Florida, we grow most of it, and we get from other growers some of the same things that we grow because we might not have enough,” he said.
“We sell mangoes … and I probably sell as many or more imports than I do my own, even though I grow 20 acres of them,” he added.
Moehling is not only a knowledgeable produce salesman, he’s also a farmer who bought his first 10 acres when he was just 14 years old and grew the family business from there.
“Back in the day, citrus used to be my business. Eighty-five to 90% of what I sold was citrus,” said Moehling. “And I got the real bug of doing tropical fruit, and we started growing tropical fruit and it’s been catching on.”
“I got tamarindo, I got sapodilla, I got passion fruit, I got chocolate fruit — canistel. I got the most gorgeous avocados you’ve ever eaten — guanas,” said Moehling, who hand-sells this vast array of tropical treats to customers hungry for more than dragon fruit and papaya.
“Tropicals have just gone crazy and people don’t know anything about them,” said Moehling. “So, we’re the mass educator of people. Every customer comes in, I have to educate them on each individual piece of fruit, and sometimes I lose my voice.”
Moehling says people are interested in something different, especially when it’s fresh fruit that tastes like ice cream, custard or chocolate.
“Sugar apples don’t normally come in this time of the year. They look prettier when they’re in season,” he said. “The cool weather makes the skin turn dark in places, but it’s like ice cream grown on a tree.”
And when it comes to canistel — a yellow fruit shaped like a Hershey’s kiss — Moehling tells his customers there’s no such thing as too ripe.
“You always approach the canistel with the thought that me, Robert, has never seen one overripe, so you’re not going to worry about it getting it too ripe. You’re only worried about eating it ripe enough,” he said.
Robert is Here is a family enterprise. Today, Moehling’s four children, including his son, Robert Kade Moehling, work alongside their father at the fruit stand.
“I love that I get to work side by side with my family, and I’m not stuck in a cubicle,” said Robert Kade Moehling. “And we live in such a unique area where we can grow damn near anything. You know, Christmas to Easter is our vegetable season. So, when the rest of the country is frozen over, South Florida is still providing and doing squash and tomatoes and green beans and zucchini and all these things. But then we also have the canna styles and the sapodilla and the chocolate fruit and all the unique things.”
“And because of that uniqueness, that’s what draws my interest. You know, you can get normal anywhere. Sell the unusual. Do something different and you’ll be successful,” he said.
What’s the Moehling family’s favorite produce item?
“I really love guana. My dad’s the same way,” says the younger Moehling. “But we hang our hats on mangoes. If you come here at the end of May, June, July and August, all these displays where you see papayas, avocados, chocolate fruit and passion fruit are filled with mountains and mountains of mangoes — valencia prides, kents, keitts, rosigolds, pickerings, edwards, glenns. You know, mango is the most consumed fruit in the whole world.”
But offering shoppers an adventure in produce is just part of the Robert is Here success story — a farm stand that recently celebrated 65 years in business.
“My father always says this is a job that he can’t retire from because people have shown so much love and so much support,” says Robert Kade Moehling. “It’s more than just somewhere you come and shop and buy a couple of things; it has a pulse.”