GREENSBORO, N.C. — A love story dating back to 1999, now leads to a popular farm on Blueberry Road in Reidsville.
"Steve and I dated many years before we married," Terri Stamey-Rivers, co-owner of Rivers Finest Farm, said. "You know how you'll do anything the other person wants to do when you're trying to form a relationship. Well, I can remember helping him with pruning the blueberry bushes. I didn't really know what I was doing but he taught me."
"My dad, before he passed away, said 'I don't know what's wrong with you, she's a good woman,'" Stephen Rivers, Terri Stamey-River's husband and co-owner of Rivers Finest Farm, said. "I got to thank him. He's right!"
It was a team effort! Stephen Rivers would tend to the berries and Terri Stamey-Rivers would sell at the local farmer's market once a week. She did this all while also working a day job in local government until she retired.
"I knew I still had a lot left to do and I knew we had a lot of products here on the farm that people would enjoy," Stamey-Rivers said.
So, what did Terri do? She went back to school.
"I would basically go on Wednesdays to our farmer's market and sell the blueberries and whatever else we had at that time including jams," Stamey-Rivers said. "I studied the materials in-between customers and then I would come home and go online and take the class."
Terri said she had to learn the science to become certified by North Carolina State University to sell other products aside from jams.
"[That includes] some pickled items like candied jalapenos," Stamey-Rivers said. "We raise the jalapenos here on the farm. We do red chow-chow which is one of the old-timey recipes."
Terri said the farm has brought the Rivers success, but also pain.
"[One time] a bear came through and tore up some of our beehives and the bees were very angry," Stamey-Rivers said. "They were reaching out and I just happen to be on the front porch. They came and got into my hair and stung me. My husband was stung 30 times that day."
Terri stood by her husband as he healed through one of the most difficult times on the farm.
"She's everything you need for a support person," Stephen Rivers said. "Everything."