A faded sign with the words "Vegetables for Sale" is one of Michael Barber's most prized possessions. Michael and his grandmother created the homemade sign after she became weary of his continuous begging for candy money. At five years of age, Michael's grandmother placed him alongside the Heart of Dixie Highway to operate a vegetable stand. She taught Michael that it was better to earn rather than to be given something, with the exception of God's love. Fifty years later the old sign is still a symbol of his grandmother's wisdom.


Vegetables for Sale is a gathering of memories from Michael's childhood in the American South. With the voices of his youth becoming silent to eternity and the memories of a place and people being lost to time, his hope is to preserve and share the eternal lessons he was taught. Contained in the pages of his book are seven stories which share a life spent in a special place with a peculiar people who showed Michael the ways of mercy, grace, and redemption.