M A G A Z I N E A R T I C L E
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From The Summer Issue of the
Highlighting the best features and natural wonders of the Texas Hill Country
STOP IN AT PLUMLEY’S COUNTRY STORE FOR LUNCH, SWEET TREATS AND SO MUCH MORE !!
Whether you’re a long-distance traveler, day tripper or if you live in the area, Plumley’s Country Store should be on your schedule. From IH-10, mid-way between Kerrville and Sonora, take City of Junction exit #456 and turn south. Plumley’s Country Store is only three doors down on the right. Plan to relax here, have a bite to eat or something from the soda fountain or coffee bar, while enjoying the atmosphere and Plumley family hospitality.
The old-time rough-wood exterior, with its wooden porch and railings, offers a clue to what awaits inside. Antiques and display cases crafted with rustic appeal, together with limestone accents and polished concrete floors, set the tone for this country store chock-full of specialty food items, Texas gifts and souvenirs.
Sammy and Gwen Plumley and family are here to welcome visitors Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; closed for rest on Sunday. Plumley’s Country Store is located at 2341 N. Main St., Junction, TX 76849. Contact them by phone at 325-446-3986 or visit their web site www.plumleyscountrystore.com where you can buy products online or find links to their other businesses.
Sons Cody and Carter have grown up in the family pecan industry business. Cody and wife Misty have three boys, Asa, Parker and Ian. Cody works at the store with Sammy and Gwen every day and after school you’ll find his kids there as well. Misty also helps out in the store. “Everyone works together here as a family. We don’t say, ‘that’s your job’. Whatever needs doing, one of us just gets it done,” Gwen said.
Carter, his wife Melody and their daughter Baylee, live in Uvalde, where he operates a large hardware store. They regularly help with the family business and Carter is frequently called on for his expertise in all types of construction, remodeling and repair.
Sit in a cushy ‘50's-style booth or at the bar where you can watch your hosts concoct soft drinks or ice cream treats from the real old-time soda fountain. Perhaps you’d prefer an upscale coffee. Cody is the “coffee master,” specializing in a full range of favorites including mocha, white mocha, espresso, latte, cappuccino, frappuccino - or you can always get a cup of fresh, regular coffee.
The day begins early when you can stop in for a light breakfast - maybe a sausage or bacon biscuit, cinnamon roll or muffin. Try the Kolaches made from an authentic Czech recipe, in your choice of sausage or topped with cherry, peach or pecan glaze.
Order lunch from a variety of fresh sandwiches such as Old Spanish Trail or Muy Grande, homemade soup of the day, huge loaded baked potato or baked sweet potato with cinnamon and butter. Although the service is quick, everything is made fresh for healthy eating rather than the same old fast food. The portions are so large you’ll have a hard time finishing what’s on your plate.
If you arrive between meals, or heck, you just want to have dessert first, order something from the soda fountain, fudge shop or a piece of award-winning pecan pie still made using Sammy’s Mother’s recipe. In fact, the pie won first place at the 2008 Old Settlers’ Reunion in Camp Wood and was auctioned off for charity for $2,200!
Blue Bell ice cream is used to make the floats and other treats. You can order just about anything, including old-time drinks like a Black Cow (chocolate ice cream and root beer) or even New Jersey-style Egg Cream. Banana splits literally serve 2-3 people.
While you wait, browse around the store. It’s just like visiting granny’s pantry, with rows of jars filled with colorful vegetables, fruits, preserves, jams and jellies all neatly lined up. Ever wonder why it’s called “canning” when the food was preserved in glass jars?
A wide range of chow chows, relishes, sauces, pickles and olives feature tastes from old-fashioned recipes to the newest, most trendy cooking flavors, mild to hot, sweet to savory. Pecan oil is a unique item, light flavored and used like olive oil for cooking, basting, grilling or salad dressing. “The bleu-cheese-stuffed olives are really popular and it’s hard for us to keep them in stock,” Gwen noted as she gave me a tour of pantry items.
Non-cooks can amaze friends with the peach or pecan pie-in-a-jar. Just add eggs, pour over a crust and pop into the oven for a real home-baked dessert.
Looking for souvenirs or gifts? You can find something for everyone and at any price range. All are quality items, carefully sourced by Gwen. In addition to the “canned” foods, there are row upon row of beautifully packaged nuts and candies in dozens of flavors. Locally-made candles, Amish popcorn, dip seasonings and of course, shelled pecans. Any friend or family member will love what you pick. In fact, they’ll be lucky if you don’t gobble it up yourself!
Carts and displays are full of high-quality, reasonably priced, rustic country and western Texas-style items and T-shirts.
And what shop would be complete without fudge? Maybe you’ll be fortunate enough to happen by on a day when the candy-making is in progress. The stainless steel candy kitchen is showcased behind a large picture window, purposely designed to allow visitors to see the process that results in their heavenly fudge. Choose white or dark chocolate, pecan, praline, rocky road, caramel or other varieties. Gwen enjoys making fudge and frequently invents her own flavor combinations. “It’s fun to make up new recipes,” she said and on any given day you might try an unusual type - like coconut cream.
For the Plumleys, it’s all about pecans and family. During the Depression of the 1930's, Americans looked for work and Louis Plumley started with nothing, thrashing pecans by hand with a cane pole, bucket and backbreaking labor, building a thriving business that has endured. After he returned from World War II, Louis and his wife, Mildred Riggs Plumley, began in the San Saba area, eventually expanding the operation to Kimble County. Sammy worked alongside his parents.
Many folks still remember Sammy as a barber for 16 years in San Saba. He continued helping with the pecan business, leaving the barber shop each Fall season. As the family business grew, Sammy left his barbering profession and helped make modern changes in the operation. “Daddy and I bought a pecan shaker in 1973, and it was the start of the pecan business we now have,” Sammy said. “The first year we harvested in Kimble County was 1975, sharecropping with landowners, but we still lived in San Saba at that time.”
Gwen was also raised in the San Saba area, “But I lived on a ranch and we didn’t have pecan trees, so that wasn’t something I was raised knowing about,” she said. “It’s hard work picking, cleaning and selling wholesale. I had a cake-decorating business from home, and when we began our retail shop, I had to learn to talk to people. My kids started out in the store when they were young,” she said. “So they grew up comfortably talking to customers; now our grandkids are doing the same thing.”
And this is a very sociable bunch! The whole family loves to interact with the folks who come into the store. “I really enjoy it when someone ‘bellies up to the bar’ and visits with me about where they’re from and where they’re going,” Cody said.
Sammy agreed. “I enjoy working and thoroughly enjoy visiting with people. We’ve had customers from France, Canada, Australia, a diplomat from Mexico and in April, two ladies from England.” Being so near the interstate, the store also sees its share of celebrity visitors, including singer Michael Martin Murphy and a colorful character who worked for Dog the Bounty Hunter.
“In 1986 we bought our old location (which is only a few blocks away from the current store), and we still use it for a small shelling and wholesale operation,” Sammy explained. “At that original retail location, we offered shelled and in-shell pecans, candies, pies, chewy pralines and had a mail-order business. I read about a company in Montana that sold jerky, so I called them up. I told them I thought our chewy pralines would be a good fit with the products they already offered. They ordered 30 cases!” Sammy laughed. Not expecting such a large order, nonetheless, they pitched in to complete it, then continued selling across the country. “We had other distributors of our chewy pralines in Florida, Arkansas, Minnesota, Colorado, several locations in Texas and even a Tex-Mex restaurant in New York.”
Sammy is the quintessential entrepreneur, seeming to have a born gift of knowing where, when and how to drive his businesses. He and son Cody are also both real estate brokers, operating their successful Plumley Realty business from offices within the country store location.
So at a time in life when others might be thinking of slowing their pace a bit, how did Sammy decide to rev it up and open a larger retail space, have breakfast and lunch and generally work more hours? With his characteristic grin, he said, “Well, this building had been vacant for years and I drove by it every single day. One day as I was coming to work, it just hit me. I drove the two blocks to our business location down the street, walked in and said to Gwen and Cody, I’m going to buy that old restaurant and put in a store! And they both said ‘good idea’! So that’s how it started.”
Sammy quickly made the deal and the family put their heads together to come up with a plan. “I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted it to be like - with the country store idea and what to sell and that I wanted it to be rustic. But we took a trip. It was part vacation and part fact-finding.” They traveled through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and other states, looking at operations and sometimes buying items for interior decoration. Gwen found a 1950 calendar, Sammy’s birth year, with all the months intact, in perfect condition, no creases or tears. Her $12.50 purchase is one of Sammy’s prized possessions and hangs in his real estate office.
“Our trip just reinforced our own basic ideas about how we wanted to design the store and products we’d sell,” Sammy said. He gives much credit to Gwen, the boys and other family members for the building’s remodel and interior design. “I wanted an old-fashioned soda fountain. Only a few days after we’d returned from our trip, I found one on EBay. Cody is a master on EBay and he was able to buy it for us. Only thing was, they wouldn’t deliver it. So Gwen and I took another trip to St. George, Utah to pick it up.” The soda fountain’s inner hoses and tubes weren’t operable, but Sammy is not one to be deterred.
“I called a company in New York and they walked me through all the steps in reworking and connecting everything. They explained I had to have a temperature of 32-36 degrees or lose the carbonation of the seltzer water.” Just the right amount of syrup is pumped into a glass, then seltzer water is added, for the very best tasting soft drinks. Sammy laughed, “I’m a soda jerk who’s now upgraded to carbonation engineer.” In one of life’s ironic twists, Sammy himself is a diabetic and can’t partake of most of the goodies offered in the store.
“Initially, it wasn’t our intention to have prepared-type food. But because this building had formerly been a restaurant, people kept coming in asking for lunch,” Sammy explained. Eventually the family talked and decided to offer sandwiches. “On a Wednesday, we went to buy supplies and on Thursday we were unloading things when a customer asked what we were doing. We said we were going to make sandwiches, she asked when and we said ‘today’. The lady went home, got on the phone and all our booths were filled at lunch.” They later expanded the menu and seating.
“People comment on this being such a peaceful place inside. One fellow came in and said that he had to see what’s inside a business that didn’t have to have gas pumps outside. Even teenagers, who you wouldn’t expect it from, seem to really like it here. Some of the local football team came here on Thursdays, kind of like a ritual before the Friday games,” Sammy noted.
Though his parents have now passed away, “the business has been a family affair beginning with Mom and Dad, now continuing through all of us,” Sammy reflects.
Cody said, “Tradition-wise, things my grandfather did are totally different now. We’ve gone from the thrashing pole to a complete retail business. Traditions and quality of life are hard to find nowadays. Most families are going in different directions and involved in so many activities, but we get to spend every day together,” Cody laughed as he added, “sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes bad, but I wouldn’t trade it.”
Sammy summed up their feelings. “Our business operation changes from time to time, but our values always remain the same.” The pecan, state tree of Texas, became a tree of life for this family. From one man’s hard beginning and the instilling of work ethics, regard for others and family working together, the roots of the Plumley family tree run deep, now branching out to new generations who are proud to uphold their traditional values.
Written by: Wanda Blackburn of Hill Country Magazine
