Nalls Produce
GPS Coordinates: 38.7590510, -77.1609814
Closest Address: 7310 Beulah Street, Alexandria, VA 22315

Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2009 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:
FAMOUS FRANCONIAN
MATTIE ROGERS NALLS
August 20, 1901 – December 13, 1997
By Jacqueline “Jac” Walker
Mattie Nalls was one of six girls born to Arthur and Rose Simms Rogers, and was a lifetime resident of Beulah Road. She was married to Carroll L. Nalls of Alexandria, Virginia on January 22, 1921. He preceded her in death on December 21, 1977. Their three children, Arthur L. (Buddy) Nalls (Betty), Julia Nalls Lee (Oliver) and Gladys Nalls Shain (Fred) made their homes on Beulah Road in one of the many Franconia family compounds. Gladys passed away on December 4, 2000. In addition to Buddy and Julia, surviving are 8 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren. Mattie has one surviving sister, Elnora White, of Manassas, Virginia. Elnora celebrated her 102nd birthday on February 2, 2009.
Mattie and her husband loved the earth. As newlyweds, they built their home on a small farm on Beulah Road where they raised vegetables, fruit trees, grapes, and a variety of animals. Later, they began selling their extra harvest of fruits and vegetables at a roadside stand. This venture grew into a business called Nalls Produce, which is now owned and operated by a grandson, Cary Nalls.
Mattie especially loved flowers. Her flower garden and blooming shrubs were beautiful from early spring until the first frost. She shared her flowers with her church and neighbors. The flowers have even been used to help decorate the White House.
As a child, Mattie became a member of the little Bethel Methodist Church on Beulah Road. Her father helped to hew the logs that went in the foundation of the church. She attended church faithfully all of her life. She and her older sisters, Ossie and Lizzie, and younger sisters, Bessie, Daisy and Elnora, walked one mile to church along with the Schurtzs, Talberts, Rogers, Redfields, Simms, Kings and Gorhams.
She became more active in the church, serving on all of the Boards and committees. She was a member of the “Willing Workers,” the Methodist Women and the Women’s Society. During the Depression and World War II, she worked tirelessly helping to promote the minister’s “Poundings” (food to stock the parsonage), ham and oyster suppers, turkey dinners, pie parties, box socials, bazaars and programs to keep the church repaired and maintained. Although she did not have the best of health herself, she was always concerned with the needs of others, especially those who were less fortunate. Mattie continually worked to find housing, food, clothing, furniture, and firewood/coal wherever needed. One time she helped build and furnish a small one room house for a lady that had no place to live. She took baskets of food to the sick people and shut-in, did sewing and mending, quilting, or anything that was needed. Mattie was born of a poor family and had to work hard and long before she was married. Therefore, she always helped others to better themselves.
Mattie rededicated herself and her three children to Christ under The Reverend Grey. In the 1950s, her health began to fail, and she was semi-confined to her home for some years. She suffered a stroke in 1989, and had to have almost constant nursing care until her death on December 13, 1997.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2011 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:
Nalls Produce Fiftieth Anniversary
Written by Carl Sell
Fifty years ago this spring, five-year-old Cary Nalls and his grandfather Carroll Nalls, wheeled Cary’s little red wagon to the edge of Beulah Road where they set up a table to sell produce grown on the Nalls’ property. Previously, customers had come to the house to purchase tomatoes and other vegetables and firewood. It was the start of a real-life Jack and the Beanstalk story that took young Cary to unimagined heights in the business world, many even before he became an adult.
Today Nalls Produce is a Franconia institution. Located on the exact same spot where it all began, the Nalls provide produce and other farm products to the thousands of new area residents who have flocked to Franconia over the life of this home-town business. Although Cary doesn’t raise produce anymore, he follows the growing season from Florida to Michigan to stock his store with the best and freshest items. Everyone involved, Cary, his wife Sharon, daughter Valerie and her husband Jonathon, and son Cary Junior are Franconia born and bred.
The roadside table was such a hit that Cary began buying corn and other vegetables from nearby farms in order to fill the demand. It wasn’t long before he opened the season with strawberries in May and continued through the year with pumpkins and firewood in the fall and trees at Christmas. Those early trees were harvested from the gravel pits in the Kingstowne area now populated by many of his customers. They sold for $2 way back then.
Even before Cary and his grandfather started the roadside business, the youngster was enamored by the huckster trucks that visited the area selling produce. He was enthralled by the amount of vegetables uncovered when all the panels swung open as displays. Right then and there he knew exactly what he wanted to do in life.
Farm life was in Cary’s blood. Although his grandfather had a day job with Wonder Bread, he and his wife Mattie farmed the property they had bought in 1943. Mattie’s maiden name was Rogers, another Franconia family with a farming background. Carroll and Mattie Nalls’ home was the first one in the area to have electricity.
At age six, Cary and his grandfather began going to the market near what is now Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. to purchase more home-grown products. They came back to Beulah Road and added more tables and more customers came because they knew a good thing when they saw it. Word of mouth spread the news about the kid with the tables on Beulah Road who had good products at fair prices. They were amazed to learn he wasn’t just the salesclerk, he also was the buyer and knew his merchandise.
In 1969, at age 13, Cary purchased the property from his grandparents for $5,000. He put $2,500 down and paid off the other half in regular payments. In 1971, at age 15, he built the first enclosed building and added plants to his inventory. His office today is in the house that belonged to his grandparents. He also bought his first truck for $3,788. Cary had a learner’s permit, so grandpa rode with him to market to make everything legal.
The following year, Cary got his license and ventured to markets in Baltimore. He recalls that the Baltimore market didn’t open until the afternoon and the new Harbor Tunnel closed at midnight so he had to make sure he made it through in time. Jim Talbert, whose family had a market on Franconia Road, went along to purchase stock because he didn’t drive. Vendors quickly realized that these two youngsters from Virginia hadn’t just fallen off the turnip truck when it came to selecting merchandise and haggling over the price.
About that time, mulch became a big seller because all those newcomers needed it to put around the shrubs and trees on their quarter-acre lots. Of course, Nalls Produce was the place to buy mulch because the owner quickly recognized the demand and had it stacked high enough to be seen from the road. Visibility, just like those early tables, is the key to roadside selling. He also leased a three-acre parcel across the street on Steinway Street to grow produce for the business.
All the while Cary went to school at Franconia Elementary and later graduated from Hayfield High School because, as he knew, his parents (Buddy and Betty), demanded he get an education. The thought of the wrath of his mother was enough to motivate him to graduate from high school even though it took some fancy footwork and extra effort to make up for the time he spent with the business.
After making his mark in Baltimore, Cary expanded his scope to markets in Philadelphia and New York. He began to realize that he enjoyed buying better than selling, a revelation that led to a major change in Cary’s approach to the business. He married Sharon in 1982 and they decided to move into wholesaling as well as operating the business in Franconia. Cary opened a warehouse in northern Georgia and at one time he had 30 tractor-trailer trucks on the road. One year, he delivered 300 truckloads of pumpkins.
Sharon kept the business going, coordinating deliveries and billing for Cary’s enterprises and forwarding almost instant payments when he came across a good deal. He brokered produce and other goods for organizations such as Wegmans, which demanded quality. Ironically, Wegmans will become a competitor when the new store opens at Beulah and Telegraph Road.
Valerie came along in 1984 and Cary Junior in 1991. Valerie has a degree in business from George Mason University and works full-time at Nalls Produce. Her husband, Jon, worked at Nalls before taking over his father’s property maintenance business. They live nearby. Cary Junior works at the store and lives with his parents.
In recent years, Nalls Produce was set back by the widening of Beulah Street (the name has changed to street but old-timers still call it Beulah Road) in the mid-1990s. VDOT took a 25-foot strip across the full 400-foot frontage and constricted access to the business during construction. The Nalls had to sue in order to obtain fair market value for the land they gave up and figure they lost an additional $1 million as sales plummeted. However, Cary says he has been able to recover those losses because of increased business due to the improved road with additional traffic.
Today, Cary, Sharon, Valerie and Cary Junior concentrate on the business that has been good to them and the community for 50 years. They wonder what the next 50 years will bring as new opportunities arise. Given the phenomenal record of the last 50 years, the sky is the limit as new pairs of hands climb that beanstalk.
Stop by 7310 Beulah Street and congratulate the Nalls on 50 years in business. While you are there, treat yourself to some produce, plants or other items hand-picked for your enjoyment.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2015 "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:
Valerie Nalls of Nalls Produce
Written by Carl Sell
Our own Valerie Nalls was featured in a cover story entitled “Earning Her Keep,” in the September issue of the magazine Green Profit published by Ball Publishing. Valerie is the Dummen Orange/Green Profit magazine’s 2015 Young Retailer Award winner. Dummen Orange is a Dutch company that specializes in breeding and development of cut flowers, potted plants and perennials worldwide.
The story, by writer Ellen C. Wells, chronicles Valerie’s career as an entrepreneur in Franconia at Nalls Produce, the family business on Beulah Street. Her dad, Cary, is a member of the Franconia Museum Board of Directors, as was his mother and Valerie’s grandmother, Betty, before him. Naturally, Nalls and the Franconia Museum have a close relationship.
Valerie has pumped new and successful life into the business started by Cary more than 50 years ago. Her marketing skills relate to the new communities with younger residents that have grown dramatically in Franconia. She and her dad continue to give personal attention to the old timers, who like things just as they always have been. There is produce, plants and other garden-grown or farm-raised items for everyone at Nalls Produce.
The story relates how Valerie began working at the business as a teenager and really never aspired to do anything else. She majored in business management at nearby George Mason University and used her own marketing skills to help keep the business relevant in today’s fast-changing society. When Wegman’s opened down the street, she saw customer opportunities rather than competition. Ironic, as her dad once was a major supplier of produce for Wegman’s.
While Valerie does the marketing, her dad tracks down the products and her mother, Sharon, makes sure the books are balanced. Cary, Jr., runs his own landscaping operation. As the article recognizes, it’s Valerie who keeps the ideas fresh. The idea for the business was planted by her great-great grandfather on his farm in Franconia many years ago. There’s another generation on the horizon as Valerie and husband Jon Hughes have two children, Blake, age 3, and daughter Morgan, born March 12, 2015.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2019 "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:
World War I Veterans from Franconia Honored on History Day 2018
Written by Carl Sell
CARROLL NALLS
Although he was a baker when he signed up, Carroll Nalls wound up in the thick of the fighting with the 49th United States army division in France during World War I. Nalls and his 116th Infantry Regiment helped break German resistance in October 1918 and set the stage for the Armistice in November. By the time the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, ending the war, Carrol was already back in the United States.
The 116th was made up of Virginia National Guard troops, mostly from Alexandria and Fairfax County. At the time he was drafted, Nalls lived in Alexandria, but had grown up in an area just to the south on Telegraph Road, known as Happy Valley. His boyhood home is still there. The 116th is the longest continuous unit serving in the Virginia National Guard, tracing its roots back to 1742. During the Civil War, the unit served as part of the famed Stonewall Brigade for the Confederate Army. It was activated for federal service just prior to World War I.
It was all hands on deck -- the butchers, the bakers and candlestick makers joined the infantry -- as the Americans launched the attack that pushed the Germans back from the gains they had made just months earlier. After Russia pulled its troops out of action because of a revolution at home, Germany increased its strength in France and made steady gains. America’s entry in the war changed all that.
Arriving in France at the end of June, the 116th saw its first action on August 20 and became part of the offensive that led to the end of the fighting. In early October, the 49th and 33rd Divisions won control of the heights east of the Meuse River that led to clearing the Argonne Forest in some of the most bitter fighting of the war. The 116th was in the battle line continuously until the end of October. Carroll Nalls was 18 when he went to work as an apprentice at Corby Bakery on Lee Street in Alexandria. He had been working various jobs since the age of nine after his mother, Mary Nalls, died.
His father, Luther Nalls, first worked as a farmer and later in Public Works for Alexandria. An older sister, Nora, ran the household that included four other children, after her mother died. After the war, Carroll returned home to Alexandria and his job at the bakery. He began to court a young lady named Mattie Rogers, who lived on Beulah Road in Franconia. They were married on January 29, 1921. They had three children, Gladys, Julia and Arthur (known as Buddy).
Carroll worked as a baker throughout his career, transferring to Washington, DC, when Continental Baking bought out Corby and moved the operation to its main plant. He worked nights, so he volunteered during the day at Franconia Volunteer Fire Department. He was awarded a lifetime membership badge in 1969. Carroll was also a member of the American Legion, and supported the Legion’s successful effort to save historic Gadsby’s Tavern from ruin in the late 1920s.
Carroll died in 1977 and Mattie in 1997. All three children are now dead after the passing of Julia in October 2018. The entire family spent most of their lives farming on Beulah Road, where their legacy lives on. Grandson Cary and his daughter, Valerie, operate Nalls Produce, a business Carrol and Mattie helped Cary start when he was a young boy. Another grandson, David, operates Nalls Farm Market near Berryville, VA.