For more than 40 years, the Edens have been doing the same thing.

Jimmy and Doris Eden, 78 and 77, go to bed each night around midnight after Jimmy has watched baseball highlights on ESPN, and wake each morning before the rooster crows.

By 4 a.m., Jimmy is looking for his grandson, Ronnie Eden Jr. or Little Ronnie. By 5 a.m., Little Ronnie has reported to his family’s 90-acre farm in Holly Ridge where he is met, also, by his father, Ronnie Eden Sr.

"First thing we do in the mornings," said the 6-foot, 4-inch 22-year-old Little Ronnie, "is break the corn."

After that, it’s up to Jimmy—who manages the rotations of the field—to decide what’s picked when, what’s planted when, how it’s planted, who plants it, when it’s pulled up and what will take its place the following season.

"My granddaddy," Little Ronnie explained, "runs the farm with iron-clad fists."

With close to half a century of hard, sweaty outdoor experience, it’s not possible to find a single watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, cucumber, eggplant, pea, bell pepper, hot pepper, tomato, green bean, okra or cabbage that compares at the supermarket. And Ronnie Sr. said his prices are cheaper too.

At the Wrightsville Beach Farmers’ Market, where the Edens are stationed every Monday—they also have their own stand across from Poplar Grove that’s open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week—a vendor doesn’t have to grow 100 percent of what it sells under its tent, but the Edens claim they do, aside from one crate of peanuts that are grown by a friend in Whiteville, N.C.

In the winter, Ronnie Sr. said, they also sell Christmas trees at their Scotts Hill stand that range from 3- 14 feet in height.

Each year, they supply Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo with his tree, along with several of the New Hanover County courthouses. They hand-select each one of the trees that are later driven to the coast in three tractor trailers from Newland, N.C.

"We’re known for our big trees," Ronnie Sr. said proudly.

Under the instruction of his grandfather, Little Ronnie holds onto the traditions established long before he was born and his place as a third generation farmer—a unique position to be in for a region where farming is becoming obsolete and where, Little Ronnie said, "They aren’t growing anymore land."

The Edens’ farm is located two miles from Topsail Beach and is a prime destination for contractors, with offers having already been made—though not accepted—to plot a golf course on the fertile soil.

And while Little Ronnie—who has two brothers, Jeremy, 18, and Ethan, 5 and dreams of a pro baseball career—accepts his future as a farmer, Ronnie Sr. is content in knowing that one day the 90 acres may no longer be reaped of its fruits if his sons decide to divvy up the land to sell.

But Little Ronnie shook his head, "It’s still their farm," he said, adding that he has every intention of continuing to live the dream his granddaddy envisioned for his family years ago.