CONVERSION OF A CONVENIENCE store to a produce store for Cooper Farms features a picture of a young Elizabeth and Ben Cooper. Standing before the picture are Elizabeth and her mother, Kathy Cooper. After almost 30 years selling peaches at roadside stands, Tim and Kathy Cooper of Fairfield are moving a part of their operation indoors this year to a renovated convenience store on I-45.

“It’s kind of an allweather stand,” Cooper says.

The couple are owners of Cooper Farms, producing peaches from more than 15,000 trees and growing hothouse tomatoes.

Cooper Farms peach and produce stands are a fixture along I-45 during spring and summer months, stretching from Ennis down to Huntsville.

The indoor store is the former First Stop located on the west service road of the interstate and FM 27 in Fairfield.

For the past five months, the facility has been undergoing an extensive renovation to fit its new use.

Interior of the store is now completely paneled in wood, much of it salvaged from a circa 1910 house the Coopers razed several years ago.

The salvaged wood was also used to build display tables placed throughout the store, to cover the checkout counter and even to remodel an ice cream vending box.

A modern touch is a flat screen television that shows pictures of orchards and activities at Cooper Farms that go into producing their crops.

“Maybe that will bring the farm to the store,” Cooper says.

Along with produce, the store will make and sell ice cream, featuring homegrown peach and strawberry flavors, and pies, cobblers and cookies baked on site.

“We think we have a special ice cream formula that will work out real good,” Cooper says.

Still to be added are a walk-in cooler and a patio area for customers.

With the new store, the Coopers will close one peach stand, the one across FM 27, but will keep the two on U.S. 84 in Fairfield open.

Cooper has worked in peach orchards, planting his first trees in the late 1970s, and sold peaches at roadside stands since he was in junior high school, and Mrs. Cooper started while she was still a high school student. The couple was married in 1983.

In 1990, the couple officially named their peach business Cooper Farms.

Their children, Ben, a student at Southern Methodist University, and Elizabeth, a junior student at Fairfield high school, have worked on the farm and at roadside stands all their lives.

Opening of the new indoor produce market is expected in May, but is dependent on when the peach crop is ready.

Although Cooper stresses that the store is a produce market, not a convenience store, he will sell gasoline under his own, independent brand.

As they operate the renovated facility, the couple will decide whether it is a year-round venture, or if it will serve just during the warmer months when peaches are available.