Those following a long tradition of using horse-drawn carts to hawk produce are known as “arabbers.” While arabbers were once prominent around the country, Baltimore is the only city where they continue to ply their trade. Hannah Klarner/Capital News Service

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The Last of the Mohicans is how Donald Savoy III described the remaining handful of arabbers left in Baltimore on a sunny Wednesday, while watching a fellow horse-drawn cart vendor load up with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Almost every day, fresh produce sellers known as arabbers, all African-American, take to the streets of Baltimore with a horse and a cart to sell to residents around the city.

Dan Van Allen, founder of the Arabber Preservation Society, said they use three working stables in Baltimore. There are two wagons on the streets currently, and he’s looking for six wagons to be working by the end of spring. In total there are 30 people involved with maintaining the horses and stables.

Van Allen said that door-to-door vendors have been around since the beginning of time all over the world. The term “arabber” is a local Baltimore expression, and arabbers have been around since the founding of the city.

Van Allen said the profession was prominent in major cities such as Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia.  In fact, arabbing was one of the few jobs African-Americans could find in the U.S. after the Civil War.

Arabbing as a business is rooted as a family and friend tradition. Outside of their stables on North Fremont Avenue in Baltimore are murals to commemorate the profession, and a wall painted with the faces of family members and friends.

Anthony Savoy, who is an older relative of Savoy III, grew up as an arabber. He is continuing to keep the tradition alive as well, although he doesn’t “arab” too frequently.

Both men stand on corners to sell produce, rather than walking their horses through the city like some of the younger men do. Savoy said he started arabbing around age 10 or 11, during the early ‘70s.

Savoy recalls going to school and witnessing his father arabbing during the day, and watching people wait for a horse and wagon. He said they would say, “‘There go my fruit man, my vegetable man.’” That experience influenced him to work as an arabber himself.

“I would take a buggy with a little pony, and put the little vegetable or whatever on that cart and walk around the neighborhood. And people, you know, they would buy from me,” Savoy said.

A love of horses

He thinks it’s very important to keep the profession alive and maintain its legacy. It’s also needed for older residents and those who don’t have cars and can’t easily make it to grocery stores.

“They look forward to you coming around there and selling those fresh vegetables and fresh fruit,” Todd said. “They depend on that so much.”

Customer Edgar Cephas, 48, has been buying from arabbers for many years. Cephas said his mother used to buy fresh produce from them, and he has never been disappointed. He said he used to by tree pears from the arabbers, but now he usually buys oranges.

Todd explained why it’s important for people to know about arabbers, and for Baltimore to support the profession.

We need to “let people know that the city of Baltimore needs to keep this alive,” Todd said. “To be able to let people know around other cities, when they pick up that paper where they can read or hear on television, radio or whatever it may be, that the city of Baltimore has the arabbers still going on after maybe a few hundred years.”

— Capital News Service, via AP