BRANDON FARMS by Cheryl Kuck
I
n case anyone has been living out of the country or orbiting in outer space…its Florida Strawberry Festival time in Plant City! So this is the obvious month for the Grub Station to pay homage to those ripe red berries and what is known as the moneymaking “winter crop.” The peak season from November through March has made Florida the winter strawberry capital. With more than 10,000 acres (mostly concentrated in the Plant City – Dover area) devoted to strawberry growing, Florida is only second to California in strawberry producing acreage. For years, there has been an ongoing battle between Florida growers and California growers. Recently California (with virtually no real market share in the winter crop) has expanded by financing berries grown in Mexico because Mexican growers use the same strawberry varieties and have the same growing season as we do here in Florida. The Brandon Farms Market and the Florida Strawberry Growers Association are both located in Dover and began their historymaking journey within a year of each other, with Brandon Farms owner Eddie Jones setting up his first roadside stand in 1979 and the Growers Association’s beginnings formed out of meetings begun by growers a year later. Now, the roadside stand sitting on the south side of State Road 60, just east of Dover Road surrounded by strawberry fields, has enlarged to accommodate more than a hundred avid lovers of their strawberry products and fresh produce at a single time. The sign over the market entrance says, “Fresh to you as God blesses us.” There can be no doubt about the blessings received from their home grown berries sparking the ideas that have made Brandon Farms and its market a success. Today the pioneer strawberry growers sit among a plethora of stands and stores, all vying for strawberry aficionado’s attention. Instead of running from one place to anoth18
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
MARCH 2012
er to taste different products, it just made more sense to go to the place that has proven quality and enough variety to include selling fresh produce, as well as, having an open-air cafe in the same location. There is a clear memory of the excitement created when the market began selling strawberry pizza, because it was around the same time as the start of my career as a professional journalist…some 25 years ago. Pizza as a dessert was a hot topic and everyone I knew flocked to the Farms Market to pick up a pizza or be decadent and have some for breakfast with coffee or sweet tea. To this day, a thin crust strawberry-glazed pizza spread with a layer of a cream cheese mixture is still a bargain at $13 for a large size or $10 for a small pizza. Individual slices of pure pizza goodness are also available for $2.75 Seven-days-a-week through April you can meet the famous strawberry pizza crust maker and baker Lisa Register and her mom Lorrell McLeod. Both have been with the Brandon Farms for about 26 years. Lisa Register recalls bringing her then one-yearold son (now age-27) to play in a playpen set up in the farms kitchen while she was baking. The mother and daughter duo are delightful ladies who remember most of their many customers by name and love to reminisce about their years working at the market. The one thing they won’t talk about is their secret recipe for that pizza cookie crumb crust or strawberry shortcake. Everything is made fresh “from scratch” daily and I was told to take note that real shortcake is made here, not sponge cake. The strawberry shortcake is sold with the customer’s preference of either whipped cream or a huge mound of soft vanilla ice cream as a topping…yum!
You can enjoy a simple dish of fresh berries and cream or a berry-licious sundae made with soft vanilla ice cream. Romantics will adore giving a long-stemmed white or dark chocolate hand-dipped premium berry as a gift. Heck, just splurge and get a basket of six for only $7.99 or order party trays. This is definitely the place to eat your dessert first but you can also indulge in hearty Italian or smoked sausages and all-beef hotdogs cooked rotisserie-style and served with toppings and warm fresh buns. Adjacent to the café is the fresh produce market stocked with seasonal Florida citrus fruits, vegetables and, naturally, rows of fresh-picked half flats of strawberries (a half flat is the equivalent of about four quarts) and Brandon Farms own strawberry jam. “We’ve only ever had this one job and look forward to coming back to work at the beginning of strawberry season when the market reopens. We love our customers and try to treat everybody right. People come back year after year and are kind of like an extended family. We would rather be here than anywhere else,” said McLeod. • Brandon Farms Est. 1978 Farmers Market Fresh produce and Café Home of the original strawberry pizza Location: 3931 State Road 60 in Dover Market and Cafe phone: (813) 685-4208 Hours: 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM, Mon. – Sun. through April Web-site: www.brandonfarmsmarket.com
The café also sells luscious strawberry milkshakes made with real milk and filled with fresh-cut strawberry pieces, strawberry lemonade, gorgeous strawberry pie and tarts nearly over-flowing with perfect berries. W W W. I N T H E F I E L D M A G A Z I N E . C O M