Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
The It List: Brandon Farms
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published December 15, 2006
You know IT when you find IT: It's something unique, something out of the way, something you could find only at one place in the Brandon and South Shore area. Send your picks, finds and hidden treasures to brandon@sptimes.com. At the fruit stand on State Road 60, the strawberries in 7-pound crates catch your eye first. They've been chosen by discriminating pickers, says Debbie Holt, who runs the place with fiance Eddie Jones. If they cost a little more - $3.75 a quart or $14 a crate - consider that you won't have to throw berries away, Holt says. Jones, who has owned Brandon Farms for 28 years, moved down State Road 60 five years ago to make way for what is now a Sweetbay grocery store. It attracts locals and tourists who have never seen strawberries this plump and fresh. "It's just nice to see people get excited," says Holt, 51. The market at 3931 SR 60 is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It sells three kinds of tomatoes, unshucked ears of corn at five for $1, and baskets of canary-yellow squash for $1.75 each. Every open space invites the visitor to gaze at rows of strawberries covered in black plastic. Five varieties of peppers line a far shelf, from mild and spicy Cubanelles to thin "long hots" that could put a novice in the emergency room. You'll find roasted pecan syrup from Lutz, honey from Land O'Lakes, and strawberry jam made by Brandon Farms, plus apple, peach and cherry cobbler in jars. It's about to get better. Jones and Holt expect to open a concession stand soon offering strawberry shortcake, milk shakes, strawberry pizza and tarts, plus hot dogs and sausages. Opening the kitchen marks the final stage in the long transition from the former location at Miller Road. Those customers used to turn the produce stand into an outdoor Starbucks of sorts. They would sit at picnic tables with their laptops and the Sunday paper, said Holt, who wonders whether those lazy afternoons will return when the kitchen opens in mid January. Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
[Last modified December 14, 2006, 07:09:09]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
