You can keep looking till the cows come home, but you won’t find many farms in Broward County.
We learned this as part of the Sun Sentinel’s Sound Off South Florida project, in which we answer questions submitted by readers. In this case, Pat Galvin of Pompano Beach wrote, “Is there any active farmland still in Broward County? Who were the most famous farmers in the County’s history?”
“I’ve lived down here since 1964, and I just remember driving down Flamingo Road and Hiatus Road and seeing orange groves and you-pick strawberry patches,” Galvin said. “It was a nicer, gentler Broward County.”
Farming and fame don’t really go hand in hand, so it’s tough to answer the second part of his question. But as for the first, there’s a good reason this question is Broward-centric.
In Palm Beach County, vast sugarcane fields begin west of Wellington, Loxahatchee and the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area and south of Lake Okeechobee. Although interrupted to some extent by other wildlife management areas and the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest, agricultural areas continue west until they run into Lehigh Acres over in Lee County. But to the south, the farmland abruptly ends at a trio of wildlife management areas — Rotenberger, Holey Land and Everglades — that are roughly west of Boca Raton.
Miami-Dade County, too, has farmland in its western edge, though not nearly as extensive as that of Palm Beach.
But unlike its northern and southern neighbors, Broward County’s westernmost cities — Weston, Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Southwest Ranches — all end along the same border with Everglades and Francis S. Taylor wildlife management areas, without any room between protected wilderness and development to house major agriculture.
So … where are the farms at? Well, there are still a few patches of commercial farmland, including some pretty large tracts east of the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek and in Parkland, east of University Drive. Other than that, farms in Broward County crop up, so to speak, in unexpected places, often right in the middle of urban sprawl.
Kevin Quigley may be the last farmer in Fort Lauderdale. His business, Criswell Farm and Market, is downtown, just north of Broward Boulevard (24 NW 6th Ave.). On three-quarters of an acre, Quigley has grown tomatoes, greens, tropical fruit and many other foods, all organic and pesticide free, for the past eight years.
“Fifteen years ago, I was on Wall Street as a knucklehead executive IT guy. And then I had enough of it, and I quit,” he said. “I ended up coming down here via an old relationship. She coerced me to come down to Florida, and thank goodness she did, because that was my first step to building the farm.”
But all these greens don’t generate much green, so a few years ago, Quigley added a market, open Thursday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., to sell both his own produce and that from other area farms, mostly in Miami-Dade County. Judy Ozer, one of Quigley’s two employees, manages the market and makes preserves, jams and powerfully addictive pickled peppers.
Quigley’s other employee, Irene Diaz, manages the farm, and she gives a tour of the place with the zeal of someone who’s doing what they love.
“Just look how nice these watermelon radishes are,” she says in a New York accent that she’s kept despite decades of South Florida living. She pulls back leaves to reveal the top of a baseball-sized radish bursting from the soil.
Diaz tosses out exotic names and thrusts leaves into visitors’ hands for them to taste as she bustles up and down the rows.
“Jebousek lettuce.”
“New Zealand spinach.”
“Here, try this. It tastes like peanut butter.”
She grins as recognition of the flavor dawns in the faces of those chewing.
“Katuk. Tastes like peanut butter.”
Aside from the farm and market, Quigley has also given over some space to host outdoor events.
“One of these days, Someone will get married here,” he said. “The place is very Zen-y even though we’re 200 yards off of Broward Boulevard. It’s funny how downtown kind of disappears when you’re here.”
But the main attraction is the farm, where Quigley, Diaz and numerous volunteers tend to about 75 different varieties of greens, fruits and other edible plants.
“This doesn’t run without volunteers. There’s just too much work and not enough money coming in. Of course, there’s never going to be enough money coming in, but it doesn’t matter. It’s wonderful,” he said. “We have some very dedicated, lovely people. We’ve coined the term ‘farm-ily’ because we’re all best of friends. We have parties for our farm-ily here. It really does become a lifestyle, which I love.”
Quigley was the only urban farmer we could find in Fort Lauderdale, though there are a few others in Broward County, including small outfits like Harpke Family Farm in Dania Beach and slightly larger affairs like Marando Farms and Ranch in Davie, which includes you-pick eggs and a farm-to-table cafe.
And there’s a long and growing list of community gardens throughout South Florida, where the greenthumbed can try their hands at producing produce.
So while the days of Galvin’s orange-tinged youth may be gone, lettuce give thanks for what remains. You may not carrot all, but the dreams of Broward’s farmers have not been squashed completely.
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dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney