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The Family That Farms Together

Posted May 15, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated May 15, 2009 at 04:12 PM

The Family That Farms Together
Acie Jenkins didn’t even try to suppress his enthusiasm.
As Steven Huggins, 14, and his father, Larry, showed him the collection of produce they have grown at their rural home north of Dade City, Jenkins, an assistant principal at Pasco Middle School, gestured excitedly with his hands and spoke with admiration.
An eighth-grader at Pasco Middle, Steven has paid particularly close attention in Richard Roberts’ agriculture class. While numerous students have been through Roberts’ classroom, Jenkins said he didn’t know of any other students who had reaped the knowledge and “taken it to this level.”

Then, not every 14-year-old knows what they want to do when they grow up; Steven wants to own his own ranch someday. “This is great,” Jenkins said of the appropriately named Steve’s Farm, the Huggins’ sales space in a corner of the Farmer’s Market at the Dade City Business Center. “This is how you learn to get started, working with people in the community and selling your stuff at a good price.” Inspired by Roberts’ teaching, Steven came to his father with the idea a few months ago. Now, the family’s front yard is home to a makeshift, 9-foot-tall greenhouse full of produce. Other plants are set on pallets around the front yard, so they get ample sun and plenty of water when it rains. It is a family operation in every sense. While Steven and father Larry do much of the growing, brother Matthew, 16, also gets his hands dirty and handles customer-service duties at the market. Steven’s brother, Joey, 24, helped build the greenhouse, using a discarded metal canopy frame, duct tape and twine, while his mother, Dewanna, helps make signs when she isn’t hauling plants in her van. The family lives near U.S. 301 and Gould Road north of Dade City. “The economy is so bad, we want to [sell] our stuff cheaper so people can buy food,” Steven said. “A guy came by [our house] on Mother’s Day. He had $3, and we gave him a Mother’s Day plant with a hanging basket. Normally, that would have been about $9, not counting the basket, but we want to [help] people.” Helping people also was Jim Guedry’s goal when he opened the farmer’s market in January. The chief executive officer of the business center, Guedry has a background in produce and said he wanted to establish a place where people could get quality produce for less money. The Hugginses are one of several regular vendors who peddle their goods in a covered, 42-by-50-foot structure. The farmer’s market, just north of Dade City, is open 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week. “It took off like you can’t believe. I was shocked,” Guedry said of the farmer’s market. “The goal is to make it like a true farmer’s market like you see in Maine or St. Louis or Chicago. I just made a little policy that if people grow [their own produce] they can sell it here. “We’re trying to bring as many people to this end of town as we can. There’s a blueberry vendor coming in and a guy who sells palm trees. There’s been a lot of interest, probably five or 10 times more [business] than we expected.” The customer traffic certainly has been encouraging to the Hugginses, who grow tomatoes, squash, green beans, green peppers, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, okra, corn, cucumbers, egg plant, watermelon and cantaloupe, as well as cilantro, sweet basil, tarragon, oregano, sage and cotton. “These big beef steak tomatoes are selling more than anything,” said Larry Huggins, who worked for decades in the food industry. Larry Huggins, born in Tampa but raised on a farm near Douglasville, Ga., was obviously proud of Steven’s idea and his dedication to the operation. “You come up with ideas and get your hands dirty,” Larry Huggins said. “It’s a nice, family thing. The kids have so much input. The heart and work Steve puts into it is amazing.” Word of the family business is spreading through the rural community and people have begun driving straight to the house in search of produce. “We want to have it where people can just pull right in the driveway,” Larry Huggins said. “It’s already started happening. This past weekend we sold them right out of the yard. People just drive on up the road and pull in.” For information about the Huggins’ produce, call (352) 807-2743. The Dade City Business Center is at 15000 Citrus Country Drive on the east side of U.S. 301, north of Dade City.