Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Plant City Strawberry Community Loses A Loved One [Trenda Jones Gude Passes Away]

Posted Mar 11, 2010 by Jeff Houck

Updated Mar 11, 2010 at 04:42 PM

I was out at the Florida Straweberry Festival on Tuesday working on a food story when I passed one of the Brandon Farms stands. Instead of being open, there was a wreath and two signs on the outside.

On one side was this note:

On the other, it read:

Over at the Brandon Farms stand by the main gate, I asked a woman working the concession about the closing of the other spot. Behind her, a photo of Ms. Gude hung in memoriam.

The lady said that Ms. Gude had been diagnosed with lung cancer about a month ago and had passed away on Thursday at age 37. The funeral was on Tuesday, which is why the one stand was shut down.

Ms. Gude ran Brandon Farms since August, when her father Eddie Jones died one day after turning 62. Jones started Brandon Farms in 1979 as a roadside stand with a few crates of berries at State Road 60 and Miller Road. He died from a heart attack as Ms. Gude was driving him to doctor’s appointment in Gainesville for his amyloidosis, a condition which abnormally deposits proteins in tissues and organs.

That photo above? The framed photo on the wall above her picture is of her father. Strawberry families tend to honor their loved ones that way at the festivals following their deaths.

This was the tribute Parkesdale Farms erected during the 2009 festival to founder Robert E. “Ray” Parke, who had died the previous June.

It’s been a hard year in the strawberry growing community’s ranks. In January, Charles Edwin Lawton, founder of Dixie Growers, died at age 57 after battling skin cancer undergoing three liver transplants.

As for Ms. Gude, you can read her obituary here.

A lovely and touching remembrance of her can be read over at the Sweet Jeanette food blog.

An excerpt:

A fond memory I have of Trenda was when Paul and I were dating. Trenda would come over and sit between Paul and I on my mom’s front porch swing. I couldn’t get this kid to leave! I’d tell her I thought I heard her mom calling. “I don’t hear her”, she was quick to say. Then in another desparate attempt I’d tell her that I thought her mom wanted her to come home for supper. “Oh, she doesn’t care”, she’d say. I knew it was a losing battle, so there she sat, between my boyfriend and I!

Ms. Gude is survived by her husband Joe Gude and daughters Faith and Ashlyn Gude.

Donations in her honor can be made to Seffner Chistian Academy, 11605 U.S. Highway 92 E. Seffner, FL 33584.