Sept. 15 - Oct. 15, 2009
Marion’s AGRICULTURE Magazine
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Kaylie Madore
Born to Ride
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
From the Editor SEPTEMBER Wow. Talk about misconceptions.
Time magazine published a story entitled, “Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food.” The article shows a very onesided view of farming and ranching and goes so far as to blame obesity on the farmer and rancher. The fact of the matter is people have to eat to stay alive. It is up to each individual to select the food they eat to sustain life. I believe the problem with obesity stems from inactivity. We are a sedentary nation. Obesity is so prevalent, not because of the food we eat, but simply because we shifted, some time ago, from a nation of doers, who are out working in fields, to a nation of office workers, sitting at desks for eight hours a day or more. My answer to the obesity epidemic is simple, get up and get moving. That’s not even half of what the article covers. Agriculture is blamed for the acceleration of global warming due to an energyintensive food system, recalls, which if researched the writer would discover, came mostly from other countries, generating cheap, filling foods, destruction of the soil and environment. I could go on and on. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, farmers and ranchers are the first environmentalists. They are dependant on the land for their living. Making sure it stays in the best possible condition is a way to ensure they can continue their livelihood and feed a growing, hungry nation. The worst possible thing that could happen to this country is to make it dependant on another country to feed its inhabitants. Other countries don’t have the measures in place to ensure that food is safe to consume. I, for one, will continue to support the local farmer and rancher, buying local Fresh From Florida food, and be secure in the knowledge that I am consuming the safest food source possible. Thank you farmers and ranchers! Our hats are off to you for supplying the safest, most abundant food source in the world.
Until Next Month,
Editor-In-Chief
Sept. 15 - Oct. 15, 2009
Marion’s AGRICULTURE Magazine
®
Kaylie Madore
Born to Ride
Kaylie Madore
Page 6 Cover Photo by Danette Philpot
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2009
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4 Farm Bureau Letter
Associate Publishers Bill and Carla Floyd
Senior Managing Editor Sarah Holt
Office Manager
10 Small Farms Conference
Sales Manager
12 Extension Update: Snakes on Rural Land 13 Florida Avocado 16 Fishing Report 18 Tales and Trails 26 Business Upfront 32 Rawlings Farm 34 Grub Station: Mangos
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you
38 Rocking Chair Chatter
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Al Berry
5 Farm Bureau Highlight
Sarah
No Farmers No Food
Publisher Karen Berry
VOL. 2 • ISSUE 9
Bob Hughens
Brent Simmons
Sales Brooke Hamlin Carla Floyd Bill Floyd Tina Piechowiak Sherry Fisher
Art Director Julie Bedford
Staff Writers Al Berry Sandy Kaster James Frankowiak Julie Bedford Danette Philpot Elli Rarick Katie Wimberly
Contributing Writers Chris Reese Dennis Voyles David Holmes Lacey Colletti Tom Cothron
In The Field® Magazine is published monthly and is available through local Marion/Levy County businesses, restaurants and other local venues. It is also distributed by U.S. mail to a target market, which includes members of Marion County Farm Bureau. Letters, comments and questions can be sent to P.O. Box 5377, Plant City, Florida 33563-0042 or you are welcome to email them to sarah@ inthefieldmagazine.com or call 813-759-6909. Advertisers warrant & represent the descriptions of their products advertised are true in all respects. In The Field Magazine® assumes no responsibility for claims made by their advertisers. All views expressed in all articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Berry Publications, Inc. Any use or duplication of material used in In The Field® magazine is prohibited without written consent from Berry Publications, Inc. Published by Berry Publications, Inc.
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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MARION COUNTY FARM BUREAU 5800 SW 20th St. • Ocala, FL 34474 Phone (352) 237-2124 MCFB Members,
“THE VOICE OF AGRICULTURE” MARION COUNTY FARM BUREAU
I would like to thank everyone who
attended
and
help
put
together this year’s annual Marion County Farm Bureau meeting. It
Office Hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
is always a fun time for us to get
Federation Coordinator Lacey Colletti lacey.colletti@ffbic.com
ahead for the future.
Florida Farm Bureau Field Staff Joe Siegmeister joe.siegmeister@ffbf.org Farm Bureau Insurance Agency Manager Tom Cothron tom.cothron@ffbic.com Main Office 5800 SW 20th St. (352) 237-2124 Agent: Clint Walding, Scott Williams, Travis Sanders, Pete Sapienza clint.walding@ffbic.com scott.williams@ffbic.com travis.sanders@ffbic.com pete.sapienza@ffbic.com Branch Office 245 NE 36th Ave. (352) 694-9800 Agent: Matthew Cameron, Denise Berlin matt.cameron@ffbic.com denise.berlin@ffbic.com
together to reflect on some of the accomplishments of the past year, as well as look forward and plan If you would like to have some more fun with a Farm Bureau theme, I suggest you plan on attending this years State Farm Bureau convention which will be held in Daytona Beach on October 28-30. The 68th Annual Meeting of the FFBF will be held at the Hilton Oceanfront Resort. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Strong Family Farms - Strong Florida.” For those of you who would really like to travel, the American Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting will take place in Seattle, Washington on January 10-13. You can find out more about both of these events at floridafarmbureau.org. Please remember to share this In The Field magazine with someone who might not know about it. Every time I do, I always get the same response: “What a great little magazine!” Copies are available at many of the advertisers and are a great way to introduce someone to Marion County Farm Bureau. Go Gator’s! and Go Farm Bureau! Sincerely,
Chris
Chris Reese
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chris Reese, President; Russ Randall, Vice President; D.A. Lewis Jr., Treasurer, Todd Dailey, Secretary; Sarah Cannon, David Holmes, Al Kunz, Jimmy Lefils, Sam Love, Russ Randall, Joe Roman, Jerry Spears, Sarah Joe Thomas, Jeff Vermillion, Gene Waldron, Travis Wiygul 4
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
Farm Bureau
By Tracy Cox
Livestock is not the only thing Tony Yeomans,
co-owner of the Ocala Livestock Market, is rounding up these days. The former pro football player, who has a big heart for troubled youth, also rounds up boys who have strayed down the wrong path in life and herds them in the right direction with God’s help. Depending on the time of year, the market will run an average of 600 to 1,200 head of cattle through weekly, but Tony believes if he can help just one boy turn his life around, he has truly made an accomplishment. “If you can change a young person’s life, you have done a good job,” said Tony. Born and raised by his grandparents in South Georgia, he has worked around livestock yards since he was a young boy. Upon graduation from Wayne County High School, he attended Florida State University on a football scholarship and played noseguard for the Seminoles as a four-year starter on the defensive line. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology and signed on as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers, where he played center for a year and a half. After coaching college football at Texas Christian University for four years, he moved on to Florida at the recommendation of a good friend and coached high school football. When he had the opportunity to purchase the livestock market, he jumped at the chance. “I love it. I love the people,” Tony said. “In our business, it is still done with a handshake and a thank you.” He holds cattle auctions every Monday at 1 p.m. The doors are open for sellers to bring in their livestock until 8 p.m. on Sunday nights and again at 8 a.m. the next morning until the sale ends. The cattle are sold by the pound to the highest bidder, from locals to buyer representatives from all over the country. A sale for goats and hogs is held on the first Friday of every month. “The Lord has blessed my family to work in agriculture,” Tony said. “We try to provide the best service we can for our customers. Our customers keep us going.” His newest business venture is livestock sales via the internet. He met with a stockyard owner in Georgia to learn the ins and outs of the business. In late August, he sold his first two loads of calves. “Agriculture is dying in our state, without farmers we don’t eat,”
HIGHLIGHT he said. “The country boy will survive though – growing it, producing it, and hunting it.” Tony answered a higher calling when he sold every cow he personally owned, 2000 head, in order to attend seminary at Andersonville Theological Seminary. He is currently earning a Bachelor of Biblical Studies degree and is studying to be a Crisis Intervention Minister to help those who are battling drug addiction, alcoholism, or depression. He recently accepted the position at his church, Unity Baptist Church in Anthony, as the contact person for its Crisis Outreach Ministry. A recovered drug addict himself, Tony shares his testimony about how his life was saved and turned around through God’s love to sports teams, youth groups, and at churches. “I speak openly about my life. Pro athletes are not perfect,” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes, the Lord forgives us.” Last football season, he conducted a pregame chapel for Florida State’s Seminoles and has been invited to return again this season. The University of South Florida Bulls has also asked him to conduct a pre-game chapel for them. Tony serves as the Director of Break-Away Calf Roping for the Southern Junior Rodeo Association and the All Florida Junior Rodeo Association. His son, Bryant, a fifth grader at Christian Redeemer School, competes at the Florida and South Georgia junior rodeos in the break-away calf roping. The rodeo weekends include Sunday Cowboy Church, where Tony preaches to the kids and their parents. Believing that kids are more likely to listen to a former athlete, he and Tobitha, his wife and business partner, open their home for six months at a time to a troubled teen to provide him with guidance in a Christian home environment. They have housed approximately five boys so far. He also volunteers at the Boys Ranch, where he helps the boys with their cows. “God puts them in our life. We get people calling us about troubled boys they know of,” Tony said. “God sends them to us for a reason.” Tony believes that if you are going to do something, whether it is at the livestock market or with troubled youth, you should give 110 percent. “Once you are changing, people see you changing, they begin to change,” he said.
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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Story and photos by Danette Philpot
Laylie Madore: True Grit Girl
talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough • tenacious • talented • tough •
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
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No Farmers No Food
True Grit Girl- talented, tough, tenacious- her dreams are backed by drive, desire, determination and not the deep pockets of a family fortune. Kaylie Madore is a recent 2009 Honors graduate of Lake Weir High School, in Ocala, Fl. Kaylie served as President of the local FFA chapter, member of National Honor Society, President of Horse Specialty 4-H Club and right hand woman of the Lake Weir High School’s Equine Program. Her determination in the classroom is evident with an accumulative GPA of 3.8 in all of her classes including honors. As any horse crazed girl she wanted a pony and at the age of three her grandfather got her a pony named “Missy.” Her equine love affair started in the hunter and dressage show ring. She was bored with going around the arena and jumping the same jumps. “I saw barrel racing on television and BOOM, that’s it. I wanted to go real fast. My pony was not meant to go that fast. Then Hubert Martin’s daughter sold me “Spunky,” an Appaloosa gelding. Through my winnings in the National Barrel Horse Association, I paid my parents back for the purchase price for “Spunky.” Today he is twenty-six years old and a permanent fixture in our pasture. He is referred to as “Grandpa” as he baby-sits the young ones. “Speed and barrels seemed to be the perfect fit for me. I can go real fast, I just love it. I am addicted.” Kaylie’s success in drum running has helped her establish a small business of training horses and giving lessons from her parent’s farm in Belleview, FL. She enjoys the challenge of getting a young horse started off right. “A good foundation is the key to success.” Kaylie’s current mount is Jeta Glowetta, a twelve-year Quarter Horse mare. “She is a great horse, but is a psycho for barrels. Anything else we run just blows her mind, but its fun. She is a trip with her own personality.” How she acquired this horse is a story in and of its own. “My uncle in Iowa called me up and said that he had a mare that he went hunting on and shot between her ears, next thing he knew he was on the ground and the mare ran off. Well the mare beat him home by three hours. He said the mare can run. She just does not have a stop. Then he tried to breed her to a donkey, she tried to kill the donkey. Therefore, my mom and I went to meet him half way, which was Blue Moon Horse Hotel in Cuba, Missouri. Funny I had to drive north to Cuba to get a horse that had no brakes. That was six years ago, I truly love this mare. She has a great work ethic and loves her job.” Kaylie and Jeta are a pair to be reckoned with in the Speed event arena. In 2008, the pair qualified for the Florida 4-H State Horse and then on to the Regional 4-H Horse Show. This past spring the team was awarded Speed Event High Point Champion at the Southeastern Youth Fair Horse Show True Grit Girl-Continued on page 8
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True Grit Girl-Continued from page 7 and Area C 4-H Horse Show. Kaylie and Jeta qualified again for the State and Regional 4-H Horse Shows. That is not all, on the FFA side Kaylie was awarded her State FFA Degree (the highest degree a member can earn at the state level) and was named as the State FFA Equine Placement Proficiency Winner. Her application was forwarded on to National Competition. Miles and memories have packed the last three months. What will Kaylie miss most is, “Just being involved, Mrs. Davis has been a great teacher, I thought about failing a year so I could stay in school,” she chuckles. Amy Davis, Lake Weir Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor states, “Kaylie has been my right hand, especially with the horses. She has witnessed every foaling that has taken place here at the school. Anytime, I need horse feed or someone to take care of something I know I can rely on her. She is going to be a tough one to replace.” Lake Weir’s Equine Program has a 25 year plus history. The Equine Programs’ continuous supporters are the Florida Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club and Ocala Breeders Feed and Supply, from the donation of mares, to assisting with yearly breedings and supplying feed for our mares each month. Kaylie has been the on site farm manager, attended many of the Farm Managers Meeting to assist the program to keep updated with the industry standards. Mrs. Davis reiterates, “Our foals are sold in October so the students have had an opportunity to be involved with the stallion selection, gestation of the mare, foaling and sales preparation of the foal crop. It is a lengthy real world process. They gain an appreciation for the business.” Talk about a lot of irons in the fire, not only is Kaylie active in the equine community but she has made her mark in the agriculture community as well. For the Southeastern Youth Fair she has raised her own market steer for the last three years, exhibited beef heifers, and exhibited the 4-H club market hog. She was present every day of the Youth fair, which can measure up to over a 100 hours in just seven days. Kaylie was a participant every single day from showing a heifer, her own steer, exhibiting the FFA chapter goats and then later the 4-H club hog. Kaylie and Jeta participated in the Black Stallion Literacy Project. The mare was so quiet around the children that they were able to see the inside of her foot. Busy girl, after all that was said and done, she had the energy to do even more! What does the future hold? Kaylie has just begun her freshman year at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia. “I do not want to start off at a major university, but I know once I have finished my first two years I want to be at the University of Florida to major in Animal Science with emphasis on Equine Science.” She is the first to any event and the last to leave. Always ready to give a hand and her “Go Getter” style makes others work harder. She has never backed down from a challenge and always welcomes a stranger. Leaders like this are not born, they are made from reining in on the opportunities to serve that make them who they are. Many times, we never realize the impact that some one can make on another person’s life. It may not be about making money, but about making a difference. Kaylie is well on the way to make a world of a difference wherever she may go.
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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First statewide small farms conference a big success, says UF expert
Dr. Dan Cantliffe giving a talk at the Small Farms Conference Story by Tom Nordlie, photos by Tyler Jones, UF/IFAS
The vast majority of Florida’s 47,000 farms
are classified as small by U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, but there’s been little opportunity for all the people behind those farms to get together and work toward common goals. That changed August 1-2 with the first Florida Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Conference, a statewide event that was such a success, organizers plan to repeat it yearly, said Bob Hochmuth, a multicounty extension agent with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. More than 800 farmers and agriculture professionals attended the event, held at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee. “It shows that even in today’s economy, there is great interest among the small farmers in Florida to improving the things they’re doing on their farms,” said Hochmuth, who helped plan the conference. The event was hosted by UF/IFAS and Florida A&M University’s College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture. It featured more than 100 speakers, 30 educational sessions, networking opportunities, more than 80 exhibitions of new products and technologies, and livestock displays. Highlights included a welcome address from Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, an impassioned keynote speech from nationally known small farms authority John Ikerd, and presentation of Florida Innovative Farmer Awards to three attendees for developing and sustaining their small farm enterprises. Another detail that set this conference apart, much of the food served to attendees was prepared with items produced by Florida’s small farms. Food service was provided by the Osceola Heritage Park’s in-house caterers, who were not only cooperative, but also enthused about the project, Hochmuth said.
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
“They were amazed by how much high-quality food was available from small producers in Florida,” he said. “They really got into it.” The 2010 conference will probably take place in midsummer, again at Osceola Heritage Park, he said. Photos, videos and other material from the 2009 conference will be posted at the small farms Web site maintained by UF and FAMU at smallfarms.ifas.ufl.edu. The site will soon include information about the 2010 conference, and contains helpful material for anyone operating or launching a small farm in Florida. For the latest demographic information on Florida’s small farms, see the recently published UF document, “Characteristics of Small Farm Operators in Florida: Economics, Demographics and Preferred Information Channels and Sources,” at edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WC088.
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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By David Holmes
SNAKES ON RURAL PROPERTY Recently I have received
several calls from residents regarding snakes on rural properties and what might be done to discourage their presence. One gentleman was upset about having found three different small snakes inside his home over a two-week period. While the University of Florida discourages harming snakes because they are largely considered beneficial, I certainly understand, and concur, that when they start to come inside the house it’s time to draw the line. For most of us it is the unexpectedness of a snake encounter that causes distaste – lift a board and there one lies as surprised as the person hastily dropping the board. Step around a corner and there lies a snake sunning itself, each party suddenly aware of the other and moving rapidly in the opposite direction. Florida’s climate produces a large food population for snakes and consequently we have a lot of them – 44 native species. Of these, only six are venomous and two of these (the southern copperhead and the timber rattlesnake) are found only in the northern part of the state. Only the coral snake, the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, the dusky pigmy rattlesnake and the cottonmouth are found in Marion County. Because snakes consume undesirable pests, such as rodents, residents are discouraged from harming them. For many people not having any snakes at all is the most acceptable choice and the best way to achieve this is elimination of cover where they find seclusion. Keeping grass cut, eliminating weedy areas in borders and along fences and property lines, preventing wood piles and debris where snakes find shelter, are all practices that will discourage their presence. As Florida has virtually no houses with basements, finding snakes in a house is unusual, but not unheard of. The recommended practice for dealing with this circumstance is exclusion. Determine where the snake is getting in and take steps to seal the opening. Of the nonvenomous snakes, racers, kingsnakes, rat snakes or corn snakes and garter snakes are most common. Black in color, and fast-moving, the black racer is common in a wide variety of habitats and is a daytime hunter, so is often encountered in the daylight hours. The kingsnake can become large, growing up to 82 inches in length, but is commonly three or four feet long. These have indistinct crossbands on a yellow and black salt-and pepper background. These are also daytime hunters, consuming birds, rodents and other snakes. Its reputation for being the “king of
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
snakes” may stem from its fondness for eating other snakes. Only two species of rat snakes are native to Florida, but their color variation and patterns make it seem as though there are many more. Also known as the corn snake, an orange variation of this species is the only one of that color likely to be encountered in the developed areas of Florida. These are excellent climbers and spend much of their time in trees or under brush piles. Garter snakes also come in a variety of colors, primarily brown, black or greenish on a checkerboard background of small black spots. In Florida, any native species that is striped is nonvenomous. Garter snakes are frequently found near water and prefer a diet of worms, small fish, frogs and toads. These tend to be smaller snakes, 18 – 24 inches in length. From time to time you will encounter snakes. With the exception of the cottonmouth, snakes are not aggressive toward humans and will not strike unless they feel threatened. There are some principles that should be followed in dealing with snakes. If you come across a snake, walk around it. Snakes can strike up to two thirds their body length so a wide berth is recommended. Avoid areas that are overgrown with tall grass or thick brush and if you must venture into these areas select thick rubber boots as footwear. If you are bitten by a snake, seek medical attention since a bite, even from a nonvenomous species, could cause an infection or possible allergic reaction. Snakes are an important part of Florida’s ecosystem and should be respected for the role they play in controlling nuisance rodents. Reduce your chances of a snake encounter by keeping grass cut and minimizing areas on your property where snakes can hide. The Red Rat Snake is an excellent climber.” Photo: University of Florida.
Florida Avocado
Avocado: Better than Butter By Sandy Kaster, M.S. Clinical Medicine, B.S. Nutrition Science
The Florida avocado is a nutritional powerhouse of vitamins, minerals, and heart-healthy compounds. As the nation’s secondlargest producer of avocados behind California, Florida avocados are at their peak now. Compared to California varieties, Florida avocados have half the fat and one-third less calories, and are generally considered sweeter and lighter. The fat it does contain is the healthy monounsaturated type that lowers cholesterol levels and contributes to heart health.
Nutritional Profile
Avocados are creamier and less sweet than other fruits and are a good source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. Consumption of this type of good fat, touted in the Mediterranean diet, has been shown to decrease total and LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase healthy HDL cholesterol. In fact, eating the fat provided by avocados increases the body’s absorption of nutrients from other vegetables. So toss some avocado into a salad or salsa for a boost in nutrition. Avocados are also a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, folate, and vitamin E. Florida avocados are rich in phytochemicals, which are naturally occurring plant chemicals that support health and immunity. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, one cup of sliced avocado (146 g) contains 235.1 calories, 2.9 g protein, 21.4 g fat, 12.5 g carbohydrate, and 9.8 g of dietary fiber. It also provides 36.5 percent of the Daily Recommended Value (%DV) for vitamin K, 29.2 percent for dietary fiber, 25.0 percent for potassium, 22.6 percent for folate, and other valuable nutrients, including vitamin B6, vitamin C, and copper.
Vitamin K: For Healthy Blood and Bones
Leafy green vegetables such as spinach and kale are well known as an excellent source of vitamin K, but avocados are also a good source of this vitamin. Vitamin K plays an important role in proper blood clotting, bone formation, and fighting cellular damage. Recent research has linked vitamin K with stronger bones. Women with higher blood levels of this vitamin had less bone fractures and greater bone mass than women with lower levels. Vitamin K may also be involved in the formation of cartilage and teeth. This important nutrient also functions as an antioxidant, protecting the body’s cells from free radical damage.
Fiber: For Weight Control & Satiety
Avocados contain a significant amount of dietary fiber, which can help lower cholesterol, assist with digestion, and prevent constipation. According to the American Institute for Cancer
Research, a diet high in fiber may decrease the risk of several types of cancer including colon, rectum, breast, and pancreas. A single cup of sliced avocado provides a whopping 29 percent of your daily fiber needs. Fiber can also help maintain steady blood sugar levels and aid in weight control. Eating foods high in fiber, such as avocado, can help you feel fuller on fewer calories.
Potassium: For Heart Health
Avocados are high in potassium, a mineral that promotes healthy heart functioning and protects against high blood pressure. Potassium helps regulate fluids and mineral balance, aids in muscle contraction, and helps transmit nerve impulses. People with low potassium levels are more prone to muscle cramps. Fortunately vegetables and fruits, such as avocados, are a rich source of potassium.
How to Select and Store
Look for Florida avocados that have deep green skin and are free of blemishes. Inside, the flesh should range from pale to rich yellow. The avocado should feel heavy for its size and yield to gentle pressure. If you’re shopping in advance, you can also choose a hard, unripe fruit and allow it to ripen at room temperature for a few days. Speed up the ripening process by placing it in a paper bag with an apple or banana. Ripe avocados can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
How to Enjoy
Avocados are a buttery, creamy addition to anything from dips, dressings, sandwiches and salads. You can also slice them and eat straight out-of-hand. Here are some more ideas: • Spread on a bagel or toast as an alternative to butter • Puree in guacamole • Puree and add to salad dressing • Mash and spread on a sandwich, burger, or taco • Slice and add to sandwiches, salads, stir-fries and egg omelets • Toss in a fruit salad with melon and berries • Incorporate into ice cream or cheesecakes • Julienne and add to a California sushi roll Savor creamy, luscious Florida avocado today. With its rich texture and versatile uses, the avocado is a healthy addition to any dish.
Selected References
http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://www.ipmcenters.org, http://www.whfoods.com, http://www.florida-agriculture.com
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
My Journal Bryttany Wills FFA Area III Vice President
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Hello everyone, my name is Bryttany Wills and I am honored to have been selected to serve as part of this year’s Florida FFA State Officer team. As a Lake County Native, I am proud to be serving as the Area III Vice President and working with the FFA Members of Lake, Sumter, Marion, Citrus, Flagler, Volusia, and Seminole Counties. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve you throughout the upcoming year, which promises to be a great one. Since joining the FFA in the sixth grade I have been blessed with so many great opportunities through the FFA. I am proud to be fulfilling the legacies that have been left by state officers that have come before me. My goal this year is to help all FFA members around our state to achieve new goals together. After being elected in June my teammates and I began our training at BLAST OFF, which was held at the Leadership Training Center in Haines City, Florida. During this conference we were able to learn about each other and the tasks at hand for the upcoming year. Then we were on the road to Charleston, South Carolina to attend the National Leadership Conference for State Officers. On this adventure we were able to meet state officers from around the southeast including South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. This was a great experience for our team and really helped us to prepare for this year. Now that we have learned the ropes we have been working together to plan some exciting conferences for Florida FFA members, including The Chapter Presidents Conference and Chapter Officer Leadership Training. We are all very excited about this year and hope you are too. I am greatly anticipating the arrival of the new school year and the chance to begin working with FFA members around the state, especially in area III. “In Motion” is our theme for this year, and I feel that it does an excellent job of describing Florida FFA members. We are always working together to reach new heights and accomplish great things. I am privileged to be a part of such a prestigious organization filled with such hard working people. I know this will be a fun and exciting year and I look forward to meeting everyone involved in FFA as well as Agricultural Education and Industries.
• •
Stay in touch with publisher Karen Berry and her staff. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how we live, work and play here in Plant City! Learn about upcoming events and current happenings with the magazine. Send us a “tweet” about your business or organization!
Southern Junior Rodeo Association The Southern Junior Rodeo Association is getting ready to kick off the 2009-2010 season. If you are a student ages five to fifteen, K9-9th grade, with a desire to rodeo, then SJRA invites you to become a part of their association. Students are divided from age five to 11 years old for a Junior Division and 12 to 15 years old for the Senior Division. Events include Pole Bending, Barrel Racing, Team Roping, Tie-Down Calf Roping, Break-Away Calf Roping, Goat Tying, Chute Dogin’, and this season Ribbon Roping will be added to the events. The Southern Junior Rodeo Association draws families from North Central Florida and South Georgia. It is a family oriented association allowing youngsters to compete in rodeo events, while developing good sportsmanship and character. The students have the opportunity to meet and fellowship with others their age that have the same interest in the sport of rodeo. By competing in the SJRA students are more prepared for the Junior Wrangler and High School Rodeo Association in their states. The first rodeo will be in Lake City, Florida on September 19, 2009. The SJRA will hold 12-15 rodeos throughout the region encompassing their membership and have finals in May of 2010 in Ocala, FL at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. For further information please refer to the Southern Junior Rodeo Association website at: sjra-rodeo.com Or contact, Kelvin Thornton, 2009-10 President at 912.458.2067 or Tobitha Yeomans, 2009-10 Secretary at 352.572.4139 INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
15
Gone Fishin’
Marion/Levy County
FISHING REPORT by Captain Dennis Voyles
The redfish have set the stage
for some excellent inshore fishing this fall. Cool August rains made for great fishing in a month that is normally known for extremely poor inshore angling. The redfish moved into our area in awesome numbers in the middle of August and will likely stay until the cold fronts of November push them into the tidal creeks. Trout fishing should be excellent this month as the water temps and length of daylight fall a little bit each day. When the water hits 75 degrees its time to get the topwater lures out again. Fished on a falling tide in very skinny water (especially in the evening) can provide some real topwater fun. Most anglers will jerk a bit too soon when a topwater plug is jumped. Often the fish will miss the lure so wait until the line moves till you react. If the fish misses the plug leave it or twitch it just a pinch, more times than not the fish will strike the plug again. Color is much less important than location. Big oversized trout like the same habitat as redfish so concentrate your efforts around oyster bars and hard sand near drop offs. Just remember...wait until the line moves before you react. If you yank the lure away from the strike zone it will be difficult to get another strike even with a perfect cast. Your opportunity to catch a tarpon is decreasing daily. As the fall wears on the tarpon will begin to leave in drastic numbers. Fall tarpon are also difficult to locate as they are constantly on the move and have abandoned their summer pattern. Your best bet for tarpon will begin in the Homosassa area and south. The very best bait in the fall is large fresh bait such as mullet or ladyfish. A fall tarpon will hit a huge mullet with reckless abandon. Last September I was fishing a mullet on a falling tide, the mullet got so scared it jumped and as it was in the air a tarpon blasted it. What an exciting moment. When on the water a lot you get to see the fish do some amazing things. Grouper fishing, especially red grouper, has been great so far this year but the people in charge of the resource are proposing some dramatic changes. For the sake of our guides and bait shops I hope that they change their minds. Until then, fall fishing for
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
grouper is great fun and provides some tasty meals too. Snook season opened September 1 and since snook have been relatively rare until this year you should be aware of the rules. First and foremost, if you plan to keep a snook you will need a snook stamp. The legal limit for snook is one fish per day with a 28-inch minimum and a 33-inch maximum. That’s a five inch window! Snook season ends December 1. Live bait would be a good bet, especially the softer baits like threadfins and menhaden (aka fatbacks). Gear that you use for redfish will work just fine for snook. Archery season opens this month on the 26th (which is also National Hunting and Fishing day), and runs through October 25. Fall offers the angler and the hunter some fantastic outdoor activities. The weather is generally moderate and the action can be great. Get out there and enjoy our wonderful natural resources. Captain Voyles is a science and agriculture teacher at Cedar Key Schools, and a fishing guide on weekends, holidays and summers. To schedule a fishing trip Captain Voyles can be reached at 352-486-3763 or on the Internet at voylesguideservice. com.
速
速
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
17
A Bottle of Rain
BY WILL IRBY
Tales And
F
Trails
rom far across the burnt pasture, she saw him coming, him and the mule, a single plodding silhouette against the purple tree line in the distance. He held his hat to his head against the crisp wind that snatched and popped the bed sheets she was taking from a line at dusk. A younger sister was helping, and when she saw the boy turning down the lane to the old house in the barren field, she ran inside to announce that someone was coming to call. Then the boy was at the front of the house tying his reins to the handrail and mounting the steps soberly to the uneven porch. Her father was waiting behind the screened door in his undershirt, faded suspenders hanging loose off his shoulders. Her mother came up next with the younger girls wedging in. The boy spoke first, his hat in his hand. “Mr. Colbern,” he said as deeply as he could, “I’m Enoch Leighton. I believe you know me. I’ve got a job at the Grove sawmill, four acres and a house standing on the Waccasassa. I come to ask you, I come about marrin’ Lani to be my wife.” Colbern didn’t speak immediately. He studied the boy as if to adjust his vision to see not a boy before him, but a man. His wife put her hand on her husband’s thick shoulder and the three girls, towheaded as their older sister, looked at each other as if the caller had just spoken in a foreign language. Lani had come up behind with the wash basket in her arms, listening. Her expression was, as Enoch would later describe it, “…like a gal somewhere between falling and landing.” Enoch Leighton and Lani Colbern had only met at the camp meeting when Pastor Garvey came to the hillock of oaks at Mossy Pond each month. Some meetings went for a week and as many as several hundred might gather for services and baptisms. In the recent year, neither the Colbern nor Leighton families had missed a meeting. Somehow Enoch always seemed to end up close by Lani. He was standing next to her on a Sunday when the senator’s daughter said to Leni, “You wear that same dress every meeting. Is that the only one you got?” Enoch wanted to bust the girl, but stood in for Lani by replying, “She wears that dress ‘cause I like it, and it’s a perfectly fine dress and she’s a sight prettier in it than you are.” The other girl turned in her petticoats and marched off in a snit. Then one day the two came to be the last ones sitting on a low growing oak limb that served as a gathering place for the younger folk at the meetings. Enoch slid closer and though there’d not been
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
any encouragement from Lani, he reached out and put his hand atop hers. As if by reflex the girl snatched her frail arm away, and then in the next instant put it back without looking at Enoch at all. They sat like that for a long time listening to the singing before either spoke. To Enoch’s surprise and relief, it was Lani who spoke first. “I think my hand’s goin’ to sleep.” “Mine too, Enoch said, “but I don’t want’er move it.” They both laughed aloud and it was the first time they had laughed together from their hearts. So this was how their courtship began, and to the day Enoch stood before Lani’s father, it was as intimately as they had ever touched. In May of that year, Lani climbed on the back of the mule behind Enoch. She had the whole of her personal possessions in a flour sack tote. Among these were two sheets and two pillowcases. Her mother had embroidered on each a leafy line of purple morning glories, her favorite flower. In the pocket of Lani’s plain cotton dress was a small leather pouch with a five-dollar gold piece from her father. They rode out the lane then, Lani looking back but once. Her Mother and three sisters watched from the rickety porch. The couple turned back to the south on the sand road and the sturdy mule bore them down toward Bronson. When they got to the courthouse in town, Enoch watered and tied the mule and they went inside to be married by the judge. He wasn’t in, the judge’s secretary told them. In fact, he was in Gainesville where he might be for the rest of the week holding court for an ailing judge there. In exasperation Enoch explained their purpose. The secretary put down her pen and looked squarely at the rawboned, plain folk before her, each clear-eyed and earnest. Seeing that the two were more frightened of not being married than they were of the matrimonial for which they’d come, she asked that they wait. They sat on a long bench in the cool corridor outside the judge’s office, Enoch’s hand over Lani’s as it had been that day on the oak limb. After a while Enoch said, “If we don’t get married, I reckon I’ll have to take you back to your daddy ‘til we can.” Lani looked at him silently. Her eyes were wet and she turned her hand under his until their fingers entwined. Presently the secretary returned with an old man bent with age wearing a rumpled suit and leather slippers. This was Estes Cribs who had a small newspaper office and print shop across the street. He was also a justice of the peace, the secretary explained. So in the judge’s chambers, with the secretary as witness, Estes Cribs married Enoch
Leighton and Lani Colbern, pronouncing them before God by the power vested in him by the State of Florida, man and wife. When they came to the gate of Enoch’s place on the Waccasassa, Lani saw morning glory vines growing on the lightered gatepost. She told him then of her favorite flowers and of the bed linens that were their wedding gift. “Seems like that ‘orter be a good sign,” Enoch announced, helping his wife down from the sweating mule. “I believe in things like that myself.” They surveyed the place together from the gate. The small unpainted house in which his grandmother had died was weathered gray. It had a rock chimney and an irregular thatch of mossy, cypress shingles over the roof. Out from the house was a weedy field of less than an acre, framed, along with the house and sandy yard, by the rick-rack of a rail fence. Lani followed Enoch out into the field. “Were going to plant here,” Enoch said wistfully. “See this is good land here, good for growing. I done talked to Mr. McNulty at the store across from the mill. He told me okra.” “Okra?” Lani asked plaintively. “I don’t care none for okra.” “Me neither,” Enoch reassured her, “but it’s harder to come by and pays best by the bushel come summer. Don’t anybody want to mess with it really.” Lani kept her dread of okra to herself, and turned back toward the house. Enoch showed how he had washed and scrubbed the floor planking and swept the walls. Inside she saw a wood stove and a steamer trunk in which Enoch kept his clothes. Near the wash basin on a flat timber counter was a pie safe with a tin front. There was a table with three chairs, sunlight lay in pin stripes over the sparse furnishings. Enoch showed her then where the additional room (an alcove really) had been added and he pulled back the drape to reveal a metal bed. That night they fried bacon and sliced potatoes garnished with canned tomatoes. Used to cooking for himself, Enoch helped Lani at the stove. This seemed odd, almost awkward for Lani, whose father had never cooked or tended the kitchen or any other household affairs. They sat across from each other for their humble wedding feast. Enoch said a blessing, as they’d been taught. After dinner they fussed about making what they could of their household, then each went separately to bed. Lani had gone first, slipping modestly behind the drape to slide under the sheets in her underwear. Then Enoch came and lay in his underwear beneath the sheet beside her, each other looking up into the dark for what seemed to each a long time. Enoch’s hand found hers. After a while, Lani asked
softly, “Have you never said out right to a girl that you love her?” Enoch lay quietly. Squeezing her hand gently, he answered haltingly, “Have you – to anybody?” “I love my husband,” Lani said quickly. “I’m your husband!” Enoch exclaimed, sitting upright in the bed. “I know,” she said. “I’m glad.” “Me, too,” Enoch replied, settling down beside her. “I’m sure’nuff glad. I don’t know why I didn’t say it out right before. I think I didn’t know just how.” The scent of something sweet, honeysuckle perhaps, wafted by. “I do – love you, Lani,” he whispered with his lips brushing her hollow cheek, “and I’m proud I do.” The next morning, Enoch was up before daylight and made coffee. Lani, a sheet wrapped around her, found him resting his shoulder against one of the squared timber columns on the porch. Lani rested her head against his other shoulder. There was the sound of wagons coming up the road. Men were talking in the early dawn as they passed outside their gate. One wagon was loaded with black men, the other with big barrels, with a rider on a pale horse trailing behind them. When the rider got to their gate, he stopped and turned his horse toward the porch – a gaunt looking man, dressed in dark clothing, wearing a hat of the style cavalrymen wore. Lani could see that his swarthy face was pocked and marred. He sat motionless leaning on his saddle horn, as if leering at them both. Then he sat up in his saddle, the horse snorted and he touched the brim of his hat with two fingers. “Morning!” he called out in a deep rasp of voice. Enoch didn’t answer. Lani, who had obscured herself behind her husband as the rider turned, whispered, “Who is he?” The rider smirked and spat and rode on after the men in the wagons. When all were out of sight and their voices lost in the vast plain of pineland over the hill, she asked again. “They call him Capt. Agner,” Enoch said, tossing the last of his coffee to the calla lilies by the steps. “Them is turpentiners. He runs crews for Mr. Mulray. Mulray owns all that pineland yonder near to Bronson. He’s a bad man, that Capt. Agner, Lani. Bad as they come. I don’t never want him near you.” The sun broke through the trees then. Lani saw in the low mist the blush of morning glories, full and lush over the gatepost. “Look,” she said, “there they are, like purple angels guarding our gate.” Enoch steadied his voice. “That’s a pretty thought,” he said. -To Be Continued
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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Feed the
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STORY BY KATIE WIMBERLY Pictured left to right: Rachelle and Morgan Roper
Most families have never had to worry about where dinner was
going to come from tonight. It was a simple question of cooking at home or going out for dinner. As more and more people are finding finances tougher to manage, the number of people struggling to afford food is on the rise. Food banks and soup kitchens have served their purpose well over the years, but for Rachelle Roper, it is time to take it to the next level. Rachelle and husband George have owned Christian Outlet of Ocala for about three years. While there, they have learned more and more about the need for food right here in Marion County. Soon, she was teaching classes on home gardening, which turned into working to launch Feed the Need Community Gardens. Getting Started “A few years ago, I had dreams about feeding people,” Rachelle explained. “Feeding people has always been something on my heart,” she said. Even as a child in 4-H, any money Rachelle raised on projects would go back into the community. Growing up in Okahumpka, FL, Rachelle said that her family grew all that they ate and if they didn’t grow it, they hunted or fished for it. “We only went to the grocery store to buy toilet paper,” Rachelle said. Rachelle graduated from the animal sciences department at the University of Florida in 2001. For a number of years she worked in the agricultural field as a sales representative, cattle processing foreman and a few other jobs. “I’ve always had the skill set and knowledge to help people grow their own food, but I’ve never used it for anything but personal gain until now,” Rachelle said.
When Rachelle and George bought the bookstore, she remarked that it was such an odd move to make for two people who have always been so rooted in agriculture. She now recognizes it as a means of getting connected to the right people to make her goal of helping people feed themselves a reality. The Big Picture As the old adage goes, give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Rachelle has made connections with people in the HELP Agency of the Forest and the 3G Program: Gather, Go, Give. Her goal is not to just give people food, but teach them how to grow with what they have. “So many people have the desire to grow their own food, but most of them have no idea how to get started,” she said. “I also started teaching canning classes so that people can learn how to store the excess.” Rachelle doesn’t typically charge for her classes. Attendants have a hands-on learning experience and when they leave, they are sent home with an information packet and enough Continued on page 23
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
21
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seeds to start a small garden. “I only ask that they share the information and harvest with others,” Rachelle added. The Next Step Rachelle is currently working to acquire 501 (c) (3) status for Feed the Need. Volunteers are stepping up to the plate to work on fundraising, instruction and some are even offering land use. Now that things are moving forward with the community garden, Rachelle is also looking to make aquaponics and hydroponics available for families in need as well. Morning Star Fisherman is a not for profit group in Dade City that produces aquaponic units as a sustainable means of feeding the hungry. “The first unit we will be installing can produce 1,000 pounds of fish per year and 2,000 pounds of vegetables,” Rachelle said. Rachelle admits that starting community gardens in needy areas is a big project, but she has faith that things will work if groups combine resources to make it work. “One person can’t do it all, but if we can find a way to network with other groups there are a lot of possibilities,” she said. “If we all do a little bit, a lot will happen.” Some people may be wondering how they are going to feed their families, but with a basic understanding of gardening, they have the ability to ensure that they will have food on the table
when they need it. “There’s something very satisfying about sitting down to eat a meal full of things that you grew and produced,” Rachelle said. For more information on Feed the Need Community Garden, contact Rachelle at 352-572-7843 or by e-mail at feedtheneedgarden@hotmail.com. Find them on myspace at www. myspace.com/FeedTheNeedGarden
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
Commissioner Charles H. Bronson is asking public health officials, academics and the media to refrain from calling the current H1N1 influenza pandemic “swine flu” as the characterization is both inaccurate and contributing to the collapse of the pork industry throughout North America. Although health officials initially identified the outbreak as “swine flu” when it first emerged several months ago because of some common genes in the virus, they have subsequently determined that the outbreak is a new hybrid virus. “It is unfortunate that pork producers and processors have been impacted so negatively by the inaccurate characterization of this virus,” Bronson said. “But the fact is there have been no detections of swine flu in any swine herds in this country, and people cannot get this flu from eating pork.” Officials from the International Society for Infectious Diseases have stated “... since we know nothing of how this particular virus has gotten into the human population but there is apparently no history of swine exposure, it probably makes more sense epidemiologically to refer to this simply as H1N1 influenza virus.” Bronson said it is particularly important that the correct name of the virus is used now because news and general information about the virus are likely to increase as the country prepares for the H1N1 vaccine in advance of an expected resurgence of the virus. “Health officials have repeatedly stated that pork is safe to eat as there’s no threat to people from consuming properly handled and cooked pork,” Bronson said. “Yet the continued use of the incorrect term for the H1N1 virus contributes to a distorted perception of pork and unnecessary economic calamity for pork producers, processors and distributors.”
Out with the Cows Talking with Charles W. Gilbert By Elli Rarick
The rain held off just long enough for Charles W. Gil-
bert, known to many in Levy County simply as CW, to take me on a driving tour and picturesque journey of the area in and around Bronson where he has spent most of his 70 plus years. Today, and since 1981, he and his wife Bobbie live on Oak Street. In the middle of the street just in front of the (new) house, built in 1993, is the stake that marks the center of the four-square-mile town of Bronson. He still owns one 10 acre and one 30 acre parcel, part of the original farm, where he and his youngest son Beau run some cows and have hay to sell. Gilbert has one watermelon wagon left and uses it to take children on rides where they can throw pellets to the cows and travel into and through the “jungle” he has created on the 30 acre parcel off SR24. Gilbert’s paternal grandfather, Charles W. Gilbert, moved his family from Georgia to Newberry where his father was born in 1917. In 1924 the family moved to a house on Lake Street and south CR337 in Bronson. His parents, Carroll W. and Mary Frances Gilbert, purchased 320 acres one mile out of town on CR337 off SR24. The original two-room house was located at what is now 9251 CR337. It was later replaced by a four room house in either 1944 or 1945 as the family grew from three to six children. Gilbert said, “It was like a mansion to us! The boys had a bedroom and the girls had one too. It even had porches.” In 1950 he recalls a storm taking the front porch off that house. With an axe he helped to clear the land for planting that is now, in part, where the new Bronson High School sits. They planted watermelons mostly, and some corn. They had nine wagons to haul watermelons in and during the harvest would load as many as seven semi trailers a day. Prior to 1947 there was a “no fence” law that allowed cows and hogs to run free. It was not an uncommon site to see cows and hogs wandering around town and even sleeping in parking lots. The Gilbert farm raised mostly hogs and some cows. Gilbert remembered, “My job was to ride the horse out to wherever Daddy said. He would go to town and have coffee and find out what was going on and then come out to where I was to do the day’s work.” During his later elementary school years, he told me, “My job on Thursday afternoon at 4 PM was to go and read the Bible to Mrs. Epperson.” He learned to drive in a 1939 Ford pick-up. His father served for 12 years as a county commissioner during the early 1950’s and 1960’s. Gilbert’s mother was a school teacher in Bronson and later the principal at Otter Creek.
In 1955 Gilbert graduated from Bronson High School and in December of the same year traveled to Washington, D.C. to accept a training position in fingerprinting with the FBI. He remained there until 1958, teaching others the skill of the fingerprint identification process. It was there he met his first wife Betty. They had four children before she went home to be with the Lord, after they returned to Bronson. Gilbert spent nearly 13 years in Tallahassee working for the FBI during which he earned a degree in Pre-Law in 1972. He worked over 3,000 cases and testified as an expert witness in fingerprint identification in over 100 cases. When he returned to Bronson in 1972 he acquired his state general contractor’s license to operate Aztec Industries in building houses. They also provided semi-loads of oak wood to barbeque restaurants in Florida and Georgia. The building (later Lee’s Grocery on SR24) also housed a small engine repair shop. He is employed by News America Marketing, a Rupert Murdock company, where he visits such area stores as CVS, Walgreen’s, Dollar General, Hitchcock’s and Winn Dixie monthly. He stated, “I do the stores because of the people I am apt to run into from the past.” On August 22 Gilbert was among a group of past presidents (1969) of the Florida Division of the International Association for Identification being honored in Tampa for 50 years of service. He was part of the first organizational meeting in October 1959. He and Bobbie, married 30 years, have a blended family made up of his three sons and one daughter, her daughter, their son and daughter and a total of 17 grandchildren. In closing, Gilbert said, “I love being out with the cows.”
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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Business UpFront
Caroline Burgeson PADDOCK ROOM
By Georgia Brown
After you find the Paddock Room Galleries in downtown Ocala, step inside and the noise of traffic on Silver Springs Boulevard fades to a murmur. It’s the kind of atmosphere that makes you feel like you are in Caroline Burgeson’s inner sanctum, a special world of shopping pleasures. Caroline has become a legend in the horse industry for her gifts featuring all things equine. Throughout the three rooms, she has arranged selections of home furnishings and art in racing, trail riding, carriage driving and fox hunting themes. After greeting you, she asks, “Would you like some help or just like to browse?” Of course browsing takes on a whole new meaning here. In every corner there are horses on lamps, ceramics, placemats, glass bowls and decorative screens. The shelves are laden with crystal sculptures, leather purses, books and jewelry. Racks of embroidered apparel and silk scarves beg to be tried on. The place has the feel of a small museum with treasures from around the world. One entire room is hung with fine art prints, lithographs, antique hunting prints and contemporary paintings of a variety of breeds. From soft pillows to etched glassware and silver serving trays with horses on them, every single item Caroline Burgeson has collected celebrates the love of horses. “I love my customers. And I have quality items for every budget. No one understands my passion. I love searching for what they want,” said Caroline as she watched a couple browsing through the items on a table. Dressed in a fine red paisley fabric and a long black skirt, she wears a necklace of hand carved horse heads that look like ivory. Later on, the couple confirmed that they never miss coming to the shop when they are in town on horse business, which is several times a year. “I always buy something,” said the wife. “It’s important to build a business of return customers,” Caroline explained. She earned her way through Hunter College in New York City by selling in shops on Madison Avenue. It was there that she met her late husband, Ed, who was president of the American Newspaper Publisher’s Association, Bureau of Advertising. When they started their business in January 1968, Ocala was strictly the realm of Thoroughbred farms where horses grazed on lush, green pastures most of the year. Mares have foals earlier, and since all Thoroughbreds share a January 1 birthday, getting that early start on life is an advantage over farms in Kentucky. In Ocala sales of young Thoroughbreds are also an important part of the industry. “Early on my mother told me, ‘you’ll never be happy there, a place that doesn’t have opera.’ Of course now we have wonderful arts, a museum and entertainment available in our lovely community,” she said. Caroline credits Bernadette Castro with giving her a start in the hunter-jumper world. “She asked me if I wanted to set up a display at her horse show, the Golden Hills Charity Horse Show in the 1970s. Later it became the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit with competitors from around the world.” As the horse business expanded from Thoroughbreds to pleasure breeds, so did the Paddock Room. Caroline now includes gift items 26
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with images of American Quarter Horses, Gypsy Vanners, Paints, Arabians and Appaloosas, to name just a few of her customers’ favorite breeds. “Each one wants his or her breed represented,” said Caroline. Accordingly, she offers items selected from sources all over the world. She has clients from Dubai and South America who are always looking for something rare or unique. Her network of buyers in Europe and South America are constantly scouting for unusual items of the highest quality for her. Recently a rare French sculpture of a Thoroughbred racehorse and jockey, by Isidore Bonheur, noted nineteenth century animalier artist and brother of painter Rosa Bonheur, arrived in the shop. Cast in bronze and standing nearly three feet high, it is one example of what passes through her shop. But browsing the shelves and tables at the Paddock Room isn’t necessarily going to burn a hole in your budget. Caroline always has a selection of gifts that run the gamut of pricing, such as something that a little girl or boy would buy for a Mother’s Day present. “They could buy a cake of hand milled soap with the imprint of a horse that will last and last,” she said. “I cherish my customers. They come from far and wide,” she said. After more than 40 years, she never misses a chance to see her customers at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company auctions. During each sale, you’ll find Caroline at her table with a selection of gifts, including the hottest item, the Fred Stone limited edition print of filly “Rachel Alexandra.” The Paddock Room has grown from its original 500 square feet to a graciously appointed 4,500 square foot gallery of three rooms. But it has remained in the same location, one block east of the square. “I’ve never been on a horse in my life. I have a passion for my business and this is where you’ll find me, six days a week with only Sundays off.”
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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Crones’ Cradle Conserve Jeri Baldwin’s mission... By Georgia Brown
Jeri Baldwin founded Crones’ Cradle Conserve 22 years ago as an organic heritage farm to preserve and teach the sustainable farming skills that her family practiced. She sums up that philosophy simply. “What you didn’t use you put back into the earth.” Over the years it’s evolved into an ecologically based folk life school, wildlife preserve and retreat center in an area of north Marion County that had been touched by development but still retained some hardwood forest and wetlands with ancient cypress trees. “This area is extraordinarily special. My grandmother lived in a couple of small communities near here. Over the years we have been trying to come up with a good marriage between agriculture and conservation,” she said. Crones’ Cradle Conserve’s rustic sign on Highway 318, six miles east of Citra, directs visitors down the driveway to the heart of the 756-acre property. People have dubbed it The Village. Beyond the organic garden plots and rows of sunflowers, are clusters of classrooms and craft buildings, a greenhouse, and a multipurpose hall and dining room. The informal welcome center is a small store shaded by a porch where there’s usually a cat or two lying about. A wide, corner entryway opens to reveal shelves laden with pickles, preserves and jewel-toned jellies made from wild blueberries, elderberries and sour orange that grow in the wild corners of the property. Rows of books with organic themes, hand-made wooden tools, furniture, herbs and salves, old fashioned dolls, crafts and clothing are also for sale. Shoppers come to buy farm fresh produce, eggs, natural Angus beef, goat cheese and milk. Cut flowers, potted flowers, native trees and plants are all grown on the land. But only about 25 acres of the conserve are used for farming. The Marion County native began her quest to save some of A Full Line of Construction Services & Metal Buildings to Meet All Your Needs
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SEPTEMBER 2009
the land more than twenty years ago when she returned home after doing ecology-based work that took her far beyond Florida. She found that the swamps, wetlands and hardwood forests she’d loved growing up were being drastically changed by development. Jeri founded Crones/Cradle Conserve with the backing of a friend and partner, Deborah Light, who lives in Gainesville. The 120 acres they originally purchased had a variety of ecosystems, hardwood forest, slash pine and wetlands. Jeri describes herself as a sucker for cypress trees. The property also had some of the slow growing giants that once stood tall on the banks of most Florida lakes, creeks and swamps. “I’ve always had an affinity for swamps and dark rivers,” she said. But she sees them as teeming with new life, not as havens for snakes and dark water creatures. She established the organic farm and gradually acquired more acreage. A retreat center, a 12-person retreat lodge and rental cabins, completed the education center. The remainder Jeri has left alone. Well, she has given nature a little help. She’s restored an area that was planted in quick-growing slash pine by the timber industry and planted native pine trees. “The long leaf pine here is being allowed to grow at its own pace,” she said. Minimal selective cutting will eventually turn the understory into habitat for wildlife. Gradually the forest and wetlands of the conserve are returning to a more natural state. Earlier this year the, the farm completed a wetlands restoration project on 200 acres in partnership with the St. John’s River Water Management District. Orange Creek borders the conserve in two places on the west side. It will now be part of the wetlands basin corridor that includes the Goethe State Forest and Paynes Prairie Preserve. “I am really more interested in conservation rather than preservation. Sustainability is the only way to support the earth,” she said. Workshops Florida Folkkeepers School offers an ongoing series of oneday courses on arts and crafts once commonly practiced in rural Florida. Wooden furniture and tool making, leather working, soap and candle making are just the thing for those who like to work with their hands. Another fall course will teach how to pickle cucumbers, squash, green tomatoes and okra, which are also for sale in the store. “Pickles are good for our health and well being, better than sugary things.” For more information call 352 595 3377 or visit www.CronesCradleConserve.com.
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Explore, Experience, Enjoy! Stroll through the six unique shops of The Veranda or take a break and enjoy the tea room - cafe. All of this in a beautifully restored 1888 Victorian home, nestled in the heart of Ocala’s famous Historic District on Fort King Street.
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Little Joey’s restaurants are all about providing fresh,
homemade food and great service to their customers. Both locations are packed with repeat customers several nights a week. Nick and Julie DeDaj moved from the New York area to Ocala just short of 20 years ago and opened the first Little Joey’s at 8602 SW Highway 200 in Ocala. Due to the success of the original location, the couple decided to open additional restaurants for each of their four children. About five years ago, they opened their second location at 16840 South US Highway 441 in Summerfield at the Baylee Plaza, near The Villages. And they’re planning to open a third restaurant in Leesburg this summer. They have an extensive menu with authentic Greek and Italian items like Greek salad made with iceberg lettuce wedges and topped with red onion, fresh tomatoes, Calamata olives, feta cheese and chicken strips. Entrees include Veal Ossobucco, a veal shank cooked through different processes for two days in a wonderful sauce and accompanied by white rice and a decorative tomato, Shrimp Jumbo Ravioli with pimento and asparagus to die for, and Seafood Linguine with green mussels, baby clams and shrimp, cooked to perfection in a fettuccine garlic and olive oil sauce. In addition to Joey’s normal menu of every possible pasta, daily specials are offered and they usually feature some kind of veal, a seafood choice and also a chicken dish. As the menu states: “All great things take time. Your meal is prepared to order. Please allow extra time for certain dishes.” Each Joey’s location serves beer and wine. Business hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
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Experiencing Rawlings Farm BY KATIE WIMBERLY
A
sandy narrow path leads through a gate and into an orange grove. A barn sits to the right and ahead you can see an edge of the main house and hear the chickens scouting around for their morning meal. A Shorthaired Pointer meets you, tail a-wag, at the door to a white house with green trim and a wood shingled roof. As is typical of old Florida Cracker houses, screened porches extend off the side and front of the house to keep the bugs at bay, but let the breeze wander through on a muggy summer day. A stout, silver tabby cat meanders through the dogtrot, connecting two portions of the house, and settles, with some sense of unannounced purpose in the middle of the doorway leading to the porch. For many this is an uncommon snapshot of “Old Florida” - a far cry from the theme parks and cities that attract so many here. It is a land that requires more than just existence from its dwellers. It is a blessing for some and a curse for others. For Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, this distant part of Florida tucked away in Cross Creek, was her Oasis, her home.
Citrus, Plumbing and Snake Hunts Valerie Rivers, park manager of the Rawlings farm, provides a thorough explanation of nearly everything that went on there during Rawlings time. “To create the best experience for the visitor and to preserve the past, is important to us to keep the house, grove and farmyard as much as possible like it would have been during Rawlings’ time here,” explained Rivers. Rawlings cannot claim to hail from a multi generation family of Flo-
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ridians. She was originally from Washington, D.C. and lived for a time in her husband’s hometown of Rochester, NY. Once she moved to Florida in 1928 she “knew the old grove and farmhouse at once as home,” and grew to love both the land and people. Many of Rawlings’ best known works were inspired by Cross Creek and surrounding areas, including the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Yearling. But, beyond the pages of her books, she was more than just a female Thoreau, she was an agriculturist and steward of the land.
Rawlings-Continued on next page
Rawlings-Continued from previous page and the skin is one he sent her following a hunt. Rawlings also kept Shorthaired Pointers as companions and hunting dogs. The dog that currently resides part time at the house is reminiscent of those that Rawlings kept.
A New Era Rawlings wrote in her will that she wished her land be turned over to the University of Florida for the students to use, learn from, and be inspired by, according to Rivers. “Rawlings suggested that the land to be used for citrus research by UF,” Rivers said. It remained under the care of the UF trustees until the 1970’s, when it was turned over to the Florida Parks Service. “I hope that visitors will continue to come, enjoy and be inspired by that farm as Marjorie Rawlings would have wanted.” Preservation is a constant process around the Rawlings farm. From August through September the house is closed as staff works on archival maintenance and restoration projects. Between October and July, the house is open for guided tours at 10 AM and 11AM and hourly between 1 PM and 4 PM, Thursday through Sunday. October 24, Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm will host a Barnyard Gathering at the Rawlings Farm. Drawing tickets are available for $10 each. Prizes available include a signed copy of Cross Creek, along with four other pieces of Rawlings memorabilia. For more information on the Park or Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, visit the park Web site at www.floridastateparks.org/marjoriekinnanrawlings/ or call 352-466-3672.
The areas around the house all worked for Rawlings in some way. The original citrus trees are now gone, but many of the ones there are heritage trees from seed. Most are heritage varieties including Parson Brown, Hamlin and Pineapple. Across the street, she had at one time planted Valencias, which replaced what was originally a pecan grove. “Although Rawlings writes in Cross Creek that the change was motivated by her desire to see the green of the orange trees year round, in correspondence to a friend she noted that the citrus would bring a higher profit than the pecans would,” Rivers said. “The Valencias never did well because they were planted in a low spot where the cold air settled,” Rivers said. Now the area has grown over with the Florida hammock. In one of her short stories, she talked of Dora, her Jersey cow that came with an evil disposition, as described by RawlRESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL • IRRIGATION ings, but also provided some of the richest cream you could find. In Cross Creek Servicing All Makes & Models of Pumps & Tanks Cookery, a book published in December Family Owned & Operated Since 1973 of 1942, Rawlings writes of how important it is to have fresh cream. MODERN EQUIPMENT & Cross Creek also details the story Prompt & Courteous Service SERVICE TRUCKS of the installation of the new bathroom. From Quality Personnel SPECIALIZING IN “Rawlings was the first in Cross Creek to 4’ TO 10’ WELLS have indoor plumbing,” Rivers explained. Serving Marion & ALL SUBMERSIBLE & A full account of the festivities is well docSurrounding Counties umented by Rawlings. JET PUMPS Rawlings later added another bath ALL STORAGE TANKS room to the house and noted, “that noth INSTALLATION OF ing is more tangible for ones money than WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS plumbing.” Tending the groves, milking cows and growing a garden weren’t quite enough for Rawlings. “She even learned how to hunt and fish,” Rivers said. In a bookcase at the house, a large 3747 NE 45th Pl Ocala rattle snake skin is displayed among original copies of Rawlings work. Ross Allen, a Florida herpetologist (snake expert), We do not charge by the hour • www.smokeyspump.com took Rawlings snake hunting on occasion State Licenses #7250, 7251 • County Comp #6334, 6336
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SEPTEMBER 2009
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Grub St ation
Ocala
Mango’s Restaurant 12210 NW Hwy. 27 Ocala, FL 352-840-0000 By Brooke Hamlin
Get in your car, tune to some nice music and
enjoy the scenic ride to beautiful Northwest Ocala. On your way down Highway 27, only nine miles west of 75, you will find one of Ocala’s best-kept secrets, “Mango’s Restaurant,” a rural Oasis. Mango’s has a winning combination…excellent food, economy level prices, great family casual ambience and the always friendly and personal service of its owners Juan and Pilar Bohorquez. The Bohorquez’s came to Ocala from Miami because Pilar rides show jumpers, shows at HITS and other events in the area and wanted to have property for the family and her horses. Juan had been CFO for a small restaurant chain in south Florida, so it was a natural course of events when Mango’s Restaurant in downtown Ocala became available. “The restaurant already had a good reputation,” said Juan, “we were so happy to
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get it.” Later, the couple started looking for a second location when the building on U.S. Route 27 became available. There had been a fire so the landlord rebuilt it to their needs and they started running both restaurants successfully. When downtown Ocala was challenged with rising power costs the decision was made to close that restaurant. Now they are making the new location a fun, casual restaurant everyone loves. There’s always something going on. Tuesday the kids eat for free and can play Wii. Weekend mornings offer a country breakfast until noon. Juan calls himself the farmer’s cook so everyday they offer a great Farmer’s lunch for $5.99. Friday night is the stress reliever night, offering karaoke from 8 PM – 12 AM. If anyone from your table sings, Mango’s gives you a half carafe of sangria
and I can attest to what a great sangria it is! But hold your horses! Soon they will introduce a “Tropical Saturday” night offering Salsa and Meringue dance lessons. Sound too fancy? Juan and Pilar want you to know everyone is welcome. In fact, if you come wearing your breeches you will get 10 percent off your meal. Wearing your work boots gets you free iced tea. Wear your cowboy hat, buy one entrée get the second for 50 percent off! They want everyone to feel at home. Come in and relax. Everything is prepared to order and the quality is excellent. Juan and Pilar greet every guest and are pleased to prepare your meal to your specifications. Call
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ahead with a special order and they will do all they can to accommodate. If you just don’t have enough time to sit down, call in your order for pickup. They are known for their Sunshine Salad of fresh fruit, shredded carrots and almonds on bed of greens and served with creamy strawberry mango dressing. Yummmmmm! Vegetarian delights also include a variety of Boca burgers. Of course there is everything for the meat eater, such as a juicy burger! A great variety of wraps are favorites of many regular visitors and homemade bread is served with every meal. Juan and Pilar pride themselves on freshness, quality and consistency. They further ensure this by taste testing everyday. So take a break, relax, head west on U.S. Route 27, enjoy some of the most beautiful country in Marion County along the way and have a wonderful meal to boot. You’ll find this restaurant 9 miles west of I-75, between Fellowship & 326 Note: you have to go past it and make a turnaround to get there but it’s worth the trip! Hours: 7:00 am to 9:00 pm ~ Sunday 7:00 am – 3:00 pm
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A Closer Look- The Cicada (Cicadoidea)
The Cicada
(Cicadoidea)
It’s disproportionately large eyes are often a shocking shade of red framed by equally cautionary shades of yellow and black. It is almost as if this creature plans it’s emergence to catapult us into the frightful activities of October. By Sean Green
They prepare for their emergence for up to 17 years.
Their multitudes overwhelm their predators. Their songs are among the loudest in the world. Their skeletal carapace and hideous adult manifestation are recognized throughout the world. It’s disproportionately large eyes are often a shocking shade of red framed by equally cautionary shades of yellow and black. It is almost as if this creature plans it’s emergence to catapult us into the frightful activities of October. These alien like characteristics hallmark a fascinating insect that we will see emerging this month, the Cicada (Cicadoidea). Cicadas live in temperate and tropical climates, easily identified by their large size and remarkable acoustic characteristics, Cicada have become the most widely recognized of all insects. There are more than 2,000 species of cicada worldwide, 19 species are common in Florida, none of which however pose a serious economic threat to our agriculture industry. In the past, one species, Tibicen davisi occasionally caused severe damage to asparagus fern (Asparagus plumosus) grown in ferneries for use by florists. Nymphs feeding on the roots greatly reduced crop yield or even killed the plants. Adults emerged, to mate in nearby woods and the females returned to the ferneries to lay their eggs. No such damage has been reported since the less susceptible Asparagus virgatum, replaced A. plumosus as a Florida crop. Cicadas are sometimes inaccurately called “locusts.” Early American settlers that witnessed mass emergence of Cicada may have been reminded of biblical plagues of locust leading an inaccurate identification of the species, a misidentification that has endured in some locations. Locust is in the order Acrididae, an order shared with grasshoppers and characterized by chewing mouthparts. Cicadas, however, are of the order Hemiptera, an insect classification based on the distinction of mouthparts that have evolved to pierce plant tissue rather than chew it. Cicada, like leafhoppers, feed on liquids such as xylem sap. All cicada nymphs live in underground burrows and feed on xylem sap from the roots of grasses, forbs, or woody plants. Xylem sap is low in nutrients, consequently, the duration of nymphal development ranges from a minimum of several years to as long as 17 years. All cicadas molt four times before emerging. When the last nymphal instar is ready to molt, it surfaces and climbs a short distance up a tree trunk or herb stem, fastening itself with its tarsal claws and molts for the fifth time to become an adult. Its remaining shell is a near perfect representation of its adult stage as hallmarks its transition from subterranean isolation to its lofty freedom of flight.
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Most of the North American species and Florida’s most abundant is an annual species in the genus Tibicen. Commonly known as “dog-day” cicadas, Tibicen emerge in the “dog-days” of summer (July and August) characterizing summer itself with their song. In fact, Cicada songs are typically incorporated in Japanese anime to augment a summertime scene. In Florida we hear some species of Tibicen begin singing in late spring but most will begin this month and continue throughout the fall. Cicadas are among the loudest in the animal kingdom with some species producing sounds up to 120db (sound pressure level) which is roughly equivalent to a jackhammer at three feet, or a jet engine at 328 feet. The smaller species produce pitches that are completely out of human hearing range. Some cicada calling songs parallel the noises made by power tools and occasional reports that cicadas are attracted to lawnmowers and outdoor power saws are not surprising. The fact that attracted cicadas are invariably female supports the inference that common power tools are reminiscent of a calling male (at least to a female Cicada). One fascinating behavior of periodical Cicada, such as Magicicada, is predator satiation, an evolutionary adaptation characterized by brood occurring at population densities higher that the consumption potential of a predator, thus reducing the chance of individual prey consumption and increasing the potential for safe reproduction. Magicicada has a life cycle culminating in mass emergences every 13 or 17 years depending on the species. We do not have this periodical species in Florida, the closest occurrence of periodical cicada have a 13 year cycle and emerge in Southeastern Louisiana in 2015 and Alabama and Georgia in 2011. Unlike the broods of periodical cicadas, populations of Florida cicadas produce adults every year. The 19 species of Cicada common in Florida range in size from the small Melampsalta to the larger Tibicen. Even though Florida species emerge annually, their developmental cycles probably exceed a year. Our cicada species do not depend on mass emergences to overwhelm their predators, and are not likely to have a stringent duration of underground development like the periodical species. Take a closer look at this harmless and fascinating insect as they emerge this month.
Naturally Amazing- Fall Activity
Hanging Planter By Sean Green Plants are a critical addition to any natural environment. In our tropic Florida climate we are blessed with the potential to grow nearly anything we desire, provided we have the space and resources to do so. For some of us, the lack of yard space is a factor that prohibits the satisfaction of gardening. Recycling and reusing consumer materials, such as plastic containers, is not only environmentally efficient, but many common containers have practical uses beyond their intended production. This month, we will create a hanging planter with drip irrigation that is practical for gardening in limited spaces. Parents can provide a significant learning opportunity for their children to observe the rooting process of plants as well as the ecological processes of soil health through the plastic container we will reuse. This project was compiled through the following two sources: http://www.instructables.com/id/Slow-soaking-hanging-soda-bottle-planter/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Go_Green_Upside_Down_Hanging_Planters/
1 2 3
Materials: • Young Leafy Plant (Herbs, Tomato, Green Beans, Etc.) • Empty two Liter soda bottle (washed) • Exacto Knife • Potting Soil (Compost Preffered) • Hole Punch • Duck Tape • Hanger (Twine, Leather Strips, Wire Coat Hanger)
®
Directions: 1. Cut the bottom of the soda bottle off at the bottom of the label or along the plastic seam ridge. 2. Remove the label from the soda bottle. 3. Wrap the leaves and stem of the plant with wax paper to make pulling the plant through the top hole easier. Pull the wax paper, not the plant stems. 4. Pull the top of the plant through the small opening of the top of the bottle (the part the cap fits on) so the plant is emerging through the top hole of the bottle and the roots are inside the bottle. 5. Gently spread the root ball out inside the bottle to prevent root binding. 6. Fill the bottle with soil and/or compost to about three inches from the bottom cut, saving room for the drip irrigation component (cut off bottom). 7. Place the bottom you cut off inside the bottle to create a reservoir that will hold water. Tape the reservoir to the bottle by applying the bottom half of the duct tape to the cut top and folding the remaining half of the duct tape inside the bottle to adhere to the soda bottom we cut off to make the reservoir. This will create a very strong (two layers of plastic) support for hanging. 8. Cut an X into each of the five depressions of the soaker, do not succumb to the temptation to enlarge the holes, the slits will be sufficient for slow drip irrigation. 9. Using your hole punch, punch holes through the center of each ridge on the tapped portion of the planter. You will hang the planter from these holes. The center of the ridge is the strongest. 10. Once complete, hang your planter with twine, or wire coat hangers. If the soaking holes are small this hanger will not make a mess indoors and is perfect for growing herbs to cook with in the kitchen or ornamentals that can hang nearly anywhere.
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I
remember my mother running me out of the house one time for having stinky feet. My old pair of tennis shoes was worn everywhere. After school I would play sandlot football and get hot and sweaty. This added fuel to the fire. In the summer I had to take my shoes off before coming into the house even though I took a good bath every night. It got so bad they made me take off my socks, too. I almost got a whuppin’ for untying my shoes in church one time. They were just loose enough to let enough of the odor out to annoy people. It got very apparent when everybody around me started to move away. I remember my mother was so embarrassed. I must admit it did stink. My sisters Nettie Mae and Betty Jean would always give me a dirty look and say “PU”…get away from me. I found that your dogs, piggies or tootsies, as they are called, get the smell from bacteria created when your feet get sweaty. Scientists says that the bacteria really get going if you don’t wear socks. The bacteria produce stuff called volatile sulfur compounds. Yuck, rotten eggs! Did you know jobs are available to smell? That’s right, some people get paid to smell. Clinical testing labs hire people to do this when they are testing new products. These professional “smellers” get to smell some of the sweet stuff like the fragrance of a new hair spray or perfume. Other times they may have to test, or smell, a new underarm deodorant. Imagine sniffling someone’s underarm to see if it works! One company hires body odor experts. Need a part time job? Every once in a while I’ll glance through the want ad section of the newspaper. Some are really hilarious. Check these out: Georgia Peaches-California Grown$1.00 a pound. Nice parachute-Used Once-Never Opened-Slightly Stained. American Flag with 60 Stars-Pole Included. For Sale-One large Sofa-Will seat the whole mob, and is made of 100 percent Italian leather. Joining Nudist ColonyWasher and Dryer for sale. Nordic Track $200-Hardly Used- Call Chubbie. Open House-Body Shapers Toning Salon-Free Coffee and Donuts. And finally, For Sale By Owner-Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. 45 Volumes. Excellent condition. $900.00 or best offer. No longer needed. Got married last weekend. Wife knows everything. O.K., I have finally found out how you know you are getting old! Here they are, 26 solid reasons:
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1. When you and your teeth no longer sleep together. 2. You try to straighten out the wrinkles in your stockings and discover you aren’t wearing any. 3. At the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, pop and you’re not eating cereal. 4. Your back goes out, but you stay home. 5. When you wake up looking exactly like your driver’s license picture. 6. It takes two tries to get up from the couch. 7. When your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio. 8. When happy hour includes a nap. 9. When you’re on vacation and your energy runs out before your money does. 10. When you say something to your kids that your mother said to you, and you always hated it. 11. When all you want for your birthday is to not be reminded of your age. 12. When you step off a curb and look down one more time to make sure the street is still there. 13. Your idea of weight lifting is standing up. 14. It takes longer to rest than it did to get tired. 15. Your memory is shorter and your complaining lasts longer. 16. Your address book has mostly names that start with Dr. 17. You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going. 18. The pharmacist has become your new best friend. 19. Getting “lucky” means you found your car in the parking lot. 20. The twinkle in your eyes is merely a reflection from the sun on your cataract. 21. It takes twice as long to look half as good. 22. Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work. 23. You look for your glasses for half an hour, and they were on your head the whole time. 24. You sink your teeth into a steak, and they stay there. 25. You give up all your bad habits and you still don’t feel good. 26. You finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. Let me leave you with this story about why things are not always what they seem. I have no idea who wrote it, or where I got it. For some reason years ago I saved it. Perhaps to be printed in this magazine. Continued on next page Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the
mansion’s guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.” The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused. The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die! “Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it.” Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren’t always what they seem.” Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not know it until some time later.
LOOK WHO’S READING
Kailee Thompson, 19 years old Marion County Cattlemen’s Association Sweetheart 2009
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
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Fresh. Florida. Food. Publix Super Markets to promote Florida’s early spring fresh produce harvest Fresh Florida produce items will take center stage in Publix Super Markets in early spring when they will be featured during in-store “Simple Meals” cooking demonstrations throughout the Southeast, and in Publix Cooking Schools in five cities. A variety of Florida produce items will be featured at various times from February 1 to May 21, 2010. Each Florida product will be part of the “Simple Meals” cooking demonstration for three to four days in all Publix stores. During these demonstrations, recipe brochures will be displayed at the “Simple Meals” kiosk and in the produce department with the featured Florida products. Additionally, Florida Culinary Ambassador Justin Timineri will host the five Publix Cooking Schools, which will teach participants handling and preparation techniques for the featured Florida products. “We’re very pleased to again partner with Publix to promote Florida-grown products,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said. “This is an exceptional opportunity to highlight Florida’s earlyspring harvest of fresh produce.” Publix and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have a history of partnering to promote Floridagrown agricultural products. Previous collaborations have included in-store product demonstrations and advertising displays, distribution of product and recipe brochures, and retail incentive programs. The Florida spring produce promotion is part of the Department’s ongoing “Fresh from Florida” marketing program which helps promote Florida-grown products to 40 INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2009
Continued from previous page
consumers. “Simple Meals” and the Publix Cooking Schools are components of Publix’s “Aprons” program that helps introduce consumers to products and teaches them easy ways to prepare wholesome and delicious meals. Cooking and taste-testing demonstrations are conducted at the “Simple Meals” station in every Publix Super Market. Recipe cards for the featured meal are displayed in each store along with all the ingredients. The “Simple Meals” associate prepares the recipe, gives out samples to shoppers, and answers questions. The “Simple Meals” program is a service provided by Publix to help customers save time making meals at home. The Publix Cooking Schools, which are located in Jacksonville, Tampa, Sarasota, Boca Raton and Atlanta, are designed to help beginners and experienced cooks alike expand their kitchen repertoire. Shoppers can register to attend the Publix Cooking Schools, which often feature noted chefs, authors and cooking celebrities. Publix is the largest supermarket chain in Florida and one of the 10 largest-volume chains in the United States. Its 2008 retail sales exceeded $23.9 billion. The company has 730 supermarkets in Florida, and almost 300 others in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
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Tobitha Yeomans
STORY BY TRACY COX
Tony Yeomans will tell you he is the brawn behind the success of the Ocala Livestock Market, but he gives full credit for the brains of the outfit to co-owner and his wife of 13 years, Tobitha. She is his right-hand “woman” in their business and his helpmate in a life that has seen its share of ups and downs. “I have got the best wife in the world,” he said.” She has stood by me through every trial and tribulation.” If needed, Tobitha can step out of the office, located at the livestock market, of her new start-up business, AgriPROMO, a marketing and promotions company exclusively for agriculture-based business, to help Tony. She has made it her mission to be familiar with as many areas of their business as possible. She can write cattle up, weigh, work a slide gate, work the penning box, or work in the office. On occasion, she helps count the barn after a sale and with load out when needed. Born and raised in Ocala, she is a third generation member of an agriculture family. During her youth, she was active in the Marion County 4-H program for 13 years. She was chosen as Miss Florida Citrus in 1994 and traveled the United States and Canada for a year, serving as a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Industry. In 1996, she graduated from the University of Florida with an Agricultural Communications Degree. Tobitha served as the Director of Marketing, as well as the Feed & Animal Health Division Manager for Sparr Building & Feed Supply for 12 years. She was instrumental in Sparr’s decision to add Purina feeds to their product mix, leading them to become the largest Purina horse feed deal in the United States for the last eight years. Last May, after much thought and prayer, she left her job to form AgriPROMO and to have more time with her family. She had found the retail store hours to be hard on Tony and their two children, Bryant, a 10-year-old fifth grader, and Breely, 3-year42
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
old preschooler, both at Christian Redeemer School. “She is a great mother,” said Tony. Just like their parents, Bryant and Breely are being raised with a love for agriculture and the country life on the family’s 25 acre ranch in Reddick, a small town north of Ocala. They have horses and a few head of rodeo calves for Bryant, who rodeos in the All Florida Junior Rodeo Association and the Southern Junior Rodeo Association, to practice his breakaway calf roping. Breely, who wants to be in the middle of it all, is already riding and recently participated in the Kids Ranch Rodeo held by the Cross Brand Cowboy Church in Williston, where she did barrel racing and goat branding. Bryant is also learning the ropes of being a business man. He has set up his own store, painted red with rustic shelves, in the corner of the livestock market selling Amish jams and jellies, honey, cane syrup, and bar-b-que sauces. He uses his proceeds to pay his rodeo entrance fees and to buy some of his practice calves. “He is really learning about business. He has his own checking account and pays bills,” said Tobitha. “Mom is in the hole for the financing though.” The decision to form AgriPROMO came from a genuine love for the agriculture industry and identifying the need for a retail development consulting company that not only specialized in marketing, advertising, and event planning, but who also knew and understood the industry. Hence, her company’s slogan, “Agricultural promotions for the industry we love, know and live.” “What I had found was that the businesses knew the message that they wanted to get out, but ad agencies didn’t know anything about what they were talking about,” said Tobitha. “I understand the message they want to convey, who they need to reach.” Many companies do not have the budget to employ a marketing specialist on their staff. By hiring Tobitha and AgriPROMO, for many businesses it will be like having a marketing manager without the hassles of employing one. To learn more about the services available, visit her website at www.agripromo.net. Family and faith are very important to Tobitha, who is the assistant Sunday School teacher for young adults and the church clerk at Unity Baptist Church. She recently partnered with friend, Tandy Downs, to copublish “Christian Events Central Florida,” a magazine focused on the issues and realities of living as a Christian in today’s world for faith based families. This busy lady wears many hats, but she always has time for the Lord and her family.
EQUINE EXTENSION REPORT
By Jamie Cohen, Farm Outreach Coordinator PeeWeeCohen@aol.com , 352-229-4868
Hello to all. I hope that the summer has gone well for everyone. Good rain this summer has made for good grazing conditions and (hopefully) strong pastures. While pasture management has been discussed already, soil erosion is a topic not yet touched upon. Erosion is bad for us all because it can carry pollutants, excess nutrients and additional sediments to the water. With the heavy summer storms and hurricanes that Marion County can get, erosion can be a serious and costly issue for farms. I will briefly discuss things to consider which can help avoid and limit erosion. •
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Certainly, maintaining vegetative cover is the key ingredient to avoiding erosion, but the type of soil found on your property can make an impact on the ground’s ability to keep that cover. Sandy soils tend to hold grass and other cover less than soil having greater amounts of organic matter. Your soil type is always something to consider when trying to avoid erosion. Again, UF IFAS recommends a stocking rate of your pastures of one horse per two to five acres, depending on which type of soil your farm has. Care needs to be taken to keep good cover around any waterways. Known as Riparian Areas, this land is potentially used by a significant amount of wildlife for part of their life cycle. These areas are also important to keep green and healthy because they: Act as a buffer against erosion from floods and winds. Filter all runoff to help eliminate sediments and excess nutrients, like Nitrogen and phosphorous, into our water. Help reduce the effects of drought as well by holding and releasing available water. Use caution with any application of herbicides along fence lines. A commercial broad-leaf herbicide may be used to control growth at fence lines, but caution should be taken to limit the use. Using too much or too often can give water a passageway to run on, but this will take everything it grabs along for the ride to a waterway. Trimming the grass shortly around the fence lines is preferable because it allows some vegetation to stay to help limit erosion. Planting additional seed and even trees and shrubs can help to keep both of the previously mentioned areas strong. In the pastures, spot seeding is recommended for the bare areas. Winter rye grasses and Oats are additional way to keep cover year round. When planting trees and/or shrubs on Riparian Area, make sure to use native and drought tolerant species.
Please contact me if you need more information or help at 352229-4868. Again, the Extension office can also be contacted for assistance at 352-671-8400. Keep up the good management practices!
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Bringing Back Family Dinners By Elli Rarick
It’s that time of the year again. Our thoughts are
turning to family dinners on Sunday and gatherings leading up to the holidays. Many of us definitely live in a different era of family structure than the one we grew up in. For example, most of my extended family lived within 300 miles of wherever I lived as a child and even until some of my own children were young teens. Today, however, in my own family, some of the distance exceeds 3,000 miles between sisters, brothers, parents and grandparents. It is not easy to plan the traditional Sunday or holiday dinner we used to take for granted at my in-laws farm, with all six children living within a 15 mile radius. As these autumn years of my life slip away faster each year, I find myself longing for those “good old days” we heard so much about from our parents and elder family members. It is true, I have become my mother and father! It still bothers me that our family cannot all be together on
Thanksgiving or Christmas, but the reality is that they do not live nearby enough to do that. Today, I am thrilled anytime we can plan a dinner or gathering, no matter how few or many attend, and celebrate family sharing a meal, laughter and memories. Nothing inspires me to cook or bake like knowing family or friends are coming for dinner! My husband’s choice is almost always a baked ham with all the trimmings. I do tend to reserve this treat for when there are several here to help eat it. Since I am learning to cook for two, more and more, I do keep some leftover ham (or you may purchase some already diced) for future dinners and found the recipe for “Scalloped Potatoes with Ham,” for two, a tasty choice. For dessert, nothing beats the traditional apple pie, chocolate cake or brownies when serving a crowd. We enjoy these desserts also but have been leaning toward trying some “just for two” recipes like the “Peachy Blueberry Cobblers,” which proved to be very tasty and not too sweet. I used fresh fruit but frozen works just as well. I served mine with whipped cream when they were still just a bit warm. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would also make a delicious topping. Both recipes included were taken from Taste of Home’s Cooking for 2 Comfort Food magazine, early 2009. Both recipes may be adapted to make additional servings, if needed.
Scalloped Potatoes with Ham Mark Baccus, Melbourne Beach Florida
Prep: 25 min., Bake: 35 min., Yield: 2 servings • • •
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SEPTEMBER 2009
2 teaspoons butter 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt
• • • • • • • • •
1/8 teaspoon pepper Dash Cajun seasoning ½ cup 2% milk 1 one-half teaspoons sherry or chicken broth 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided 1 medium potato, peeled and thinly sliced 1 cup cubed fully cooked ham (thick sliced deli ham can be used) ¼ cup thinly sliced onion
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning until smooth. Gradually add milk, sherry and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil; cook and stir in 1/4 cup cheese. Remove from the heat; set aside. 2. Place half of the potato slices in a 1-qt. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Layer with ham, onion and half of the white sauce. Repeat layers. 3. Cover and bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Uncover; sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.
Peachy Blueberry Cobblers Carmen Edwards, Midland Texas
Prep: 10 min., Bake: 30 min., Yield: 2 servings • • • • • • • • •
¼ cup all-purpose flour ¼ cup sugar ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ cup 2% milk 2 tablespoons butter, melted 3/4 to 1 cup fresh or frozen sliced peeled peaches, thawed ¼ cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, optional
1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the milk and butter; stir into the dry ingredients until smooth. Pour into two 8-oz. ramekins or custard cups coated with cooking spray. Top with peaches and blueberries.
2. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until the fruit is tender. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream if desired. Note: For some variety, this recipe can be made substituting a medium apple with a few dried cranberries or one sweet and one half tart apple; cored, peeled and sliced, in place of the peaches and blueberries. I also crushed up a couple of maple/brown sugar granola bars and sprinkled it on top of the apple cobblers after they came out of the oven. Yummy! Pictured first page, bottom left: Family Dinner circa 1946 Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s circa 1946 included aunts, uncles & cousins. (Elli Rarick Family photo)
Happy Birthday Florida 4-H! The year 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the 4-H program in the Sunshine State. Florida 4-H began as a grassroots movement first in Marion, Bradford, and Alachua Counties and quickly grew to become the most successful positive youth development organization in the state. Over the last century 4-H has played a major role in shaping the head, hearts, hands, and health of thousands of young people from all walks of life. The 4-H program has its roots in agriculture, but unlike most types of agriculture, our final product is not something you can taste, or eat, or wear. Our final products are young people of character, maturity, responsibility, and accountability. As one of three founding Florida counties, Marion County was at the forefront of something truly amazing. Our shared history is rich and varied and our futures are limitless. We have survived two world wars and numerous conflicts while tirelessly cultivating peace in our communities. We have seen times of poverty and of prosperity, yet remained consistently rich in character and charity. We have forever changed not only our own lives but the lives of so many others as we live out the principles of 4-H in our clubs, our communities, our country, and our world. We have been privileged and blessed beyond measure to count our selves as members of the 4-H family. Marion County 4-H formally invites the community to join us in celebrating our rich history and bright futures during National 4-H Week, October 4 – 10. The week long celebration will culminate with an Open House and Picnic at the Marion County 4-H Farm (corner of Baseline and Maricamp, cattycorner to the Inmate Work Farm in Ocala) on Saturday, October 10, from 10 AM – 2 PM. Local clubs will be hosting educational and recreational booths, guest speakers will be on hand to help tell the story of 4-H in our community, and a free hot dog and burger lunch will be provided to all our guests. For more information on National 4-H Week or how you can be involved please contact the Marion County Cooperative Extension Service at 352671-8413. Outside of Marion County please contact your local Extension Office or for more information visit www. florida4h.org. INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009
45
FARM
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LAWN
EQUIPMENT
SALES • SERVICE • REPAIR • 840-0200
5455 N. US Hwy. 441, Ocala, FL 34475 www.allenfar mandlawn.com
AgCalendar What’s going on InTheField?®
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9/16-19/09 – Florida Turfgrass Association Conference & Show, PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens
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9/17/09 – Equine Institute & Allied Trade Show, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, Ocala, FL
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9/18-20/09 – Marion Saddle Club Hunter Jumper Show, Southeastern LIvestocka Pavilion, Ocala, FL
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9/26/09 – Florida Horse Sale, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, Ocala, FL
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10/1-3/09 – The Landscape Show, Orange County Convention Center
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10/3/09 - NCFL Pigeon Show, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion
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10/3-4/09 – Florida Palomino Horse Show, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, Ocala, FL
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10/8/09 - CORE Pesticide Applicator Training, 8:30am - 2:30pm Marion County Extension Service
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10/10/09 - Master Gardeners Fall Gathering, 8:00am - 2:00pm or until sold out
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Marion County Extension Service
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10/12/09 - ISA Arborist Safety Training | 8:00am - 4:00pm, Marion County Extension Auditorium
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10/13/09 - Pesticide Applicator Training, 8:30am - 12:30pm, Marion County Extension Classroom
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10/16 – 18/09 - Marion Saddle Club Hunter Jumper Show, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion
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10/21/09 - 4-H Horse Show, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion
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10/27 – 29/09 - Pit Bull Terrier, Southeastern Livestock Pavilion
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To search or submit more ag events, visit the Florida Ag Calendar at www.floridaagcalendar.com INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE AUGUST 2009
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SOUTHERN STATES … We do it all for farm and
ranch. www.southernstates.com. 9655 NE 21st Ave, Anthony, FL. 352-629-8171
FINE ART and other treasurers, New York quality here
in Ocala, at Paddock Room Gallery at 226 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, 352-629-3723
BRYANT’S PUMP SVC & Well Drilling: High quality pumps of all sizes for all needs. 352-629-3769
BRICKHOUSE SALON & SPA. Full Service Spa and Barbershop. Behind Checkers on Rt.40. 24NE 12 Terrace, 624-HOUSE.
USED FLEETWOOD ADVANTAGE 305RL. Was $29,995 - Now $19,888. Suncoast RV, 3550 S. Pine Ave., Hwy 301/441 - 888-328-7188 - 352-351-1184.
GOOD APPLE EQUINE CONSIGNMENT WAREHOUSE Bring your clean, used tack & equine equipment. 352-572-2702. See ad in issue.
CAFÉ’ HAVANA – voted best Cuban restaurant in Ocala. Serving breakfast & Lunch. 923 N. Magnolia. Call in for pick up, 351-4853
ment - sales and service. ACE, the Helpful Place. ECHO dealer in the Plaza of Dunnellon.
N. MAGNOLIA FARMER’S MARKET every
way Nursery 352-307-3300.
USED FURNITURE AND APPLIANCES Two Sisters at Sunstate Distributors. Consignments welcome – 352-6295833 See ad this issue.
it to Magnolia Coin Laundry – full, same day service. 923 N. Magnolia, Ocala. 352-433-2221
LILLI’S FLOWERS & GIFTS: Unique and fun gifts
BOBCAT SERVICE AVAILABLE. Call Florida Green-
sAVE $1500 ON YAZOO/KEES! Best deal in town. Buy new at used price at Mike’s Lawnmower. 352-694-4866 or www.mikeslawnmower.com. See ad this issue.
ACE HARDWARE of Dunnellon offers lawn equip-
do-it-yourselfers at Superior Landscape. Also installation and full landscape services. 352-368-6619 or www.superiorlandscape.com. See ad in this issue.
Friday 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Fresh Produce-Plants-Kettle Korn-Cheeses-Homemade Pierogies-BBQ Sauces/Sandwiches-Jams & Jellies-Fresh Seafood-Pastas-Homemade breads/Pastries-Tote Bags-Soy Candles-Crafts-Jewelry & MORE.
MIKES LAWNMOWER SALES & SERVICE. Call about our rebate offer! 352-694-4866 or visit our showroom at 3840 SE 47 Ave (just off Maricamp & Baseline) Ocala
**HORSES WELCOME** POLK CITYFOR LEASE
GRANNY NICHOLS Bar-B-Q Sauce since 1968, as made by Lula Nichols. Call Marylu Rosado, owner operator - 352-748-2708.
Lladros, Royal Daultons. We buy single pieces or complete estates. Highest prices paid. Call Pesso’s - 352-528-3434 today.
bath with any full kitchen counter top purchase! 352-6719800 or visit our showroom at 1806 NE 2nd Ave, Ocala.
LEARN ABOUT PROBIOTICSOLUTIONS. No
CONRAD TREE SERVICE. Tree evaluation--haz-
WANTED: Unique Lamps, Diamonds, Hummels,
MGD MINAMI GRANITE DESIGNS: FREE guest
LECI’S BOUQUET: Beautiful flowers for all occasions. Call or 352-861-5324 or stop by, 923 N. Magnolia Ave. Ocala. www.lecisbouquet.com
USED MOTORHOME - 2006 Safari Continental -
ardous tree removal--tree trimming--lightning protection. Free estimates. 24 Hour emergency service. 352-867-1123.
1160 1625 N. Magnolia, Ocala.
9,000 Sq. ft. of Quality Merchandise. Come in and browse - 716 W. Noble Ave., Williston - or give us a call 352-5283434. pesticides ever. Fly control -- odor control -- mosquito control. Call: Sterling Acres Farm 352-817-6053 www.nofliesonmanure.com.
Was $82,995 Now $59,888. Suncoast RV, 3550 S. Pine Ave., Hwy 301/441 - 888-328-7188 - 352-351-1184.
SIGNMAKERS: Call us for all you sign needs. 352-732-
for all! Free deliver of flowers to in hospital patients and funerals.732-0500 23 NE 12 Ter.- behind Checkers.
DOWNTOWN PAWN, 33 NW 10th St. – visit our
new location with loads of quality merchandise. Opening soon – Used car sales! 629-1171.
NEEDHAM PLUMBING & ELECTRIC SERVICE. NO JOB TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL. Ocala business since 1889, 4th Generation. 452-629-6933
JMAX AUTO: Call us for previously owned vehicles. Rentals available. 352-401-7589
250 ACRES in BUTLER GEORGIA
Flowing creek 4 bedroom, 4 bath house built in 2007. Food plots, feeders with cameras, 20 stands. $950,000 Call Rhonda Wetherington 813-763-0986.
BIG SUN PRODUCTS – Everything for your farm or
ranch. Call or visit. www.bigsunproducts.com 2001 NW 1st Ave, Ocala 352-629-9645
DISCOUNTED STEEL BUILDINGS – Big & Small,
Get the deal of deals! Placement to site. www.scg-grp. com. Source # 0JR (813) 774-6584.
CONRAD TREE SERVICE – Tree Evaluation, Haz-
ardous Tree Removal, Tree Trimming, Lightning Protection, Free Estimates. 24 Hour Emergency Servuce. 352-867-1123
09-10 HUNTING SEASON – GA Hunt Club Memberships Available (Sumter County) Hunt 2600+ Acres. Excellent Deer & Turkey. $1,000/Member. 229-815-8858
CONRAD TREE SERVICE – Tree Evaluation, Haz-
ardous Tree Removal, Tree Trimming, Lightning Protection, Free Estimates. 24 Hour Emergency Servuce. 352-867-1123
TO PLACE YOUR CLASSIFIED ADS IN THE MARION EDITION CALL 352-299-5776
Growing Businesses in OCALA AREA Please patronize these fine businesses in your area, and tell them you saw their ad in InTheField® Magazine
CD RATES TOO LOW?
LET'S TALK. Diana L Moore
www.edwardjones.com
Financial Advisor .
CONSIGNMENT WAREHOUSE
Member MemberSIPC CIPF
Reddick, FL 32686 352-591-3222
STORE OPEN NOW FOR CONSIGNMENT Is your tack room Stop in today for anything equine or pet related! The coffee pot is always on... or closet taking
over your BARN?
255 SW 60th Ave. (Next to Farrier Depot/FedEx) • M-Sat. 10-5 Phone: 352-572-2702 • Fax: (866) 737-7871
Mobile: 352-275-1863
Professional Photography of Florida Barry Miller-The World is my Studio YOUR ONE STOP SHOP • • • •
Fluid Changes Tune-Ups Brakes Air Conditioning
• Electrical • Fuel Injection • Tires & Wheels
• Computer Wheel Balance • Power Windows
1723 NE 23rd Terrace • Ocala, FL 34470 (352) 732-9200 • (352) 622-6227 Full Line of Farrier & Farm Supplies
SPECIALIZING IN: • FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS UNDER THE FLORIDA SUN • SHOW HORSES IN THE ARENA OR FARM SETTINGS • MOTORCYCLISTS • WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHS • AND MORE!
Tel: 352-694-3827 Mobile: 941-730-8875 E-mail: unperdictable58@aol.com
Retail Wholesale
The
Briar Patch
Plants, Trees, Annuals, Perennials, Citrus and More 352-854-0528 Fax 352-854-2849
7715 W. Hwy. 40 Ocala, FL 34482
2025 N.E. 70th St. (CR 326) • Ocala, FL 34479
Tel: 352-690-6887
formerly Bobcat & Kubota of Ocala
NOW ACCEPTING CONSIGNMENTS ASK FOR STEVE ALLIGOOD
CHECK OUT OUR USED EQUIPMENT
Office 352-368-2400 • Steve Cell 352-615-1236 • Toll Free 800-269-7575 48
INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2009