Florida Farms & Farmers

The following organizations have resources and information to help with your local Farm to School program.

The New North Florida Cooperative

The New North Florida Cooperative (NNFC) supplies local produce to Florida schools. Since 2002, the NNFC has functioned as a council that helps connect farmers to local schools.
For more information contact:
Glyen Holmes
Executive Director
New North Florida Cooperative/Small Farmer Distribution Network
3806 Union Road
Marianna, FL 32446
Phone: 850 352-2400
Fax: 850-352-9986
nnfc1995@yahoo.com

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation about the Cooperative.



Farmers
There are 74 farmers’ markets in Florida. Click here for a full list.

Hi Hat Ranch
Hi Hat Ranch was established in 1937 by Ross Beason, a New York businessman who aquired approximately 42 suqare miles and began improvements. Mr. Beason was said to have purchased the land largely for his son, Lt. Ross Beason Jr., an Air Force pilot in WWII. However, after the death of his son Ross Sr. lost interest and sold the land to Herman E. Turner, a Bradenton construction engineer who had worked for Beason.

Dubbed "one of the most remarkable pieces of property in the state", the land was used primarily for cattle production.

In the late 50's management of the land was turned over to his son, Latimer (Lat) Turner. During his tenure as head of Hi Hat Ranch the operation continued to prosper. To stablize the cyclical nature of a cattle business, Lat diversified by planting 300 acres of orange and grapefruit grove, as well as sod and vegable farming.

Following the death of Lat Turner in 1990, Herman Turner's grandsons, Chuck and Rick Turner, assumed management, with oversight from other family members. Today, Hi Hat Ranch has 1,200 acres of citrus and vegatable production. In 2007 Hi Hat Ranch became one of two farms in West Central Florida to take the steps to extablish the local Farm to School Program.

3 Boys Farm
In his growing venture 3 Boys Farm, Robert Tornello is actually building on a lifetime of horticultural experience. As a boy in the 1960?s, he helped elderly Italian neighbors tend their organic gardens; in the years that followed, he would design rooftop gardens and indoor atria around the U.S. and Canada and later establish nurseries that supplied live plants to zoos and theme parks worldwide. Today, with an eye to the futures of his own three sons, he remains committed to upholding the core principles behind everything his garden-growing elders taught him back in the 60?s: if we are to eat responsibly, healthily, and locally, we must also grow our food that way.

Decades of raising pesticide-free plant material?for installing in children?s hospitals, for example, or as forage for pandas and gorillas at zoos around the country?translate into a wealth of knowledge and experience. And that experience means an unwavering dedication to the details involved in growing truly pesticide-free produce.

At 3 Boys Farm, tradition meets state-of-the-art, producing fresh, Florida-grown food year-round. Florida Farm Bureau member over 25 years, Fresh From Florida program 10+
Certified Naturally Grown 2+years.