Abby Baker
For some Tampa Bay residents, Saturday is the only day to buy produce.
Little Pond Farm, an USDA-certified organic farm in Bushnell, brings a truck filled with fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers each week to the Saturday Morning Market in downtown St. Petersburg.
The operation is manned by married couple and co-owners Cole and Ellen Turner. Turner, a farmer and Ellen, a biologist who previously worked in the genetics lab of the American Museum of Natural History work the land and provide regular organic hauls to Pinellas.
“Our mission is to be accessible and affordable,” Turner said. “We do that by being here every Saturday, rain or shine.”
Little Pond is a five-acre farm on 26 acres of Ellen’s family property.
Cole Turner
It’s old Florida, full of swamps, prairie, and woodland, but the couple both grew up in the Tampa Bay area. They moved to Bushnell (population 3,200) in 2013 to grow their farm.
In nine years (and nine growing seasons), they’ve graduated to harvesting 60 types of vegetables and hundreds of flower species using no pesticides or chemicals, a challenge in Florida.
How do they manage to grow for downtown’s demand with only a small crew of workers?
“In Florida, it’s very difficult,” Turner said.
The Turners use integrative pest management techniques, such as crop rotation, planting flowering plants to draw in pollinators, interplanting and old-fashioned preventative maintenance – or, as they say, “staying on top of things before they become a problem.”
Ellen manages the pests on the farm, often from the lab.
“When you get a fungus inside the plant, inside every cell, there’s nothing organic you can spray on that,” Ellen said. “And we wouldn’t want to spray anything that’s able to penetrate the cell.”
It’s all about prevention, she adds.
“We’re a really small farm and every moment we have at the farm is crucial,” Ellen told The Gabber.
They are constantly adjusting the way they plant their crops, and if they lose one type of vegetable, they have 59 more for the market, which is important, considering their customers invest in the harvest before receiving any vegetables.
Customers pay with a prepaid farm card. People load the farm card with funds, starting at $400, the summer before the season. Little Pond adds a 10%-12% spending credit to the card, meaning members who load $400 on their card have at least $440 to spend. Members use the card to buy produce offerings at the Saturday Morning Market throughout the season.
“People invest in the farm and then reap the benefit after harvest,” Turner said.
Abby Baker
With the exception of a few community events, Little Pond does not open the farm itself – it’s also the Turner’s private home.
The couple, who met at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm, originally lived in a barn apartment on the property. They moved to a home nearby after the birth of their daughter, who is now 18 months.
“She loves vegetables,” Turner laughed.
Interested in becoming a member? Get the nitty gritty details at littlepondfarm.com
