The Hendry Co. Extension Office produces a City Farm Tour several times a year. I got on the bus recently and got more than a bushel & a peck of information about agriculture in the county.
(The captions tell the story).
The tour started at Mobley Plant World in LaBelle. These are watermelon plants.
This machine puts the seeds into the soil, then into the white planter containers in background of picture.
After a windshield tour of Duda Farm Fresh Foods' crops, the tour headed to Alico Ranch, where we saw modern day cowboys! Yee Haw! Those are cattle they're rustling.
One of the cowboys and his canine assistants.
Onto Southern Gardens Juice Plant. It was a windshield tour, but they let us off the bus to sample their handiwork! Most of their juice is sold under the Kroger brand, or Tropicana or Minute Maid.
After a drive through Clewiston, a steak lunch was served at the fairgrounds by the
Hendry Co. Cattlemen's Assoc. These great group of folks can cook for me anytime! Yum!
After lunch (did I mention how tasty it was?) we drove into the sugar cane fields to watch the crop being harvested. See a prior post for more details about this but notice the birds that follow the machinery. It's lunchtime for them as they find dead bugs, mice and other critters that got caught in the burn off process before the mechanical harvesting begins. Mmmm, it's a BBQ!!
Last stop on the tour was at C&B Farms Organic & Specialty Vegetables.
The farm grows 36 different vegetables and herbs. Particular specialities include oriental vegetables.
I'd highly recommend this tour because as you're learning about agriculture, the guides give history of the area, plus you ride across many miles of the county seeing the diverseness of the land.
It was time to get off the bus, but before heading home, the Extension Office presented everyone with a bag full of fruits & veggies from the different places we had visited. I'll remember this tour until the food runs out.
