"Flagler County, Florida - Spotlight on Agriculture"

Farmers, Growers, and Cowboys Rule!

   When I was a kid, I spent summers on my aunt and uncle's Pennsylvania farm.  South side of the road was a dairy operation and the North side was for raising turkeys and growing fruits and vegetables.  The experience helped me later get a job as a hired hand on a large, commercial dairy farm, where we were blessed with a large herd of Brown Swiss cows, noted for their prodigious production of high protein/high fat milk... a cheese maker's dream!

 Clegg's Sod Farm

Uncle Joe, all 140 lbs. of him, would take a 100 lb. milk can in each hand and run up the steep grade from the barn like it was nothing, to put the milk out for pickup from the local dairy.  My cousins and I were in awe.  And to this day, I still brag that Aunt Mary's cooking was blessed by God, Himself.  Who knew, like Uncle Joe schooled me, that cows gave more milk if you put the radio on a station they liked.  His cows, it seems, liked polka music.  The fact that Joe and Mary were immigrants from Slovenia, more than likely influenced the choice, as well.  Those farm memories are so good and so strong.  My wife, who hails from Brooklyn, thinks I'm a little nuts, when I say, "Man, I love the smell of a barn!"

This week, as a member of the Flagler County "Economic Opportunity Advisory Council" (EOAC), I was blessed with an opportunity to visit some of Flagler County's agricultural operations.  Once again, I was reminded of the fact that the men and women who run these farm oriented businesses, possess a breadth and depth of knowledge, beyond what is imagined, as we pick up our meat, dairy, and produce, in the comfort and convenience of the local grocery store.

Hollar & Greene Produce Co.

Matt Seay's Potatoes

Most Palm Coasters are probably unfamiliar with what lies out Routes 100, 11, 13, 304, 305, 1422...  and the hundreds of gravel roads West of town, but it's a lot.  Meeting with David Clegg, Chuck Cowart, Dwayne Weeks, Matt Seay, and T.J. Bratcher, let me know that our Ag- Business is in good hands.  I loved it when Chuck Cowart, self-described cracker cowboy, quipped that he "knew more about the Stock Market than anybody on Wall Street."  Of course he was referring to his business dealings of buying and selling beef cattle to the "stock markets," at the optimum time, for the best profit margin.

T.J. Bratcher's Produce Store

From an Economic Development standpoint, Flagler's Ag-Business is a huge part of the mix.  Florida is 9th in the nation in total agriculture, with over $100 Billion pumped into the annual state GDP.  We are 10th overall in beef cattle and #1 for herds over 500 head in the US.  In Flagler County, Ag is the #1 employer (with over 1,120 jobs), #2 in output ($306.4M), and #2 in export goods ($133M).

We finished off our tour with a stop at Bratcher Farms Produce Store, on West Rt. 100, and loaded up with goodies.  I took home some sweet onions, eggplant, mushrooms, peach jam, and the walnut syrup that will go on this Sunday morning's french toast.  Can't wait!