In a time when family-owned businesses are dying off, a handful of citrus growers have found a way to thrive doing things the old fashioned way. ...more

December 17, 2007

In a time when family-owned businesses are dying off, a handful of citrus growers have found a way to thrive doing things the old fashioned way. ...more

December 17, 2007

LAKE PLACID — Eight grove owners north of town have banded together in a bid to trade oranges for homes. At Monday's meeting, a professional urban planner presented town council with preliminary plans that call for the eventual construction of 4,600 homes on 1,500 acres. Ground breaking for the proposed development, which stretches from the railroad bridge northeast to the shores of Lake Apthorpe, and on both sides of U.S. 27, is at least four years away, according to planner Augie Fragala, of Powell, Fragala & Associates Inc. ...more

December 17, 2007

SEBRING — John C. Alleyne, a horticulturist and former university professor, traveled the world, from the Caribbean island republic of Trinidad to the world's highest mountains in Nepal, before deciding to settle in Sebring. He's finishing his second week as the new director of the Highlands County Cooperative Extension Service and says he feels lucky to be in this county, rated No. 2 among the state's 67 counties in citrus production. Alleyne won't be directly involved in helping the citrus growers, as his specialty is commercial horticulture. Citrus work, he said, is handled primarily by the extension office's citrus agent, Tim Hurner. ...more

December 17, 2007

SEBRING — As Florida goes into its second winter of a drought that is expected to persist as far as official projections can go, growers are complaining that ongoing water restrictions are leaving their plants parched. Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford told Highlands Today that Joe Collins, an engineer with Lykes Bros., complained that Lykes could use any water they could get from Lake Istokpoga for some of the crops it was growing. The South Florida Water Management District had shut off the water permits using the lake's canals since October. ...more

December 14, 2007

The Tampa that Martin Bearss used to know and the one he lives in now is like comparing apples and oranges. ...more

November 10, 2007

SEBRING — Here's the upshot from Friday morning's citrus crop estimate: USDA experts don't expect a repeat of the 230 million box bumper crop of the 2001-02 season. But unless there's a disaster, 2007-08 will be way better than the 129 million boxes Florida farmers eked out last season. "We're excited to see the estimate of 168 million boxes this season," said Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president of Florida Citrus Mutual, a grower's association. Raymond Royce, executive director of the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association, thinks the agriculture department's prediction of 30 percent larger than last year is neither too positive or too negative. "It's right about where I believe, and many of our growers probably thought we would be," Royce said. ...more

October 13, 2007

Highlands Today recently did a story that citrus producer Mason Smoak had testified before the House Agriculture Committee in Congress that,"We want legal workers." I can agree that citrus growers need workers to get their fruit picked, but not at the expense of having millions of illegals from Mexico unlawfully entering the United States. Mr. Smoak said he "is proud of the salaries he pays his employees" of $10 an hour, when the federal wage rate is $5.85? ...more

October 11, 2007

The good news first: next year, a gallon of orange juice may cost less than a gallon of gasoline. ...more

September 27, 2007