{"id":45652,"date":"2024-05-19T20:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T00:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=45652"},"modified":"2024-05-19T20:56:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T00:56:07","slug":"parkesdale-farms-experiments-with-new-crops-and-has-no-plan-to-sell-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/05\/19\/parkesdale-farms-experiments-with-new-crops-and-has-no-plan-to-sell-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkesdale Farms experiments with new crops and has no plan to sell out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When people hear the name “Parkesdale”, they think of beautiful red berries and the world-famous treats made with them at Parkesdale Farm Market in Plant City. But farmer Matt Parke thinks about his family’s legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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His grandfather and great-grandfather moved down from Pennsylvania to establish Parkesdale Farms in 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He planted ten acres, which was unheard of because a five-acre farm was huge then. Everybody was like, ‘\u2019You crazy Yankee! You’re not going to be able to sell it all or pick it all’. And he did. And the following year they did 20 acres,” Parke shared.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it’s grown to 430 acres and it’s not just strawberries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season, Parke will grow about 25,000 boxes of beans and 90,000 boxes of peppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkesdale Farms also grows, among other things, onions, blackberries, and peas which are all sold at the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We love selling our produce locally to whoever wants to come get it for your wholesale price because it’s definitely cheaper than buying it from wherever you’re at,” Parke said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is always on the lookout for a new crop. <\/p>\n\n\n

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This year, he has a trial crop of artichokes on a small quarter acre. It’s a new crop to Florida. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They harvest at a time here in Florida when California has a void in their market, when they’re switching regions. So, the market can be, you know, a little bit higher at that point. And we’re going to try to capitalize on that,” Parke explained.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With each new crop, Parke carefully weighs factors like growth rate, input cost, profitability, and the effect on already existing crops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s always a level of excitement whenever you’re growing a new crop because you’ve never done it before,” Parke stated. “But it’s all learning curves. If you think you know everything about farming, you’re going to be out quick.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parke says he loves the peace and tranquility of his fields, but the market in which he sells his products is anything but quiet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The market price for vegetables can change in a matter of hours and sometimes the timing doesn’t always work in his favor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of keeping up with the market, labor expenses are skyrocketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parke says contract workers have received the largest raise in U.S. history over the past two years. It makes it hard to keep up with his competition in Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n

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“I think they give them like $12 a day to pick, and we’re paying $12 in between four boxes to pick. So, competing with that is just hard,” he shared.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of land in the area has also gone up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these pressures are forcing many farmers in the area to sell and head south to cheaper land or get out of farming altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But we’re going to be the last of the Mohicans in the Plant City and Dover area,” Parke said. “We’re going to be the last ones to sell out. So, all the neighbors out there, don’t worry. We’re not going anywhere.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people hear the name “Parkesdale”, they think of beautiful red berries and the world-famous treats made with them at Parkesdale Farm Market in Plant City. But farmer Matt Parke… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[8560],"class_list":["post-45652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-parkesdale-farms-experiments-with-new-crops-and-has-no-plan-to-sell-out"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}