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Farm Grows On Family

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By LOIS KINDLE

lkindle@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

WIMAUMA - On a typical day at My Mother's Garden, Kathy Oliver tends row after row of delicate herbs soon to flavor someone's sauce or salad.

Across the farm, her sister, Susan Bishop, walks grassy pastures where a small herd of cattle graze. A few acres away, brother Stuart Alexander moves the portable henhouse he designed himself to naturally fertilize the ground beneath it. His wife, Sherry, has just collected a dozen or so eggs deposited that morning by their Rhode Island Reds.

"We're really blessed to able to live together on this magnificent piece of land," Bishop said, referring to the 90 acres her 78-year-old mother, Pat Alexander owns. "We get to do something we love.

"My parents bought the farm in 1978, after my dad saw a small newspaper ad," she continued. "He came out here on a whim and fell in love with the place. We all did."

Bishop, 49, and Oliver, 48, own My Mother's Garden, a certified organic farm of culinary herbs, edible flowers, salad greens and produce - all of which is sold online or at local farmers markets. Leasing the land from their mother, the sisters also sell grass-fed, Red Angus and Murray Grey cattle, some citrus, roaming pastured Berkshire pigs and Tamworth hogs, all raised on the farm.

Their 45-year-old brother is one of a growing number of local producers who provide products to My Mother's Garden. He and his wife raise Rhode Island Red and Araucana laying hens and sell their eggs as pet food. They also tend the herd of Berkshires.

"We live and work on the farm together," Oliver said. "Everyone pitches in to do whatever's needed."

That includes Bishop's two sons, Jesse, 20, and Calvin, 18.

"Jesse is planting papaya trees and blackberry bushes," Bishop said. "Calvin's the retailer in the family. He helps us at the Sarasota Farmers Market every Saturday."

Although there have been offers, the family has no plans to sell the property, which is surrounded by county-owned wildlife preserves.

"I can't ever imagine that," Bishop said. "We're all in agreement on how we see this land and our future here. There's a bit of Florida everywhere - swamp, pasture, woodland, and the Little Manatee River is up there on the ridge. This is our home."

Reporter Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553.

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