U-Pick Citrus Without Greening - Katie and Shane Bevilacqua - Golden Ridge Groves

Florida's citrus industry has been decimated by the citrus greening disease. A farm family in Polk County sees an agritourism opportunity in reviving U-pick citrus ... with protection to keep out the bugs that spread the disease. We speak with Katie and Shane Bevilacqua of Golden Ridge Groves and Market in Alturas, which holds its grand opening Thursday (20th). 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. We talk about
agritourism a lot in Florida, and so do other states
where they have a big agricultural presence. One of the
most basic forms of agritourism that is familiar to many
Floridians is the you pick area, where farmers open their
fields and groves and allow the general public to come
in and pick strawberries or blueberries or peaches. And of course,

(00:23):
in Florida citrus Now there's a you Pick location that
has some special tech that's deployed to fight something that's
been a problem for the industry for many years now,
citrus greening disease. It's opening up for the season November twentieth.
Katie and Shane Bevelocua run golden Ridge Groves and Market
in Polk County, and they join us now on Beyond

(00:44):
the News. Welcome in, Folks, Hey, how are you hello?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
How did citrus greening affect things like you pick operations?
I mean, we know generally how it's unfortunately impacted the
general industry. I would think growers would be very reserved
about the idea of having strangers stomping around their groves
not knowing where they've been and more importantly, where their
feet had been.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, it's a it's a great point, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
And really where this all started for us was our
family has been in commercial production for citrus under protective screening,
which is what CUPS stands for, and we get questions
all the time about can we go inside, can we
go take a look? And my wife and I were
talking one night and thought, golly, you know, there's such

(01:32):
an interest in there's a love of citrus, right if,
Florida is known for producing the world's most premiere citrus,
and there's such an interest in understanding this new way
of growing oranges, tangerines, grapefruit.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
And so the idea was born.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
What if we could offer an agriturism business centered around
a cups you pick experience for those who who want
to come out and see what it's all about.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now, tell us about out that screen, I believe you
call it the cups. How does that keep the greening
disease away from the trees?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:07):
So kind of In simplest form, citrus screening is a
result of a fillid biting the orange tree and infecting
it with the disease. And it's through that reinfection, that
the citrus trees really are hurt by this, and so
the screen is designed kind of quite simply to be

(02:28):
able to be small enough where the bug cannot get
through and thus cannot infect the trees with the citrus
screening disease.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
So tell us about the setup that you're offering here
in your agritourism facility. I know you're not just offering
the opportunity to pig crops, but other experiences as well.
Tell us about that.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, So beyond the beyond the citrus you pick,
which will it will really be quite a delight for
folks to be able to have that old old Florida
citrus experience. Big beautiful trees, incredible premium fruit.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
The taste is.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Just the taste, the look, everything is just spectacular. Folks
who have been in the industry for a very long
time come out and say, this is exactly what we
remember citrus in Florida being many years ago, and we're
gonna carry that. That's kind of what we want golden
Ridge to be. Across the board. We're gonna have an
incredible you pick for a strawberry field. We're also gonna

(03:30):
have sunflowers and zinnias. You could even go out and
pick some different orange varieties outdoors. We'll have that available
and then lots available through our our farm market, which
I'll let Katie talk a little.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Bit more about.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, I think to Shamee's point, something that really got
us excited was being able to once you drive into
golden Ridge, be able to make it feel like you're
on you're on the farm. You are on a farm.
It is a commercial farm, but we wanted to really
give that experience to the general public who may or
may not have ever been able to do anything like that.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
So and it work.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
We're wanting to there's a big educational component to what
we want to do. We'll have homemade ice cream made
with the fruit that you're picking in the field. We're
gonna have we actually have a juicery with a huge
viewing window and feeding set up where you can watch
fresh squeeze orange juice being juiced and what that process

(04:33):
actually entails. We're gonna have tours and tastings of not
only the farm, but things within the market, so really
people can it's not just you come and you you
come to the farm, but you actually leave excited about
what what we're doing here and you get to walk

(04:53):
away with some homemade ice cream, which you know, how
what what more.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Could you want?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
We don't. That's that's a good point that you make.
That a lot of people. Of course, there was a
time when you pick it for citrus was probably very common,
and I know it still happens with peaches and strawberries
and blueberries. But as the citrus industry, unfortunately, as acreage
has declined, not just because of greening, but because of development,

(05:20):
a lot of people may not have the first hand
association between Florida and citrus that there might have been
in previous generations. It may not be top of mind
for a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, you bring up another good point.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
I mean, you know, at the peak in the late nineties,
there were two hundred and fifty plus or minus, you know,
two hundred and fifty million boxes of citrus produced in Florida,
and this year we're looking at about fourteen and a
half to fifteen million boxes.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
And so we really see this as.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
You know, like I said, you know, our family has
been in citrus and this really is hopefully a shining light,
something that we.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Can get excited about again in the state of Florida
for or you know.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
An option to combat such as screening and and really
make sure that Florida remains that premium provider of citrus
to the country through the world.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Well, it sounds like a very sweet deal, so to speak.
So when is your when is your farm open? And
are you charging by do you do you charge by
the basket or do you is there a flat fee
or how does it work?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, so our farm is officially going to open November twentieth.
Everyone can follow our pages or our website to keep
up to date on that, but that is our grand
opening date as of now. And then on a regular
day you'll be able to come in. There's no charge
for coming to the farm. A lot of our U
picks will be charged. You'll be charged by the stem

(06:47):
or by the pound, depending on which you pick you're doing.
And then obviously the market will be just your regular
classic farm market where we'll have all the local Florida
produce and some golden Ridge Grove signature items that people
can buy. But then we'll also have some special events

(07:09):
throughout the year. I know we're planning on a Christmas
jubileegue in December where Santa may or may not be
showing up to say hello. And then we'll have our
great Grapefruit Extravaganza on opening weekends with some exciting grapefruit
theme surprises. So we'll have several big events that will

(07:29):
probably be ticketed throughout the year, but on a regular
day it'll just be by the pound for you pick.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
And then in the market and that grand opening again
November twentieth, Katie and Shane Bevilacua with golden Ridge Groves
and Market in Now we say Polk County, how about
throwing in a little bit of a direction there, because
if you're you're kind of you're even by Polk County standards,
you're you're kind of out there, you know what.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
We're located in the perfect place for a classic and
authentic Florida farm experience. We are right off Highway sixty,
not even a quarter a mile off Highway sixty, on
Altura's Road, right between Bartow and Lake Wales.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Right between Bartow and Lake Wales and due south of
winter Haven. And the way they're growing, they may be
on your doorstep in a few years, but right now,
right now I can attest to this personally. Alturus is
still very rural and very much reminiscent of old Florida.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I have to say absolutely, we agree with that. We
agree with that.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Katie and Shane Bevulocua with golden Ridge Groves and Market
talking about citrus and you pick it and kind of
a new way forward for the citrus industry. Thank you
both for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Thank you so much.