Geraldson Community Farm
Geraldson Community Farm is about connecting you with locally-grown food. As a working farm, we aim to provide you with the freshest produce and also offer multiple avenues to connect with the growing process.
During the growing season (November to May), you can become a member have access to freshly picked veggies each week!
How you can get our produce
The farm is structured as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. That means our organic produce is available just to our members. Our members support us financially at the beginning of the season and in return we provide them a selection of ripe vegetables every week. This year, we will be farming just eight of the available 20 acres. Each year we plan to add more types of vegetables and eventually some fruit.
Becoming A Member
Please visit our farm's website at www.geraldsoncommunityfarm.org for more information on this!
Other farm activities
As this will be only our second year, the activities on the farm will be limited. We will have volunteer opportunities that will allow you to get involved in growing the vegetables at the farm.
We do host tours for groups each week. Please call Adam at 792-0985 to schedule.
History of the farm
Geraldson Community Farm was bought by Manatee County in 2005 from the Geraldson family, one of the original farming families in the area. Dr. Geraldson was a pioneer in Florida agriculture and worked with Blake Whisenant on the development of the EarthBox. The family lives next door to the property and wanted to make sure it would be preserved for agricultural use.
During 2005-2006, the Florida West Coast RC&D lead a partnership in the development of a plan to ensure its preservation and in September of 2006 presented Manatee County with the idea of a community farm. The Board of County Commissioners approved the plan and in January of 2007 signed a contract with the RC&D to begin development of Geraldson Community Farm.
We are excited about this second year of harvest and hope you can join us!
Additional Information:
Geraldson Community Farm One-Page Summary (pdf)
The presentation at Commissioners meeting, Sept. 2006 (pdf)
Keeping Agriculture in the Community presentation (pdf)
"A Local Food Story" (pdf)