When I moved to Davie 25 years ago, one of the first places I was introduced to was Batten Farms. Mostly local produce and a fantastic strawberry field where you could pick your own. I have the best memory of my then, 2 year old daughter eating more strawberries than she was putting in the basket. When she grabbed a very over ripe one, it squished between her fingers. What a terrible time to not have a camera handy to capture the shocked look on her face. Battens closed in 2008 but has recently opened as Batten’s Farmers Market and Davie Agri-Tourism Center. I paid a visit this past weekend, partly for the memories and mostly for the fresh produce. I love farm fresh tomatoes, string beans, and pineapple all of which I found and more. It was pouring rain on my visit so I left the camera in the car. I found the selection sparse compared to how I remembered it years ago with so much produce it was hard to walk the aisles and harder still to choose from the overwhelming selection. Since I was stuck under cover by a sudden cloud burst I purchased a smoothie and got some information. I was told a produce manager was coming on board this week and the selections will be greatly increased. The U_pick-em will come along a little later near the fall and there may be a pumpkin patch in October if all goes well.
I hope that is the case. Batten Farms was extremely popular when I lived out that way and I'll be only to happy to drive there now to purchase local produce. There are too few farmers markets left in South Florida. Judging by the amount people who braved the Florida summer storms with me, Batten's will be right back to the way I remember very soon.
We still have a few places around that are similar to this. The strawberry patch though turned out to be the very place where the man killed his wife and put her in the deep freezer in their garage and kept her there for a long time. We used to pick strawberries and bring them in to pay for them and would set them down on that freezer, never knowing or suspecting the guy's wife was inside. He eventually took her out and drove her stiff body to Kentucky where he dumped her out. She was found and traced back to Ohio and the guy was arrested for murder and is still in prison. The strawberry patch disappeared.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Since Batten Farms was family owned since 1969, and closed in 2008, I think you might be thinking of a different strawberry patch.
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