GATEWAY ORGANIC FARM

By Carol Cortright

On an unlikely plot of land nestled between the traffic-clogged arteries of US 19 and the Bayside Bridge, in densely populated Pinellas County, an urban garden fed over three dozen families this past year, sparked the interest of Tampa Bay’s brightest restaurateurs, and got people excited about locally-grown, pesticide-free food. In short, the farmer and his wife accomplished a miracle.

Ohio natives Hank and Pamela Sindlinger had a good solid plan for retirement by age 55, but serendipity intervened in a big way, delivering the chance to sow new seeds and reap quite a different harvest. Their Gateway Organic Farm is well on its way to a second season of celebrating the earth’s bounty, with Mother Nature’s approval, of course.

Hank and Pamela grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, surrounded by family farms and gardens. Although they went to the same school and later found out that their families had known each other for decades—his Amish grandfather kept her family’s horses shod—it wasn’t until the redhead with the sparkling eyes caught Hank’s attention at a ten-year class reunion. Within five minutes, she had noticed him too. During a whirlwind trip to Egypt, Hank proposed to Pamela at the Great Pyramid of Cheops and they’ve been on a fantastic journey together ever since.

Hank earned a degree in electronics—a field that was “innovative and new.” His career ascent included salesman of the year for a drilling and wet processing equipment company and reached a peak pulling in a robust salary as national sales manager in the printed circuit board industry.

With a degree in psychology, Pamela spent fourteen years as an occupational therapist at a hospital in Mansfield. Sometimes, she took patients from the psych ward out to her grandmother’s farm for “horticultural therapy,” she recalls laughing. “I can’t imagine my grandmother let us do this!” Later, she served as director of education at a learning center before starting her own business, a tutor registry.

A job transfer for Hank landed the couple on a beautiful lakefront property in Atlanta for a while, where they developed a “great group of friends and coworkers,” recalls Pamela. “We weren’t planning to leave.” Soon, Hank’s position had him flying to Florida so they bought a cozy late-1950s house with the requisite garage space for the Harley, near the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport. Pamela commuted back and forth from Atlanta to Pinellas over the next year and a half.

For about a decade, the Sindlingers had been working out a financial strategy for retiring comfortably at age 55—“driving the car till the wheels fell off, that sort of thing,” they explained. But the opportunity to raise their grandkids came up and doors opened that the Sindlingers had never dreamed of. When they took custody of the children in 2002, they had to decide whether Florida or Georgia would be their primary residence. Hank retired, they headed for the Sunshine State permanently, and that’s when their new adventure really began.

A 100-ft. wide ribbon of property next door became available in 2004. Pamela had been thinking about starting an herb and flower operation and this site, narrow but a quarter mile long, would be perfect—it had belonged to a landscaper. She would use the existing greenhouses for her venture while the growers continued leasing other parts of the land, as was the previous set-up.

Within months the housing industry started its downward spiral and the other growers bailed, leaving an acre’s worth of abandoned plants, equipment and other materials. That was just the tip of the iceberg—the Sindlingers took ownership of their property a week before the first hurricane of the 2004 season came blowing through.

Undaunted, Pamela attended a workshop at the University of Florida’s research farm in Citra last year. She wanted to learn about organic farming for her herb and flower business. One of the panelists was Rick Martinez, Executive Director of Tampa’s Sweetwater Organic Community Farm. Martinez had a vision of small satellite farms throughout the region and when he heard about her situation, he said, “We need to talk.” With a handshake, a joint venture was formed to create a community garden at the Sindlingers’ property in unincorporated Clearwater.

Hank and Pamela dove headlong into learning about CSA—not the CSA they’d heard about in Atlanta (the Confederate States of America), but Community Supported Agriculture. CSA works like this: farmers grow the food while individuals pledge to support the operation by paying a membership fee up front that covers costs. In return, these members share in the harvest. The benefits are many: farmers get working capital in advance and sell directly to the community, and members get fresh, tasty produce at the source, reconnecting them with the land in the process. But because the farmers and members are partners, they share in the risks as well—when bad weather or pest invasions result in poor crops, for example.

The more they investigated CSA through Internet research and networking with pros in the field, the more they could see this was the direction they wanted to go: a farm that produced more than herbs and flowers. Business details aside, the biggest hurdle, Hank says, was the “upside-down gardening.” The growing season in Florida is quite different from that of Ohio and it’s HOT here. Another point he brings up: try growing things in sand.

The Sindlingers can’t say enough about the assistance they have received from county extension agents and others in the agricultural community. “Pam Brown and Jane Morse have been a huge help,” Pamela says of two Pinellas County Extension staffers. Her fellow Florida Herb Society members also contributed greatly to their horticultural crash course.

The Sindlingers “came to Extension after purchasing the property and wanted to know how to start a nursery business,” says Jane Morse, Pinellas County’s Commercial Horticulture Extension Agent. “I gave them lots of information, especially about marketing and (told them) that they needed to have their product sold before they even grew it. They needed a niche market.”

Pam Brown, Pinellas County’s Natural Resources Program Leader, says, “I first heard about Gateway from Rick Martinez at Sweetwater. On my first visit, I was impressed with their determination and energy. They had a daunting task to get the overgrown nursery plot ready to plant vegetables in the fall.”

Jane Morse sees a definite future in the Sindlingers’ enterprise: “With fuel prices and shipping costs continuing to rise, locally produced vegetables will be less costly to purchase. Also, as people become more aware of sustainable practices and supporting local businesses, the demand should continue to increase.”

After reading an article about the Eat Local Challenge and Bay area chef Chris Ponte, Pamela sent him a goodie basket featuring a sample of their garden’s bounty. That led to a visit by the esteemed chef and his staff. Soon, Ponte made a return trip and this time brought along some friends, including Tyson Grant of St. Petersburg’s Parkshore Grill, and Tom Pritchard of Clearwater Beach’s Island Way Grill.

The staff at Café Ponte couldn’t be more delighted to have an organic farm practically in their back yard. Pastry chef Cathleen Ryan recalls the thrill of having a local produce source: “A trip to the garden in the morning, picking the vegetables and (serving them) on that evening’s menu…does not get any better than that for a chef.”

When the Ponte crew first visited, they could still see the remnants of the nursery. Now, “with every visit, something new is growing or changing,” she says, adding, “Pamela and Hank have been completely at ease with the needs of chefs. They nourish our passion for farm-to-table experiences.”

Chef Ryan mentions some of the dishes they’ve created using Gateway’s produce: “Organic salads, lamb with roasted baby root vegetables, fennel panna cotta... As chefs, we communicate through our food. We pass on to our guests the excitement we feel to have fresh local ingredients to…provide memorable dining experiences.”

As important as the attention from the Tampa Bay’s brightest culinary stars has been, the response from the community has been overwhelming. Pamela said the Coast Guard even came knocking after they discovered the farm from the air—it’s located on the flight path from their base to the Gulf.

The Sindlingers have learned enough by now that they can start sharing advice with others interested in joining this green revolution. “It pays to be Internet-savvy,” says Pamela, citing the abundance of information, as well as opportunities to network with like-minded folks available on the web.

Dr. Robert Kluson, Agriculture/Natural Resources Extension Agent with the University of Florida/IFAS Sarasota County Extension, created a small farms network to connect growers like the Sindlingers via an e-mail group.

Organic certification is another education in and of itself. “The USDA owns the “O” word,” says Pamela. So until a farmer provides an extensive amount of paperwork tracking everything from seed origin to what the horses that provided the manure for the compost ate for breakfast, harvest can only be called “naturally grown and pesticide free.” As expected, those reams of paperwork bring fees galore—something that might seem daunting to most small operations. The Sindlingers are going for the gold. “There is a lot of accountability involved,” says Pamela, “But to play in Ponte’s field, we want to be certified.”

Within a few months of their first growing season in 2007, the Sindlingers knew it was time to leave Sweetwater behind and strike out on their own. They’ve expanded their membership capacity from 40 to 75—and continue to receive calls from people interested in what they’ve got going on, from potential field trips to speaking engagements to developing new services for their customers.

The Sindlingers have grand plans for their little strip of paradise…once they get more of the “Jurassic garden” of overgrown landscaping plants tamed and cleared out.

“You just have to squint a little and you can see our vision,” says Pamela, looking forward to creating an outdoor cooking pavilion to educate visitors about, for example, all the wonderful things you can make with kohlrabi.

Once additional land is cleared to provide enough harvest for members and then some, the Sindlingers hope to set up a produce stand for the general public. This fall, they plan to offer take-home garden boxes filled with sprouted organic seedlings, allowing customers to grow healthy produce in their own backyard.

“It is really great to have an organic farm here in Pinellas County, where we have very little agriculture left,” says Pinellas County Extension’s Pam Brown. “It’s a testament to very hard work and determination that they were able to get to this point. They have a wonderful outlook”

“Pamela and Hank are salt of the earth,” Chef Ryan says. “They have a great sense of community and family and they understand the importance of sustainable food.”

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” the farmer’s wife says of their tumultuous foray into agriculture from their previous careers. Hank adds, “It’s been serendipitous. Things are happening. We’re working it out through the kindness of strangers.”