 Feature
Story
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.”
back to top |
