Tommy Simmons of Bellevue Gardens Organic Farm in Alachua County is a presenter of the session “Seed Saving and Production” in the track “Organic and Sustainable Farming’ on the Saturday program of the 2013 SFAE conference. Tommy is a third generation farmer on his family’s land west of Gainesville. Bellevue Gardens has been a family farm since 1917 and certified organic for over thirty-five years. He remembers his father always took great care to keep him and his siblings away from the pesticides they used. As he grew older, he saw reactions to fungicides and other chemicals and decided to convert the farm and become a certified organic grower.

Tommy grows several types of peas, hard squash, okra, and turnips among other crops but his watermelons are his pride and joy. A watermelon from Bellevue tastes like the summer of childhood. It’s sugary sweet and filled with seeds. Tommy is a strong proponent of seeded watermelon because he believes in growing from his own seeds so he can insure the organic integrity and viability of the crop. His melons are disease and drought resistant, but Tommy adds, “If only they were deer, coyote and crow resistant!” In short, everyone loves these watermelons!

Tommy also is known for his ‘Bellevue butternut squash’ which are grown in rotation after his watermelon crop. Again his program in seed saving and crop selection has developed his squash as a regional cultivar that is disease and drought resistant to his Florida growing conditions.

Tommy will describe his experiences and methods in onfarm seed saving at the session on ‘Seed Saving and Production’. Come learn how you too can learn the skills that you can use to develop your own unique regional cultivars of your signature crops that will develop your successful niche markets.

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