Bradenton’s famous Mixon Fruit Farms is closing for good this week after 84 years

After 84 years, one of Bradenton’s most well-known attractions will close its doors for good this week.

Mixon Fruit Farms started as a fruit stand in 1939, and its last day of business will be Saturday, July 29.

But owners Dean and Janet Mixon hope the memories will live on for the generations of Manatee County residents who visited.

This week, employees gathered for a goodbye photo and the Mixons prepared for the next stage of their business’s legacy — a food truck with their famous soft-serve ice cream.

Upholding that legacy was a challenge Dean Mixon started to take on as a child.

“I came along and as soon as I could reach the pedals of the tractor, I was working in it and doing whatever I could. I’ve worked in it all my life,” he said.

Origins of Mixon

In 1939, Dean’s grandparents, Willie and Rosa, began selling fruit on the street and from their home.

Willie was a caretaker of the groves in the area and was able to buy a few acres to produce fruit. Since there were no canneries around, Dean said the only way to sell the fruit was fresh.

Rosa would load her six children in the back of the truck and drive them to the Dixie Grande Hotel in downtown Bradenton to sell the produce.

Dean said reception to their citrus was overwhelmingly positive. The family reached people who lived out of town, which led to many requests to have the fruit shipped out of state and to loved ones up north.

Shipping was much more difficult during that time, according to Dean. Boxes would weigh roughly 90 pounds, and it would take two weeks to arrive up north using the railways.

That demand began the decades-long growth of the family-owned business.

Willie and Rosa also sold fruit in front of their home on the corner of 26th Avenue and 27th streets.

“It was always my grandfather’s dream to get my grandmother off that corner, because she had traffic from the dirt roads and the dust and stuff coming in all the time… there was no air conditioning in those days, everything was open. They finally moved right down the street,” he said.

Before Mixon Fruit Farms was established, the land was sold to Joseph Braden, who Bradenton was named after, according to Janet.

“We kind of say that this is part of the beginning history of Bradenton. To me, that’s kind of an exciting thing,” she said.

Business booms

Business continued to soar in 1959 when Mixon expanded to incorporate several pieces of property that were under individual ownership under one umbrella.

It was also when the first part of the main Mixon building was built, a small wooden building filled with equipment.

Despite technology evolving with Mixon’s continual success, the farm’s work ethic remained the same, and Dean’s parents thought it was time for him to start pitching in.

However, Dean thought his days at Mixon Farms were over when he went to college.

“It wasn’t until my second year in college I decided it’s a pretty good way to make a living,” he said. “So I decided to come back and I focused on my studies… and took all the citrus courses they had [at Florida Southern].”

The size of the main Mixon building doubled in 1972. As part of a college project, Dean said he helped plan the expansion and designed the processing line, which would eventually become a processing plant.

The farm only grew more successful as the years passed. Dean said the farm spanned 350 acres of groves by the 1970s, and it began selling its famous ice cream in 1986.

About 39 acres still remain on the farm, and it’s not clear yet what will happen to the land. It’s up for sale, and the county is considering turning it into a public park.

Citrus sales used to account for 80-90% of Mixon’s revenue stream, Dean said. He said the farm used to pack close to 200,000 boxes of fruit to mail out to individual addresses — just during the Christmas season alone in the early 1990s. The farm’s peak business year was in 1992.

Though some land eventually had to be sold and business slowed overtime, the popularity and rave reception cemented Mixon as a local household name.

Modernizing Mixon

Dean and Janet took over the farm from Dean’s father, Bill Mixon, in 2006. Dean was tasked with the challenge of merging both successful aspects of his father’s and grandfather’s skills into one — Willie was best at farming, while Bill was the businessman.

When Dean and Janet took ownership, the definition of what it meant to visit Mixon Fruit Farms rapidly developed.

The tram rides — a guided tour through the groves — were implemented in 2005. The farm also held weddings beginning in 2009. Since then, Mixon has hosted roughly 400-500 weddings, Janet said.

Dean and Janet also expanded possibilities to allow locals and visitors to hold memorials, baby dedications, celebrations of life, class reunions and corporate meetings.

“His family thought we were crazy,” Janet said.

Janet, not initially a farmer herself, said she brought an outside perspective by pitching ideas she thought would appeal to a broader audience — and would fill the holes in the declining citrus industry.

Dean said his family’s initial skepticism was because of their preference for traditional business models. Bill and Dean’s brother, Don Mixon, believed citrus was the main money-making and moral focus of the business.

However, Dean said the diversification paid off when they saw how the industry was hit hard by citrus disease.

Dean said citrus sales now account for roughly 5-10% of revenue.

Closing out a legacy

Though they adapted, many factors have caused them to close this summer after 84 years.

One major contributor was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994, Janet said. NAFTA was created to expand trade opportunities between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which led to more imports.

She said it also led new insects and citrus diseases that caused Mixon Fruit Farms to lose all of its trees on two separate occasions, including some trees that were planted in the 1800s.

Employment has also been a struggle, according to Dean. He said although getting people to work has always been an issue for them to varying degrees, the pandemic drastically affected the situation and made it more difficult to find employees.

Future of Mixon

Dean and Janet plan to keep the Mixon legacy alive by opening a food truck in October. The truck will travel around the community and is expected to serve ice cream, pressed Cuban sandwiches and different types of grilled cheeses.

Events like weddings that were scheduled through 2023 will also still go on given that no work will be done on the property in the immediate future.

Being able to remain involved with the community in a more accessible way is something Janet said is an exciting prospect.

“I just want to have a good time,” she said. “Although we have been working crazy… I’m not ready to sit at home and watch Hallmark movies and eat candy.”