Manatee County women till the toughest fields as Farm City Week proves

PARRISH -- Agriculture is a tough-as-nails business, which may be why Manatee County has a good number of women who do it.

According to the 2012 census, there are 374 woman farm operators and 726 men operators in Manatee County, said Samantha Kennedy director of the Manatee County Extension.

Women make great farmers because they don't give up when things get tough, said Betty Glassburn, an adult leader of the Mighty 4-Hers of Duette.

"Women have more patience than men," Glassburn said. "We may not have physical strength, but we have stick-to-itiveness because most of us were mothers. Women know if you make a mistake your first year you know not to make it again."

The work of at least one of those 374 women farmers -- Ellenton Nursery Grower owner Priscilla Trace -- will be on public display during the 2015 Farm City Week, which runs Nov. 9-20 and whose theme is "Women in Agriculture."

Farm City Week was started 58 years ago to show city people what rural people do, said Manatee agriculturist Ralph Garrison.

Trace's business is a stop on the Nov. 20 Farm City agricultural tour which also includes Gary Reeder Tomato Farm in Duette, C & E Farms in Parrish and Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery in Duette. Two buses will carry 180 people into rural Manatee and seats are still available.

Trace, 58, has ag DNA in her blood. She is one of the four children of Hall of Fame retired farmer Blake Whisenant of Parrish who invented The Earthbox for growing in small spaces.

"I never think of myself as a woman in agriculture, rather as an agriculturist," Trace said Monday. "But then people remind me I was the first woman president of the Florida Nurseryman and Growers Association. I will say that every grower's wife I know is involved in the business, many times doing the books. My husband, Craig, does our books and I do the growing and run our crew of seven."

As for her feminine side coming out in her farming, Trace said she gets a satisfaction from seeing the "leafy children" she raised growing up around Parrish.

"I like being outdoors," Trace said. "I like riding around and seeing my trees. I like to tell people, 'Hey, that's my tree right there.' I like working with our crew and our customers."

In 2009, the economy sagged and in 2011 it hit bottom,

"I had to let all of our crew go," Trace said. "If our son, Blake, wouldn't have been interested we would have sold out. Someone told me that 40 percent of the state's nurseries went out of business. We were down 95 percent."

Better times are back, Trace said.

"We are not a multi-million dollar business but we are a couple of hundred thousand dollar business," Trace said. "I'm most proud that we started small and grew it up."

Trace graduated from Palmetto High School in 1975 and received a Bachelor of Science at the University of Florida in horticulture in 1979.

The Traces started out with a container nursery in Ellenton then decided to go into trees. They kept their business name the same after the move from Ellenton to Parrish.

"We went into tree farming in 1988," said Trace, who grows hardwoods, including oaks, maples, queen and washingtontonia palms, on land the couple leases from the Whisenant family along State Road 62.

"We have one son, Blake, who is slowly taking over the business and doing a good job," Trace added.

Two of Trace's three brothers -- Bob and Daniel -- now run Whisenant Farms, where they grow tomatoes, Trace said. Trace's sister, Mary, keeps the books for Whisenant Farms.

"Priscilla was born on the land," Glassburn said. "She is very diligent and she knows how to grow and doesn't mind asking for advice."

Soil Speech Contest winner

Farm City Week kicked off Monday night when Pankti Parikh of Southeast High School won first place in the Soils Speech Contest sponsored by the Manatee River Soil and Water Conservation District.

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Manatee County women till the toughest fields as Farm City Week proves ."