Wendt Family Named The 2021 Santa Rosa Farm Family Of The Year

September 28, 2021

The 2021 Santa Rosa County Farm Family of the Year was awarded to Wendt Family Farm and Nursery, which has three generations of hard workers and over three decades of experience.

The 2021 Farm Family includes Earl and Janet Wendt, parents to William Wendt and Vickie Shiver. William Wendt is married to Joy and they have five children and four grandchildren. The Wendt’s are joined with other family members who also work on their farm, Wayland Nowling and Angela Nowling. The family enjoys participating in the Farm to City program that provides produce for families at Thanksgiving.

Wendt Farm and Nursery, a Santa Rosa County landmark, has been growing wholesome and delicious vegetables for 35 years. It was once located on Chumuckla Highway before urban sprawl encroached upon the farm caused the family to move it 15 miles north into rural Santa Rosa County On the farm, three generations of the Wendt family work side-by-side to produce some of the best locally grown sweet corn, peas, butterbeans, tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon, and other fresh produce to area customers both wholesale and retail.

The Wendt’s commitment to provide the best locally products coupled with the desire to better serve their customers resulted in building and opening a seasonal market located on the original farm site, 5191 Chumuckla Highway in Pace.

Growing 50 acres of vegetables in the Florida panhandle is not for the faint of heart, and the Wendt Family has demonstrated their commitment to providing nutritious vegetables regardless of what weather conditions are thrown at them.

Beyond the vegetables grown on the farm, the Wendt Family also operates a two-acre greenhouse nursery where they have provided seasonal color for over three decades to the area. Wendt Farm and Nursery is known for growing Christmas poinsettias, Easter lilies, fall garden mums, and spring flowering plants, but few likely know that they also grow wholesale commercial vegetable transplants that are shipped to commercial vegetable farms all over the region.
The latest endeavor at the nursery is hydroponic lettuce production where they produce the freshest leafy greens available at local retail produce markets.

Comments

3 Responses to “Wendt Family Named The 2021 Santa Rosa Farm Family Of The Year”

  1. Gary Wendt on January 20th, 2022 10:55 am

    Glad to see this going onto future generations. Sadly we just sold our 100 plus year old farm in Iowa. Been renting the land for quite some time, can’t compete with the big boys.

  2. Susan Brandenburg on September 29th, 2021 6:12 pm

    Congratulations to y’all, well deserved.

  3. tg on September 28th, 2021 7:47 am

    This is a hard working family that loves what they do. Congradulations!

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FEATURE TOP STORY, Features, News