May 27, 2025

Bedner Growers: Popular South Florida agritourism, farm market destination

Agritourism and farm markets have helped Bedner Growers survive and expand as a South Florida vegetable growing operation in its fifth generation.

Based in Boynton Beach, Florida, the Bedners grow a variety of vegetables, including tomatoes (grape and mature greens), peppers, cucumbers, squash and strawberries, sold through three Bedner’s Farm Fresh Markets. Peppers and cucumbers are shipped to wholesale customers throughout the East Coast.

The Bedners sell produce and other food through farm stores in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach.

A late September and October fall festival attracts many area residents who take tractor rides, pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch, shuffle through a corn maze and participate in other agritainment activities, which have increased the farm’s sales.

The Bedners entered u-pick in 2010, starting with strawberries, then peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as sunflowers.

“Once we saw the demand, that people wanted to come out and wanted to pick their own produce, we slowly added things in and rotated more crops in the u-pick,” said Marie Bedner, operations manager. Soon, the whole 80-acre farm was growing u-pick vegetables.

Land crisis

Land challenges are big, as housing developments overrun the Everglades and approach the Bedner operation.

“It’s crazy for where we are now with the land price,” she said. “The development, the growth has taken over.”

The fall festival can attract up to 9,000 visitors on a Saturday, requiring the Bedners to obtain road closure permits and hire off-duty law enforcement officers.

School field trips can attract 10,000 children who ride trams around the farm. Visitors dine on turkey legs, roasted corn and homemade ice cream, are entertained with face painting and balloon artists, and can pick pumpkins that the Bedners source following customer requests.

Agritourism became a big education for Bedner. However, theft forced the hiring of security.

“In the beginning, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We had no idea that it was going to get that big,” Bedner said. “We were not expecting people to steal from us like they do.”

Labor challenges

COVID-19 lowered farm market sales but increased u-pick patronage and box sales, where a crew of 15 filled and delivered boxes with a variety of vegetables to customers’ vehicles.

While many wanted Bedner’s to continue the box program, even after COVID ended, it became too much work, Bedner said.

In 2018, the Bedners adopted the H-2A program. More than 600 workers supplied by a labor contractor lay plastic, plant and harvest crops. The same crew returns every season eager to work.

“We were nervous about it (H-2A) in the beginning and thought it would be a nightmare, but domestic help dwindled to nothing,” Bedner said. “In many cases, one H-2A worker replaced two domestic workers. Labor will get tighter. It’s almost like the government is making it harder for us to farm.”

Stem rot is the Bedners’ biggest disease threat. To reduce infection, peppers are quickly moved to the cooler.

Beneficials help control insect pests, including thrips and whiteflies. In 2023, thrips from a neighboring nursery attacked Bedner’s crops. Employing beneficials since the early 1990s, the Bedners make beneficial releases a public event during the fall festival.

“Opening the farm up to the public, letting them come out and see where and how their food is grown — the kids love it,” Bedner said. “It’s been enjoyable to see the people come out like that and make that connection between the farmer and the produce.”

Sustainable mindset

Raised beds with recyclable plastic mulch stem erosion and lessen weeds. Though it was a costly transition, drip irrigation has helped the Bedners produce better crops.

“It’s the technology,” Bedner said. “Like everything else, it takes fine tuning to where it’s precise.”

Sustainable farming, including green technology, is important for ensuring soil quality.

“The tech was changing, so we were able to farm with sustainable methods,” Bedner said. “The land is what makes us our money, so we have to be good stewards of our land.”

With consumers more aware of and inquiring about farming’s environmental effects, such practices are more important, she said.

During dormancy, sorghum, buckwheat and other cover crops return nutrients to the soil. Soil sampling is employed to produce healthier and more fertile soil. Organic matter also helps suppress nematodes and inhibit weed growth.

“Increasing organic matter is critical in getting the soil to the right growing conditions,” Bedner said.

Increasing iguana populations have become troublesome in South Florida. Raccoons used to be the major animal pest, but iguanas carry many diseases, Bedner said.

“Iguanas are driving us crazy,” she said. “It’s a never-ending battle.”

Air cannons are effective in scaring blackbirds and other birds, including wild Quaker parrots, from Bedner’s fields and corn maze.

Marie and Steve Bedner are carrying on a family tradition that began nearly 75 years ago. In the early 1950s, seeking more opportunity to follow his dream of a new life in farming, Arthur Bedner and his new bride Henrietta relocated from Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, to South Florida.

The couple loaded up what little they had and farmed in Broward County before growth and development even in the 1960s forced them to relocate to Palm Beach County.

In 1980, Art bought the Boynton Beach farm. Initially, half the peppers and cucumbers were grown for retail before the whole farm supplied the farmers market.

Art’s three sons, Charles, Bruce and Steve, along with grandson Jesse, run the operations.

For Marie, there’s a joy in producing good crops. To be successful, she advises diligence and not cutting corners.

“It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle,” Bedner said. “It’s what we were born into. It’s all we know. All of us have grown up with farming. It’s something that’s in our blood. I don’t know anyone who would wake up one day and want to be a farmer. It’s not something one would get into easily”

— Doug Ohlemeier, Assistant Editor

TOP PHOTO: Workers harvesting Bedner’s bell peppers.