Shoppers often assume farmers’ markets sell only the freshest crops from small, local operations, but big-volume produce dealers sometimes use them to sell items shipped from other states or countries.

The Sarasota Fruit and Nut Society, a group of more than 100 members, is gearing up for their annual Rare Fruit Tree Sale on Sunday.

This summer, the agency’s Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control Chief Michael Page issued a new interpretation of Florida’s pest control law that meant bee removal now must be regulated as pest control.

Buying farm-fresh eggs and poultry should get a lot easier next year. And legal to sell for small farmers.

Tough economic times have left many families without homes and jobs but a sweet recipe for turning lives around is being served up in one of the best restaurants in town.

Sarasotans are now living in an unlikely chicken sandwich – a curious situation wherein chickens are allowed in both our most rural areas and the most urban area, but sandwiched in between is a no-hens land consisting of the suburban unincorporated county.

Lee said her focus will be on providing locally grown organic produce to the community. She will operate out of a reconverted solar-powered school bus, which she will drive from location to location and invite customers inside the bus to shop.

At their 1¼-acre south Sarasota property, Javier and Mary Allen Arana nurture 75 fruit trees, harvest berries, and make organic compost. Their bounty enriches the menu at Javier’s Restaurant and Wine Bar on Siesta Key, where local, organic ingredients are integral to the Peruvian-American fare.

Florida is now second in line for U.S. peanut production growth, right behind Georgia and ahead of Alabama, according to Ken Barton, president of the Marianna-based Florida Peanut Producers Association.

To get to those fan-shaped shells hiding their mild, sweet meat inside, you don’t have to drive all the way to Steinhatchee, the remote, panhandle-meets-peninsula village synonymous with scalloping. The coastal communities of Crystal River and Homosassa are better known as winter havens for manatees, but they’re enjoying a bountiful scallop season this summer.