Countryside Family Farms has announced that it will not be reopening its farm store at 6325 81st St. The farm store also was the location of Countryside’s iconic annual fall festival, which has delighted local families for nearly a quarter century.
Cheryl Roseland, the store’s owner, made the announcement on the company’s Facebook page on Sept. 18. Countrywide Citrus will continue to farm citrus, primarily grapefruit, but will operate its mail order portion of the business from another packing house, Roseland said.
The property owners, Roseland’s aunt and uncle, Fred and Florence Van Antwerp, have decided not to renew the lease on the farm store property, Roseland said. Added to the escalating cost to carry insurance for the festival and other family-oriented events, it was just time to shut down, she said.
The fall festival, presented each year during the month of October, featured hayrides, a petting zoo, an Orange Blossom Train, zip line, games, tacos and other foods, and citrus ice cream, along with a seven-acre corn maze. Fun backgrounds were set up where families could take photographs.
The farm also hosted u-pick strawberry events in December and January and grew flowers for picking in October and again in spring.
“We really enjoyed having the events and seeing the families having such fun,” Roseland said. “It was heartwarming.”
Cheryl is the daughter of Sid Banack, who died last year. The Banack family and Sid’s in-laws, the Van Antwerp family, operate the citrus farm together.
Frank Van Antwerp, Fred’s father, and his wife, Florrie, started the business in the 1950s by selling fruit to their friends and northern visitors from their front porch. A few years later, their son, Frank and his wife Flo decided to grow the business and built a packing house and opened the gift fruit store.
The store was a small operation when Sid Banack, Flo’s brother and Cheryl’s father, bought the business from the Van Antwerps about 20 years later.
Cheryl took over the gift fruit store in 2002. Soon after, she hatched the idea to host a family festival each fall, she said. The family also had a peach and pecan farm in Georgia, and each fall they contracted with a company there to make a giant corn maze. Cheryl decided to bring the idea to her festival in Vero Beach.
“At the time, we were interested in agri-tourism and this was a good fit,” she said. “I set out to create something that was mostly homemade and traditional. It was an opportunity to pull the kids away from electronics for a while.”
Sid Banack, who passed away last July 20, “was in his glory at the festivals,” Roseland said. “Even at the end when he was in failing health, he absolutely loved seeing everyone there. It was his baby.”
Although the store and festivals are now gone, Roseland, now 69, stays busy. Her brother, Rusty Banack, not only has continued the citrus farming business, he is actually expanding and planting new groves at a time when many other growers are abandoning the industry. The family also owns tree farms, she said, and she helps out a bit with everything.
With Rusty’s daughter, Brittany, Roseland manages El Sid’s, a beachside Mexican food restaurant named after her father located at 3300 Ocean Drive.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
