By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Cambren Davis looks through several potted olive trees that are the beginnings of a grove off of Sunshine Grove Road in Brooksville.
BROOKSVILLE — As they wound through the Italian countryside in January, Cambren Davis and Deirdre Rizzo were struck by the picture postcard images all around them.
A seed of an idea was growing as they took in the landscape. Everywhere, they saw lush olive trees. Whenever they stopped to eat, there were olives on the table.
They started to think about how similar the weather seemed to be to Florida and discussed how they could take home with them some of what they had experienced. That's when the research started.
Soon they found that olives are grown in Florida, but take a back seat to better-known Sunshine State crops such as citrus and strawberries. Olive cultivation in Florida ...