CARROLLWOOD \u2014 Barry Lawrance has worked at Bearss Groves since he was 13.<\/p>\n
He became a part owner at 18 and took full ownership in 2012.<\/p>\n
“It’s my baby,” Lawrance said. “I’ve been there my entire life, pretty much.”<\/p>\n
So when he needed to step back from the market recently, he wasn’t ready to give it up completely. But after surviving Stage 4 colon cancer and watching back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton wreak havoc in 2024, he knew changes were necessary.<\/p>\n
He leased the property to tenants who ran their own market in early 2024. But Lawrance and the operators decided to part ways, leaving the market temporarily closed.<\/p>\n
“We’re in the process of finding new tenants and think they will be great,” he said. “After the hurricanes, we pretty much lost everything and I’d had enough Bearss Groves drama in my life. We really just wanted to do something different and get back to more farming, which is my real passion.”<\/p>\n
That something new became Weck Farms \u2014 acres in Lutz featuring a U-pick strawberry field in season from December into early spring. Lawrance said he’ll eventually add other fruits, vegetables and sunflowers.<\/p>\n
“Now that we’re doing U-pick, it’s giving people a chance to go on a farm and walk around and have a nice little outing,” he said. “Once we decided on the farm direction, we went with strawberries. The reality is not having to drive far to pick your own fruit \u2014 people don’t have to drive to Plant City for strawberries.”<\/p>\n
The return of Bearss Groves market depends on finding the right tenants and their vision, whether that’s a traditional market or something different. Lawrance said he’s open to fresh ideas and would even like something similar to Starkey Market.<\/p>\n
Starkey Market features a small bar and tables in a barn setting connected to a general store that’s open daily and sells items from local vendors. It also hosts events and live music regularly.<\/p>\n
“The hurricanes came, and really everything came at once,” Lawrance said. “The field at Bearss Groves was underwater, the barn was damaged, everything was blown away. The previous tenant came at a time of uncertainty, so it was rushed. But this time we’re not in a hurry. We want to do it right. It’s been my whole life out there.<\/p>\n
“We’re open to a new idea, like Starkey Market, with a small market and drinks and things for kids to do. We’ll see what happens.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARROLLWOOD \u2014 Barry Lawrance has worked at Bearss Groves since he was 13. He became a part owner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3204,49559,1408,49560,8533,135,137,136,49562,49561],"class_list":["post-92576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-agriculture","tag-bearss-groves","tag-carrollwood","tag-colon-cancer","tag-market","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tropical-cyclones","tag-weck-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}