Turpie’s  Farms  History

Turpie’s Farms, the umbrella of Turpie’s Fruit & Veggie Farm Stand, future home of Turpie’s Café and eventually the well awaited Farmland guaranteed to be packed with more rare fruits & veggies, chickens, rabbits, fish and maybe a cow or two! To give you a word picture- a snapshot about us, Victoria Euturpie Sanders Davis was my cherished grandmother whom migrated from Dundas Town, Abaco when she was 21. Later she married my beloved Grampy. Until his passing, my family & I, all lived together in a great big white house right here in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the age of 4, she & I moved to a large lavender & white house on the corner. . .a place we called home until I was 15. Our home was the one place where people would come to eat and share their problems. Of course my grandma would feed, listen, pray and many times give them money. She always reminded them with “God in Control! Everything is Going to be Alright” as they went on their way. Everyone knew her affectionately as “Ant Turpie!”

We grew everything in the yard except sugar, flour, rice and meats. The large fenced yard on the corner was bursting with citrus i.e. navel oranges, tangerines, key limes, pink grapefruit near the carport. In the alcove were myriads of fresh herbs like the small leave thyme, sage, cilantro & fennel with a small patch or spring onions and the big yellow ones close to the kitchen. Next to the house were papaya trees, further over were 2-different types of avocadoes-a large sweet creamery one and a small hand size one you could eat in one seating. The sapodillas were delightful! Next to a hedge of cherry trees, were green sugar apples and the muscadine grapes cover the north size of the fence, they called them bullets then. In the back there were rows of collard greens, turnip, mustard greens and cabbages. South of the greens patch were probably 6 or 8 okra plants and pigeon peas lined up across the back fence like a hedge for pigeon peas & rice one of our favorites. In front of them in the back yard were 4-types of mangoes. There were peach, pineapple, Hayden & turpentine mangoes trees next to the big pink flesh juicy guavas and loquat. . .we called them Chinese plums back then! In a raise bed across the back of the house were sweet potatoes, red skin white potatoes and on the corner of the house yellow yam climbed around the awnings - diagonal to the bananas and plantain area. When carrots were in season we harvested them fresh from the square, there was corn, string beans, blackeye peas and on the other size of the house was lettuce and tomatoes for salads. Searacy covered the fence on the south side, Oh my God, my grandma would use it for most ailments. It is one of those bitters, leaves a taste in your mouth for days! In the front near the door we had a planter filled with aloe to drink & used for burns. Lastly a patch of beets, broad leaf-African thyme, rutabagas and roses grace the front. When you walked up the path to the door there were red/yellow ixoras on both sides and pink hibiscus for tea in the middle on the north side of the hedge, the rest was grass. Our house was filled with lots of love, plenty of prayers and homemade breads. My grandma told me, “Baby, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so you have to know how to cook!” I must say, she taught me well, however you will be the judge. . . give us a shout out if you enjoy any of our delicious homemade breads, spices, fruit & veggie products. . .love to hear from you!