Froot Farms
Froot farms is a family owned and operated farm, landscape design/installation firm, edible plant nursery, apiary and composting facility. The owners are 2nd and 3rd generation farmers who are incredibly passionate about assisting Central Floridians with transforming their ornamental landscape into an edible tropical oasis, improving the soil, diverting waste from the landfill and improving native ecosystems.
After years of growing ornamental plants, the Birkett family decided to delve into agroforestry, food forest design and edible planting systems designed around permaculture principles, starting Froot Farms in July of 2020.
The company began by propagating a few select varieties of edible plants via cuttings.
Since then, it has expanded to grow and procure a much wider and deeper assortment of edible plants by various propagation techniques including seed, division, cuttings, air layering, and grafting.
The team prides themselves on sourcing and procuring only the most healthy, vigorous and beautiful plants, when necessary to source from vendors, held to the same high standard as we have for our own plants.
In addition to the edible plant nursery the company has expanded to have an apiary, composting facility as well as edible landscape design and installation service.
Team
Gregory “Greg” Birkett
Legend has it that Greg has been growing trees since he was still in diapers, but there’s verifiable proof of his involvement in agricultural enterprises since his teenage years.
While in high school Greg studied agriculture and ran a large ornamental plant nursery and landscaping company in Orlando with his older brothers and father. He continued his education at Valencia and operated various agricultural businesses before starting an ornamental wholesale tree farm, Birkett’s Tree Farm, in 1999 in Christmas, FL. Greg, and now Andrew, still own and operate Birkett’s Tree Farm to this day.
He enjoys trying new fruits he had never even heard of before starting Froot Farms and has been particularly blown away by how many varieties of Mangos there are in Florida and how different they all are!
Andrew Russell Birkett
Andrew grew watermelons once as a kid and worked on the family’s farm for a few summers, which likely would have been the extent of his agricultural involvement if life didn’t intervene.
He went to college for Marketing at the University of Florida and started a board game and comic book publishing company, Atheris Entertainment, with zero ambition to ever work on the family farm again.
As luck would have it, investors in Lightstream Farms asked him to come over for a few months in April 2019 to act as the General Manager of the fledgling company owned by his uncle Greg. It was temporary… Though, he never left, but instead learned that his passion is more on growing exotic tropical fruits such as Jaboticaba versus ornamentals like palms.
Oh Jaboticaba… Yum! He does still grow and sell palms through the family business, Birkett’s Tree Farm.
Gabriel “Gabe” Birkett
Gabriel started his career in agriculture by throwing some sticks and dirt in pots with his grandma. Those cuttings became Ligustrums and Crepe Myrtles that his dad, Greg, planted around the farm.
Now that he has graduated high school he works at the farm full-time planting trees, propagating more and eating the fruit around the farm. Occasionally his cousins, Andrew and Colby, even help.
Always the people person, he enjoys selling plants at shows where he’s able to talk to customers directly.
Colby Birkett
Colby has held management positions at several companies, but none provided him with farm snacks, which is likely why he likes Froot Farms so much. When not eating a wide assortment of rare fruits that most have never heard of, Colby is managing landscape installations, planting trees, maintaining the farm and of course bossing Gabriel around.
Colby loves creating beautiful and functional landscapes with the help of the team he manages.
Rickey Goodall
Rickey came to the farm with a passion for edible plants and experience creating an oasis at the last farm he worked at in Tampa, FL. He’s worked for Lightstream Farms for years and has worked his way up to operate machinery, manage a crew of laborers and perform various tasks for Froot Farms as well.
He enjoys visiting and exploring customer’s food forests, delivering and installing fruit trees to their forever homes and of course eating the fruits of his labor.
All super heroes don’t wear capes — some sport ever useful knives and other tools, which are always necessary on a farm and Rickey always has tools on-the-ready.
Patrick Lang/Andrew Smith
Patrick got his start building and installing raised garden-beds and working for Palmer’s Garden and Goods. From there he began to utilize his skills as a grower and installer to start his own venture, Grow Your Own FL.
In addition to his beautiful work for clients he also maintains a gorgeous property in Downtown Orlando filled with an abundance of fruits and vegetables including scrumptious papaya.
Patrick’s role began as a customer and transitioned to a friend and colleague. Patrick makes sure that all plants are potted up and kept healthy around the nursery.
Andrew Smith started at the farm after Patrick vouched for him, quickly nicknamed A2, Smith has shown his ability and passion for planting food forests and maintaining the farm.
He is now the farm manager of an incredible local property, Sacred Forest, in Osteen and has his own carpentry company which builds all sorts of things including: raised garden beds, trellis and fences.
Nashday “Nash” Font-Birkett
Nashday is a former elementary school teacher, mother of three and social media extraordinaire. When not telling Andrew to drink more water (as every loving wife does), she’s posting endless stories to Froot Farms’ Instagram, sharing new sales, posting email newsletters and updating this website.
Nash grew up eating Mangos in Puerto Rico and still swears that there’s no Mango quite like those grown in your own backyard.
Her and her family still eat Mangos from her grandmother’s tree every time they visit Puerto Rico, which just proves how your family can benefit from the fruits of your labor for generations!
The Unsung Heroes
In addition to those named here, we have many part-time staff and employees who work for both Birkett’s Tree Farm and Froot Farms as necessary for our various projects and endeavors. We cannot thank these staff members enough for always lending a helping hand when necessary!
Additionally, we always like to share our gratitude for everyone who has helped grow Froot Farms to what it has become including all the temporary staff, volunteers, and of course our incredible clients. We could not do this without you! Thank you!