CLEARWATER, Fla. — Life Farms in Clearwater has had a rough year. It was heavily damaged by hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton – but is now about to harvest for the first time since the storm.

What You Need To Know

  • Life Farms was heavily damaged by hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton

  • Owner says they are dealing with more than $100,000 in damage

  • Life Farms has started a GoFundMe campaign to help make repairs

Life Farms is a small operation that grows everything from strawberries, broccoli, herbs, to bananas. The hurricanes this year had a devastating impact that caused more than $100,000 in damage to the farm.

Rowland Milam has owned Life Farms since 2012. He says it’s been a long process to clean up the mess.

Greenhouses are damaged along with fallen trees and destroyed crops. They also lost nearly 15 honey-producing beehives. Incredibly, they managed to plant new crops and are already beginning to harvest.

“Thank goodness it’s only December. It’s not March, so we still have several months left in the market, so we will be ready to go,” Milam said.

He says that a small army of volunteers helped to get the farm up and running again.

“Our volunteers, CSA members and even our competitors helped us out amazingly, we would never be where are right now if they had not done that,” Milam said.

Life Farms is asking for donations to help fully recover from the damage, as well as funding recovery of their bee population.

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