MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — One farmer in Bealsville is keeping the history of the small town alive.

Bit by bit, Sylvester McCloud is farming, pulling what he knows from his roots.

“When I was eight years old, Dad had us in the backyard doing this,” he said. “It’s been in the family for over two hundred years."

But this is new.

He just opened the Bealsville Farmers and Flea Market earlier this month.

Sylvester McCloud's family helping with harvesting for the farmers market. (Spectrum News/Julia Hazel)

It operates on the honor system: people come, pick their crops, and leave cash behind.

“I got collard greens, I got mustards, I got turnips, I got cabbage,” he said.

It’s a business that he’s growing from the heart.

“It feels natural. It feels good that I can do something my ancestors did,” McCloud said.

He says farming in his family started with his great-great-grandmother, Mary Reddick, and her son, Alfred Beal, whom Bealsville is named after.

McCloud says Reddick was one of 12 slaves who were freed in 1865.

“They did that for the overseer, then the overseer said, ‘I can’t pay you, but we can sharecrop.’ So they got their land, and they sharecropped,” he said.

Now, he’s carrying on the family legacy, but with the help of modern technology.

McCloud has a Facebook Marketplace page, where he lists his produce.

“We are getting busy,” he said.

He’s also getting smarter and thinking about what this food market could bring to the community.

“I hope to get some of the youngsters out here to take an interest,” he said.

Much like the rain fuels the soil, McCloud hopes that the history of his family in farming fuels continued growth for his new business.

McCloud is also working on a newspaper that will focus on the history of Bealsville, which he hopes to launch in March.