Mar 24, 2008

Longtime Citrus Man Just Keeps ‘Trucking’By Douglas CarmanHighlandsToday.com

Avon Park — During a cool, windy and overcast afternoon in January, most of Steve Maxwell’s life lay in front of him as he casually sat back in his rocking chair on the porch of his gift shop.

Before him, spanning 20 acres, was his grove. A larger part of his old grove, which he sold off, was further ahead of his sight. The house to his left was his.

“I was born and raised in this house right here,” said Maxwell, 63. Save a three-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, he has lived there all his life.

To his right was the gift shop, Maxwell Pest Control and the processing plant for Maxwell Groves, which is Highlands County’s last small-scale fruit processor. Maxwell suspected it was one of a very small number of processors of its type in the state.

Though he now sells his processed fruit through his gift shop or to whole-sellers, there was a time, Maxwell said, when the citrus fruit that went through his processor shipped as far as Europe and Japan.

Thursday, long after that heyday for his grove, Maxwell still finds himself running all over his grove and the county.

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