Plant City, Dundee farms featured on TV show 'Where The Food Comes From'

Paul Nutcher, The Ledger
·2 min read
Large, sweet blueberries at the Shady Oak Farm in Lakeland, FL on Thursday April 17, 2014. Manager Retta Baucam said they pick commercial to keep up with the berries, but they are first and foremost a u-pick. "Our main goal is to let people experience a farm environment in a family friendly atmosphere," she said. IMAGES OF POLK Scott Wheeler/The Ledger

The cable TV series "Where The Food Comes From" features stories of crops grown on familiar central Florida farms.

The primetime series launched Jan. 20 on Nashville-based RFD-TV Network and has a weekly Nielsen-rated 12.5 million viewers across the country and Canada, a press release said.

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The show features farmers such as Plant City strawberry grower Gary Wishnatzki at Wish Farms and airs every Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

“The show is focused on the farm, but we go up and downstream to show all the hands that guide it along the way, introduce the faces behind the labels, let people truly get to know who's growing their food,” said the show’s producer and host Chip Carter, CEO of "Where The Food Comes From."

The show, which also has a website WhereTheFoodComesFrom.com, is now in its second season to be aired starting on July 21. Its third season is set for January 2023. Coming with Season 2 will be a SiriusXM format and a digital cookbook.

“A lot of those stories are based in Florida," Carter said, adding that many of them are based in Tampa Bay and Lakeland

Season 1 featured episodes on Florida Classic Growers/Dundee Citrus and their ongoing battle with citrus greening and Tampa's Cactus Hat Mushrooms.

“It's been an amazing journey to develop this TV show and get it on the air as a first-of-its-kind,” Carter said. “We started slow, with an opening audience of 300,000, but have watched it grow week-by-week until we spiked at 1.6 million viewers in April.”

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: 'Where The Food Comes From': Plant City, Dundee farms featured on show