The double-wide trailer was part of the dream.
Its exterior was browned from exposure, and some of the windows were covered with duct-taped plastic.
Piles of PVC pipes and wood sat nearby, waiting to be fashioned into something useful.
The rest of the eight acres boasted neat rows of vegetables at all stages of growth.
Even if only one leaf was poking out of the ground, Jose Landrua could identify it.
“These are dandelion greens,” he said. “They’re really good for liver detox if you have jaundice — or if you drank too much.”
It seems like he’s been farming for decades. But Jose Landrua isn’t even 30, and he didn’t know anything about farming until he moved to Alachua County this January.
The 23-year-old said he needed a change from his life in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
As a high school dropout, he worked odd jobs after he and his brother moved to Fort Lauderdale in 2007, including a stint as a commercial swordfish fisherman.
He decided to start an organic farm and called his 21-year-old brother, Javier Landrua, to come join him, though neither had any experience.
“It’s the hardest, best thing I’ve ever done,” Jose Landrua said.
He said he’s found his calling, but Jose Landrua wasn’t always sure what he wanted to become.
Jose Landrua made his first trip to Gainesville to visit a friend. He found a community that persuaded him to make the move permanent.
He asked his brother to quit his job and move to Alachua to help him start an organic farm. Javier Landrua, who was working as a deliveryman in Tallahassee, jumped at the opportunity.
“I was waiting for him to come up with something great for us to do,” Javier Landrua said.
Jose Landrua got in contact with a local farmer who was planning on leaving his farm near Alachua in the next few months. The farmer, whom Jose Landrua declined to name, offered to show him the ropes.
Jose Landrua said when he first arrived, the farm looked like a Third World country.
Jose Landrua said the farmer gave misleading instructions. He withheld money and a list of people who paid for shares of the crop.
Left with a disheveled field and no idea whom he owed, Jose Landrua felt like he hit rock bottom.
Enter Chuck Crawford.
He stopped by the farm in February and saw the shambles left for the Landrua brothers. Crawford decided he needed to help.
“They were screwed,” he said. “I knew the old farmer, and I knew he wasn’t doing it right.”
Crawford, 52, an experienced farmer, spent an entire night helping the brothers weed their field.
A few nights later, the brothers huddled under their shared bed sheet, shivering around a fire when Crawford came to check on them. The next night, Crawford brought six handmade quilts.
“He was such a blessing,” Jose Landrua said, wiping away tears. “I don’t know what we would have done without him.”
“They’re like my kids,” Crawford said. “I wasn’t going to let anybody freeze.”
Eventually, Jose Landrua compiled a small list of those who paid for crop shares after a few weeks vending at the Union Street Farmers Market.
The brothers are scraping by but happy.
Jose Landrua smiles as he plants leaves that will soon mature into peppers. He said he feels a personal connection to the land he works.
“This whole experience has opened my eyes,” Jose Landrua said. “I feel like I married it.”
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
