TAMPA, Fla. — A farmer’s market that has been operating near Lake Magdalene in Tampa for over 100 years has reopened its stand.

What You Need To Know

  • The Farm at Bearss Groves has reopened after being closed for months following Hurricane Milton

  • The farm, now under new ownership, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

  • Marta Zarobkiewicz, one of the new owners, says they have spent thousands fixing the place up following the storms

  • The market has been around since 1895 on Bearss Avenue

This comes after new owners took control of The Farm at Bearss Groves and fixed the damage it suffered from Hurricane Milton.

“The place has a history,” said Marta Zarobkiewicz, CEO of The Farm at Bearss Groves, which has been around since 1895. “It’s a community staple. Everybody loves it.”

Zarobkiewicz moved from Wisconsin to Tampa in 2009, right down the street from Bearss Groves.

She shopped there for years and after Hurricane Milton, she heard rumors that the piece of Tampa history might close down.

“Everything got flooded,” she said. “Trees fell, the cooler shut off. So, all the produce was lost. Everything was donated that could be donated. It was just a lot of money put in that was lost.”

So she and two of her friends approached the owner and shared with him their vision of the place, seeing if they could take over the reins.

Since then, they fixed the market back up, signed a lease and held a grand reopening on Jan. 31.

“So many people stop in every day and say thank you for being open again,” Zarobkiewicz said. “I mean, we probably hear it 50 times a day.”

The previous owner still owns the land, but Zarobkiewicz and her partners run the stand.

They have big plans for the place.

“I’m going to have house plants in here, under the shade house,” she said. “And then we’re going to hopefully be growing herbs and lettuces in here.”

Zarobkiewicz wants to have reggae concerts and live music twice a month, bring in local vendors and food trucks to really bring the historic spot to life.

“We just decided that the more community here, the better it will be,” she said.

It’s not easy spending thousands to spruce the place up from the storm while learning more about produce than ever before.

But, ultimately, preserving history is important for Zarobkiewicz, especially when it comes to a fruit stand that has stood the test of time for over a century.

“The community has showed up and they’ve supported, and they’ve proven to us that, you know, we’re going to be able to do it,” she said.

To give this piece of history a fresh chapter along Bearss Avenue.

The Farm at Bearss Groves will have live music every first and third Saturday of the month.

According to Zarobkiewicz, she goes to local markets three times a week in places like Plant City to get products to put on their shelves.