Redland, Florida

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Redland is an unincorporated agricultural community about 20 miles southwest of Miami, Florida. Many farms, original clapboard homes of early settlers, u-pick'em fields and coral rock walls dot the landscape. It is named for the red clay that dominates the area, on top of a massive layer of oolite rock. The entire area is nourished with pure water from the Biscayne aquifer.

It has been a source of amazement to agriculturalists, botanists and naturalists around the world, including John James Audubon and David Fairchild.^[1]

With its tropical climate, many tropical fruit crops are grown in the Redland that cannot be grown commercially elsewhere in the United States but South Florida, such as mango, avocado, guava, passion fruit, lychee nut, jack fruit, canistel, sapodilla, longan, mamey sapote, black sapote ("chocolate pudding fruit"), miracle fruit, jaboticaba, cecropia ("snake fingers") and coffee beans, all of which can be sampled for free at the Fruit and Spice Park, a local attraction.

Florida is the only state in the United States where tomatoes are grown in the winter, and Redland supplies them, along with a variety of winter squash and vegetables.

Some are referring to the area as the "New Hamptons", since there are many people from the northern states buying property and moving into the area.^[2]

Many houses built in the area must be on a minimum of 5 acres of land, a law put into place to thwart development that has so far worked perfectly to preserve the area.^[3]

Peacocks live abundantly and freely within the many groves. Redland has also been designated a Wild Bird Sanctuary.^[4]

The area has many historic markers that tell the history of certain spots.^[5]

[edit] History

Redland originated in anticipation of Henry Flagler's railroad when pioneer homesteaders in the early 1900s developed a way of working the difficult soil, called scarifying or plow-breaking. This revolutionary method of agriculture allowed the land there to develop into the "winter greenery basket of America" and the "garden capital of the world".^[6] The center of town was located near Redland Road and Bauer Drive.