Jessica Johnson has run Jessie’s Tropical Fruit Farm in Golden Gate Estates for four years.
She left her sales job in Wisconsin to follow her dream of becoming a self-made farmer, building a 5-acre farm with hundreds of exotic plants, trees, and fruits.
In the past, Johnson made it through storms without much trouble, but with Hurricane Milton, she knew she had to be ready. She boarded up and prayed.
“So the hurricane came through, and we prayed very hard that the farm would be spared,” Johnson said. “I'm trying to do good things with the farm and for the community and said to God, you know, protect the farm, and he did.”
After the storm passed, Johnson recorded a video showing the aftermath. A 100-foot pine tree had fallen — but it somehow missed every crop and structure on the farm.
"I don't know how it just missed the power lines, the coconut trees, even the jaboticaba tree and passion fruit vines. This tree is huge, guys," Johnson said in the video.
Johnson said the tree’s fall could have been disastrous.
“The tree is clearly over 100 feet tall, but it missed our passionfruit, my jaboticaba tree. I've been waiting for years now for it to fruit, and it takes a long time,” Johnson said. “We have trees, we have dragon fruit posts. There's fencing, there's power lines. It literally fell in between every tree. It could have hit every obstacle.”
Johnson, her husband, and their dog stayed safe inside their shop during the storm. The building, designed to withstand 165-mile-per-hour winds, kept them protected.
“We've had a lot of trials and tribulations with getting the farm going. You know, it's just part of doing the job,” Johnson said. “There's always going to be, you know, things that you have to overcome. We will continue to persevere. We'll just clean up.”
A crew is scheduled to remove the tree this weekend. Once the cleanup is done, Johnson plans to plant an allspice tree in its place.