BOKEELIA, Fla. – William Masters was retired. He played a lot of golf but got bored. Originally from Illinois, Masters moved to Florida. He bought 10.5 acres there, cleared it, and started planting. He called it Masters Grove. People driving past stop in to see what’s going on there. Masters likes having company. He welcomes them.

“I wanted a place where I could go work, and when I got tired, I could just quit,” Masters said. “We were just driving by, and my wife, Mary, encouraged me to buy it. I wanted to have a garden. I wanted to have a place where we could have our grandkids, and kids come out, and that’s how it started. It has progressed from there.”

That progress includes building pens for Sussex chickens, some ducks, and establishing a row of bee hives. And constructing a building to provide a space for processing the produce, and a big porch for visiting. Later plans include pigs.

“We have 150 avocado trees, about 100 mango trees, then we have canistel ( a tropical fruit tree) also known as egg fruit,” Masters explained. “We use it to make slushies. We grow anything you can imagine in the garden – onions, peppers, herbs, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, and we have grown sweet corn. We planted like a food forest, a lot of bushes that give fruit. There might be some figs or whatever.”

All that entails more work than Masters wanted to do. Josh Ramsier started volunteering to help, and then Masters hired him. He does most of the day-to-day work.

“I take care of the garden, the trees, I make sure the coffee is on in the morning, build chicken coops, put netting over the coops so the eagles don’t get the chickens. It kind of changes with the season,” Ramsier said. “I didn’t want to look for a job you just do so you have a car that is one year newer than your neighbors. Our kids can come here and run around. It teaches them that there is more to life than video games.”

What does Masters do with all of the produce? He gives most of it away. A donation jar rests on a counter, but people are free to take whatever they want. Mary Masters, Josh’s wife, Kaitlyn, and others volunteer to help with canning and processing food.

“I just sense that people like to be together,” Masters said. “Maybe they don’t have any family or friends. One of the greater joys I get out of life right now is watching people enjoy themselves out here.

“They make catsup and salsa, and that is my goal. I can provide a place for people to do that. My wife and I have been abundantly blessed. So, I can provide all of the things we need here.”

People enjoy coming to help. On a recent Saturday, Shirley McCabe, a seasonal visitor from Walton, Ky., and a farm owner, helped can tomatoes.

“When they canned tomatoes, they didn’t take the skins off,” Masters said. “Shirley showed them how to blanch the tomatoes and take the skins off. That’s what I see happening. People are sharing what they have learned over the years with others. We want to do the same thing whether we’re making salsa, catsup, whatever it is, to be able to share it.”

McCabe said, “I helped can two cannings of tomatoes and we made salsa and marinara sauce. They have a wonderful way of flash-freezing some of the vegetables and fruits, and they preserve everything. It was a joy to be able to go and pick such luscious vegetables there.”

Masters likes to have visitors like McCabe and to create community. He invites people to come, and provides coffee and donuts a couple of times a week. He enjoys having people sit in the rockers on the building’s big porch and visit.

“People are sharing what they have learned over the years with others,” Masters said. “We want to do the same thing, whether we’re making salsa, catsup, or an egg casserole, whatever it is, to be able to share it.”