HRT for Women in Maitland, FL

The Lingles took over Hollieanna Groves in 1954

MAITLAND, Fla. – At Hollieanna Groves in Maitland, the citrus fruit is rolling.

Crate after crate of navel oranges, red grapefruit and tangerines are dumped and rolled into a washing area, and then rolled to an area to be sorted. Some will be juiced. Some will be placed in bags, boxes or baskets to be shipped around the country in time for Christmas — just like they did in the 1950s when Alinda, Kurt and Jason Lingles’ parents bought the business, with its groves, mail-order operation and store.

After nearly 70 years in business, change will be inescapable, but the Lingles say they do their best to keep the Hollieanna Groves experience the same for their customers, some of whom have been with them for decades. In a Maitland corridor burgeoning with new growth, the tiny Hollieanna Groves store feels like Old Florida’s last stand in this part of Orange County.

“It’s hard to quit on an industry that has served our family so well for so long,” Jason Lingle said.

Glenn Lingle bought Hollieanna Groves from Hollie and Anna Oakley in 1954, and from the beginning it was run as a family-operation. Wife Jane and all the kids worked, especially during the season.

“We used to be able to get out of school for two weeks when we were in elementary school because we had to come down here and work because no one was there to take care of us in the evenings. So our family has always been so busy, especially during this time,” said Alinda Lingle, the youngest of the children, who now run the business.

Find every episode of Florida Foodie on YouTube:

“We remember that the people that worked here looked out for us. It was fun and entertaining, and we were helping and enjoying it,” Jason said.

“And we got to go to Bonanza across the street and have dinner,” Alinda added. “That was like a huge deal when we were little.”

As we sit in Alinda’s wood-paneled office, signs of the past abound. Old fruit crates sit on shelves. The ends of some crates now hang on the walls as pieces of art and agricultural history.

Alinda pulls out an old postcard of the Hollieanna Groves store, with the bright colors and dull resolution one expects of old photographs. A large white sign on the building pronounces the “Hollieanna Groves Sales Room” in blue and orange cursive. The fronds of palm trees can be seen on the right edge, proof that the storefront was once set further from the road, before U.S. 17-92 was widened.

“From here, all the way to where Fort Maitland Park is, that was nothing but orange groves,” Alinda said.

Another sign of the changing times — on easels around the outside of the store, bags of fruit are displayed with prices as low as 50 cents.

Alinda said a bushel of oranges cost $32.95 in 1986, with shipping. The equivalent today is $89.95, plus shipping.

However, Alinda said it is also five times harder to fill a bushel of fruit now than it was 30 years ago.

The Lingles originally had groves in Sanford and Geneva, and would also harvest fruit from other local growers. The freezes in the 1980s took out the grove in Sanford, so Glenn Lingle planted another grove in Fort Pierce in 1985. But citrus canker and citrus greening, as well as the age of the trees, has reduced the grove’s productivity.

Today, the Lingles get their fruit from several places – a small grove owned by brother Kurt in Seminole County, as well as small groves owned by other growers in Volusia and Lake counties. Having to go through so many different groves is just one of the factors adding to the growing cost of the fruit for consumers. There are fewer groves to buy from, too, as more growers sell, often to developers.

“You’re putting all this money into trying to keep a grove alive,” Alinda said. “You’re not really changing the product. It’s not improved, it’s not a new iPhone, it’s the same thing. It’s an orange, and people don’t understand why the price keeps getting higher and higher and higher, because caretaking costs used to be nothing, and now they run in the hundreds of dollars.”

Once they decide where the fruit will come from, they’ll go to the groves, pick the fruit from the trees and transport them to Hollieanna in wooden citrus crates made of dried cypress. Hollieanna Groves is one of the few citrus businesses in Florida that still uses those old crates.

The field boxes, Jason said, do a better job of keeping the fruit from getting bruised, and there’s less pressure on the fruit. They were standard in the industry until the late 1960s when companies started switching to larger bins.

“We know we’re making less money doing it this way, you know, preserving the heritage,” Jason said.

The oranges, grapefruits and tangerines at Hollieanna Groves come in a dozen varieties, depending on seasonality and what trees are producing good fruit each year. Some of these varieties can only be found in Florida, an important component in keeping the citrus shipping business going in a time when people across the U.S. can go to the local supermarket and find all kinds of fruit on the shelves.

The sugar belle, for instance, is a cross between a honeybell orange and a clementine that is only available in December. The fruit is relatively new – released by University of Florida citrus researchers in 2006. It was designed to be resistant to citrus diseases. It’s also easy to peel, has few seeds and is very sweet and juicy. But the newness means you really won’t find it outside of Florida.

And while you can get decent quality oranges at a store in another state, the Lingles say you won’t get them fresher. When someone orders from Hollieanna Groves, Alinda said the fruit that person will get is still on the tree when they order it.

“We can only harvest so much at a time because of the shelf-life. But we always try to get it off the tree, in a box and into somebody’s house within a week’s time. That’s the goal. And then it’s never cold-stored either,” Alinda said.

Customers new and old are still getting citrus fruit shipped through Hollieanna Groves – thousands of orders in a season. Alinda estimates about 65% of Hollieanna’s sales come from the mail-order side of the business. There are some corporate accounts, but mostly their customers are individuals who still send citrus as gifts and also order for themselves.

Alinda said one customer recently asked to order an item that was in a catalog they had from 1986 or 1987.

“It’s a holiday tradition for a lot of people,” Alinda said. “Some of the customers that we have, they’ve been with us for 50 years. And they order every year and that’s part of the holiday tradition is to have citrus at the table, whether it’s Hanukkah or Christmas or whatever they’re celebrating.”

Heading into 2024, the Lingles are getting ready for honeybell season starting in January, and also trying to decide how to celebrate Hollieanna Groves’ 70 years in operation. There’s a sense of exhaustion among the Lingle siblings. They are keeping their family business, and a piece of Old Florida, alive but they know they can’t do it forever.

“Emotional attachment, knowing that the family farm may be a parking lot or something someday,” Jason said. “That’s hard to hear when you’re a farmer type and a native Floridian in this industry that used to be bigger than Mickey Mouse.”

Still, they are putting up a good fight. The Lingles say there used to be several citrus stands on this stretch of U.S. 17-92. Only Hollieanna Groves is still standing, and the citrus is still rolling.

Hollieanna Groves is open November to April, depending on fruit availability and inventory. The store on U.S. 17-92 sells fresh fruit and juice, along with a selection of local honey, citrus candies and other Florida-based sweets, marmalades, jellies and dressings and other food and gifts.

The store is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

To find out how to order fruit for shipping, head to the Hollieanna Groves website.

Check out the Florida Foodie podcast. You can find every episode in the media player below:

Florida Foodie

Central Florida woman went from stay-at-home mom to working cook, running her own cottage bakery

00:00:00

Forward 15 seconds

Back 15 seconds

Share

Subscribe

Description

In This Playlist

10 of 121 Episodes

Central Florida woman went from stay-at-home mom to working cook, running her own cottage bakery

Love of anime inspires family-run Florida restaurant chain Soupa Saiyan

Crooked Can Brewing remains focused on Central Florida as it readies for big expansion

Pizza hobby becomes nostalgic business for SoDough Square’s owner

Owner of Dancing Empanada ready to sell business he started out of trunk of his car

Husband, wife behind Pho Wheels dish out Asian street food all across Central Florida

Owner of Winter Park’s Hen & Hog battles serious health issues while keeping his business open

Universal Orlando shows off impressive menus for Minion Café, Halloween Horror Nights

Pandemic-induced boredom led to success of Central Florida bakery Stackd Brownies

Owners of Orlando’s Kaya mix fun, fine dining and traditional Filipino meals

Copyright 2023 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.

Demolition is easy and fun, while building up is always so difficult. But we all would prefer to live in a building rather than a shambles, right? In our current society, seek people who are building, rather than tearing down — that's where the power is.

Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher are doing just that by traveling the country and assembling a series called Portraits of US. While Artists-in-Residence at the Art and History Museums of Maitland last year and in early 2023, the couple created portraits of people in Central Florida, and these are now on display in the gallery.

Frisell and Scher began roaming in 2021, late in the pandemic, and haven't stopped since. They have moved between artist-in-residency programs and spent time getting to know people before they start photographing them. Scher and Frisell befriend their subjects, make videos of their stories, and cap it off with a still portrait. The videos are either two-minute snippets or longer pieces, like the untitled video in the Maitland Art Center gallery, stitching together about 70 slices of life from Vermont, Washington state and, yes, Central Florida. You'll get a gasp of recognition here and there as familiar places snap into focus.

The photographs in (Un)Common Bond range from 8 by 10 inches to enlargements at least double that size. A grid of photos in the first gallery comprises mostly local portraits, and each image is brimming with stories. A man in a checked shirt looks dourly at the camera, the background almost black as night. A woman holds an owl. A young man holds a camera, peering at the viewer as if considering an angle.

Deeper in the gallery, the variety continues. Millard, from Eatonville, smiles triumphantly, while Keith, in Savannah, defends his Chrysler with arms crossed. What comes through these portraits is a sense of tenderness, something beyond mere documentation. Frisell and Scher have leapt over a barrier and gotten into the lives of these people with an intimate view of them, inviting the viewer into that space.

The luscious, creamy tones of these photo prints stand out among pixelly cameraphone images flooding our retinas daily. Frisell and Scher achieve these by using a 1940s Kodak Master Field Camera, a tripod-mounted large-format beast of a camera around which they have built a complete mobile darkroom, office and living space dubbed the Nomadic Photo Ark. There are no casual snapshots here; each one is staged and deliberate.

This just might be the genius of the enterprise. Portraits of US has a double meaning: us, meaning we the people, and US, meaning the United States. This mosaic of individuals and community life reads as a collective statement that builds up, converges, and finally leaves the viewer with a sense of being part of a single group called Americans.

WINTER PARK, Fla. —

A Winter Park school is one of several in Florida losing funding from the state. The funds are subsidies for school choice scholarships.

Gov. Ron DeSantis says it’s because the schools have ties to China’s Communist Party, or CCP.

The State Department of Education is acting against the Park Maitland School and several others in the state because of the claims of the schools’ affiliations.

“We have two children here at the school, one in kindergarten, one in second grade,” said Joslyn Bear.

Joslyn and her husband David Bear are not only parents, but they also attended the school years ago.

Now, the future of the school, and who could afford to attend, is in limbo.

“We feel extremely upset, not only for our own children but all the families that are affected,” said Joslyn Bear.

Recommended

Park Maitland is one of several schools in the state now with suspended eligibility for that important school choice scholarship funding.

David said without the school’s funding, parents are blindsided with hundreds or thousands of dollars they suddenly must come up with. They said it could ultimately lead to their kids’ friends, or even teachers, leaving.

“I really find it abhorrent that a political PR move would be done at the expense of children and the children’s educational and social experiences,” David Bear said.

According to Park Maitland’s website, the school is run by Spring Education Group.

Spring Education Group itself is owned by a Chinese-based investment group, Primavera Capital Group.

“There’s has never been any sort of teaching of communism or Chinese ideology. It’s the furthest thing from our mind,” Joslyn Bear said.

DeSantis, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., and Park Maitland all issued statements on the matter.

“The Chinese Communist Party is not welcome in the state of Florida,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “We will not put up with any attempt to influence students with a communist ideology or allow Floridians’ tax dollars to go to schools that are connected to our foreign adversaries.”

“The Chinese Communist Party has no place in our schools,” said Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. “I am grateful for Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for their work to keep students and our communities safe from foreign countries of concern.”

Park Maitland School released a statement, saying:

“We have received notice from the State that our eligibility for Florida Choice school funds has been suspended. We were not contacted in advance and are seeking more information regarding the basis for this decision. In the meantime, we will be working directly with our families to ensure they can remain enrolled in our school," Park Maitland said in a statement.

"We are regularly acknowledged as one of the best private schools in our area and have a track record of delivering outstanding educational outcomes, which is why parents choose us. Our schools are locally run, abide by local, state, and federal laws, and do not have ties to any government or political party, either foreign or domestic. Our curriculum is accredited, standards-based, and academically rigorous," Park Maitland said in a statement.

Cailey Myers, a Communications Director for the Florida Department of Education sent WESH this statement.

"The Department investigated these four schools that have ties to the CCP and China and verified their connections. As you can see, the four schools in the press release (all owned by the same company) have the following statement on their websites confirming their affiliation with Spring Education Group and Primavera Holdings:

'Spring Education Group is controlled by Primavera Holdings Limited, an investment firm (together with its affiliates) principally based in Hong Kong with operations in China, Singapore, and the United States, that is itself owned by Chinese persons residing in Hong Kong.'

On September 22, the Department of Education sent letters to the schools notifying them of their immediate suspension from the school choice scholarship program, and they have 15 calendar days to appeal the decision."

Top headlines:

Top Picks

Park Maitland School said Saturday that it does not have any connection to the Communist Party of China and does not know why Florida yanked it from participating in its school voucher programs claiming it had “direct ties” to the Chinese leadership.

“We were not contacted in advance and are seeking more information regarding the basis for this decision,” the school said in an emailed statement to the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday. “Our schools are locally run, abide by local, state, and federal laws, and do not have ties to any government or political party, either foreign or domestic.”

Winter Springs parents Joslyn and David Bear have two children at Park Maitland, both using state scholarships this year to help cover some of their tuition costs. They were surprised and upset by the state’s action against a school that they both attended as children and that has a reputation for providing an “outstanding” education.

“Their education has nothing to do with communism or Chinese ideology,” Joslyn Bear said. “Both of our children receive Florida Empowerment Scholarships, one of them because she has special needs. To pull their school from the scholarship program will disrupt my children’s and their classmates’ educational experience and emotional stability for no legitimate reason whatsoever.”

David Bear said his family can afford to keep their children at Park Maitland even without the scholarships, which on average cover about $10,000 for a child with disabilities and about $8,000 for others. The family has a daughter in kindergarten and a son in second grade.

But some families, he said, may not be so fortunate and may have enrolled children at Park Maitland, where tuition tops $20,000 a year, because this year they qualified for state scholarships that could help cover some of the bills. Florida recently expanded eligibility in its voucher programs so that scholarships once targeted to low-income youngsters or those with disabilities are now open to all students.

Bear said the state’s action in late September could leave parents with few other options for their children, if they cannot remain at Park Maitland. “It’s not fair,” he said.

In a message to parents on Saturday, Michael Anna, the head of school, also denied the school had any inappropriate connections.

“Despite the recent claims, Park Maitland school does not have ties to the Communist Party of China or any other government,” that message read.

Park Maitland — long viewed as one of Central Florida’s top-rated private schools — was working with families affected by the state’s decision, Anna said in his statement.

“We don’t want any of our students or families to have their education interrupted by these changes, and will be working directly with our families to ensure they can remain enrolled in our school,” said the message, shared with the Sentinel by a parent.

DeSantis drops Park Maitland School, other campuses from voucher programs because of China ties

Florida yanked four private school campuses, including the top-rated Park Maitland School, from its voucher programs because of “direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said late Friday.

The 55-year-old Orange County school was one of four private school campuses that Gov. Ron DeSantis said late Friday had been removed from the state voucher programs because of ties to Communist China banned by a new law he signed this spring.

DeSantis’ office said the state took action because the connections to Communist China “constitute an imminent threat to the health, safety, and welfare of these school’s students and the public.”

But Park Maitland disputed that in its message to parents. “As you all know, our school fosters a learning environment where students thrive. We place the well-being, safety, and learning of our students above all else,” it said.

Sagemont Preparatory School in Weston, which runs an upper and lower school, on Saturday released a similar statement to Park Maitland’s denying ties to China, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Its campuses were also suspended from the voucher programs on Friday.

The governor’s office did not offer any evidence or details about its investigation into the schools in its announcement released at about 5:30 p.m. Friday.

But all the suspended schools are part of Spring Education Group, which their websites say, is part of Primavera Holdings Limited, an investment firm based in Hong Kong and “owned by Chinese persons.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Primavera had in 2022 quietly purchased the Princeton Review and Tutor.com, raising some concerns “at a time of increased scrutiny of Chinese investment in the U.S.,” and noted it is also invested in TikTok’s parent company.

DeSantis has called the Communist Party of China the United States’ “greatest geopolitical threat” and signed laws in recent years that seek to limit its influence, including one this year that bans TikTok from government-owned phones and devices.

Park Maitland, with an A+ rating, enrolls about 640 students, according to the school search website Niche.

Last school year fewer than 50 of its students used state vouchers, according to Step Up For Students, which administers most of Florida’s scholarships. The school received more than $329,000 in scholarship money, Step Up’s data shows.

Its current scholarship numbers were not available, but Park Maitland may have more students using them this year because Florida changed the eligibility rules.

Park Maitland has a campus on U.S. Highway 17-92 in Maitland and also one on Minnesota Avenue in Winter Park, the former Parke House Academy.

“We are regularly acknowledged as one of the best private schools in our area and have a track record of delivering outstanding educational outcomes, which is why parents choose us,” the school’s statement to the Sentinel said.

MAITLAND, Fla. — The Florida Department of Education released documents to Channel 9 that shed light on why the state chose to pull scholarships from one Central Florida private school.

▶ WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS

In September, Governor Ron DeSantis announced school choice scholarships at the Park Maitland School’s campuses in Winter Park and Maitland would be suspended over alleged ties with the Chinese Communist Party.

The announcement forced the parents of 319 students to pay full tuition without state help, transfer to public school, or transfer to a different private school.

With those scholarships pulled, several parents we spoke to said they felt financial pressure.

Read: Schools respond after FDOE suspends scholarships over accusations of “Chinese Communist Party” ties

According to the school’s website, the average scholarship award was $7,000, but tuition at Park Maitland ranges from $15,000 to $20,000.

Since then, Channel 9 learned just one scholarship student from Park Maitland ultimately withdrew and attempted to enroll at another private school.

Meanwhile, documents released by the state show investigators primarily examined business records before deciding to suspend scholarships to the school.

Read: ‘Stay or transfer’: Park Maitland parents face tough choice after state pulls vouchers

Those records include SEC filings from the investment firm that owns the school: Primavera Holdings.

The SEC filing says the firm’s business strategy is “focused on generating attractive returns from global opportunities which have compelling China potential.”

The same filing says the investment group’s business selection criteria includes “established targets looking to deepen China presence and accelerate growth in China.”

However, the filings say this is not a requirement for all of the businesses acquired by the firm.

One of the almost 100 companies the firm owns is Spring Education Group, Park Maitland’s parent company.

Read: Park Maitland School increases campus security following Communist Party connection allegations

According to their website, they are a network of more than 230 private schools that provide education across the U.S. and internationally.

Despite the link, the documents don’t suggest that the investment firm has any influence in day-to-day operations at this school, nor does it explain why the firm elected to invest in education.

Channel 9 contacted Primavera Holdings, Spring Education Group, and Park Maitland; we have not received any comment.

Channel 9 also contacted the Department of Education for more information on their investigation but did not receive a response.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Park Maitland parents told Channel 9 they feel it’s “business as usual at the school.”

Several were skeptical of any alleged links to China and told us they don’t see it impacting their children’s education either way.

(Brittany Caldwell, WFTV.com/WFTV)

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.