Honors System in Florida
It’s hard to believe that in 2018, the honors system is alive and well in Florida. You see it at some state and county parks where envelopes and collection boxes are used for entrance fees. But what about private businesses that offer up products for you to buy without someone there to ring you up? It may sound like a risky venture, but these business owners say most people are good and honest.
In our travels, we have come across several businesses operating on the honors system, all of them honey stands. Located along backroads, or along highways through the rural parts of the state, these businesses are reminiscent of a much simpler time in Florida.
Putnam County
Biggers Apiaries Honey Stand
After hearing about a honey stand selling through the honors system in Putnam County, we decided to see what the buzz was all about and visit during one of our trips to Palatka. For more than 70 years, the Biggers Apiaries Honey Stand has been selling its honey from the side of Highway 100 in San Mateo. The old wooden structure is showing its age, but the honey is as plentiful and sweet as ever. Jars of palmetto, gallberry, orange blossom, and wildflower honey line the shelves. Tables in front also hold additional items, like cane syrup and pumpkin butter. A yellow sign with large red letters tells visitors to “Put money in the box.”
A small outdoor store now sits next to the roadside stand. Lawn ornaments, additional honey, jams and jellies can be found inside. If it is open, someone is inside to take your money. But if you’re only looking for the honey, you don’t need to go any further than the old stand outside.
Central Florida
Homeland, Florida
South of Bartow, along SR 640 West off Highway 17/98, sits a small wooden red structure, one of the newer honor system locations we have found. It looks like any other roadside stand, but there is no one there to welcome you or sell you the product. The counter is lined with jars of raw honey – various sizes, various prices. Signs hanging on the back wall provide further instructions if you are looking to buy larger sizes.
If you like what you see, and the price is right, put the money in the slot on the cash box and you are done.
Lake Wales, Florida
Struthers’ Honey
About 15 minutes east of Highway 27, along Highway 60, is perhaps the state’s oldest honey store working off the honor system, opening for business in 1935. Sitting just off the highway about 10 miles east of Lake Wales, Struthers’ Honey welcomes visitors with a quaint front porch that opens into a small store. On the back wall, tiered shelves hold jars of honey, honey candy, bee pollen, and bees wax. The yellow walls are adorned with old family photos revealing the history of the business, as well as various other framed posters and prints paying homage to the bee. In the middle of the floor is a table-size box with a tiny slot for you to pay for your purchases.
Arriving early on a Saturday morning, we were lucky to be in the store when Alden Struthers entered to restock the shelves. Alden is a fourth-generation beekeeper, taking over the business from his father. (Alden’s son and grandsons are also working in the business.) His down-home hospitality provided an unexpected first-hand history of the business, as well as a lesson in beekeeping.
Alden Struthers, 4th Generation Beekeeper
One of the photos on the wall is with Alden wearing a beard of bees, something he says he was coaxed into doing by his brothers when he reached the age of 50. Another picture is of his older brother donning the same kind of beard.
Struthers and his “bee beard”
Alden told us, even though most people are honest and pay for what they take, the cash table was stolen years ago when the store front faced the highway before it was four-laned. The cash box, which had $25 in it, was found later in a nearby creek. It took a day and a half to get it out.
Money slot
There are probably more of these honors systems businesses throughout the state, but like other “old Florida” traditions and culture, they are not as prevalent as they once were.
Have you been to any other honors systems locations in Florida? If so, leave a comment and tell us were they are.