Farm-Raised

From Steer to Blueberries and Citrus, Lausanne Walter’s Family Knows Agriculture

- TERESA SCHIFFER

LAUSANNE WALTER loves the farm life. Her family has been operating a farm in Bartow since 1996. For her, the farming lifestyle is perfect for raising a family.

“All three of my kids have become hard workers who value responsibility,” she says. “It’s peaceful, living in a rural area without a crowd of people around you. It’s very serene.”

The Walter family has agricultural roots, but Lausanne and her family didn’t initially plan to continue the tradition. Lausanne Walter’s husband, Larry, grew up in a farming family in North Carolina. Eventually, he became an engineer and he and Lausanne spent 40 years operating a civil engineering and surveying firm in Kissimmee. The Walters’ three children were heavily involved in the local 4-H organization of Osceola County while they were growing up, which inspired a love of agriculture in the children and their mother.

“Our youngest son, Keith, took to cattle like a duck to water,” Lausanne Walter recollects fondly, “and after each steer he sold every year, he purchased more, until our 15 acres in Kissimmee would not hold his cows any longer.”