The Underhill family has owned and operated this farm sense Chester Underhill , my daddy, having heard of the new fencing law about to be enacted by Florida’s legislature (around 1939), decide that If he was going to remain in the beef cow business he had better purchase land he had heard of in the Three-cornered area of Okeechobee, St. Lucie, and Martin Counties. Knowing that the only way available for him to find a suitable cattle grazing area a for ranch, Chester started to survey the area on horseback (the best way at that time). For over four weeks he rode across western Martin and St Lucie counties, before he was able you find the land that he, in November 1940, would purchase and work his entire life making it into his ranch.
Over the years the ranch and the Underhill family have through several changes and transformations but one constant, that Chester instilled in all his children and grand children, has remained, the love of the land and the love of agriculture. I guess that is the main reason I have always been interested in every form of agriculture (crops more than livestock) especially there benefits. Over the years I had done quite a bit of research on bamboo and felt with all of its benefits if properly promoted it could become a financially successful crop. So after shutting down my dairy business I started planting bamboo all over the ranch and posting signs about the benefits of bamboo along with urging everyone to plant bamboo. Because of the encroachment of housing developments and the city into western Martin, it was becoming harder and more expensive to operate a purely agricultural business.
So in early 2004 I held my first mudding event mainly to promote bamboo and increase my exposure as your one stop for all bamboo needs. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine the turnout I had at that first event or the attraction I would get from county officials. As I started planning the next event and because of the signs, I had posted around the county urging everyone to plant bamboo, one of my friends along with others started referring to me and the ranch as “PLANTBAMBOO”, saying it like one word and that’s how we got our name. However, what some people don’t know is that I have dyslexia, which causes me to see some words and letters backward. So when I painted signs with PlantBamboo I would, un-knowingly paint the ‘N’ backward and thats how we got our logo the backward ‘N’.