Hey Matt,
There are loads of us homesteading in NW Florida! You're right that our location is a bit of a challenge, but it just takes a little thinking to pull it off. Our family farm is now in Milton, and my husband works in Westville, but we have lived and worked all over the panhandle and in lower AL & GA (& I've taken my garden and critters with me each time) The biggest challenge you will have is sandy soil, and it can be different for each piece of property. Those wetlands you're dreading are actually an awesome feature for Florida! Tupelo honey comes from native trees in the marsh swamps around Carryville, & even if you don't plan to have bees, there will be happy native ones to help your garden. NW FL is also full of wild hogs, thats lots of free bacon running around those marshes. & As far as fruit trees go, there are some limitations. You won't be able to grow a lot of the more common apple, peach, & pear varieties, but there are a ton of low chill breeds of tree that do great! My neighbor has a 30 ft crabapple tree that gives her all the jelly & juice apples you could want! Another neighbor has pears that are round, and I have FL Princess peaches in my front yard. But I'm also far enough south to have oranges, limes, & lemons! & Don't get me started on the blueberries, scuppernon grapes, & persimmons that are everywhere just growing wild.
There is a lot of NW FL that is cattle country, there's a large dairy in Bonifay and a huge shipping yard in Westville. This is because it's warm enough in winter to grow fodder crops and pasture, instead of trying to winter them over on hay and grain. Again, you won't be able to grow some of the more common grains like spring wheat, and sometimes the corn doesn't make it. But you can grow rye through the winter, and barley, millet, oats, & amaranth in the spring. You just have to adjust your growing seasons. I grow short season veggies in raised beds & containers Feb to June, started indoors, last frost is always done by March. Then I start again in Sept, and grow veggies until December, when we usually get our first hard cold (40 degrees). However most of cool season crops will keep growing through the light frosts until it gets too warm in April, (collards, broccoli, kale, spinach, mustard, tatsoi, cabbage, turnips, radishes, carrots, & I've got a few sugar snap peas hanging on right now) I try not to grow anything outside in July or August, my peppers and okra are the only things that really appreciate 100+ degree heat. But the main cash crops of cotton, peanuts & soybeans seem to handle it too.
Gardening isn't the only great part about NW FL, though. One of main reasons we were drawn back to our place was the fishing. When the summer heat hits, there are thousands of fresh and brackish water fishing holes, or you can head to the coast for bigger catches. There is also a growing movement here with fish farming & aquaponics. Something worth checking into to provide income for your homestead.
About the only downside to homesteading here would be the pests. Rats, fire ants, mosquitoes, fleas, flies, FL leaf footed stink bugs, and tomato horn worms are not your friends and will happily devour your homestead. It makes it much harder to be organic, but it is doable. Definitely invest in a good cat.
Sorry if it seems like a lot to take in, I really hadn't planned to write so much, but we love living here in NW FL and I get excited that more homesteaders might want to join us here, too!
