The Miami Herald has a nice long article about farmer Margie Pikarsky and the Redland Organics CSA. You can find it in today’s Tropical Life section.
Bee Heaven owner: Organic farming is good for the foodie — and the land
BY ANA VECIANA-SUAREZ
aveciana@MiamiHerald.com
On a muggy summer day, as bruised clouds gather overhead, Margie Pikarsky wends her way through her five-acre farm pointing proudly at strips of cultivated land and a growing compost pile. A blue jay swoops across the field, then another. In the distance a cardinal trills.
“I feel very connected to nature,” Pikarsky, 57, says, and then adds with a wry laugh. “I have this Mother Earth thing going.”
Indeed. Pikarsky has been running Bee Heaven, an organic farm in South Dade’s Redland area, since 1995, when pesticide-free farming was more a boutique niche than thriving business. She harvests honey, collects organic eggs and grows familiar fruits and vegetables as well as exotics — mostly Asian greens — that do well in South Florida soil.
She sells them at farmer’s markets and through Redland Organics, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiative that allows people to buy “shares” upfront in return for weekly selections of organic produce during the growing season.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/22/1740121/mother-earth.html
Loved the story. Great writing and great subject Ana.