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Archive for the ‘locavore’ Category

Dinner in Paradise

Posted in agritourism, chef, events, farm, food, locavore, tagged , on April 23, 2012|

Sunday April 29, 2012
Cocktail reception at 6:00 pm
Dinner at 7:00 pm

Chefs:
Sergio Sigalia (Cecconi’s)
Paula DaSilva (1500˚ at Eden Roc)
Thorsten Leighty (Eden Roc)

Enjoy the last Dinner in Paradise of the season!  Paradise Farms hosts a five course meal prepared by local celebrity chefs in the same beautiful natural setting where the fresh ingredients are grown, for a truly unique artisanal dining experience in a lush tropical setting.

Tickets are $165 + tax and processing per person. Online reservations are required, no later than Saturday 12 noon. Dress is upscale casual.

For more information email Info@paradisefarms.net or call 305.248.4181

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Farm Bike Tour

Posted in agritourism, events, farm, food, locavore, tagged , , , , , , on April 16, 2012| 2 Comments »

Sunday April 22, 2012
Registration: 8:30 am
Tour: 9 am – 1 pm

Slow Food Miami and Bee Heaven Farm have collaborated to organize the Farm Bike Tour, a fun locavore family event in observance of Earth Day. Start by registering at Bee Heaven Farm, then follow a 12-mile route that takes you on a tasting tour of three other local farms. Show up at the various stops and get a bite and something to drink (better than trick or treating, and you don’t have to dress up). You’ll also get to see a pretty part of farm country and visit various farms that you might not ordinarily get to see.

Begin at Bee Heaven Farm, where farmer Margie Pikarsky will start you on your way with fresh berries, black sapote muffins and herbal iced teas. Next stop is Paradise Farms, where farmer Gabriele Marewski will offer mango smoothies and small bites. Then cruise over to Teena’s Pride, a family owned 500 acre farm known for its heirloom tomatoes, where you can take part in a tomato tasting. Next stop is Fancy Koi 2, an aquaculture farm where they grow not only koi and other ornamental fish, but also the very tasty tilapia, which you will get to sample. Then, finish the tour and come back to Bee Heaven to cool off with Gaby’s Farm ice cream and sorbets, made with local tropical fruits, and frozen lychees (Mother Nature’s own popsicles) from LNB Farms.

Tickets:
Adults: $30 – Children under 12 free
Buy online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/237345
More info: Renée 888-580-4480

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Tropical Brunch with Les Dames

Posted in agritourism, events, food, locavore, tagged , , , on April 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

Les Dames d’Escoffier Miami
4th Annual Tropical Brunch in the Redland

Sunday April 15, 2012
11 am to 2 pm

The Miami chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier is holding their Fourth Annual Fundraising Brunch deep in the heart of Redland. Come for the delicious tropical food and drink, and stay to bid on lavish auction lots. It’s all for a good cause. This year’s Tropical Brunch will help fund nutrition and cooking education for local kids, and underwrite school vegetable gardens.

The feast is a locavore’s delight, presenting locally grown fruits and vegetables, farm-fresh eggs, fruit breads and pastries, and various ethnic specialties. Paradise Farms is providing greens for the salad bar and edible flowers. Teena’s Pride, famous for its ginormous, flavorful heirloom tomatoes is providing tomatoes and cucumbers for the gazpacho. And there will be microgreens from Swank Farms, just to name a few of the local growers involved. Schnebly Redland’s Winery & Brewery will pour their tropical fruit wines, along with their newest craft beers.

The menu draws its inspiration from MMMMiami: Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cooks Everywhere, authored by Dame Carole Kotkin and Miami Herald food editor Kathy Martin. (The book is out of print but there’s still a few copies to be had on Amazon.)

Soup
Orange-Tomato Gazpacho

Salads & Cheese Board
Shrimp Citrus Ceviche, Calypso Chicken Salad, Tropical Couscous Salad
Redland-Raised and Fresh from Florida field-ripened vegetables and greens
Aged Cheddar, Bonne Bouche, Cacciotta Brinatta, Manchego and Tetilla
Assorted breads, crackers, fruit and tapenades

Meats
Finger-lick’n Spare Ribs with Guava Barbecue Sauce and Mixed Cabbage Slaw
All-American Sliders with Caramelized Onions and Pickle
Arroz Campesino Paella of Chicken, Pork & Sausage with Corn and Roasted Red Peppers

Omelet
Cooked-to-order with a choice of ingredients, including:
Mushroom, Onion, Scallion, Spinach, Tomato Cheddar Cheese, Cream Cheese, Ham

Pancakes
Cooked-to-order Sweet Potato Pancakes with Chantilly Cream
Silver Dollar Pancakes with Florida Strawberries

Dessert
Roasted Plantain Cake with Toasted Coconut, Mango Ice Cream
Piña Colada Cheese Cake, Orange Bundt Cake, Key Lime Pie
Guava Linzer Torte, Triple-Chocolate Brownies, Lemon Biscotti
Florida Strawberries with Whipped Cream

Beverages
Schnebly Redland’s Winery & Brewery signature wines, sparkling wine and craft beers
Coffee, fresh Florida orange and grapefruit juices

(Gluten-Free dishes available upon request)

Les Dames president Ariana Kumpis will also give a cooking demonstration. Guests will dine al fresco at shaded picnic tables by the waterfall, and live easy listening music by Jukebox Joe Tunon will set the mood.

The best part is a Silent Auction with something for everyone. Some of the items to bid on: brunch at Paradise Farms, Sustain restaurant gift certificate, Monkey Jungle family passes, food baskets, wine lots, gourmet coffees, and a Breville espresso maker.

Location:
Schnebly Redland’s Winery
30205 SW 217 Ave
Homestead FL 33030

Tickets:
Adults: $45 advance / $50 at the door
Children (5-12 years): $15 advance / $20 at the door
Buy tickets online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/235515
or call 305-531-0038

Specially priced winery and brewery tours, tasting and commemorative glass at day of event. Payment at door only: $12 pp.

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Giving thanks

Posted in events, farm, farmer/grower, food, location, locavore, photo, tagged , on November 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For several years running I’ve been one of many people fortunate to be invited to celebrate in the barn at Bee Heaven Farm. It’s an extra special dinner because almost everything is local or organic, and many people at table are farmers who grew some of the food. Thanks to them, we had an amazing feast.

A long table was set up in the barn, where 25 people had their holiday dinner.

This Thanksgiving, 25 people attended. They filled a long table set up by Tim, this season’s intern, which was decorated with centerpieces designed by apprentice Marsha and Rachel, farmer Margie Pikarsky’s daughter.

Weber sniffed all the delicious aromas of turkey, green beans and other tasty things, while Nick waits for Margie to bring the last dish.

An enormous amount of food was prepared by Margie in the farm house kitchen. The tradition is to load all the dishes into the back of the farm’s golf cart and bring them to the barn. (It’s a lot easier and faster than carrying it all by hand.)

Let’s eat! Rachel filled her plate.

And 25 people made a lot of food disappear. We devoured three turkeys — two organic and one conventional. Two of those were smoked by Robert Barnum over Australian pine wood (and if you throw enough money at him, he’ll smoke something for you too). One organic turkey was split in half and oven roasted by Margie Pikasky. I’ve never seen a bird cooked that way, but it was quite good, flavored with Tuscan seasoning. We also had a Smithfield ham with a honey mustard glaze.

Farmer Margie carving an organic turkey that she roasted split in half. Behind her, Steve Green is sampling something.

A beautiful salad garnished with edible flowers (wild petunia and clitoria — no I’m not making up that name, go look it up) was artfully arranged by Rachel.  Yes, the flowers are edible!

Rachel’s beautiful salad creation, garnished with wild petunia (light purple flowers) and clitoria (dark purple flowers). Yes, the flowers are edible!

Other sides included: local green beans (grown by Dan Howard of Homestead Organic Farms) and local pearl onions (grown by Margie) in a balsamic-wine reduction sauce; sweet potatoes roasted and mashed with coconut milk; savory cookies, and beet and yogurt cheese tarts baked by Sadie; two kinds of cranberries; Hani Khouri’s fiery harissa, and a lively caponata made by lychee grower Steven Green.

Turkey and ham in the foreground, beet mini tarts, cranberry relish and chutney, caponata (topped with parsley), avocado salad, flowery salad and savory cookies.

Also on the table were: local bok choy, baba ghanoush, mustard greens; and carrot soup made by farm apprentice Marsha. Sadie also made stuffing with her mom Karen who came down from Pittsburgh. Last season’s farm intern Weber stopped by early to chop and stir the super-local guacamole made with Murray Bass’s avocados.

Nick (left, in hat) and Rachel (right, wearing black) celebrated their birthdays with pie.

For dessert, farmer Nick’s father Mickey, a retired pastry chef, made several pies — key lime, an amazing sour orange, and the traditional pumpkin, all topped with smooth and rich homemade whipped cream. We also drank about 8 or 10 bottles of wine. After all that food and drink, it was all one could do to waddle to bed and sleep for a long time.

This season’s hard-working apprentices Marsha and Tim enjoy the bounty.

Thanksgiving Day has passed, and I hope it’s a happy memory for you too. Other holiday feasts are coming up. Don’t forget to stop by your grower-supported farmers market to pick up your holiday goodies, and don’t forget to say thanks to your local farmers for all their hard work growing healthy and nourishing food. Without them, you won’t be eating. Anything. Any day. As Margie put it, no farms, no food.

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Homestead Al Gusto

Posted in agritourism, events, farmer/grower, food, location, locavore, tagged on November 4, 2011| 1 Comment »

Saturday, November 5, 2011
6:00 -11:00 pm

Losner Park
104 N. Krome Ave.
Homestead FL 

A brand new local food festival launches tonight in the heart of historic Homestead. Called Homestead Al Gusto, the event is the brainchild of Adri Garcia, executive chef of Greenrocks Foods. She brings together a number of different elements of the local food scene to this free, family friendly fest.

Participating at the event: the Food Truck Invasion, local farmers and food artisans, a Children’s Corner presented by Atala Montessori School with lots of fun kid’s activities, live music, and a Chef’s tent where Chef Adri Garcia and friends will give cooking demos.

To add to the excitement, chefs from the Food Truck Invasion will compete for best in show in a Chef’s Challenge issued by local farmers in Homestead. (And farmers are a tough crowd to please!) The chefs will pick up a basket of local produce containing in season vegetables and herbs from Redland, and make a dish using their particular style of cooking. The results will be judged and a prize will be awarded.

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