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Archive for the ‘market’ Category

5th Annual Redland GrowFest!

Posted in agritourism, events, farmer/grower, food, location, market, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2016|

DATES: October 15 and 16, 2016, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Fruit & Spice Park, 24801 SW 187 Avenue, Redland, FL
ADMISSION:  $10 cash per person at the gate.
Advance tickets $8 online until Oct. 12 at Brown Paper Tickets .
Children under 12 get in free.
Military families can get free tickets at www.VetTix.org .

GrowFest!
A celebration of all local things edible, green, and growing

Redland GrowFest! returns for the fifth year to the Fruit & Spice Park October 15 & 16, 2016. This annual event celebrates all local things edible, green, and growing. Growers offer a bonanza of seedlings, starter plants and native and tropical fruit trees for home or school gardens and food forest projects. Food and artisan vendors feature products made with Redland-Raised ingredients, like the festival’s signature jackfruit curry.

Bee Aware! is this year’s festival theme, highlighting our pollinators, so essential for many crops. The Tropical Beekeepers Association, this year’s event beneficiary, will be on hand to share information about beekeeping from the hobby to the professional level and their educational projects. The club meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Redlands Community Church.

Organic grower and festival organizer Margie Pikarsky, owner of Bee Heaven Farm, believes it’s important for folks in the South Florida area to be aware of our diverse local agricultural resources, and learn how to take advantage of the unique possibilities our tropical climate offers.

The Chefs’ Local Cookoff Challenge on Sunday, joined this year by a similar Students’ Local Cookoff Challenge on Saturday, asks renowned local chefs and students to get creative with a Mystery Box full of Redland-Raised seasonal crops. Awesome deliciousness results from their inspired dishes!

Lectures and demos throughout the weekend by UF/IFAS/Miami-Dade County Extension agents, 4-H, Master Gardeners, and other local experts will inform growers at all levels – from balcony to backyard growers, urban, small and large farmers.

Event sponsors include Dade County Farm Bureau, Edible South Florida, District 8 Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, UF/IFAS Miami-Dade County Extension, Homestead Hospital, FIU Agroecology Program, Slow Food Miami, Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Fresh From Florida/Redland Raised, Bee Heaven Farm and the Fruit & Spice Park.

For more information and schedule of activities, visit the Redland GrowFest! web site.

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GrowFest! demos and presentations

Posted in agritourism, events, farmer/grower, location, locavore, market, tagged , on October 4, 2015|

GrowFest-logo-2

SATURDAY

All Day – Master Gardener Plant Clinic

All Day – Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry – Learn about the Redland Oriental Fruit Fly (OFF) quarantine, Giant African Land Snails (GALS) and Agro-Terrorism initiatives. Officers will be on hand for anyone needing to sign a compliance agreement.

10:00 am – 11:00 am  Fermenting Love – Shelah Davis

10:30 am – 11:30 am  Vermicomposting – Zarron Brown, Worm Whisperer

11:00 am – 12:00 noon  Asian Vegetables for South Florida – Dr. Qingren Wang, Commercial Vegetable Agent

12:00 noon – 1:00 pm  Easy Cooking with Asian Vegetables

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm  Home Composting – Adrian Hunsberger, MS Urban Horticulture Agent/Entomologist/Master Gardener Coordinator. Workshop participants will receive a voucher (one per household) for a free compost bin valued over $100. (Pick up your bin at Solid Waste, address will be provided.) Advance registration not required.

2:30 pm – 4:00 pm  Rain Barrel Workshops – Barbara McAdam, PA, Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program.(Workshop is free, but advance registration required to reserve a rain barrel @$40). Register here for Saturday.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm  Vermicomposting – Zarron Brown, the Worm Whisperer

SUNDAY

All Day – Master Gardener Plant Clinic

All Day – Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry – Learn about the Redland Oriental Fruit Fly (OFF) quarantine, Giant African Land Snails (GALS) and Agro-Terrorism initiatives. Officers will be on hand for anyone needing to sign a compliance agreement.

10:00 am – 11:00 am  Creating an Edible Forest on a Permaculture Model  – Jim Ewing, member USDA SSARE, Exec Comm

10:30 am – 11:00 am  Vermicomposting – Zarron Brown the Worm Whisperer

11:00 am –12:00 noon  Goat Milking Demo – Christina Nielsen, Flair’s Fayre goatherder

12:00 noon – 1:00 pm  Art of Kombucha – Buster Brown

12:45 pm – 1:30 pm  Proper Pruning of Fruit Trees live demo – Jeff Wasielewski, MS Tropical Fruit Extension Agent

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm  Selling Your Crop: Tips for Small Producers – Jim Ewing, member USDA SSARE, Exec Comm

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm  Chef Cookoff Challenge – 5 top chefs + limited ingredients + a mystery box of locally-grown food + 3 judges = a recipe for exciting creations with the unique foods of South Florida.

2:30 pm – 4:00 pm  Rain Barrel Workshops – Barbara McAdam, PA, Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program. (Workshop is free, but advance registration required to reserve a rain barrel @$40) Register here for Sunday.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm  Vermicomposting – Zarron Brown, the Worm Whisperer

Schedule subject to change.

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Ugly veggie love (NSFW)

Posted in food, locavore, market, photo, vegetables, tagged , on May 7, 2015| 1 Comment »

Pepper #30, by Edward Weston

Pepper #30, by Edward Weston

Many years ago, I came across the famous photo of a bell pepper taken by Edward Weston. The pepper was sensuous and and appeared to have a satiny skin. I was transfixed and flummoxed. Where did Weston find such a thing? Turns out he grew the pepper himself. But that didn’t keep me from scouring bins of bell peppers at the grocery stores. Nope, no luck. They were all the same plain boxy shape. No quirks, no twists, no character. Let’s face it, veggies at the supermarket are just plain dull.

Page 42 of the Spring issue, Edible South Florida

Page 42 of the Spring issue, Edible South Florida

It wasn’t until I started hanging out at Bee Heaven Farm taking photos of CSA shares that I came across produce with character. Hallelujah! Of course, I started photographing them! And now, a small part of my collection of wacky veggie pictures has been published on the inside back page of the spring issue of Edible South Florida. Thanks to editor Gretchen Schmidt for selecting the pictures!

Ohhhh myyyyy!!!

Ohhhh myyyyy!!!

Large heirloom tomatoes like to morph various shapes. Carrots get naughty. Daikon are more elegant and like to twist and twine. Eggplants grow noses. And bell peppers tend to grow lobes and knobs. (I still haven’t found one as elegant as Weston’s but that won’t keep me from looking.) Mother Nature is coloring outside the lines.

One man, Jordan Figueiredo, is on a mission to get supermarkets to sell veggies with character, because creating consumer demand for misshapen produce is a good way of reducing food waste. Growers and wholesalers prefer uniformly shaped, blandly “perfect” produce for supermarket sales — and us shoppers have come to expect bland as normal. We lose out on nature’s riotous creativity, which gets wasted, rotten, thrown away.

You can read more about Figueiredo and his mission in the article next to my pictures. His web site lists links for grocery chains, where you can be an ugly veggie activist too. Shoot an email to corporate. Or, ask the produce manager at your favorite grocery store, and remember to keep asking. With enough demand, “uglies” can and will start showing up routinely in grocery stores.

Don’t forget, “uglies” are fun. Over at the farmers market, I’ve seen kids reach first for eggplants with noses, and moms get a giggle at risque carrots. And of course you can start your own collection of produce pictures. Maybe you’ll be the one who finds a pepper as memorable as Weston’s #30.

Dancing daikon

Dancing daikon

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Come to market

Posted in events, farmer/grower, food, locavore, market, photo, tagged , , , on December 6, 2014|

Some of the assorted produce available this time of year.

Some of the assorted produce available this time of year.

Pinecrest Farmers Market
Sundays 9 am to 2 pm

Location:
Pinecrest Gardens
11100 SW 57th Ave.
Pinecrest FL 33156

It’s that time of year again, when Bee Heaven Farm/Redland Organics appears for the season at the Pinecrest Farmers Market. Bee Heaven offers the best in fresh, local, organic, seasonal and sustainable produce. Look for their big white tent! Check out these items that are available now:

Awesome Veggies: purple and striped eggplant, arugula, mizuna, 2 kinds of kale, collards, bok choy, yukina savoy, baby bok choy, sweet green bell, cubanelle, poblano and jalapeno peppers, fennel, dandelion greens, sunflower greens, lettuces, cucumbers, beets, red turnips, kohlrabi, cherry and grape tomatoes, daikon, watermelon radish.

Father and daughter shopping for cukes.

Father and daughter shopping for cukes.

Savory herbs: scallions, cilantro, curryleaf, allspice, garlic chives, lemongrass, flat Italian parsley, dill, cilantro, hoja santa.

Bean Bonanza: green beans.

Delectable Fruits: black sapote, canistel, carambola, GREEN papaya (for Asian salads and cooked dishes), passionfruit, sugarcane.

Other assorted goodies: local farm honey, fresh pollen, herb teas, dried Fruits of Summer, Florida Sem-Chi organic rice, Florida Keys Sea Salt, Flair’s Fayre goat milk soaps, and assorted tomato and herb seedlings.

Come early for best selection! The market is located in the parking lot near the front entrance of Pinecrest Gardens. See you there!

Farmer Margie Pikarsky, and husband Nick.

Farmer Margie Pikarsky, and husband Nick.

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Tropical Cornucopia

Posted in agritourism, events, farmer/grower, food, location, market, tagged , on November 1, 2013|

Tropical Cornucopia Farm and Garden Show
Saturday Nov. 2 and Sunday Nov. 3, 2013
10 am to 5 pm
Free admission

Did you miss out on GrowFest! but still want to get your veggie starter plants? Bee Heaven Farm will be one of the vendors at the the new Tropical Cornucopia festival (which includes a Garden & Green Marketplace) held in Homestead’s historic downtown area.

Here’s another chance to pick up a selection of tomatoes, veggies and herb seedlings for your gardens. Plus, long-awaited strawberry plant starts (they didn’t arrive in time for GrowFest!) and fruit trees.

Farmer Margie Pikarsky will also have first-harvest Redland Raised organic green beans, awesomely sweet carambolas, her own SMOKED Rachel’s Eggs, assorted dried fruits of summer, both “Local Flavors” and “Field to Feast” cookbooks which feature local farmers and recipes, and a few other goodies.

In addition to the Green Marketplace, the Tropical Cornucopia will have a variety of stunning garden exhibits, orchids and other plants for sale, eclectic entertainment, kids’ activities, arts and crafts, and a historic exhibit.

The area itself is a hidden gem with a variety of interesting small shops to browse through, and plenty of nearby mom ‘n pop restaurants to pick from for a delicious lunch: Chefs on the Run, Casita Tejas, NicaMex, Royal Palm Grill, Redland Hotel’s Whistle Stop, and Mamma Mia’s. Save room for dessert at La Michoacana Paleteria, the best tropical fruit ice cream and paleta shop around, located right on Washington Avenue.

Easily-accessed via Metrobus, the busway stop is just steps away from the festival. If you choose to drive, follow the signs for event parking.

Event organized by Redland Tropical Gardens. For more information call 305-247-2016.

Location:
Homestead Historic Downtown District
on Washington Ave, 1 block east of Krome (SW 177th Ave.)
at Mowry Drive (SW 320th St.) to Miami-Dade Homestead Campus

Tropical Cornucopia

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