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Flashback Friday: Pinecrest market, Dec. 2

Posted in fruits, market, people, photo, vegetables, tagged , , on May 10, 2013|

Here’s a look back, the first of a series, of Bee Heaven Farm/Redland Organics at Pinecrest Farmers Market this winter. Their last day was April 28th, 2013, and now the market season is over for them until fall. Farmer Margie, husband Nick, and their hard working crew will be back in December. Until then, enjoy happy memories of mornings at market browsing for ridiculously fresh local fruits and veggies. The following pictures were taken on December 2, 2012.

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Farmer Margie weighs tomatoes.

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Nick (with straw hat) helping a customer.

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Nicole holding sugar cane.

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Red lettuce looks airbrushed.

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Nose-y eggplants.

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Strawberry love

Posted in fruits, photo, tagged , on April 10, 2013|

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This conjoined strawberry came from Sunshine Organic Farm. Even though I handled it gently, it was so ripe that it bruised easily, and leaked bright red juices all over my hand. Doesn’t it look like a large moth, or perhaps a heart? Grown locally at Sunshine Organic Farm.

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Patch of green in the desert

Posted in food, location, locavore, market, photo, politics, tagged , , , on April 8, 2013|

Three vendors at the Brownsville Farmers Market offer Argentinean empanadas, fresh local and organic produce from Urban Oasis Project, and Tommie's Gourmet Comfort Food.

Three vendors at the Brownsville Farmers Market offer Argentine empanadas, fresh local and organic produce from Urban Oasis Project, and Tommie’s Gourmet Comfort Food.

Brownsville Farmers Market is small, a clutch of three tents set up in the entrance plaza of the Jesse Trice Community Health Center. But this is where Melissa Contreras of the Urban Oasis Project non-profit, and her assistants, set up shop this season, selling fresh, local and organic fruits and vegetables to the underserved community nearby.

The market is a welcome patch of green in an area not known for healthy eats. The afternoon I came to visit, the place was bustling with staffers and clients of the health center. I had just missed the lunch rush, but got swept up in the cheerful chaos of a group of women leaving a wellness class. They sampled bits of fruit and grabbed up cauliflower picked just 24 hours earlier. Melissa greeted many people by name and cheerfully answered questions. The market accepts EBT and offers matching funds up to $20. One man had a $10 matching token burning a hole in his pocket, which he had received from the center for reaching a health milestone. He carefully chose two golden papayas, bunches of fresh herbs, and a bag of Shawnee’s Green Thumb spirulina popcorn as a treat.

Diverse families come to shop for fresh produce they can't get anywhere else in the neighborhood.

Diverse families come to shop for fresh produce they can’t get anywhere else in the neighborhood.

A woman who comes every week to shop for her family of eight children left with three large boxes of vegetables and a potted African Basil plant the size of a shrub. “This is the only place in Brownsville where she can get vegetables to feed her family,” Melissa said. “This is a food desert.” She explained that a food desert is an area where its residents do not have access to fresh produce and other healthy foods. The residents have to shop at small neighborhood markets that don’t stock much by way of fresh produce.

The Brownsville market moved around and changed names a bit. Originally it was known as the Liberty City market located at the TACOLCY Center. Because of permit issues, it moved to the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, then moved again to this current location and changed names. Last year, the market was funded by grants from the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative, a federal grant administered by the county’s Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade. “This year, we are purely self-funded,” Melissa explained,”Our SNAP matching funds, which are a separate program, are from Wholesome Wave, as they are for all of our markets.”

Melissa Contreras, John Lewis (Sistrunk and PATCH market), Sharon Yeago (consultant), Brett Johnson and Rachelle Lawson-Norwood from PATCH market.

Left to right: Melissa Contreras, John Lewis (Sistrunk and PATCH markets), Sharon Yeago (market consultant), Brett Johnson and Rachelle Lawson-Norwood from PATCH market.

As luck would have it, I got to meet Sharon Yeago, a local food activist and farmers market consultant, who was visiting that afternoon. She was accompanied by representatives of two new farmers markets in Dania Beach (PATCH) and Sistrunk, and stopped to chat for a moment. Sharon was instrumental in helping Urban Oasis get grants for the Brownsville market, and had helped get funding for four other new farmers markets in Miami-Dade. For the past year, Sharon’s been working in Broward to develop new markets through TOUCH (Transforming Our Community’s Health) Broward, a program of the Broward Regional Health Planning Council that also helps underserved residents get access to healthy food.

The Brownsville market is seasonal and will close in two weeks on April 17, following the winter growing season here. It will reopen sometime in fall. After the market closes, the mother of eight and other regulars will have to travel quite a bit further to shop at the next nearest local-grower-supported market. (That would be the Upper Eastside Farmers Market on 66 St. and Biscayne Blvd. It’s also run by Urban Oasis, and is open year round.) But at least there is another market that she can go to.

It took a lot of hard work and determination on the part of Brownsville market organizers to navigate their way through permit and zoning challenges, and to gather funding to get started. But the people of Urban Oasis have proved that it can be done, again and again, despite the odds. Hopefully Miami-Dade County can streamline the process to allow more farmers markets with less governmental difficulties. There aren’t that many sources of fresh produce in the food desert, yet the need is so great.

Brownsville Farmers Market at Jesse Trice Community Health Center
5361 NW 22nd Ave.
Miami FL 33142
Wednesdays from 11 am -2 pm
Seasonal, open through April 17, 2013 (resumes in Fall)

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Apples and carrots in heaven

Posted in animals, farm, photo, tagged , on March 21, 2013| 1 Comment »

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Kids at Gleaning Day offer freshly-pulled carrots to inquisitive Bali the horse.

He was the unofficial good will ambassador of Bee Heaven Farm. He was tall and white, quiet and gentle, spirited and playful, and at the very sight of him, kids of all ages lit up and cried out, “A horse!” His name was Bali, short for Balbriggan, and he was the darling of the farm.

Visitors and friends alike would walk over to his yard and call to him, or make ch-ch-ch sounds, or hold out treats. Kids especially were excited to see him. They’d offer anything they could lay their hands on for Bali to eat, and watch in equal parts of glee and squeamishness as his soft lips gently took a freshly-pulled carrot out of someone’s brave hand.

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Roosters Malone and Crazy Chicken were some of Bali’s friends at Bee Heaven Farm.

What a good life Bali had, to hang out and look handsome, and have people bring him tasty things to eat! (Interesting how people have this desire to feed those with whom they fall in love.) In the first year I visited the farm, I’d bring apples for the horse. Thinking I’d be polite, I quartered the fruit, which only led to his impatient head tossing, asking for more. I was amazed to see him chomp down on a whole apple, and chew it up without effort.

Rachel gives Bali a bath.

Rachel gives Bali a bath.

As the years passed, we became so familiar with each other, that he would ignore me unless I had a treat. Sometimes I’d remember to bring one, and sometimes he’d come for a pat and a gentle rub. Rachel, farmer Margie’s daughter, would care for him and ride him every so often, as he was a retired horse. He was her bubblebutt, her boogerboy, her baliberry, her pride and joy. But when she went away to college, that special daily interaction stopped. Margie would care for him and take him outside to graze, and a farm hand would feed him. Only a few farm interns knew anything about horses and could offer to work with him. Bali became the gentle white icon of the farm, standing off to one side of the back yard, his face usually covered with a fly mask, flicking his tail. (And sometimes he was not so white, more like clay red from a mudbath after a summer rain.)

Bali passed away a few days ago at the ripe old age of 22. He had been fighting complications from sores caused by biting flies. They attacked him mercilessly, and he developed sores on his legs, and his right eye, which he scratched and got infected. The vet performed surgery on the eye, but it lost sight and Bali couldn’t seem to adjust to loss of vision. His spirits declined, and after a few months, he passed on quietly in his sleep.

Bali, sweet angel of the farm, I know you are feasting on apples and carrots in heaven, where there are no flies, and always people to love you and feed you. You live on in our hearts.

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Balbriggan aka Bali 1991-2013

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With love and kale

Posted in events, food, people, photo, tagged , on March 11, 2013|

ghost-bookReaders may know her as the Edgy Veggie columnist for the Miami Herald, or the Meatless Monday columnist for the Huffington Post. Ellen Kanner, an award-winning food writer, launched her first book to a packed house at Books & Books recently. Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith & What to Eat for Dinner is a thoughtful, cheerful collection of recipes and the stories behind them, written with gentle wit and sensual musings on life, love and food.

The hungry ghost of the title is a Taoist concept, and Ellen uses it to refer to anyone who might be feeling hungry for food, meaning, connection or unconditional love. For Ellen, cooking food and serving it to her friends and family is a way of expressing that love and quelling those ghosts. “I write about the value of community,” Ellen said at the book signing presented by Slow Food Miami. “Food brings us together in many ways. We are all here together in a great global stew. We depend on each other.”

Author Ellen Kanner

Author Ellen Kanner

Ellen is not shy with the flavors of her dishes. She revels in creating rich and complex blends. Her recipes are inspired by exotic corners of the world. In her hands, familiar vegetables don’t taste so ordinary anymore. “There’s a great big world out there and it’s all worth tasting,” Ellen said.

Moroccan Carrot Salad is a zippy orange slaw with hits of cumin, cayenne and lemon. Summer Tomato Salad is spiced with za’atar. Red Lentil Soup fairly dances with Indian notes of coriander, turmeric and red pepper flakes. Earthy cardomom might be her favorite spice. “Slightly honeyed, slightly dusky — it struck a low note, back in the throat, deep in the viscera. It seemed to dirty-dance with our tongues.” Ellen writes poetically and sensually about flavors, textures and feelings. Don’t you dare snarf down a meal — enjoy! “Food is like foreplay, a pleasure in and of itself, one you don’t want to rush. Allow yourself to get into the mood,” she wrote. (She even tells the story of an orgy she hosted for her friends at the tender age of 15. You can read about it on page 35.)

The dessert table loaded with platters of seed cake, vegan chocolate cake, orange blossom cookies and multifaith sweetness and light sugarplums.

The dessert table was loaded with platters of seed cake, vegan chocolate cake, orange blossom cookies, and multifaith sweetness and light sugarplums.

Yet as adventurous as the recipes might get, Ellen is partial to home grown and praised the local food scene. More farmers markets are closing the gap between grower and consumer, and Slow Food Miami’s school gardens encourage kids to get their hands dirty. “Grow your own food,” Ellen suggested to a reader in the audience, “even if it’s a pot of herbs on the windowsill. Get a real appreciation of what it takes to grow real food.”

Organic growers Gabriele Marewski ad Norman Brooks

Organic growers Gabriele Marewski ad Norman Brooks

Friends and fans swooned and praised Ellen, who cheerfully signed books and posed for pictures. A number of local food luminaries were in there: organic farmer Gabriele Marewski, organic grower Norman Brooks, food writer Trina Sargalski, and a fair number of Slow Food Miami members, among others.

A table was loaded with desserts baked by Slow Food members, from recipes from the book. Local chef Ariana Kumpis brought seed cake, loaded with chia and flax seeds, scented with anise. Soft orange blossom cookies were perfumed with orange water and studded with pine nuts. Moist and richly flavored vegan chocolate cake disappeared quickly. “Love transforms even the simplest dish. It makes our inner light shine.” For a happy moment, hungry ghosts were sated with love of the edible kind.

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