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Malone

Posted in animals, farm, photo, tagged , on November 12, 2012|

Malone the giant rooster struts through grass.

Meet Malone, the free-range young rooster who has been hanging around at Bee Heaven. He is huge, and has big feet, a big appetite, and big poops. Originally his name was a slang word in Spanish that sounds like Malone, that means big — never mind.

Malone on a mission to seek out dry cat food, while Flash the cat drowses nearby.

Malone showed up several months ago, a refugee from South Miami, where roosters are not wanted. You can have fowl, but not foul mouth fowl. He hails from a farm in Jasper, Georgia, where he was bought as a tiny golden yellow fluffball chick an year ago. Surprise surprise, he quickly grew to ginormous proportions. Nobody knows what kind of breed he is.

Greyling the cat having a few words about Malone’s greedy ways.

Malone started hanging out near the farmhouse carport. He quickly discovered the gourmet delicacy of dried cat food meant for outdoor cats, and also learned the sound of pellets hitting metal bowls means yummy nom noms are served. He comes racing out of the bushes, making a dash for the dish. The cats step aside. After all, he outweighs them by a kilo or two. The only way the cats can eat is if their food is put out after dark, when Malone goes to sleep.

Nobody knows where he roosts. Malone roams around the farm, free as a bird. He started hanging out with Crazy Chicken, another free-range rooster, and they saunter around the farm, scratching for bugs and chatting up hens in the chicken tractors.

Malone and Crazy Chicken.

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Plants for an edible garden

Posted in agritourism, events, farm, photo, tagged , , on November 8, 2012|

It started with emails, first a trickle, then a wave, pouring in to Farmer Margie’s inbox. They all said pretty much the same thing. “I didn’t make it to GrowFest,” or “I went looking for you at the Edible Garden Festival but you weren’t there.” Avid gardeners were hungry for their annual fix of organic heirloom tomato seedlings from Bee Heaven Farm.

Ish (left) helps a buyer pick out the perfect plant.

So for those who missed out, plants left over from GrowFest! were up for grabs last Saturday at a special seedling sale. The event ran from 10 am to 2 pm. People started trickling in just before 10, making the long walk down the farm driveway. It was the perfect day for visiting Bee Heaven Farm. A crisp, cool morning drenched with dew gently warmed to tee-shirt weather by noon. The sky was clear, brilliant blue, and turkey buzzards swirled high overhead, riding thermals created by freshly tilled and bedded fields. A mockingbird twittered somewhere in the spreading branches of a large poinciana tree, beneath which tables of seedlings were set up in the dappled shade.

Reaching for the best!

Gardeners dove in, searching for the perfect plants to take home. “Do you have… ” they asked, and farm helpers Victor and Ish were quick to assist. It was a treasure hunt, this search for perfect plants. The stars of the show were heirloom tomato plants: Sun Gold, Lollipop, Beam’s Yellow Pear, Green Grape, Black Zebra, Pineapple, Black Prince, Brown Berry, Homestead 24, Lime Green Salad. Some people were partial to smaller varieties, others liked big beefsteaks. Most people said they planted in raised beds, but I spoke to a fair number of container gardeners, too.

Farm helper Victor tells it like it is about growing yuca.

Most people knew just what they wanted. One woman came with plastic printed slips of names of tomatoes that she grew from last year. Others browsed through the assortment and bought mass quantities. Buy five, get one free. Buy 15, get five free. Enough to fill up the whole back yard and share with the neighborhood. By closing time, it was estimated that about 80 people came, and almost half the plants were sold.

Barbecue master and published author Steve Raichlen also stopped by. He marveled at the tub full of smoked eggs made by Robert Barnum of Possum Trot Tropical Fruit Nursery. Apparently smoking eggs is one thing he hasn’t yet tried to grill or smoke. He wrote about the encounter on his blog here.

Steven Raichlen, barbecue master and author of many books on grilling, with Farmer Margie.

If you missed this sale, you’ll have to wait to buy plants until December when Bee Heaven Farm will be at Pinecrest Gardens Farmers Market. The farm is not open to the public except for occasional events.

A happy shopper loaded down with tomato plants.

Choosing choy.

Farmer Margie (right) chats with customers.

Coveted organic heirloom tomato seedlings.

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Cooking with Hani

Posted in chef, events, food, photo, tagged , , on November 4, 2012|

Hani Khouri tosses a fresh batch of tabouleh.

Saturday, Nov 10, 2012
11:00 am – 2:00 pm

You’ve seen him in his Panama hat frying up falafel at GrowFest and other events, or perhaps bought his goat cheese. But did you know that Hani Khouri is also a masterful chef who specializes in Mediterranean cuisine?

Here’s a rare chance to take a cooking class with Hani and learn how to make three tasty dishes — falafel, tabouleh, and a goat cheese dessert. The event includes a buffet lunch, and all attendees will get a recipe book.

Hani’s Mediterranean Organics sells organic hummus and baba ganoush, goat cheeses, and tropical fruit goat milk ice cream made with milk from his herd of free-range Nubian goats. His delicacies are available at the Pinecrest Gardens Green Market and through the Redland Organics CSA as an add-on share.

Cost for the lunch/cooking class is $75 per person, or $60 per person for groups of four or more. Register and pay online at the Youth L.E.A.D. web site.

All class proceeds go to benefit Youth L.E.A.D.’s food justice programming, which provides training and employment for low-income youth at farmers markets and community gardens.

Location:
Coral Gables Congregational Church
3010 DeSoto Blvd. (across from Biltmore Hotel)
Coral Gables FL

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Fruit of the dragon

Posted in fruits, photo, tagged , on October 27, 2012|

Just the name alone conjures up something rare and mysterious — dragon fruit! The fruit itself looks like a large magenta egg with fins. It has a bright, thick, leathery skin that belies the interior. I’ve seen kids reach for it at market, pick it up and look quizzical. Just what is inside? And how does it taste?

The first time I opened up a dragon fruit or pitaya, I thought, “Alien autopsy, here goes!” and sliced. The inside is a solid grayish-white mass flecked with a million tiny black seeds that remind one of kiwi fruit. (There is also a red variety but it is not as common.) The texture is not as slippery or sweet as kiwi, but firm like watermelon, and only mildly sweet. (Some people compare it to eating styrofoam — but since I’m not into chemical cuisine, I wouldn’t know what that tastes like.) I like to eat it plain scooped out with a spoon, but you could peel it, cut it into slices or chunks and add it to a salad. Pitaya sorbet would be refreshing on a hot day. I’ve heard that you can dry the flesh and it tastes like chocolate, but it doesn’t last long enough at my house to test that out.

The fruit grows on what could be a very abstract, elongated dragon. The plant is a long green ribbon-like cactus that loves to climb and climb. If you’re going to grow it, don’t let it climb too far. I’ve seen it race up to the top of a towering royal palm. Good luck harvesting fruit from there without a cherry picker! Commercial growers build pedestal-type trellises for the cactus, and its ribbons wind and drape around themselves, going up so high and no higher. The point of keeping cactus close is to make it easy to pick its fruit. Buds form at the end of its shoots, and those buds open up into the biggest, most outrageous, huge white flowers that bloom for only one night, but smell sweet and attract a frenzy of nocturnal pollinators. Bees go berserk in early morning, just before the blossoms close, loading up on pollen and nectar. Pitaya has been in season all summer long, but is winding down for the winter.

Farmer Tim Rowan grows several dragon fruit plants, and has a bunch of cool pictures of them in all their stages on his blog here.

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A Taste of GrowFest!

Posted in agritourism, chef, events, food, location, locavore, market, photo, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2012| 2 Comments »

(Part 2 of 2)

Two Sundays ago, the second day of GrowFest!, I took a break from selling seedlings at the Bee Heaven Farm tent to stroll around and visit some of the vendors. It wasn’t all plants at GrowFest!. There was plenty to try and buy, much like a farmers market.

Melissa’s new book is available for pre-sale.

The first tent I saw when I entered the park belonged to Urban Oasis Project, one of the event sponsors. Had a chance to chat with Melissa Contreras, founder of the local non-profit. She is extremely knowledgeable about growing food, and spent the last year writing her new book, Organic Gardening in South Florida, and Marty Mesh wrote the foreword. It will be published by the University of Florida Press in February 2013, and is available for pre-order for the reduced price of $25 at the Urban Oasis web site.

Organic farmer Gabriele Marewski (left) at the Paradise Farms tent with some of her flax crackers and organic herbal teas.

Since I have limited space for growing plants on my Balcony Farm and didn’t want to get too many, I was more interested tasting local food and drink. And there was plenty of it on hand, almost all made using locally sourced ingredients. Paradise Farms Organic had an assortment of flax seed crackers called “jump food,” (a play on “junk food”) but their dried oyster mushroom snacks were very popular and sold out before I could nibble on a crumb. Farmer Gabriele Marewski also offered a line of herbal teas made from dried herbs and flowers grown on her certified organic farm.

Grower Sal Santelli with samples of his candy-sweet organic mamey. Bet you can’t eat just one bite!

Got to savor the sweetest mamey grown by Sal Santelli of Health and Happiness Farm. Hope he didn’t notice that I sampled more than one piece from the tray he had set out. Sal was quick to point out that he’s the only commercial grower of certified organic mamey in South Florida. He also had avocados, sunflower sprouts, pea shoots and arugula for sale. (Bee Heaven Farm CSA members have gotten his sprouts in their shares the past season.)

Salt farmer Midge Jolly with samples of salts, spices and sponges.

Nearby was the Florida Keys Sea Salt tent, where salt farmers Midge and Tom offered tastes of different kinds of salt harvested from seawater gathered from a flowing channel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Midge told me that they’re the only artisan sea salt farmer south of Charleston. Each package of salt is labeled with the date and celestial event/holiday when it was harvested. Midge explained that the season and weather have a great deal of influence on how the seawater evaporates, and what kinds of flavor nuances and texture the salt develops. She also brought buttonwood smoked salt (my favorite), gomasio, and seaweed-flax crackers. Brought home a packet of her newest product, an incredibly aromatic spice blend called Kopan Masala that is sure to liven up anything I’ll cook. You can find their salts at various shops in the Keys, several farmers markets, or order online. (Florida Keys Sea Salt is also available as a Bee Heaven Farm CSA share add-on.)

Miguel Bode has a wide assortment of local and Florida honey.

Two beekeepers, Miguel Bode and Rigo De La Portilla aka the Tattooed Beekeeper, were selling their honey. Miguel Bode keeps hives at Bee Heaven Farm and Paradise Farms, among other local spots. His wildflower honey (which I have been buying for years) is available to Bee Heaven Farm CSA members either as part of their share or as an add-on.

Rigo De La Portilla, The Tattooed Beekeeper, and his wife Eliza with honey, lip balm and other handcrafted bee products.

Rigo gave several demos on backyard beekeeping on both days, and brought sample hives. Over at his tent, along with different size bottles of wildflower honey, I found candles and balms and other beeswax products which his wife Eliza makes. I smoothed on a rich, honey-scented lip balm with propolis that immediately soothed my lips, and sniffed the delicate scent of honey and goat’s milk soap. Eliza aka The Tattoooed Beekeeper’s Wife has a wide assortment of bee products that can be ordered online at her Etsy shop.

In the Battle of the Sliders, the reigning champs: grass-fed beef sliders prepared by Chef Adri Garcia.

Several people were selling juices and water, but the best drink of all was a lightly sweetened, aromatic allspice tea at the Urban Oasis Project tent. The refreshing tea with the spicy, addictive flavor was brewed from leaves of a plant grown by Melissa. “I grew the allspice myself from a seedling purchased from the UM Gifford Arboretum about eight to10 years ago,” she said. “The tea is a popular item at our potlucks. I have also made it into a homemade soda — tropical root beer!”

In the Battle of the Sliders, the contender: grilled crab cake prepared by Jason Mira of Native Conch.

My eating and drinking tour concluded at the “food court” of several prepared food vendors and picnic tables. Over at the lime green and pink Native Conch trailer, Jason, George Mira’s son, made me a grilled crab cake made from lump crab meat mixed with panko crumbs. It was tasty but I still love their conch salad. The line for falafel wraps and jackfruit curry (which sold out quickly) at Hani Khouri’s tent was a mile long, but I was too hungry and impatient to wait.

Took my growling stomach to Chef Adri Garcia’s tent to get some Florida raised grass-fed beef sliders seasoned just so. They were topped with sauteed onion and peppers, and served with a local mixed greens salad from Paradise Farms, dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Not bad for festival food! For dessert there was Roc Kat Ice Cream, a recent addition to the local food scene. I had hoped for a scoop of pineapple brown sugar ice cream, but it had sold out. Roc Kat sells handcrafted ice cream all around town, so look at their site to track them down.

Farmer Margie with the last serving of jackfruit curry. But I got a taste and it was good…

What’s a festival without music? Around the corner from the food court the music tent was set up. On Saturday, kids from the Robert Morgan Education Center String Chamber Ensemble played. The talented teens were really quite good! On Sunday, local singer-songwriter Grant Livingston sang his original playful and witty songs about life in Florida, including my favorites “Homestead” and “Armadillo.” Oh-ee-oh-ee-oh!

Robert Morgan Education Center String Chamber Ensemble

Singer-songwriter Grant Livingston

(Additional vendors and exhibitors not listed earlier in the vendors post, or mentioned above, were Edible South Florida and Tropical Fruit & Vegetable Society.)

Cuckita “Cookie” Bellande and her husband. Their Rochelois Jams are made from locally grown tropical fruit, and the flavors are worthy of a happy dance. Try monstera, jakfruit, and calamondin.

If you missed GrowFest! this year, it will be back at the Fruit and Spice Park again next year. “Yes, we’ll do it again,” Margie said. “This will be the ‘go to’ place to gather what you need to grow and garden. Next year, we can plan on even more types of seedlings (or seeds) and plants, fertilizer, garden tools, pots, etc.” If you missed out on getting tomato and vegetable seedlings from Bee Heaven Farm, “we’ll have some starts when we return to Pinecrest in December,” Margie added.

To see more pictures, check out the GrowFest 2012 album on my Facebook page, and the Bee Heaven Farm’s Facebook page.

At the Bee Heaven Farm tent.

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