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GrowFest! 2013

September 3, 2013 by marian33031

GrowFest-logo-2

October 19-20, 2013
10:00 am – 5:00 pm

A Bee Heaven Farm ~ Redland Organics Event

If you attended the inaugural GrowFest! event last fall, you were one of the hundreds who had a great time browsing for plants, enjoying local food and drinks, and relaxing to sounds of local musicians. Farmer Margie received lots of positive feedback, and with over 900 attending, it was an unqualified success. Now GrowFest! is back for a second year, just in time for planting season.

The stars of the event are undeniably all the heirloom tomato starts that Farmer Margie is famous for. Come pick up all the varieties you love. Lots of other growers will be there also, to provide plants and knowhow for your gardening success.

Grow Fest! is about connecting the dots between farms/gardens and your dinner table. It’s also about providing the knowledge and materials to grow, forage, buy, prepare, and eat good, local, seasonal food.

By engaging, encouraging and enabling visitors about gardening, and giving them the tools to grow some of their own food, you’ll gain a better appreciation of what it takes for farmers to produce the food we all eat, and whet your appetite for the best and freshest produce.

This year’s event will be held, once again, at the Redland Fruit and Spice Park. It’s the perfect venue, as the park hosts over 500 varieties of tropical fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs, nuts and edible plants. It’s the only tropical botanical garden and public park of its kind in the country. Take some time to explore all its nooks and crannies. If you’ve never been to the park, this is the time to visit. Redland is the heart of our local agricultural production, so what better place to kick off the winter growing season in South Florida!

This year’s GrowFest! will benefit our own locally-based Urban Oasis Project. Door prizes will be raffled off.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Admission:
$10/$8 in advance (coming soon), children under 12 free
Military families free via VetTix (coming soon)

Location:
Redland Fruit & Spice Park
24801 SW 187th Avenue
(corner of Coconut Palm Drive & Redland Road)
Redland, FL

Posted in agritourism, events, market | Tagged , |

Attack the jackfruit!

July 30, 2013 by marian33031

One of the weirdest looking fruits of summer is jackfruit. It has a thick green knobby skin, could pass for some kind of alien pod. A full-grown fruit may easily weigh 30 to 40 pounds.

Farmer Margie Pikarsky starts opening up a jackfruit.

Farmer Margie Pikarsky starts opening up a jackfruit.

Farmer Margie sells whole fruits of varying sizes on her summertime online store. She also cuts 3 pound chunks to order.

The yellow pouches are edible, but the white membranes are not.

The yellow pouches are edible, but the white membranes are not.

Opening one of these fruits is not for the weak of hand or faint of heart. You’ll need a big, sharp knife to pierce the thick skin, and the blade, your hands and the cutting board all need to be thoroughly oiled so the latex sap doesn’t stick.

You can’t just cut open the fruit, peel it and pop it in your mouth. Its white/gray “rags” or connective membranes are inedible in most varieties and need to be removed. The edible part of the fruit looks like a firm yellow pouch, which contains a large oval seed. You can blanch and roast seeds, or boil in brine, to make a snack that has a taste and texture of chestnuts.

Jackfruit seeds can be cooked and eaten.

Jackfruit seeds can be cooked and eaten.

When it’s ripe, jackfruit has a strong sweet, distinctive aroma, and gives off a good bit of ethylene gas (which can ripen other things in your refrigerator if you’re not careful.) It tastes like a blend of banana, pineapple and vanilla, and has a chewy texture. You can also eat the fruit green or unripe (but be extra careful with the sticky sap, which is greatly reduced when the fruit is fully ripe), and season it like you would curry or chili, or cook it in coconut milk. It said to make for a convincing meat substitute.

Read about Robert Barnum of Possum Trot Tropical Fruit Nursery growing jackfruit.

jackfruit-tree

Jackfruit ripening on the tree.

Posted in fruits, photo | Tagged , , |

Packing avocados

July 26, 2013 by marian33031

The big barn in the back of Bee Heaven Farm is where a lot of things happen. In the winter, a packing line for CSA shares is set up in its large open space.  Then in summer a slightly different packing line is set up to sort and box organic  avocados from the Bee Heaven grove.

Trees in the Bee Heaven grove are loaded with fruit.

Trees in the Bee Heaven grove are loaded with fruit.

Periodically through the summer, Farmer Margie delivers pallets of freshly-harvested large green Donnies and red-skinned Hardees directly to the Whole Foods Market Florida warehouse in Pompano Beach, where they are distributed to area stores the very next day.

Cleaning and grading avocados.

Cleaning and grading avocados.

Because the barn is a certified organic packing house, from summer through fall, local grower Murray Bass backs in trailer loads of his organic avocados to pack there. His crew cleans, sorts and boxes avocados all day long.

Filling boxes to be sold under Uncle Matt's brand.

Filling boxes to be sold under Uncle Matt’s brand.

Then pallet loads of his avocados are taken over to the Florida City State Farmers Market Facility, where they are kept in a large drive-up cooler. Big rigs from Publix and Whole Foods can back in easily to the loading docks to pick up their orders. Look for Murray’s avocados sold under the Uncle Matt’s brand!

Unloading pallets of Uncle Matt's avocados at the Florida City market.

Unloading pallets of Uncle Matt’s avocados at the Florida City market.

Posted in farm, fruits, photo | Tagged , , , , |

Small Farms & Alternative Enterprises Conference

July 5, 2013 by marian33031

Small Farm Conf 2011

August 2-4, 2013

The 5th Annual Florida Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Conference promises to inform and inspire agricultural innovators.

Join us August 2-4 in Kissimmee, Florida for farm tours, a trade show, networking opportunities, live animal exhibits, hands-on workshops, and delicious locally-grown food! Don’t miss this chance to learn more about farming as well as alternative enterprises such as beekeeping, hydroponics, grass-fed beef and more.  You will have the opportunity to interact with other farmers and industry professionals and get all of your questions answered.

Early bird registration discount is available.  Register today at: http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/smallfarms/registration.html

Location:

Osceola Heritage Park
1875 Silver Spur Lane
Kissimmee, FL 34744
Tel: 321-697-3333

Posted in events | Tagged |

Summertime is down time

June 27, 2013 by marian33031

summer-moon

Rising almost-full moon on Summer Solstice Eve.

It’s officially summer time! The solstice was last Friday, followed by a supermoon (when the moon is at the very closest to Earth all year). But it sure felt like summer months before. Summer is a hot, humid, sweaty, weedy time at Bee Heaven Farm. The CSA season ended in late April. The last of the carrots got found and pulled up at Gleaning Day in early May. And now the vegetable beds take a well-deserved rest until planting season in fall. Yes, fall — not spring.

If you are from anywhere north of Florida, you’ll quickly discover that farming seasons are upside down here, compared to what you may be used to in, say, North Carolina. There, the growing season is in full swing. Here, farmers let the fields rest and go on vacation. When the fall harvest winds down Up North, the planting season begins down here.

Lost in the weeds. (Can you find the bee?)

Lost in the weeds. (Can you find the bee?)

In the last two months, weeds sprang up to waist and shoulder height in the vegetable beds. They flourished because of days of torrential rain. Finally, on a dry day, Farmer Margie attached the brush hog to the green John Deere tractor and mowed them all down.

summer-mow

Weeds have met their match.

Summer is time for fruit. Lychees made their brief appearance for a couple weeks in May. Margie’s creamy Donnie avocados can get as big as footballs. Mangoes in all their varieties are definitely the queen of the summer fruit. Much coveted mamey, with its sweet salmon-colored flesh, is coming in. Massive jackfruit looks primordial with its thick, spiky hide. Sapodilla and longans are ripening. Summer is definitely a good time to become a fruitarian!

summer-avos

Donnie avocados ripening.

Posted in farm, fruits, photo | Tagged | 1 Comment »

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