Posted in agritourism, events, locavore, photo, tagged GrowFest!, Whole Foods on October 17, 2014|
Dejah, a customer service cashier, did her part to set out flyers at each cash register at the South Beach store.
Want to have the GrowFest! schedule of events handy?
Grab a GrowFest! flyer at any Whole Foods Market in South Florida, from Palm Beach stores south to Pinecrest. They’ve been in stores all week. (There might be some left…)
Whole Foods is a festival sponsor for three years running. Thanks to all at the company who helped support GrowFest!
Grab a flyer at a checkout lane.
Posted in fruits, market, photo, tagged avocados, Dan Howard, Homestead Organics, Whole Foods on October 7, 2012| 4 Comments »
Seen at Whole Foods stores recently….
The store in South Beach is proud to support local growers.
The Aventura market had local, organic avocados from Homestead Organic Farms.
(Homestead Organic Farms is also the area’s largest organic green bean grower, and you will get their green beans in your CSA share come November.)
Local avocados from Homestead Organic Farms, next to grape tomatoes from Lady Moon Farms (which are not local, not this time of year).
Posted in events, market, photo, tagged GrowFest!, Whole Foods on October 5, 2012| 2 Comments »
The GrowFest flyers are ready! Farmer Margie worked hard on designing them, and I picked them up at the printer Thursday afternoon.
Ten boxes holding 10,000 copies — yes, TEN THOUSAND copies — crammed into the trunk of my car.
Spent Friday afternoon dropping off boxes of flyers at Whole Foods at South Beach and at Aventura. The store is one of the event sponsors. Farm assistant Victor Hernandez ran around all day dropping off more boxes at eight other Whole Foods stores.
Grab a flyer and drop it in your bag. Then come out and see us!
When you go shopping this weekend, look for the flyers right by the bags as you check out … and take one! If you don’t see them, ask!
Posted in food, market, photo, tagged Bee Heaven Farm, Murray Bass, Nature Boyz, Paradise Farms, Three Sisters Farm, Upper East Side Farmers Market, Whole Foods on August 31, 2011|
A two foot long jakfruit split open.
Last Saturday I shopped at two markets, one small and friendly, and one big and corporate. First, I stopped by to see what was new at the Upper Eastside Market, and it was loaded with good things to eat. Who says it’s too hot to grow anything here in the summer? Over at the Nature Boyz juice stand, Clive had a couple of good sized jakfruit available. They are starting to mature this time of year. Further down the row of tents, I found locally grown okra, collards, calabaza, lemongrass, fresh akee and annona fruit. You could get callaloo and plantains from Three Sisters Farm in Redland, sweet potatoes grown on a small farm in Kendall, and loads of starfruit from a garden just down the street in Miami Shores. The eggs were from hens kept somewhere in North Miami, shhhhh! They even had bags of white and brown organic rice grown and milled in Belle Glade. Almost everything at this market is local — sourced either from Miami-Dade County or somewhere in Florida.
Local avocados grown for Uncle Matt’s.
My next stop was Whole Foods in Aventura. I’d heard there was local fruit in the stores, and wanted to see for myself. I easily spotted a nice heap of shiny and fresh green avocados carrying the Uncle Matt’s brand, and grown locally by Murray Bass. Nearby were medium sized mamey from Health and Happiness Farm, but their pints of longans had sold out.
The fruits looked pretty good, but specialty items were another story. Packets of allspice leaves and berries from Bee Heaven Farm were starting to look a little brown. Bunches of wilting garlic chives, also from Bee Heaven, were piled in a shallow basket in an open cooler. They were starting to wilt, and looked in desperate need of a mister. One shelf up were boxes of extremely perishable edible flowers from Paradise Farms that looked flat, dried up and inedible.
Overall, I have to give Whole Foods credit for making a good effort to support local growers. They are doing an OK job of sourcing local fruits this summer. But, by the looks of things, their produce people could use training on how to handle delicate specialty items. And of course, there’s just no comparison to shopping at the neighborhood farmer’s market, which has plenty of extremely fresh, locally sourced items!
Posted in fruits, location, market, photo, tagged avocados, Bee Heaven Farm, Health and Happiness Farm, mamey, Whole Foods on July 18, 2011| 2 Comments »
In front of the store in Winter Park.
Last week I was up in Sanford visiting with friends Kattia, Chris and Holden. Kattia knows I’m a big fan of Whole Foods, and took me to visit the store at Winter Park.
Hardees in front and Donnies on the left.
The first thing I saw when I walked in through the front door was a heap of Florida avocados. They looked suspiciously familiar. I peered closer and saw the sign: Bee Heaven Farm, Homestead FL. “Kattia, look! Margie’s avocados!” I shouted, astonished by the presence of Redland raised Hardee and Donnie avocados. (One Hardee was starting to ripen and showed dark red streaks. It will turn burgundy red when it is completely ripe.)
Hardee avocados from Bee Heaven Farm.
The fruits were right under a spotlight and their green skins glowed in the light. They made the California Haas avocados stacked behind them look dark, drab and unremarkable by comparison. I pulled out my camera to take a picture. Kattia and her son Holden made theselves scarce over by the bulk bins, and the employee stacking produce looked at me with curiosity.
Massive mamey from Health and Happiness Farm.
I then noticed mamey stacked nearby, and looked more closely. The sign said Health and Happiness Farm, Homestead FL. “Kattia, look! Sal’s mamey is here too!” Next to the mamey were sapodillas from Kopali Organics, also from Homestead. I looked around and didn’t see my friends. Gee, you just can’t take me anywhere… But Redland fruit travels everywhere!
Redland Rambles 