Eating Local in the Tropics

Fort Lauderdale Fresh Market Grand Opening

2012-02-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

Today is the grand opening of the new Fresh Market in Fort Lauderdale! I'm pretty excited because all I need is another fancy grocery story to tempt me. I'm thinking the Fresh Market will give Whole Foods a little much needed competition and I'm anxious to see what local products they'll stock and how they'll promote them. Doors open at nine this morning and the first thousand customers will receive a grocery bag and a coffee sample. Drawings for gift cards will be held all day and there will be lots of cooking demonstrations and tastings. The Fresh Market is located at 424 Federal Highway. It's on the east side of the road a little north of Broward Boulevard towards downtown in the Victoria Park area.

Here is a link to the store's weekly newsletter that also list their weekly specials. Sadly no coupons to be had.

White Fly Torment

2012-01-31T08:05:00.000-08:00

Rage people, rage. That's all I can say. White Flies are killing some of my favorite edible plants. Last Spring, I got the most beautiful jalapeno plant from Bedner's Farms in Delray and it produced prolifically. I had to pickle the peppers because there were so many and I didn't want them to go to waste, but soon my plant started looking sick and I saw that the undersides of its leaves were covered in this weird white dusty stuff. I had no idea what it was. I soon learned about white flies, a common and extremely annoying pest to South Florida gardeners. The flies lay their eggs on the undersides of certain leaves and the resulting larvae hook their mouth into the leaves and suck out all the juice, eventually killing the plant.

White flies suck.

My jalapeno plant died, but only because I didn't know what to do. Now, I'm a little more prepared to deal with the nasty little parasites and just in time because they've infested my guava and my Florida Hass trees. I'm going to wipe them out this time.

I sought advice from some gardening experts I met at the Bonnet House orchid festival in mid-December. To get rid of white flies you can easily use a variety of pesticides, but I don't like chemicals and refuse to use them, especially with a baby who likes to wander around the gardening sampling all the treats she finds. I want to get rid of white flies safely. The experts recommended several solutions and here they are in list form:

Ways to Safely Eradicate White Fly

1. Plant marigolds around the plants the white flies have infested. They hate the smell of the flowers.

2. Plant rosemary too. Same as above. Bonus - you can eat the rosemary. Yum.

3. Grate a bar of Ivory soap into water and let it dissolve. Add vegetable oil to the mixture and spray the infected leaves daily. Apparently just using Ivory Liquid doesn't work because it's different from the bar variety.

4. Blast the SOBs off with the hose every day. I've been enjoying this method considerably.

5. Spray the leaves with Neem Oil. Neem oil is an all natural and very stinky oil from India that is used as an insect deterrent. I've also heard that it can be effective in treating yourself if you get scabies or chiggers, which I hope you never do because they're worse than white flies.

6. Douse your plants with sour milk. This method is less appealing to me because it's gross and because it's a waste of good food.

7. Pee on your plants. I'm not kidding. I wish I were. The gardening experts actually said this, though I think this method would be much easier for a man than a woman and really, do you want to be peeing all over your yard? I'm not sure that's a good idea. It might offend your neighbors.

Good Luck banishing your pests. Please let me know if anyone has any other ideas on how best to kill these stupid things. I'm on a mission. White flies, you're going down.

More white fly info here.

The Best Thing I Have Ever Smelled - Meyer Lemon Blossoms

2012-01-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

One of the things I most love about living in Florida is the yearly citrus bloom. If you drive up through central Florida when the orange groves are in blossom you could just die from the beautiful smell. Heaven must smell like a blooming orange grove. Last week I encountered this Meyer lemon, all in flower, at the Urban Farmer. I wish you could smell this picture and my goodness, who knew that Meyer lemons made purple flowers? Another reason to love them, as if I needed one. Meyer lemons are my favorite because they're mild and taste like a tangerine and a lemon combined, which I've heard some people say they are and some people say they aren't, so I'm not sure. Here is the Meyer lemon wiki so you can read up on them if you're interested.

In other flowery news, I just noticed a cluster of buds about to open on my grapefruit tree and then I looked out the window just now to see that my mango tree is also blossoming. Yay!

Urban Foraging - Papayas in Fort Lauderdale

2012-01-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

I hate to see good food go to waste, especially when there are plenty of hungry people around who'd love to have it. That's why I think urban foraging is a good idea, as long as you aren't stealing, because there's a difference. Depending on where you live, there are several varieties of edibles growing wild all around you. In New York, lots of people forage for wild greens and fruit in the parks, though this is being discouraged. In other cities edibles grow on abandoned and foreclosed properties and are left to rot. This article discusses that problem, which we have a case of right here in Fort Lauderdale, barely a mile from where I live.

Last year the big Borders on East Sunrise by the Galleria Mall went out of business leaving behind a big, ,empty building with an overgrown parking lot. Every time I drive past there I see three papaya trees, two mature and one smaller just loaded with fruit that no one is going to pick and eat and it drives me crazy. What a waste. Someone needs to go get them. They're pretty high up, so you'd need to show up prepared with a ladder and fruit picker unless you want to wait for them to fall on the ground, in which case they'd be rotten and over ripe. You can eat papaya before it's ripe too. It's featured in a popular and delicious Thai salad that is kind of like a slaw. The ripe fruit is good too. It kind of stinks, but it tastes good with a squeeze of lime and is extraordinarily healthful to eat. Papaya contains enzymes that help digestion. It makes an excellent baby food when it's mashed. My baby likes it a lot. So do I.

I hope these papayas (there are at least thirty) don't go to waste. All I can think of when I pass are people going hungry while rats feast on fruit.

A Local Breakfast

2012-01-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

I had a local breakfast this morning, but unfortunately, local and organic doesn't always mean good. This grapefruit was as tart as a lemon. Wow, was it sour. Luckily I had plenty of Florida grown and produced sugar to tame it.

Rainbow Carrots

2012-01-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist these gorgeous rainbow carrots grown by Erickson Farm. Yes, they were three bucks a bunch and that's like fifty cents per carrot, but how often do you see purple carrots? Or pink carrots? Or local carrots period for that matter? Now I have to decide what to do with them. I like carrots roasted in olive oil with some onion, leeks or shallots.

And Here's What We Bought...

2012-01-16T09:07:00.001-08:00

How pretty is a collection of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables? I think I buy by color and it's very healthy to plan meals around color. The more color, the more nutrients. So, this isn't a lot of stuff, and it cost sixteen dollars, which is pretty pricey. I could've gotten three times this amount at Alexa, but this produce is fresher, all organic and all local, so you have to take that into account. Doing the right thing isn't always cheap and it's a sacrifice I can make now and then, plus the quality and flavor is so much better.

Success at The Urban Farmer!

2012-01-16T08:58:00.001-08:00

I had a wonderful experience at the Urban Farmer's Green Market yesterday. Really, you have to go. It's everything I've been looking for in a local farmer's market! All of the produce was actually grown around here. Can you believe it? I was in shock. There was a great variety of tropical fruits and vegetables for sale, as well as booths selling crafts, jellies made from local fruit, dips, local honey and gluten free breads. We even bought the baby a homemade hair bow with a kitty on it, which she loved. Also available for purchase were fruit trees, seedlings, seeds, garden supplies, Florida Keys sea salt, Florida grown rice, cool locavore tee shirts (I should've bought one) and really cute handmade aprons. I was excited to see some unique produce for sale like Hawaiian plantains, sapodilla, pickled starfruit, rainbow carrots and some interesting varieties of banana. The green market is going to be held every third Sunday of the month from now on and they hope to expand it to every first and third if all goes well, so let's get out there and show these guys some well deserved support. This place is what I've been looking for and it just had really positive energy.

The Coral Ridge Outdoor Green Market

2012-01-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

I was driving down Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale this morning when I noticed a sign for the Coral Ridge Outdoor Green Market, which is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Federal Highway and Oakland Park Boulevard. I turned into the parking lot to check it out and was disappointed when I saw that the one produce tent contained boxes of fruits and vegetables clearly marked Dole, Andy Boy etc. Not local stuff. Just buying the same produce you can find at Publix outside again. There was also another tent selling orchids and one selling breads. Hey, at least they don't call it farmer's market right? You can visit the Outdoor Green Market every Saturday between 9am and 3pm. It's a nice idea, but not what I was looking for. I'll hold out for the Urban Farmer tomorrow. In any case, I'd like to mention that the Outdoor Green Market is located in the same plaza as two fantastic restaurants: The Hi-Life Cafe and The Hibiscus Cafe. Both are hidden gems and absolutely worth a try.

The Urban Farmer Green Market

2012-01-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

I got this email today and I am super excited, beyond excited, about this. I think people are finally starting to get the message. We want local produce at our farmer's markets! We want stuff grown around here. A farmer's market is about more than shopping outside. Come Sunday and support this new endeavor. It looks like it's going to be a great event.

Green Market at The Urban Farmer
Locally made crafts, food, and produce

The Urban Farmer is hosting our inaugural Green Market on Sunday, January 15th from 9am to 1pm. We will have beautiful fresh, local produce, artisanal products, and local crafts.

Bring the kids and enjoy a morning supporting your local community and enjoying the best in Florida grown produce.

Where & When
1730 North Powerline Road, Pompano Beach
January 15th, 2012
9:00AM-1:00PM

Eggplant Blossoms

2012-01-09T07:47:00.001-08:00

The eggplants are blooming! Aren't they a lovely shade of purple? The whole plant is purple, from the leaves to the stems to the flowers and eventual fruit. Purple is my favorite color and I'm generally a fan of eggplant as long as it doesn't sting my mouth. Salting and rinsing cut pieces of eggplant is supposed to help reduce the acidity but it doesn't always. I wonder if there's anything else I can do?

My Florida Hass Avocado Tree

2012-01-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

Who Says Hass Avocados Don't Grow in Florida?

2012-01-03T09:48:00.001-08:00

People got so mad when I wrote about how I can't stand Florida avocados that I still get comments on those old posts. I really got it handed to me on this subject, which seems ridiculous because honestly, who cares what someone else likes or doesn't like to eat? I was corrected numerous time about even calling them Florida avocados. I guess that isn't politically correct. A couple years later, I stand my ground. I only like Hass avocados and anyone who has a problem with that can suck it. You might also be interested in knowing that I can't stand mayonnaise. Does that cause you similar ire? I don't like salmon either. Thank God that's not local.

I've been told for years that Hass avocados won't grow in Florida but you know what? It isn't true. My grandmother has proved this wrong by growing, from seed, a Hass avocado that bore plenty of fruit. There's the photographic evidence above with her four fruit on the bottom compared with a commercial, California or Mexican Hass from Publix.

About six or seven years ago my grandmother, who lives in one of those old folks' communities up in Delray, started growing a tree from a seed using the toothpick/ glass of water method of avocado cultivation. It got bigger and she put it in a pot. When it outgrew the pot, she put it in the ground outside her front door and it just kept growing. This year it finally fruited and made enough that she brought us some because she couldn't eat them all.

Unfortunately, several of her avocados were stolen by landscapers but she caught them red handed and made them return the fruits even after they tried to lie about taking them. This is a big, big problem down here. I was even told to put all my fruit trees in the backyard because people have no qualms about stealing fruit right out of other people's yards. I can't even imagine, but I've caught strangers stealing mangoes and lychees from my neighbors many times. How rude. I'm so glad my grandmother, who is the most tenacious human being I've ever met, had the nerve to confront the thieves and get her fruit back.

These avocados are a little on the small side, and I was afraid maybe they wouldn't taste good, but lo and behold - they taste even better than store bought avocados. Way better. They were even more rich and buttery and perhaps this is because they were allowed to ripen on the tree. I honestly don't know. Maybe the smaller size made the flavor more concentrated?

So there you have it. Hass avocados will grow in Florida.

By the way, and more on this later, my husband and I purchased a small avocado tree known as a Florida Hass, which is specifically formulated to thrive in this climate. It's doing well so far but is much too young for fruit yet.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T10:28:00.000-08:00

I'm glad this year is over and I'm looking forward to 2012. Tonight I'm relaxing with family and eating some Florida seafood, most notably Florida lobsters, which I've decided are my favorite.

Here are my eating local resolutions:

1. Eat more locally grown and produced foods! Duh.

2. To not kill my plants.

3. To write entries on this blog faithfully.

4. To waste less food.

5. To eat fewer animal products. Here's an article to help if that's your resolution too.

6. To get out of this awful cooking rut I've been stuck in lately.

In The Garden

2011-12-29T10:37:00.001-08:00

I recently discovered the Sun Sentinel's monthly "In the Garden" feature. It tells you what gardening chores to do each month and what to plant at this time of the year. I found it very thorough and informative. Check out January in the Garden.

Thanks Sun-Sentinel!

Hey I Like Fruit for Christmas!

2011-12-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Bah Humbug Pete Wells. In his New York Times Essay last week, Pete Wells jokingly complains about receiving Florida oranges as a Christmas gift and says he has a relative who sends a box ever year. Readers, that person, at least in my family, is me. I send my relatives boxes of Florida citrus for the holidays each year. I'm guilty. I do it because I want to send a little of our sub-tropical sunshine to the dark and gloomy northern climes this time of year. I send the fruit because it's better than fruitcake. Because I love my relatives and don't want them to get scurvy. Just kidding. I send the oranges and grapefruits because I aspire to give my loved ones presents that are healthy and I think the orange and yellow citrus fruits are cheerful and delicious. They love them, or at least they say they do.

This year I used Hale Groves. I ordered online and the prices were reasonable and service was outstanding. I'm not being paid or otherwise asked to shill here. I found Hale Groves through a google search and used them by my own choice and they did a good job getting my gifts delivered on time and in good condition. I was very pleased.

Wells includes a recipe at the end of his essay for using the orange peels which I thought was brilliant. I love the idea of not wasting any of the fruit and I never thought to candy orange peels with rosemary, which grows very well down here as a matter of fact, so this recipe could be totally local-friendly. Orange and rosemary together? Yum-eee. I think I'll try it.

An Ugly-ish Orange Tree

2011-12-27T11:19:00.001-08:00

I took a walk around my neighborhood this morning and when I'm out, I'm always looking to see what edibles people grow in their yards. The answer is usually not a lot, but today I found an orange tree in a friend's yard that is full of oranges. Many had fallen and the tree is taller than a one story house, so it looks like maybe the fruits are being ignored because they're too high to pick or the homeowner (ahem George, Jr.) just doesn't care. Maybe I'll ask him if I can have them.

The oranges look pretty ugly. I don't know if this is because they're diseased or because I'm too used to seeing grocery store citrus, which by the way, often has dye added to the peels to make the fruit more enticing. These oranges were even uglier than organics though and it got me thinking. I hardly ever see citrus trees around anymore. Most of South Florida's citrus trees were destroyed in a mass slaughter designed to protect the Central Florida commercial crops from citrus canker. The rest have perished due to citrus greening disease, which I just learned is incurable and always fatal to the tree. I wonder if this tree has one of those afflictions and that's why the oranges look like this. Maybe it's the variety? Who knows? Anyone have any theories?

Bok Choy

2011-12-26T09:44:00.001-08:00

My brother in-law harvested a lot of bok choy from the vegetable garden today! It grew easily and quickly from seed and the bugs didn't mess with it. So far the bok choy has yielded the biggest harvest, which is good because I got to have some of the surplus! I love bok choy's mild flavor, being that I can't stand anything even slightly bitter and that rules out a lot of greens for me. Bok choy can be used in all sorts of steamed Asian dishes and stir fries but I prefer to sautee it quickly in a little oil with sliced garlic, ginger, hot peppers and a drizzle of sesame oil. Season with soy sauce and serve over brown rice or as a side dish with just about anything. And check out this article on the six health benefits of bok choy. It's high in folic acid and vitamin C.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T11:28:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! It's certainly a warm holiday this year, unlike the past two years. This morning we were all in our bathing suits playing in the hose out in the backyard and I'm actually wearing shorts. Just in time for Christmas our West Indian Calabaza, started from seeds I saved from a squash bought at Whole Foods, opened its first blossom. Look how pretty! It's a perfect yellow star, just in time for Christmas. May all your holidays be as merry and bright as this flower.

Happy Chanukah with Pomegranates

2011-12-22T09:39:00.001-08:00

Today is the third day of Chanukah, the eight day Jewish festival of lights and what better way to honor this holiday than with pomegranates? Pomegranates are a symbol of abundance and fertility in many faiths and mythologies but they figure very prominently in Judaism. Legend has it that each pomegranate has 613 seeds, the same as the number of laws in the Torah. I don't know if this is true or not and I can't imagine someone tediously counting out the seeds in several pomegranates to make sure the number is accurate, but I think some suspension of disbelief is necessary when it comes to most religious lore. Another reason why pomegranates are big in Judaism is their shape. The top of each fruit is crowned with a Star of David, which you can see in the picture above.

We planted a pomegranate tree outside our bedroom window a few months ago and it's doing magnificently so far. Two weeks ago it exploded in the most brilliant red orange blossoms. After a few days the petals fall off leaving the baby fruit behind to grow, and that also looks like a flower, but has a firmer texture like the peel of the mature fruit. It's such a beautiful tree and I really hope it makes out ok in this climate. Two of our baby poms fell off their branches and I had to incorporate them into our Christmas decor, and I hope the rest don't suffer the same fate. I'd love to pick and eat a pomegranate that I grew myself, though I have no desire to count the seeds!

Pomegranates have become so popular in the last few years due to their health benefits (lots of antioxidants in that ruby juice). They've really been kind of faddish and you can find pomegranate in everything now, even shampoo. They've always been an expensive fruit, but I think their popularity has made them more costly, so I'm hoping to have at least a few free pomegranates every year from now on, but we'll see. As a beginning gardener here, I tend to err on the side of pessimism and hope to be pleasantly surprised when the things I plant don't die. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the tree as a gorgeous ornamental. It's so pretty.

Here is a site where I find information about how to keep my pomegranate tree alive.

Alexa Produce Revisited

2011-12-19T10:17:00.001-08:00

Out of all the posts I've written on here, I've received the most nasty comments regarding my visit to Alexa Produce on Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. I went there when they first opened, twice actually, and wasn't impressed. This really offended a lot of people apparently and since so many were willing to defend the place I had to go back and see if I was wrong. This morning I decided to go back and found that a lot had changed. The store is clean, well stocked and has a good variety of fruits and vegetables at extremely low prices. It was pleasant inside and was doing a brisk business, so they must be doing something right. In addition to produce they also sold breads, olives and a few condiments.

Here's the thing though. They don't have a lot of locally grown, or Florida grown for that matter, items for sale. I want farmers markets and produce stands to sell more local products and that has always been my complaint. On the other hand, I'd rather support a small local business instead of a huge grocery corporation, so I bought my fruits and vegetables here anyway even though they weren't local. Plus, they were cheap. I'm talking ridiculously inexpensive here. I couldn't believe it and thought the checker had made an error. I bought two enormous bags of fruits and vegetables and the total was only $12.61. It would have been twice that at Publix I bet and let's not even talk about Whole Foods, which I can't even drive past without seventy-five dollars disappearing mysteriously from my bank account.

Alexa Produce, I wish you sold more locally grown products but your store is clean, pretty and you have a wonderful selection at fantastically cheap prices. I will be a regular from now on. I'm glad I went back and tried it again.

Muscadines

2011-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

We planted muscadines along the north side of our fence on kind a whim. My husband found the plant at Costco of all places and if you know my husband you'll understand how this happened. The man, God love him, has a thing for Costco. When he dies, his version of heaven will be a giant warehouse of bargains in bulk.

I was first introduced to muscadines, which are a kind of grape, when I lived in Atlanta. They have a thick skin and seeds like a concord grape, along with the same astringency. They make your throat scratchy, but they're also addictively delicious, which is why they're so popular in the deep south where they grow best. There, I've seen them incorporated into all sorts of creative recipes and made into wine, though most often they're eaten plain and their appearance sometime mid-September always marks the beginning of the fall harvest season.

Doubtful that muscadines would grow here in South Florida, I did a little research and hoped for the best when we planted the pot in the ground. Unfortunately, and this is a tremendous peeve I have, nurseries and garden centers down here often sell plants that are not suited to a sub-tropical climate, but it turns out that muscadines are a grape that actually will grow in Florida.

So far so good. The muscadines seem to be enjoying their new home. The vines have plenty of new growth and have sent runners spiraling up their trellis. We've watered regularly and put a fertilizer spike for fruits into the sandy soil where the vine is planted, but other than that we haven't done a lot. I guess whatever we did is working because we have fruit! When the grapes turn a darker shade of bronze,which looks like it will happen shortly, I'll pick them and have a mini-feast (if you can call six grapes a feast).

Here is a site that gave us some good information about growing muscadines down here.

Ellenville Moonlit Farmer's Market Tonight

2011-12-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

Farmer Jay Pure Organics says don't forget to stop by the Ellenville Moonlit Farmer's Market in Boca Raton this evening from 4-8pm. You can call 561-245-7347 for more information on the event. There will be an extensive list of Florida grown (YAY!) fruits and veggies and even locally grown, farm fresh eggs, which is pretty exciting. You can find out more detailed information on Farmer Jay's facebook page here. I'm still trying to figure out where exactly the event takes place and when I get that information I'll update.

Sunflowers

2011-12-15T06:06:00.001-08:00

There is nothing prettier than sunflowers against a blue sky. My sister, who now lives next door to me, planted these against our shared fence (they're on her side technically, but I'm enjoying them just the same). She planted them from seeds and they grew to be this tall in six weeks. We're allowing the seeds to ripen and dry and then we plan on roasting and eating them. Sunflower seeds are delicious and very healthy. They are very high in linoleic acid and Vitamin E. Wikipedia has a thorough sunflower seed entry that I found interesting (partly because who one earth would feel so passionately about sunflower seeds that they'd want to write a wiki on them?). Ours are the striped variety that I've always enjoyed eating. The birds and squirrels like them as much as I do, so hopefully they'll leave us some.

I'm Back!

2011-12-14T10:30:00.001-08:00

After a year and a half break, I'm back and I've decided to blog about eating local in South Florida again! It's time. I miss it and I have a lot of things to write about.

In the past year and a half, I have had a baby (she's 14 months old now!), moved, renovated an entire house and a yard and nearly finished writing a memoir. My life is completely different now than when I started this blog. I used to teach, but for now I'm a stay at home mom, which was a big adjustment and I've finally found my groove again.

One of the things I'm most excited about is my edible yard, which is still evolving. I can't wait to give you all a tour.

The photo above was taken this morning and it was the inspiration for coming back to blogging. We planted a guava tree a couple of months ago and this morning it bloomed! You should smell the flowers - a bit like orange blossoms and beautiful.

It's good to be back. Is anyone still there?

A Bounty of Greens

2010-04-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

I ran into the Boca Whole Foods on Glades Road, Monday and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of local produce they had. It was mostly greens. In fact, there were so many that I couldn't fit them all in the picture. There is an array of chards, collards and beets (with the edible tops still on) both golden and ruby. Not pictured were several lettuces. All of the greens are from Lady Moon Farms in Punta Gorda.In addition to the greens and beets, there were lots of (expensive) local tomatoes and what must be the last of the citrus. I saw oranges and grapefruit from Clewiston and even from Lake Worth. There was a good selection!

A Growing Gift

2010-04-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week I started feeling a little bit better and have been able to venture out of the house a couple times, as well as eat some small meals, which are still extremely bland. I noticed that sitting outside in the sun and spring breeze makes me feel a lot better and really, how can it not? I think living things need to be outside as much as possible.

Today I felt the best, and as a result, I completed a small project. If you know how very ill I've been over the past six weeks, then you can understand what a gigantic, big deal this was for me. I made an herb garden for my sister and her husband.

My sister has been on vacation for the past week celebrating her and her husband's birthdays, which are close together. I wanted to give them a gift they could share. Earlier this year, right around Christmas, I made a vow that from now on I would only give people gifts that were useful, healthy and not wasteful. I think so often we get gifts for people that they don't need and that just end up as clutter. We do this because we feel obligated to get people things on special occasions and a lot of times we have no idea what to get, and then, out of desperation we just get something to say we got something. Many of these gifts aren't healthy and contribute to wasteful consumerism. A lot of them don't have the meaning we wish they did. I don't want to be a part of this problem anymore.

I decided to make my sister and her husband an herb garden for their balcony. They live in an apartment like I do, but are lucky enough to have a balcony that gets some sun and shade throughout the day. They like to cook and an herb garden fit all of my criteria for a gift - it's healthy, pretty, not wasteful and very useful.

I bought the herbs and terra cotta pots at Home Depot for under $50.00. I also added in some plant food for edible plants and a nice, new garden spade in case they are inspired and wish to add to the garden I started. I have a feeling they will. I started their garden with basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, a hot banana pepper bush and catnip for their two kitties. It took me less than an hour to pot all of the herbs and arrange them on the table they already had on the balcony. Now, tonight when they arrive home from a long drive, they'll have a surprise waiting - a surprise that will continue to grow and thrive and that will become a part of them when they eat the herbs they grow.

Update

2010-04-06T16:54:00.001-07:00

I'm getting a little but better, but still not enough to where I can actually get out and about that much. I still don't have my appetite back, but I saw a salad on TV today and it looked good instead of making me gag, so I take that as a good sign.

I thought I would still update you anyway.

What I've been eating: Jamba Juice. I know it's not local and probably not even remotely healthy, but you know, you have to get something down and sweet and icy was the only thing that worked. I can get a vita boost and at least I know I'm holding down one banana a day. Bananas are good. So thank you Jamba Juice for keeping me from starving to death and for allowing me to consume more than pills.

What I've been reading: Fed Up With School Lunch! This is a blog by a teacher who committed herself to eating disgusting school lunches in a public school cafeteria in order to expose how truly vile and unhealthy they are. The blog is gross, but it's supposed to be, and this woman should be sainted for making what I consider to be a huge sacrifice. Lord knows, I would NEVER eat any of this stuff.

I also read this article: "In Florida, The Seafood Becomes Less Local" from the New York Times. This article explains how most of the fish that people think is local is actually shipped in from other countries. Consumers are being BSed into thinking the fish was caught around here because it's sold by local distributors who deceptively slap a local label on foreign product. This reminds me of last summer when I was duped into buying blackberries from Chile and I've seen this scenario several other times as well. If it's not born, raised or grown in Florida, it's not local for us. Is that clear?? Someone needs to stand up to this practice. It's false advertising and it's lying to consumers!!

What I've been watching on TV: When you're sick, you watch a lot of TV. I am currently obsessed with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. If you haven't seen it yet, please set your DVRs. The show is frustrating, funny, heartbreaking and inspiring. It's just incredible to watch on so many levels. You will be horrified at the way people eat, at the way children suffer from "chicken nugget syndrome" and how most people think that children shouldn't eat with real utensils. (I actually worked in a kindergarten where we gave children knives and taught them to cut vegetables and would you believe, no one ever lost an eye or a limb or killed someone?) And although you will be horrified at the resistance Chef Oliver encounters, you will also be inspired by the people who are committed to change, especially young people. It is official - I love Jamie Oliver and what he's doing and I am so thankful for him and for others (like our First Lady Michelle Obama and Chef Alice Waters) who are working to change the way we feed our children. Go to Jamie Oliver's website (linked above) and sign the petition.

2010-03-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a really long time since I've written and I'd like to explain why. I have been really, really sick - sicker than I've ever been in my entire life and while I won't get into the details of it, I will say that being this sick has prevented me from doing the things I most love like eating and writing about eating. Not being able to do these things and missing wonderful events like the Slow Food bike ride in the Redlands and the brunch at Lola's has made me pretty depressed and disappointed. I had a lot of great ideas planned for this growing season. I wanted to visit all the local Farmer's Markets while they were open. I wanted to try some new recipes, but unfortunately, I can't do any of these things. In fact, I can't even clean my house and I've had to abandon my CSA shares every week because I can't go pick them up and I can't eat the food in them anyway. At this point, I'd just like to be able to eat a simple, bland meal. Forget locally grown, exotic produce. Unfortunately, I'm going to be ill quite a while longer and I just have to get through it and hope that at least I'll be better by mango season. Until I'm well enough to eat and go places again, I'm going to take a break from this blog, but I promise you, the second, the very instant that I have recovered and am back to my old self, I will become an active part of the local food community of South Florida again. It can't happen soon enough for me.

Good News

2010-02-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

I've gotten both my camera and my charger back, so regular posting will begin again shortly! Turns out both were missing and my sister took them in a tragic case of mistaken identity.

This week I had to forgo my CSA share because I couldn't make it to the pickup site on time due to other obligations. This is really the biggest downfall of CSAs for me. There is a short window of time and it falls on a day (Saturday) when people often have other places to be, which are often non-negotiable. Not a big deal though because this week looks like it was mostly greens and I'm not in the mood to cook or eat greens right now. I cabbaged and charded myself out. This week my goal is to finish all the potatoes I got last week, and to do something with the thyme I also received. Those are the only things I have left from last week, along with like 4 grape tomatoes.

Don't Hate My Lunch Because It's Beautiful

2010-02-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

My lunch today was so good that I didn't want it to end. I made a salad of roasted beets, tangerines, feta and walnuts and dressed it with olive oil, tangerine juice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. It just doesn't get any better. The beets and tangerines were from my CSA. We got beets a few weeks back and I saved some in my crisper. I took them out the other day, slicked them in olive oil, sprinkled them with coarse salt, bundled them up in foil and roasted at 375 for about 45 minutes or so (they were little - larger ones take longer like potatoes).I chilled them, took them out today and their jackets slipped right off. Then I diced them and tossed them into this nice, non-staining glass bowl. I had the salad done in minutes and eaten up even faster.

Odds and Ends

2010-02-09T13:52:00.001-08:00

I have tragically lost my camera charger and thus, can not take any photos for you! Hopefully I'll find it soon because the phone's pictures aren't that great quality.

I've been cooking up a storm lately. I made the cabbage and hot sauce and I took my glut of citrus and made a refreshing citrus salad. We've been getting a lot of beautiful herbs and onions in our CSA and those have now gone into a pot roast which is just about done in the crock pot. I bought more tomatoes at By Their Fruits and made a hand chopped salsa which was a million times better than the one I accidentally liquefied in the food processor. I've made salads from all the greens and a few curries from other random vegetables and the greens that you have to cook to eat. I'm on a huge green curry kick lately. Radishes I eat plain like candy. I can't help myself. I mean to put them in salads, but I eat the things like chips. I can't just eat one and before I know there's no more radishes.

One of my favorite CSA veggies of late was a big, snapping stalk of celery. I was so excited. Celery gets a bad rap with foodies sometimes. I once worked in a restaurant where the chef banned celery and green peppers from his kitchen, but I think celery has its place. I used it in chicken salad and I ate it with both cream cheese and peanut butter (but not at the same time).

Last Saturday, when I went to pick up my vegetables, I ran into some other CSA members who were talking. They said they've been disappointed the past few weeks and I asked why. They confided that many of the vegetables in their boxes had been rotten. Unfortunately, this has happened to me too and I wasn't going to write about it until I heard some other people mention it too. This week's box contained some rotten greens and some unsalvageable cilantro, which is a shame because I live for cilantro. I received a moldy pepper with a hole in it and a tangerine that was a ball of blue fur a couple weeks back. It happens. I'm flexible. When I get something that's going off, I try to save what I can of it so nothing goes to waste, but some things can't be saved. The cilantro this week was literally a wad of slime. The thyme, on the other hand, along with the parsley, was fresh and bright.

I don't want to look like a complainer. This is what happens when you're not buying factory perfect fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed and dyed and radiated and then stored in a chilled warehouse. I can deal with a moldy orange here and there. I'm just sad when food gets wasted.

I have a couple of options for dealing with spoiled produce though. If something is as rotten as my cilantro, to the point where it's not safe or edible anymore, I compost it. I let it return to feed the earth or wild animals who get to it before it turns to soil.

But most items can be saved. Greens can get a little droopy and flat from sitting in warm, cardboard boxes. You can make them spring back to life by giving them a nice, bracing ice-water bath. Then store them in a bag with a damp paper towel and squeeze out all of the air. Sometimes greens just get languid, but I promise you, they come right back and you'd never know the difference. Don't give up on them and toss them out prematurely.

If some fruits and vegetables have ugly spots, just trim them and then cook them. You can use vegetable bits in soups and stocks and sauces and no one will ever know the difference. Fruits are nice stewed into jams or compotes. Brown bananas can be peeled, wrapped individually in plastic wrap and frozen for use in smoothies and baked goods. Some people may feel comfortable eating trimmed, partially rotten or over-ripe produce raw. I do not. I always worry about bacteria, so I just cook it and I feel better. That way, you'll avoid so much more waste.

And to end on a positive note - Publix has Florida strawberries on sale for $3.99 a quart this week! It's not as cheap as before, but we all knew prices would rise after our unusually cold winter. I can handle $3.99 and the berries were small and deep red, just like I like them. They're so good, that like the radishes, they never last long enough to end up in a recipe.

Broccoli Raab

2010-01-30T11:32:00.001-08:00

I just picked up my CSA box for the week and we got a nice selection, so I guess a lot of crops made it through the freeze ok. We got radishes (yum), a head of red leaf lettuce, flat leaf parsley, some fat, pungent green onions, a grapefruit, a tangerine, an avocado, broccoli and broccoli raab. I have plans for everything, but the broccoli raab.

Wow, I thought. Broccoli raab. What am I going to do with it? I've had it in Italian restaurants. I love it sauteed with hot Italian sausage and melted over pasta, usually orecchiette, which I can't resist because it means little ears and who wouldn't want to munch on tiny curled ears?

We've long since established that I love any food which is pink and hate anything which is bitter and dark green. Still, I've made exceptions for broccoli raab. Sometimes it isn't bitter.

I once saw Giada de Laurentiis on her show demonstrate how to remove bitterness from broccoli raab. She says you must blanch it in boiling water first and then rinse it off really well before sauteeing it and adding to your recipe. I guess that makes sense. I've done a little research and some people also think that adding some tang in the form of lemon or vinegar disguises it. For years I've heard that sweetness helps neutralize bitterness. One can see this figuratively and metaphorically more than literally. A spoonful of sugar after all.

If you find yourself unexpectedly with a bouquet of broccoli raab, as my fellow CSA members have this weekend, consider this article from the New York Times. It has some good advice and interesting recipes.

Or, you could just go pick up a package of hot Italian sausage and a a bag of orecchiette. Ricotta is nice on top and so are tomatoes softened in hot olive oil and garlic.

You could also sautee your broccoli raab with golden raisins and pine nuts. Caramelized onions would work with that and at the last minute, because I like everything spicy, I'd fling in some hot red pepper flakes. Maybe the lemon juice if it needed it too.

And so it seems, the reason I can't decide what to do is not because I have no ideas, but because I have too many.

What do you like to do with it?

Salsa Attack! Step 1

2010-01-27T08:20:00.001-08:00

By some miracle of local agriculture, I found that I had all of the ingredients necessary to make fresh salsa. It had to be done. I love making salsa. It's fast and easy and you can put salsa on anything. It makes everything better. All you need are some fresh tomatoes, a green onion (you can use red onion too, but I'm an onion wuss and like the milder flavor of scallions), a handful of cilantro (unless you are one of those people with that tragic genetic disorder that makes people think it tastes like soap), a hot pepper of any kind, juice of 1 lime, some honey and some salt (not shown). Some people like garlic in their salsa. I don't. If you do, then put it in there. If you like your salsa really hot, then add more peppers. Any fresh, hot peppers work, but I prefer jalapenos. One thing you need to know about peppers though, is that they are the most inconsistent things imaginable. One day you can have a jalapeno that is so hot you can feel the skin peeling off your tongue. The next, you can try another jalapeno and swear you're eating a green pepper. Before you add jalapeno or any hot pepper to your dish, taste it so you know how hot it is. That way you can control the spiciness of the finished product. In this case, my jalapeno was really mild, so I tossed the entire thing into the mix and didn't even bother to remove the seeds and pith. The most intense heat is located in the seeds and white, inner membranes. If you find that you have a really hot pepper, throw out the seeds, cut away the pith and then rinse the remaining pepper under cold water. This helps tone it down a little too.

Once you have washed all of your ingredients, you may either chop them by hand for salsa, or you can be lazy like me and just chunk them and throw then in the Cuisinart. Make sure you cut the stem end out of your tomatoes and peppers and cut the little root thing off the end of your green onion. Once you've chunked everything, and by that I mean just cut them into rough, large pieces, you can put everything into the food processor, add some salt and give it a brief spin. The key word here is BRIEF, as you will see in Step 2.

Salsa Step Two - ADD Style

2010-01-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Take all of your ingredients and throw them in the food processor. Of course, this is the lazy salsa method. The more laborious, and probably better, way to make salsa is to chop everything by hand, put it into some beautiful earthenware bowl, stir gently with a wooden spoon and let it sit for a few hours so the flavors can meld. This method doesn't work when you must have salsa right this second, as I did. I threw everything into the food processor and turned it on. Right at that instant I heard a phone ringing and swore it was my phone and then I couldn't find my phone and by the time I did, I realized that the ringing phone was actually on TV and not in real life. By the time I got back to the salsa, it had passed the salsa stage and turned into something more akin to gazpacho. I swear I have ADD. More than salsa, I think I actually need Concerta. Every time I see those commercials for Adult ADD I swear they are talking about me and then I see a bird out the window and forget all about the commercial. But hey, gazpacho is good too. Now, let's say you were not like me and you actually paid attention to your salsa. Once you give it a very brief chop, just to get all the ingredients blended, you want to taste it for seasoning and make sure the flavors are balanced. Add more salt, make it spicier, throw in some more lime juice or more honey. You don't want any one of these flavors to overpower the others. You don't want to take a bite of the finished salsa and think - salty, sweet, tart or spicy. You want to taste ALL of these flavors at once and because tomatoes and limes and peppers are always different, each batch of salsa is going to be different. You have to tinker with the seasonings until you get it right.

Finished Salsa (or Gazpacho)

2010-01-27T08:02:00.001-08:00

This is my finished dish of salsa. Yes, I whirred it a little long in the Cuisinart, but hey, it still tastes great whether you dip chips into it or eat it with a spoon. Salsa is versatile. And of course, if you want to avoid my mistake, all you have to do it chop the ingredients by hand. Sometimes I prefer to do it that way and end up with a chunkier end product, but this time I was lazy and wanted more instant gratification. In this picture, the salsa is right out of the processor, so it looks pink and frothy. After a couple hours in the fridge it settles down. At that point, you could also choose to pour it through a very fine sieve to get rid of some of the excess water. The great thing about it is that there are so many uses for salsa, no matter the texture. Serious Eats is one of my favorite food sites and I found this article about 30 uses for salsa. I love it on scrambled eggs.

Peppers and Eggplant

2010-01-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of how By Their Fruits displays their produce with signs that say where everything comes from around here. Notice the sweet potatoes don't say Florida and the Sicilian Eggplant clearly states that it's from Boca Raton. This helped me to avoid confusion about my purchases and aided me in choosing what I was going to buy and what I wanted to stay away from.

Purchases

2010-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

Here's what I bought - tomatoes, kirby cukes (they had the other kind too but I wanted to try a different variety), grapefruit and green onions. I'm happy with the quality and origins. I'm not sure what I want to make yet.

Las Olas Farmer's Market

2010-01-25T15:25:00.000-08:00

After the unusually cold weather a few weeks ago, many crops have died and CSA boxes are a little lighter than usual. I don't mind but my box this week didn't have quite enough produce to get me through the entire week. Luckily this wasn't a problem for me and it gave me the excuse to go check out the Las Olas Farmers Market on Las Olas Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The market is located in the parking lot of the Las Olas Chemist on the North side of the road and is held each Sunday between 9am and 1pm. Be forewarned, it's very small. You're pretty much looking at the whole thing.

That said, there's some good stuff and it's worth a visit. I expected to be disappointed and was pleasantly surprised, once I got over the parking issue. Las Olas has a lot of parking, but much of it is parallel and there are some very confusing new meter machines. Once I got over that though, everything was fine.

There are only a couple of tents. One vendor sells artisan breads. Another sells tropical plants, including fruit trees and herbs. There is a booth for homemade bath products and another having something to do with solar power. Two of the tents sells fruits and vegetables, not all of which are local. One is significantly larger than the other one and is run by "By Their Fruits" who have a lovely produce market on McNab. You might remember that that's where you can buy Wagon Wheel Coffee. I like "By Their Fruits" but have criticized them in the past for not supporting enough local farmers. They explained to me a few months ago that their clientele doesn't care about local or organic and is more interested in getting produce at good prices, but that during the growing season they would have a lot more locally grown, Florida produce. Judging from what they brought to the Las Olas farmer's market, they were telling the truth.

While they did have non-local items, some from South America, they had a lot of local goods and I really appreciated that each item was labeled with a paper sign that said where it came from. Because of this, they got my business. And they had some gorgeous tomatoes. That helped.

I bought some Indian River grapefruit, Florida tomatoes (a lot of them), Kirby cucumbers from Delray, along with some green onions also from Delray. They also had local eggplant (two varieties!), green beans, herbs and avocados grown around here and a bunch of peppers. I've been getting peppers from my CSA weekly and I'm a little peppered out right now, so I passed on those. I contemplated an eggplant, but decided against it out of nothing but laziness. While I want babaghanoush, I don't want to to make it. I'd just like it to magically appear in front of me. You know how that is.

I paid exactly $8.00 for all of that, which I felt was a good deal. I got a lot of tomatoes to go with the cilantro in my box. I'm feeling a salsa attack coming on.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Las Olas Farmers Market. It's tiny, but it's trying and it had a nice atmosphere. I'd like to see it expand. I live in walking distance, so it's very convenient. If you live close, support the market and pay it a visit. If you live far away, I wouldn't make a special trip. I also wouldn't wait until Sunday if you want produce now. Just stop in at "By Their Fruits" on the corner of McNab and Cypress for the same produce any time during the week.

Giving Away

2010-01-18T07:43:00.001-08:00

The downside of CSA is that sometimes you get stuff you don't like or sometimes, you find yourself with too much fresh produce that you don't have time to cook. Both happened to me last week and this week.

For the past two weeks, I've had an unusual amount of social engagements to attend - friends wanting lunch, friends in from out of town, family in from out of town, a family event, a dinner with colleagues. All of these things involved eating food that I didn't cook at somewhere other than my home and all of the events were wonderful. But I ended up with too much food and it's going to spoil.

Unfortunately in the chaos, the sapote went way past its prime and thus, was not given its second chance. I had to throw it outside for the raccoons. They loved it.

I did however, manage to devour my steamed green beans because I like them as a cold snack. I also used all of last week's peppers and tomatoes, combining them in my mother's recipe for stuffed peppers in tomato sauce. It really isn't a recipe at all though. All you do is make your favorite meatball recipe and instead of making into meatballs, you stuff the raw meat into hollowed out peppers, place them in a crock pot, cover with your favorite tomato sauce recipe and cook on high for about four hours. Then when they're done you can either take them out and melt some cheese over them or you can boil some spaghetti and serve the peppers and sauce over the pasta. I ate that for lunch for an entire week.

The rest, well, I didn't eat and I agonized and felt guilty and like a bad person. Then it was time to rush, in between events, to pick up this week's share. Luckily, due to last week's freeze, we didn't get a lot, but now I find myself with two large heads of cabbage, some kale, some unripe tomatoes and the world's teeniest clementine (it's so cute).

I hate kale. I know some people love it and that it's really good for you, but I hate it. I've tried it a number of ways but I still hate it. Everyone in my family loves it. I make it for my mother, boiled in chicken stock and olive oil with hot peppers and sauteed onions and garlic stirred in. She begs me to make it, yet I won't touch it. My sister makes her famous pasta with kale, white beans and turkey sausage. Ewww.

So here's the good thing about having too much. You get to give stuff away and that makes people happy. I'm taking my sister the kale this afternoon and I know she'll be thrilled. She'll love the tomatoes and an extra head of cabbage too. I'm keeping the world's teeniest clementine.

For lunch on my day off, I'm making Molly Wizenberg's Cabbage in Hot Sauce with my remaining head. I considered her cream braised cabbage, but I'm just not feeling heavy cream right now. Hot sauce, I'm always feeling. This recipe also sounds like it would be good with some toasted sesame oil and perhaps some ginger. I'll let you know how it turns out. Her recipes are usually pretty good, although some disappoint in the direction of bland. That's easily remedied though with some doctoring up. She lives in Seattle after all. Maybe we tropical dwellers just like spicier food.

Help! I Have a Ripe Black Sapote!

2010-01-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

Help me please. My black sapote, which I'm giving a second chance, is now ripe. What should I do with it? I have only one. Last time I ate it plain and didn't like it. This time I was hoping for a simple preparation to dress it up. Suggestions?

Strawberries!!!

2010-01-04T16:31:00.001-08:00

I went to Whole Foods for the first time in a while this afternoon. I needed more Cara Caras since I'd eaten up all of my supply. I like to browse the produce section to see how many local items they have and I was surprised to see the first batch of Florida strawberries was in! I confess, I had actually forgotten that strawberry season here is in winter. The strawberries, which were conventionally grown were going for $4.99 a box. This is expensive for me, so I passed, content to wait until later in the season when the price goes down. Then, later I had to run into Publix for a few things and lo and behold I found local strawberries there ON SALE for, I kid you not, $1.97 for the same sized box they were selling for almost five dollars at Whole Foods. There was a large supply at my Publix and they were definitely local, from Plant City. The berries are small and deep, blood red, which is just how I like them. I find that smaller strawberries are much more flavorful than the big ones, which are all show. Naturally I bought a box and I will be enjoying them sliced with a sticky pirouette of Keys honey on top. Yay Publix!

Breakfast

2010-01-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the laziest days I can remember and I loved every second of it. I go back to work on Wednesday, so I'm trying to make the most (by doing the least) of my last couple of free days. The one thing I managed to accomplish today was this magnificent breakfast, though I should really call it a brunch being that I made it at around 1 in the afternoon. I sauteed the oyster mushrooms from Paradise Farms with some leftover ham from my parents' New Years Day dinner and a local jalapeno from Whole Foods. The farm was not named. I added this to scrambled eggs, with some cheese I had lying around and served it with halved grape tomatoes from Lady Moon Farms in Punta Gorda and some of those heavenly pink Cara Cara oranges (Florida grown of course), which I am now officially addicted to. They look like grapefruit, but they are so low in acid and have such a delicate flavor that I honestly think they are the best orange I have ever had. I washed the whole thing down with some Wagon Wheel coffee from Davie. I must say, I haven't had such a perfect breakfast in ages and almost everything was local. It was so good that afterward, I had to crawl back in bed.

First CSA of the New Year!

2010-01-02T10:56:00.001-08:00

I just picked up my first CSA box of 2010. I really missed it last week, but I didn't need it because I was out of town anyway, so it worked out perfectly. This week we got a massive ruffle of a green leaf lettuce, lots of nearly ripe plum tomatoes, a cabbage, dill, oyster mushrooms(how exciting!), beets (my favorite thing on earth) and the notorious black sapote. I decided to give the black sapote a second chance and did not put it in the extras box. At the same time, I spied a little green pepper in the extras and snagged it. I liked that it was little and I enjoy peppers in stir-fries. I am thrilled about the oyster mushrooms, which I will use tomorrow morning in omelettes and of course the beets. I like to roast beets and then chill them and use them in salads with lots of nuts, citrus and cheese. Not a lot of people like them, but I can't get enough of them. I'm beginning to see a pattern. I think I like brightly colored foods. Then, probably tomorrow, I'll also employ the lettuce, dill and tomatoes in a favorite salad recipe I learned from my mom, which I will share when I make it.

Wish You Were Here!

2009-12-27T11:08:00.000-08:00

I'm going on vacation and I'll be back next week as soon as the next CSA shipment arrives. Have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a joyous, healthy, delicious, tropical Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

I've been sick and busy getting ready for Christmas this week, so it hasn't been a good week for writing about local food.

When I get sick I don't like to eat or think about food, but I get really thirsty. Luckily we had a gigantic grapefruit in our CSA box last week, so I got some much needed, Vitamin C packed juice from it.

As this is cold and flu season, I feel very lucky to live in Florida, where all the citrus is in season. I can't get enough of it and it's really making me feel better. This year, for the first time that I've seen, local Cara Cara oranges are in all the stores. Cara Caras are a mutant variety of navel oranges from Venezuela and they are pink! We've already been through how much I love pink food, so I won't gush about the color too much. Cara Caras are not to be mistaken for blood oranges though. They're quite different. Blood oranges are wine colored with an almost bitter flavor, whereas Cara Caras are light pink inside like a grapefruit, with the usual orange rind outside. They taste orangey with a hint of rose petal. I love them. They make a pretty pink juice.

The other thing I like to eat when I'm sick like this is Thai coconut soup. It contains chicken, coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, cilantro and hot peppers. When I eat it, my sinuses clear and I feel instantly better. Of course, it's easy to make and all the ingredients grow in our climate. However, when I'm sick the last thing I want to do is scout ingredients or cook, so I cheat and get takeout. There are also a few mixes that you can buy at the grocery store.

Once Christmas is done and I'm feeling better, I'll be back with a more extensive post on the Cara Caras.

CSA This Week

2009-12-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

I have been ridiculously busy this week. It's a combination of finals week at two schools, plus general holiday madness. I did want to update you on what I've been doing with my CSA delivery from last Saturday. This was a lucky week. When I opened my box I literally went "OOOHHH!" in delight. I got more of my favorite green beans, an eggplant, basil, cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, a pepper, chard and some betel leaf. Everything that I love and one weird thing. Perfect.

First I made a stir fry and included last week's bok choy and the pepper.

Yesterday I made eggplant parmesan, using the eggplant and basil and some leftover, wilted tomatoes I had from before. One eggplant made a large pan and it wasn't even a bit acidic or bitter. I did salt and rinse the slices beforehand though, so maybe that helped, or maybe these were just really good eggplants. I now have so much eggplant parm that I'm giving it away and last night, as I breaded and fried individual discs of eggplant, I realized exactly why I haven't made eggplant parm in seven years. It makes a mess in the kitchen and takes forever.

Once the eggplant was finished baking, I steamed the green beans. I find that steamed green beans are a lighter and healthier accompaniment than pasta and go well with anything tomato-y. Now I have a big container of leftovers to snack on all week when I don't have time to cook.

I love to eat steamed green beans cold. When I was little, I had a friend whose mom made them for us as a snack with curry dip and my friend and I would just eat bunches and bunches of cold green beans because we loved the dip so much. I still make the dip as an adult and plan to make some for myself tonight. It's very simple and you really don't need to measure. Just mix plain, greek yogurt with curry powder to taste, a little grated ginger, a squirt of honey or agave, a little zing of lemon juice and if you want it spicy, you can add some hot sauce. It would also be good with minced garlic, a little sesame oil or even some chutney stirred in. Then just dip cold, steamed green beans (or any veggie you like) in it 'til your heart's content.

This evening, I think I'll sautee my chard in my simple, go-to greens recipe (olive oil, salt, garlic and red peppers). I could eat chard endlessly. I guarantee you, I will eat the entire bunch alone in one sitting. I may make some brown rice to go with it. After last night's breaded, fried extravaganza, I think I need to detox.

The Salad

2009-12-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

I'm glad that lettuce grows well down here otherwise I'd probably move. Last weekend I got two heads of romaine in my CSA box and I was overjoyed. They really made up for the whole dandelion green mess. I know I'm boring. We've established that already, but romaine lettuce is good and you just can't argue with that. As soon as I got the lettuce home, I cleaned it well (produce from the farm is way dirtier than the grocery store, factory kind) and then rolled it up in a bag. Now, the CSA newsletter said not to do this, but I am rebellious and did it anyway. I find that because my schedule is so hectic, that I will actually eat and use my produce if I take the time to clean it, cut it all up and store it nicely. If I don't do this, I will often let it go bad and then feel like a horrible, wasteful person and the guilt will almost kill me. The newsletter said that veggies don't keep as well if you wash and cut them in advance and that you should only wash and cut them right when you're going to use them. I haven't had any issues and having the already ready lettuce in a bag in my fridge made my week a whole lot easier. In fact, it pretty much made my week because this was a pretty crappy week for me.

The high point of my week was "The Salad." All week I've been enjoying the salad and today I finally remembered to take a picture of it. My sister and I invented this salad last summer and it's addictive. We just call it "The Salad" and I could pretty much eat it every day. The recipe is flexible. Modify as you please. You just use lettuce, feta cheese, roasted peppers, some kind of nut, dried fruit, tomato, avocado if you have some, any leftover meat (optional obviously), cucumber, beans if you've got some, hearts of palm if you have those, fresh herbs if you have some lying around, salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil with a splash of vinegar. It's so easy and you can get pretty much all of the ingredients locally, even the feta. I cheat with the nuts. I've been using walnuts. I haven't had a lot of luck finding locally grown nuts around here, but I'm researching. Back when we went to Possum Trot, we learned that macadamias love it here, but the squirrels steal them all. Anyway,as I said, the recipe is extremely flexible. Add in something else, leave a few things out, whatever. It's going to be good. How can it be bad? I had to leave the avocado out. In the background of the picture you can see my scaly looking Monroe avocado. It isn't ripe yet. It still needs a couple days. Today I used my last leaves of romaine, so I hope this Saturday there's more.

Speaking of Bitter and Horrible

2009-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

This week in our CSA box we received a bunch of red stemmed dandelion greens. I've never had such a thing, although as a child I frequently added dandelions picked in the yard to my mud soups. I found they imparted a lovely yellow hue. Those dandelions aren't the same though. This kind of dandelion green is very popular in Italy so I went to my Italian friend for help. We chopped them up, blanched them and cooked them in sauteed onions and garlic with lots of olive oil, salt and crushed red pepper. I find this a winning combo with most veggies (I usually leave out the onion part though). You can pretty much make any green vegetable taste really good by sauteeing it in olive oil, crushed red pepper, salt and garlic. I'm sad to report that the dandelion greens were one of the most horrible things that I have ever eaten in my entire life. Admittedly, sometimes I have the palate of a toddler and would rather eat macaroni and cheese over pretty much anything else, but still. I eat arugula. I eat collards and callaloo without incident. I've been known to take a nibble of broccoli rabe here and there, but this was out of the question. Dandelion greens are really bitter. In a very bad way.

I decided to pawn them off on my dad. He loves bitter food. I asked him how he liked them.

"Umm. They are on the strong side," he replied.

So there. If my dad thought it was strong, it was strong.

Bleck. At least I can say I tried them. Alas, I took no pictures, but cooked down, greens aren't so pretty.

Next time, the dandelion greens are going in the extras box.

If you like dandelion greens, here are some creative and varied recipes for them.

More Precious Than Rubies

2009-12-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

This morning I had the most exquisite breakfast - my first ruby red grapefruit of the season. Maybe it's because I haven't had grapefruit in ages or maybe it's because I was really hungry, but this grapefruit was the best I have ever eaten. Purchased at Whole Foods and certified both local and organically grown, this grapefruit was ugly on the outside. It was mottled with black freckles; a bit shriveled. I didn't expect a tremendous amount from it, but my, was I fooled. I didn't even know I liked grapefruit this much. Now I can't wait to get my hands on several more.

Its brazen redness shocked me. This was a very, deep red grapefruit, maybe only a blush or two away from a blood orange, and it was fragrant. Slicing through the zest released a fiesta of perfumed oils and I just love the smell of citrus. It's so bright and uplifting. So is the flavor.

Each time I take my first taste of a grapefruit I cringe a little inside, in anticipation of some imagined, awful bitterness I think it might possess. This is a leftover reflex from my childhood. I remember my grandfather, lover of all bitter, horrible foods from black licorice to mince pie, being a huge fan of white grapefruits. He always tried to get me to eat them and my mouth automatically puckers and stings thinking about how they tasted - hard, sour and bitter as cough medicine. I couldn't stand them even with a snowdrift of white sugar on top. As I grew up I came to like (with a lingering apprehension) the occasional pink grapefruit. The pink varieties are sweeter and honestly, I just like things that are pink. How can you not like pink food? Pink is pretty.

Today's grapefruit was not so much pink as ruby. It was sweet and rich, perfumed and with a hint of bitterness at the end which was pleasant instead of medicinal. Think arugula. Bitter for amateurs. Enough to add balance and depth but not enough to overpower the other flavors.

I loved this grapefruit. It was so perfect, so seasonal, so right here and now. While I ate it, I was glad to be right where I am, here in Florida at the beginning of December, the start of citrus season. I loved its simplicity. Who needs a $45.00 brunch with Belgian waffles and omelet stations when you can have a fruit, pulled off a tree and sliced in half?

Run to the store and take advantage of our beautiful Florida citrus. Be careful if you're on medication though. There are several medications that specify that you must not eat grapefruit while on them. Grapefruit has something mysterious in it that interacts dangerously with some medicines.

Here is a list of some lovely, sophisticated recipes using grapefruit. I notice that many of them pair grapefruit and avocado and I find this intriguing. I can see how they would go perfectly together. How do you like to eat grapefruit?

Chestnuts Roasting

2009-11-29T14:43:00.001-08:00

It's officially the Christmas Season and by now you've probably heard these lyrics somewhere: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." I've always associated chestnuts with the holidays and I have many memories of being in New York City and Philadelphia, bundled up to the point where I could barely walk, rushing to get where I was going to get in from the cold, and smelling the roasty smoke of chestnuts on the grills of street vendors. It was a beautiful smell. Even the thought of that chestnut smoke makes my heart ache to visit Herald Square in December. Chestnuts are an "Up-North" thing, I thought.

My dad likes chestnuts a lot. He can't wait until they appear in the grocery stores and doesn't mind where they come from. He painstakingly carves little x's into the shells of each one before charring them on his BBQ grill. We always have them on Christmas and I admit they are the absolute last thing I ever thought would remotely be considered a local product. I almost fainted in Whole Foods this afternoon when I saw an enormous bin filled with Florida chestnuts.

But that's why I'm so glad I started this project. Writing this blog makes me keep my eyes open for the unexpected. It makes me try things and think about my food and the world in new ways. I learn things like this. Chestnuts come from Florida. Well, some of them do anyway. Right next to these homegrown chestnuts were red mesh bags of chestnuts imported all the way from Italy. There were also canned versions and a jarred chestnut cream that looked fancy and french.

I didn't buy any chestnuts today. The only reason why not is because chestnuts are quite perishable and must be refrigerated. I'm busy this week and won't be able to get to my parents' house to use their grill until next weekend. I would rather buy the chestnuts closer to when I plan to eat them in order to avoid waste and cluttering up my small refrigerator. I also want time to research some chestnut recipes. I've only ever had chestnuts roasted, but there are a million things you can do with them that are more creative than that. They are hugely popular in France and show up in the oddest of dishes where they are called marrons (also the name for the color of my hair). I think when I visited Paris a few years ago I recall seeing some sort of elaborate meringuey, chocolatey, chestnutty torte of some sort that was intriguing. In addition to desserts, chestnuts can be used in savory dishes. They are extremely versatile, so I want to see what I can come up with, but in the end I may just opt for plain. Plain is good. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

As I researched Florida Chestnuts, I found two growers who also take online orders, though it seems like the season is just closing up. I guess I discovered these a little too late. If you want some, they have plenty at the Fort Lauderdale Whole Foods.

Shamrock Square, in Monticello, Florida has an extremely informative website that will tell you all about Florida chestnuts. There are also some recipes and an interesting history. Turns out that American Chestnuts were once a staple of our diet and were common in American forests. Many people and animals depended on these trees for food and shelter until a blight caused by an invasive species wiped them all out. Finally, growers like Shamrock Square are helping the species make a comeback. Yet another important reason to eat local!

You can also order from Hillcrest Chestnuts in Lake City.

Pompano Beach Green Market

2009-11-28T09:44:00.000-08:00

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, there is no CSA delivery this week and I decided to make a visit to the Pompano Beach Green Market, which is located at Atlantic Boulevard and Dixie Highway in Pompano. Last year and the year before that I went once, so one could consider today my annual visit. Each year I hope it will get better, so I go, optimistic, and leave a little disappointed.

I think it's great that Pompano Beach has a green market at all. I really do. The market is in a very old section of Pompano, right along the train tracks, and it's appealingly quaint and picturesque. I like the atmosphere. When you visit the Pompano Green Market you really do get a sense of community spirit and I love that.

The market is tiny, but it tries. There is a live band playing and vendors selling homemade soaps, skin creams, a small selection of plants, crafts, books and one booth selling stone crabs, seafood and fish dip. Today, there were only two tents of fresh produce and of course (you know what I'm going to say) the majority of it was not from anywhere around here. This saddens me.

While there wasn't a lot of Florida produce there was some, which is a start. A friend of mine had recommended the booth run by the Indian lady. She has a larger variety of fruits and vegetables than the other produce vendor and more of her items are from around here. At certain points later in the season she will probably sell some items that she grows herself. Today she had local peppers, squash, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, okra and bok choy. I bought all of the above except okra, and she even threw in several free yellow squash for me. This vendor's wares looked fresh and were nicely displayed, even the ones from Honduras and Costa Rica (grumble grumble). While some of her fruits and vegetables were shipped from elsewhere, at least they were all tropical. She had a big pile of boniato which appeared to be of a much higher quality than that in the grocery store.

The other produce vendor was different. This vendor had a couple of the same items, but also had several Northern-style items like russet potatoes, a few, very standard varieties of apple and pears. I find better local variety than that at Whole Foods. I was disappointed in produce vendor two, although on a more positive note, produce vendor two did have some local tomatoes, but none of them were ripe. I'd rather have no tomato than a pink tomato. I can wait a few more weeks and I still have some cherry tomatoes left from last week's CSA box.

It took me less than ten minutes to zip through the Pompano Green Market. I liked the Indian lady's stand the best and was pleased that she offered some locally grown vegetables at extremely inexpensive prices. She told me they came from the Boynton area, so that's really close. I also liked the service she provided and I will be back later in the season to see what else she might have. Next time, I would also like to ask the seafood vendor about the origins of some of his seafood. If he makes his own smoked fish spread, I'll try some of that too. Unfortunately with smoked fish dip, a lot of places use a pre-made food service brand and try to pass it off as their own. Beware of this dirty trick.

The Pompano Green Market has a pleasant atmosphere and is a good place for a short, morning outing. There are locally grown items, but they are outnumbered by things grown out of state and out of the country, so you have to really pay attention to what you're buying and ask the vendors specific questions. While there are better farmer's markets much further south, the Pompano Green Market is a good start and Broward County's best, current option.

The Pompano Green Market runs until April 24th, every Saturday morning from 8am until 1pm.

Pompano Green Market Official Page on the Pompano Historical Society Site

Pompano Green Market on Local Harvest

The Pompano Historical Society Site - some really interesting info on local history in blog form. I really enjoyed this site and found it worth checking out, especially if you like learning about the unique culture and diversity of old Florida.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T08:29:00.001-08:00

I hope you all have a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday. Celebrate the harvest, the land, the farmers and the animals which provided your feast. May you eat everyday with compassion, mindfulness and gratitude. May every day be a day of thanks.

The Finished Roselle Tonic

2009-11-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

I'm in love with the color. It's such a nice Autumny, holiday red.

Roselle Tonic

2009-11-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

I've had roselle on my mind for a long time. I have had hibiscus tea before (remember Red Zinger?) and I am particularly fond of a Latin drink called Agua Fresca de Jamaica. In fact, that's the only name I've known it by and I get very excited when I find it on the menu in Mexican restaurants. I love Jamaica (pronounced Ha-MY-cuh, not like the island). It's a bit like fruit punch and maybe a little like cranberry juice. It's sweet-tart and refreshing. I knew that Jamaica came from the roselle hibiscus flower which grows well in tropical climates all over the world, but I didn't know where I could get any fresh. In Latin markets you can often find the dried calyces but they aren't local.

I was so excited last weekend when, included in my first CSA delivery, there was a bag of fresh roselle calyces, and a recipe for making roselle tonic, which is essentially a tisane made from the roselle and some spices with a little sweetener. I decided to make my own version and luckily I had the recipe to go by because I had no idea that you had to pull the sepals off of the seed ball. With all these calyces, sepals and seed balls I almost feel like I'm back in 10th grade biology again. The sepals are like hard petals. You can see in the picture above. Once you pull them off the green seed ball, you toss them in a pot of boiling water. I also included a few chunks of crystallized ginger and a cinnamon stick. I also decided to make use of one of my lemongrass stalks by chopping it up and throwing it in the pot too. The roselle and the lemongrass complement one another very nicely. I brought the whole thing to a boil and then turned off the heat and let it sit for about an hour. While it was steeping I stirred in some brown sugar. Last, I strained it into a glass pitcher and let it chill overnight in the refrigerator. This morning I poured a glass and it was wonderful - light and refreshing, sweet, tart, spicy and lemony. It tasted more like iced tea than the Agua Fresca de Jamaica I am familiar with. I'm almost certain they either make that from a mix or from larger amounts of the dried calyces, resulting in a more concentrated drink. I think I actually prefer my lighter version and it's such a lovely ruddy color.

Apparently roselle tonic is a popular Christmas drink all over the Caribbean, so it was perfect for this festive time of year. I think it will be lovely on my Thanksgiving table. Roselle is also a diuretic and may lower cholesterol. How exciting! I love when I find something that is healthy that actually tastes good and is pretty too. I read up on roselle and you can make syrups and jellies with it too. Maybe if I get more of it in the future, I'll try something else.

Here is roselle's Wikipedia entry.

A very detailed site all about roselle.

CSA So Far

2009-11-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

Well I made a big Sunday dinner yesterday which included some of my share. I have to admit to you that I did nothing wild, exciting, daring or original with my produce yet. I didn't even make the tomato stewed green beans. You know what I did? I steamed them. And I made corn on the cob. How boring am I? But sometimes I like my vegetables plain, so they taste like themselves and local, organic veggies have more flavor and depth than their wilted, limp cousins in the grocery store. It's been a while since I've had a just-picked anything so I've been relishing the vegetables in their purest, most unadorned states so far. This morning I actually ate leftover, cold green beans out of the container while standing in front of the open fridge. I also popped a cherry tomato into my mouth as if it were a doughnut hole. I didn't take pictures. You've all seen a steamed green bean before.

My First Delivery!

2009-11-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I received my first delivery and look at what a bounty it is. All I need is a cornucopia! Can you believe this is only a half share? (CSA shares come in half or full.) Since it's just me and my husband a half share is more than enough. We get a huge amount of vegetables and other goodies each week during the growing season. This week we got a mixture of strange and familiar, though mostly familiar and I tend to really love when they include unusual items that challenge my palate and cooking skills. In our box we got (clockwise from left): cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, corn, callaloo, lemongrass, green beans, a red flower that has many names but which I call Jamaica (more on that later), and an avocado which I am determined to enjoy when it gets ripe. There is also some dill hiding in there too. I plan to make a big salad with a buttermilk dill dressing. I'll definitely do some coconut callaloo rice and my imagination is all awhir about what I can do with lemongrass. So far, I've been cracking open the stalks and smelling them. Lemongrass makes for great aromatherapy. It kind of smells like Pledge, but I mean that in a good way. It also reminds me of the lemon lollipops I used to get at the bank when I was little. The items I was happiest to receive were the green beans and tomatoes. I stew the green beans in a lemony tomato sauce and eat them as a meal on their own. It's a middle eastern recipe I learned from my family. I'll show you how to make it too. I'm just happy to get some tomatoes with flavor. Last summer, when tomatoes weren't in season down here so much, there was a tomato blight up north. The tomatoes in the grocery store were scarce and the ones they did manage to import from God knows where, were hard, tasteless and pink; not fit to eat. I didn't think it was worth it, so I haven't had a good tomato since I was in the Chesapeake region in August and got some of their local crop which hadn't been harmed by the blight. I think I'll probably eat these tomatoes raw like little candies, although my mother mentioned to me that she had some excellent cherry tomatoes in Napa last summer which were stir fried in olive oil and balsamic syrup. That sounds tempting too. We'll see. Luckily I have plenty!

I'm Still Here

2009-11-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the start of CSA season! Tomorrow afternoon I will go pick up my first box of locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs, roots and fungi. I list all of those things because you just never know what you're going to get each week and the last CSA season in which I participated, I received all of the above. For me, the waiting for the deliveries to start feels like waiting for Christmas. I guess that makes today Christmas Eve! I'm absolutely beside myself with excitement because I plan to use whatever is in my box tomorrow to create some exciting dishes for Thanksgiving and it's been far too long since I've gorged myself on fresh Swiss Chard. I'm hoping for some of that, but any fresh greens make me happy.

Once I get home and get everything sorted out, I will photograph the contents of this week's delivery. Then I will post and explain everything, including how a CSA works for those of you who may not be familiar with what it is.

Martha Stewart is a Temperist

2009-11-05T10:01:00.001-08:00

I am mildly outraged. This afternoon I was watching Martha Stewart, who has had several farmers and culinary artisans on her program in the past year touting the local food movement. Today Martha's guest was Liz Thorpe of Murray's Cheese in New York City. Ms. Thorpe has recently written a book called The Cheese Chronicles which discusses cheeses from all over America. I plan on ordering the book immediately to see what it says about our fair state. As Ms. Thorpe mentioned that wonderful and unique cheeses are now produced in all fifty states Martha Stewart recoiled and said: "EVEN IN FLORIDA????"

No, she did not just say that, I thought to myself. How dare Martha Stewart?! Why on earth would she say something like that? What did her reaction imply? Why didn't she say "Even in South Dakota???" What does Martha think we are down here? A bunch of Kraft Singles eating culinary heathens? Come on Martha. Get with it. Why wouldn't cheese be made in Florida? Of course artisan cheese is made in Florida and while Martha Stewart may be shocked to hear this, I think South Florida in particular has one of the most diverse, exciting and thriving local food communities in the country. Locavores down here, as I'm learning, have a wider variety of edible resources and actually have more options than their counterparts in temperate climates. And pfft, we get more fresh mangoes and mahi-mahi than we even know what to do with and yes, Martha we do have local cheese.

Winter Park Dairy in Winter Park produces an artisan bleu cheese, which is available for order. I know I'll be ordering some immediately. You can see it in the photograph above, which I borrowed from their thorough and detailed website.

You can also order freshly made, local, artisan goat cheese from Redland Mediterranean Organics. I've had it and I know how fantastic it is. They make several varieties of cheese.

Those are but two examples of Florida cheeses.

Martha Stewart, stop privileging the temperate climate and dissing Florida. The tropics are where it's at.

Callaloo

2009-11-03T10:28:00.001-08:00

I really like Callaloo. It might be the name - it sounds a bit silly and a bit like a howl. The first time I ever had it, I was in Jamaica. In Jamaica, Callaloo is practically the national dish, right after Jerk and the leafy green is extremely popular all over the Caribbean where it is cooked in a stew of the same name. Most people who eat Callaloo enjoy it in stew form or mixed into coconut rice. Both recipes are delicious. Until two years ago when I joined my CSA, I had never seen fresh Callaloo outside of Jamaica. Here in Florida we have a robust and thriving population of people from all of what we call "The Islands." These people do a good job of maintaining their rich and diverse cultures here in South Florida and our grocery stores do a fair job at stocking products from the Bahamas, Jamaica and other islands. I enjoy the Jamaican section of Publix where one can find all sorts of interesting, imported products. They sell Callaloo in cans. Canned Callaloo is as disgusting as canned spinach. I wouldn't eat it if you paid me. I have never understood why, if we have such a big population of people from the Island nations living in our area, we can't sell fresh Callaloo in the grocery stores. What's even more ridiculous is that Callaloo is a hearty crop and grows very well here. It's nutritious, keeps well and tastes good, so why is it so hard to find?

As I anxiously await the return of my CSA box in less than a month, one of the things I most look forward to is Callaloo. I like it better than collards, turnip greens, mustard greens and kale. It cooks faster and has a better flavor than most other greens I've tried. It's only a little bitter. I would describe it as a cross between spinach and collard greens. I prefer it sauteed in olive oil, fresh garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. I either enjoy it plain or I stir it into rice cooked in coconut milk.

Last week I finally got my Callaloo fix from the Bee Heaven Farm booth at the Edible Garden Festival. I can't tell you how excited I was. Since I hadn't had it in almost two years, I opted for the simple sautee. It was instant gratification.

First I pulled off all the leaves (you can eat the stems, but I don't like them as much). Then rinse them very well in a tub of water. I rinse them a few times because I find a lot of bugs and dirt in fresh greens. Then you just heat up a swirl of olive oil and throw the wet leaves in. Stir them and add some chunks of fresh garlic, sea salt and pepper to taste and some hot peppers. I have dried, but a little fresh scotch bonnet would be really good if you can manage the heat. Stiry fry until the leaves wilt and then add in about a 1/2 cup (or a little more) of water. Cook the leaves in the water for about ten minutes (stirring) or until the water cooks away. I find ten minutes is the best amount of time because the leaves get tender but not overcooked and they still retain their emerald sheen. A lot of people cook Callaloo much, much longer, but I don't like to eat food the color of Army pants. When it's done, check for seasonings and eat it up. I have to warn you though. Callaloo suffers from major shrinkage, so a gigantic bundle of raw greens will only make about one or two servings once it's cooked.

I think we should start a petition to make Publix carry fresh Callaloo. I also think the plant would make a good addition to home gardens, though I searched and searched and found it almost impossible to find Callaloo seeds for sale. Maybe Farmer Margie can tell us where she gets her seeds and give us some advice on growing it in our yards.

Florida Sel

2009-10-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Sea Salt has become this year's bacon. It's in everything now, from caramels to Campbell's soup. People are crazy about it and there are several varieties from several different seas, all with different properties, colors (there's even pink salt) and minerals which alter the salt's flavor. Some people believe that sea salt is a much healthier alternative to table salt, while others just like the taste and crunchy texture of sea salt. One of the best sea salts in the world comes from France and is called "Fleur de Sel" which means "Flower of Salt." I love that name. This is because I just love anything that sounds french and involves flowers. Fleur de Sel is expensive though. I brought some back from France and I've been conserving it for the past three years trying to make it last. Then I had an idea. I should make my own. Last summer when I read the book Plenty, I was fascinated, when at the end, the authors harvested their own sea salt. All they did was gather some seawater and boil it down until nothing but salt remained. I could do that! How hadn't I thought of that before? Surely it couldn't be that difficult and living a mile from the beach, I have access to as much seawater as I want. I began to have visions of salt harvesting. I planned to call it "Florida Sel." Get it? How can you not love that name? Come on! Admit how clever that is. I had to harvest my own sea salt.

The first step to harvesting your own sea salt is to go collect some seawater. This proved very easy for me. I went to the beach with a pitcher with a tight fitting lid. All you have to do is take the pitcher, wade into the water about thigh deep and scoop up some water. Ignore the stares of your fellow beach goers who think you're a crazy person. Pretend not to hear the child nearby asking his mother what that crazy lady is doing leaving the beach with a pitcher of seawater that she just took a picture of. Instead, take a moment to admire South Florida's beautiful beaches and thank the Universe for the generous resource that is our ocean.

The best way to transport a pitcher of seawater in a car is to rest the pitcher inside of a gigantic stock pot. I had imagined all sorts of disasters that involved soaking the floor of my car, but nothing transpired. The pot caught all of the spill-over. Just make sure you don't drive like a maniac. When transporting seawater in a pitcher inside of a stockpot it is best to drive as if you are ninety. On the way you should congratulate yourself heartily at how clever you are for thinking up the name "Florida Sel" and you should begin planning on giving big, tastefully packaged jars of your own, homemade sea salt to everyone you know for the holidays.

Before I made it home a friend called me and asked what I was doing. I said that I was making my own sea salt, to which my friend replied in horror:

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S IN OUR SEAWATER???"

She then proceeded to list terrible things like diseases, contaminants, tar and poop. If you have a friend like this, at this stage in the salt making processes, it is best to ignore her. After all, the water looks clear. But in all seriousness, if you're going to harvest your own sea salt you probably shouldn't do as I did and naively go to a public beach in the "Yachting Capital of the World." You should always make sure that the seawater you collect is clean. I decided to flagrantly ignore this precaution because DUH! Florida Sel, people. I did it for the name.

But concerned friends aside, the next step in making your own sea salt is to strain it and boil it. Read on to see how I made my own "Florida Sel"...

Florida Sel - The Strain

2009-10-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

You have to make sure that your seawater is free of sand, sticks, sea creatures, krill or whatever is in seawater. I poured it from the pitcher I collected it in through a sieve lined with about four layers of cheesecloth. I have one of those sieves that hooks onto the edge of a pot or a bowl, so this made it easier. Make sure you don't skip this step because my cheesecloth caught some unidentifiable black specks. You don't want black specks in your salt. Once you've done this step, set the big pot of sea water on the stove, turn on the stove and wait for it to boil. You should also rinse and save the cheesecloth because it can't possibly get very dirty only having some seawater poured through it once.

Florida Sel - The Water Has to Go Somewhere

2009-10-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

After about a half an hour, go check on the sea water which has been boiling exuberantly. Observe now that the sea water in the pot has not so much boiled away, but has instead just moved out of the pot and onto your ceiling and is now dripping on your kitchen floor. The sea water is also covering your microwave, entire stove top and your apartment now resembles a sauna. A salty sauna. It is now time to take protective measures because you remember the corrosive properties of salt water. Fashion a suit of armor for your microwave door with sheets of aluminum foil, Secure them with scotch tape because that's all you have, though the steam from the boiling pot will quickly cause these to wilt. Replace scotch tape every few minutes in a last ditch effort to save the finish of your microwave door. Consider for the first time that harvesting your own sea salt might not be as quaint, charming and earth-goddess of an activity as the books made it sound.

Florida Sel - The Explosion

2009-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

After boiling for a little over an hour, your pot of sea water will suddenly explode and by explode I mean, literally. Explode. All over your kitchen. It will explode with such force that your cat will flee beneath your bed, her tail puffed in terror so that it resembles a squirrel's. You will have hot, salty water all over your entire, very small kitchen. It will not be pretty. Your ears will ring from the sound of the explosion. Carefully turn off the stove, avoiding the pot. Note that when you slide the pot off the burner, it will explode again. If you get the brilliant idea to pour the remaining, clearly volatile water into a bowl and put it in the microwave, it will explode in the microwave too, adding to the things in your kitchen that you will have to scrub. At this point, it is best to just give up, leave the water in the pot and go watch Access Hollywood.

Florida Sel - The Conclusion

2009-10-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Finally, once you've cleaned your kitchen, pour the remaining cloudy, explosive water into a glass bowl and let it sit beside your kitchen sink for a good two weeks until it finally evaporates, leaving a fine, glittering film of what has to be salt (or sewage crystals?). Glance at it with disdain each day as you wash dishes and finally, when it looks dry, use a spoon to scrape it out of the bowl and into a suitable container. For a gallon of seawater, a suitable sized container for holding your homemade, self-harvested sea salt would be a thimble. I only exaggerate slightly, folks. I measured it and I only got a tablespoon of salt from the gallon of water, which really doesn't seem all that efficient or cost effective at all. Or practical. So now I have this tablespoon of real Florida sea salt and I'm scared to even eat it because of the sewage, e coli, cruise ship fuel, industrial waste and all that mercury that somehow gets into fish. Also, I still haven't gotten all the salt crud off my stove top. Maybe I just need to move to the Puget Sound. Nah, I'd miss the mangoes.

Edible Garden Festival Pictures

2009-10-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots from yesterday's Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild. Yes, teachers still get in for free with ID, so I was pretty happy about saving the 20$ admission fee. The afternoon was humid and partly sunny and this festival definitely lacked the heavy turnout that I despaired over at this past summer's Mango festival. I was pleased with the smaller crowds and easier parking. The festival itself was smaller though, with many of the same vendors as other festivals. There were quite a few good things to eat, a scarecrow display, clever bats fashioned from fallen palm bark, and several decorated pumpkins. I saw a box garden display (above), met some students who are creating a community garden on the University of Miami campus and bought a ton of fresh, local veggies at the Bee Heaven Farm booth. Best of all, I finally got to meet Margie, whom I've emailed with for a couple years and never met in person. I bought an unruly bouquet of callaloo, organic corn on the cob, crookneck squash and zucchini, a four pack of those addictive smoked eggs and a jar of Antidesma (maoberry) butter. They also had heirloom tomato seedlings and baby red choi for sale. Fairchild itself had a booth selling fruits and honey grown in its own edible garden. They had quite an interesting variety with two different kinds of avocado, tamarind pods, mamey, carambola and to my surprise, persimmons. I didn't know persimmons grew here. For some reason I associated persimmons with chilly climates. I know they're popular in the Midwest in the Fall and there were several wild persimmons growing in Delaware when I was growing up, but I've never seen persimmons down here. In all, the festival was small and pleasant and a good way to pick up some early harvests before CSA begins next month. It was the perfect, tropical style event to replace the corn mazes and cider mills of fall that so many Floridians long for this time of year. The Edible Garden Festival really made me excited for the first harvests and I left uplifted, feeling like celebrating the season as it manifests in the place where I live.

Fairchild Edible Garden Festival This Weekend!

2009-10-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Fairchild's Edible Garden Festival is this weekend and I can't wait. I've already gotten an email from Redland Organics letting me know that they will have produce, eggs, honey and seedlings for sale. You have to try the smoked eggs. They would make the best egg salad in the world. There will also be a display of the scarecrows from the scarecrow contest and several lectures, tours and demonstrations. I am beside myself with excitement and will be going on Saturday. I plan on doing some serious spending because they always have a ton of neat stuff to buy and because I am going to attempt a container garden on my parents' patio and want some heirloom tomato seedlings. The last time I tried that the stupid iguanas devoured my plants, so we'll see what happens this time. On one visit to Fairchild, they told me that teachers get in free with teacher ID cards, so keep that in mind. Hopefully it's still true. Here is the schedule of events where there is a five dollar off admission coupon that you can print out as well.

A Long Five Weeks..

2009-10-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

It's only five weeks until my CSA shares from Redland Organics begin being delivered. I can not wait. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Being a member of a CSA though, is like getting to have Christmas every single week! Imagine this - every Saturday you go pick up a big box filled with fruits and veggies, all grown and harvested nearby and you never know what is going to be in the box! This excites me beyond belief. I love the element of surprise. It keeps me on my toes and it keeps me out of ruts of dull eating. It gets my imagination simmering and I definitely eat more nutritious meals because I have to use up what I've been given. The CSA makes me a better cook and much better eater and it forces me to try new things, which are usually items they don't sell in the grocery store. I'll be honest though. I don't always like everything I try and that's ok with me. Sometimes I'll find vegetables or fruits in the box that I can't stand. When that happens I either try new methods of preparation or I give them away. I can always find someone else who is happy to have my rejects and I enjoy being generous.

I just got an email from Redland Organics. Every season it seems they add more and more options. You can buy egg shares or honey shares. Two years ago I bought an egg share and every week I got four to six, lovely, bluish-greenish-grey or caramel colored eggs. I didn't buy the honey because I don't eat enough of it to justify that and one week I got a free jar of honey in my box anyway. It lasted me the whole season.

This year they're offering two new add-ons. You can buy a goat cheese share or a Mediterranean share. I think this is so exciting. If you buy the goat cheese share, every week you get a different kind of goat cheese, all made right here. I wonder if they have to call it "pet food." I say this because in the 90s I lived in another state and worked at a Waldorf school. There was a nearby Biodynamic farm that produced goat cheese, but for some reason it was illegal and they had to call it pet food, just like with the raw milk. We all ate it and didn't die. But I digress. I am considering the goat cheese share this year because I love goat cheese and I've been wanting to explore local cheese options to write about. We'll see how I can work it into my budget. I'd also like to mention that I tried the goat cheese at the Possum Trot brunch and I've been wishing I could get my hands on more of it ever since. The one we had there was kind of dry, mild and crumbly. It was harder than a feta with a more delicate taste. It was addictive.

This year you can also purchase a Mediterranean share as well. That means that every week you can get a Mediterranean salad like hummus, baba ghanoush etc. I think it's a great idea, but I'll opt out of that one. My family is partly Middle Eastern anyway, therefore I have this stuff coming out of my ears. You would not believe the vat of smoked eggplant my grandmother foisted on me the other day, so I clearly do not need to be purchasing something I already know how to make and have on hand already. But for people who are not related to my eggplant and tahina obsessed grandmother, the Mediterranean share is a good idea.

Uggh, did I say it was five weeks away? Hurry up and grow, plants!

Stone Crab Season 2009!

2009-10-15T10:59:00.001-07:00

It's finally here and you know you've been waiting for it since May! Stone Crab Season begins today! I happen to love the mild, sweet taste of stone crabs. I think they taste fresh and light like the sea and many people I know are completely addicted to them in spite of their often exorbitant cost. Last year was a bad year for the stone crab industry so they were cheaper, but this year promises to be better for the crabbers, so I'm guessing the prices will continue to rise. You can read more about the subject in this article. The Miami New Times Short Order food blog also has an excellent and informative post which will tell you everything you always wanted to know about the crustaceans. Stone crabs are probably the most loved and best known Florida food so they're pretty easy to find in fish markets and restaurants. I usually purchase mine at the Fish Peddler East in Fort Lauderdale because the restaurants are so expensive. The Sun-Sentinel's Thursday food section also has an interesting article about the stone crabs at Trulucks.I was surprised to learn that the restaurant has its own fleet of crabbers over on the west coast. They'll start serving them tomorrow and according to the article Trulucks is running an All You Can Eat Stone Crab Special for $49.00 every Monday. I've never been to Trulucks, but a new location just opened up in the Fort Lauderdale Galleria, so I may have to give them a try soon. Also today, the venerable institution that started it all, Joe's Stone Crab, opens up for a new season.

A couple years ago I wrote a much longer, humorous essay all about Stone Crabs which was published in the book Hungry? Thirsty? Miami. I think the editor did a fantastic job on the book and I highly recommend it, and not just because I want you to read my Stone Crab essay.

If anyone has any suggestions about where to find the best, most reasonably priced Stone Crabs please let me know in the comments section.

Happy Cracking!

Almost Time...

2009-10-13T11:32:00.001-07:00

It's almost here! The Pompano Beach Green Market reopens for the season on Halloween, Saturday October 31st. I will definitely be there, although I have been in past years and I admit that I was a little disappointed. Do I even have to tell you why? Of course not. I've said it about 300 times before. Like many other farmer's markets in Florida, they sell the same things you can get at Publix, which are not local. But some stuff is local and I hope this year there will be even more products for sale that are grown around here. A friend of mine who has since moved away particularly liked one vendor - an Indian woman who grew several of the items she sold in her own yard. Of particular interest to me is her purslane. I've never had purslane and I hear it grows well here. My friend liked it. If you don't know what purslane is, well, neither do I. It's a type of green with thick leaves and yellow flowers, but beyond that I know little else. Hopefully she's growing it this year and it will find its way into a future post.

I wish Halloween would hurry up and get here already!

Here is the Pompano Beach Green Market's website with further information about the opening and how you can be a volunteer. Of course I considered volunteering, but I have enough stuff to do already that I can't get done, so one more thing would be too much. I'll be happy just shopping at the market instead of working there, although I'm sure volunteering would be a lovely experience.

Sour Oranges

2009-10-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

My most interesting local find this week were some Florida grown Sour Oranges at Whole Foods. I was surprised to see them because citrus fruits don't come in season for approximately another two months, but these are different. Sour Oranges were new to me. Their mottled, orange and green camouflage-pattern rinds attracted my interest immediately. I picked one up and smelled it, finding the Sour Orange to be wonderfully fragrant. If you nick the peel with your fingernail you can smell the aromatic oils which will remind you of natural cleaning products. In fact, many of these scents really come from Sour Orange oil, so that makes a lot of sense. I bought some sour oranges, having no idea what to do with them, and came home to do a little research. Remember, my local eating project has a lot to do with expanding my picky palate. I want to try lots of new things.

Here's what I found out: Sour Oranges are so tart and acidic that you can't eat them. They have to be used like lemons and limes and sweetened depending on the recipe. I also found out that Sour Orange juice is the basis for Mojo, the quintessential Cuban marinade of which I am a gigantic fan. You can also make marmalade (but I'll wait for more calamondins this winter) and Sour Oranges can be used to make curd or pie filling (a la Key Lime). Truly, the last thing I need to eat is pie, so I'm opting for the savory route and plan to soon make a big batch of homemade Mojo, which I shall use to marinate grilled chicken. I am currently toying with ideas and when I make the Mojo I will post all about it. Besides not needing to eat pie, the main reason I decided to use the Sour Oranges for Mojo was that I wanted to not only highlight local fruit, I wanted to celebrate local culture (Cuban) because South Florida's diversity is part of what makes this part of the world such a fun and unusual place to live.

One thing I have to mention here is that if you look in the picture, the sign that Whole Foods has advertising the Sour Oranges is really ridiculous. It says something to the effect that local fruit is good for lunches or ready to go or some such nonsense. Someone who doesn't know what this fruit is would think it was like a regular orange and meant for eating out of hand. Imagine this person's utter horror when taking a bite! Sour Oranges are not good for lunchboxes Whole Foods. Not unless you want to play a dirty trick on someone.

Here is some more info on Sour Oranges.

Raw Milk and Whole Foods

2009-10-06T06:14:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I was in the Boca Whole Foods scouting out local products. I was very surprised to find Raw Milk from Golden Fleece Dairy, located in Northern Florida. I had never seen raw milk sold in a grocery store before. Of course it was labeled as "pet food" with lots of winking and nodding involved. Apparently, because of safety and sanitation concerns, in Florida raw milk must be sold as "pet food" and not for human consumption, though I can not imagine who would use really expensive milk as a pet food. I mean, I know cats kind of like milk... Well anyway, everyone knows it's not really for pets. It annoys me that it's clearly for people, but just has to be called "pet food." I don't like when people use words deceptively, whether it's to subtly deceive consumers or to get around laws whether or not one believes those laws are fair. I just don't like words used in that way. I don't think just calling something by a different name truly changes its meaning. As an English teacher, I tell my students to always and only use words for the highest good. I don't think this qualifies. But anyway. That is not what this post is about. I just got off on a ranting tangent about semantics. This post is about local raw milk in Florida and how now, just a few weeks after I snapped the pictures above, Whole Foods has stopped selling it. And I didn't even get a chance to try it!

As of September 30th, Whole Foods stopped selling the raw milk. There is now a petition to get them to bring it back.

Clearly, the raw cow milk was very popular because when I was at the store, they were completely sold out of it. The raw goat's milk wasn't nearly as popular. Had there been some cow's milk, I would have bought and tried it. I don't like goat's milk, so I opted to save my $7.99.

Some people believe that raw milk is dangerous. Some people believe that pasteurized, commercially produced milk is equally as dangerous but in a different way. Some raw milk supporters attribute practically magical healing properties to the raw milk that is produced in a safe, clean environment. The debates about raw milk can get very heated and I have absolutely no desire to get involved in one with either side. I'd like to stay neutral here.

I will disclose two things though. First, I have consumed raw milk on a Biodynamic Farm in New York, some of which came from another Biodynamic Farm in Massachusetts. I lived to tell about it. At the same time that I lived to tell of the experience, I also did not experience any magical healing properties of the raw milk and I got the same upset stomach from it that I get from other milk, although everyone around me said it wouldn't aggravate any lactose intolerance. It did, however, taste spectacular because it was full of cream and lumps of butterfat. It was far superior in taste to any other milk I have ever had.

Second, my grandmother, her mother and siblings almost died from drinking raw milk and my grandmother has told me this story about three hundred times. I've told you that I come from some rugged farm folk. My grandmother, one of twelve siblings, was the daughter of a real sharecropper and grew up on farms. All they had to drink was raw milk. It was their way of life. There was no other option. One time the milk got contaminated, everyone drank it and everyone got sick. My great-grandmother lived only by a miracle. The cow even died from whatever it was. My grandmother informed me that this was not all that uncommon and that she knew of several children who got sick and/or died when she was growing up because the milk was bad. This however, was 80 years ago. These people were poor and uneducated. They didn't know about sanitation and they didn't have the same technology, medicines etc. that we have now. I can speculate that if raw milk comes from a knowledgable farmer who is meticulously clean and takes good care of his or her cows, that raw milk is a lot safer than what my grandmother grew up on. I will add though, that after everyone got better from the tainted milk, my grandmother never drank it again and that growing up, no one ever gave me milk.

I have never once, ever in my entire life, ever drank a glass of milk. To me, milk is an ingredient, not a beverage. I mix it in things. Lord knows, I eat plenty of dairy products. I live for cheese. I put half and half in my coffee and I really need to cut back on my ice cream intake. I just don't drink glasses of milk. Yuck. But deep down, I feel like I shouldn't be eating any dairy products, raw or pasteurized. I wish I could give up dairy. I probably won't because I like it so much, but I wish I could. When I think about it logically, it doesn't make sense to me that we'd need it in our diets. Why are humans drinking another animal's milk? I can't think of any other animals who drink another animal's milk (unless humans give it to them). I also can't think of any animals who drink milk as adults. So why do we even need it at all? Do we need it at all? I don't really know.

Here's what I think. I think you should make your own decision about what you want to eat and that it's not really anyone else's business. If you are against raw milk then don't drink it. If you feel like raw milk is the right choice for you, then you should sign the petition to bring it back to Whole Foods. If you are a vegan and don't drink milk at all, well...I'm a little jealous.

Here is an article about Whole Foods not selling raw milk anymore.

Here is the petition to bring it back if you are a supporter of raw milk.

Local Find of the Week - Calabaza or West Indian Pumpkin

2009-10-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

It's officially October now and October means pumpkins. In temperate climates no October is complete without a visit to the pumpkin patch, but here we don't have pumpkin patches or Pumpkin U-Picks. No, we have a tent by the side of the road where some carnies sell pumpkins they've hauled down from Up North. Once the pumpkins run out they return with Christmas trees. In July they return and fill the very same tent with fireworks. Not exactly the pumpkin picking scene I remember from my childhood. Does that mean then that pumpkins don't grow here? Of course not. We have our own kind of pumpkin in the tropics and it's known as the Calabaza or West Indian pumpkin. It's my local find of the week.

I've never had it before, this Calabaza. Until today, I didn't even really know what it was, but now I'm quite familiar. The Calabaza is eaten all over the Caribbean in curries, soups, stews and sopped up with roti. It's shell is so tough that it's rarely sold whole. Instead you can find it like I did, hacked into easy to manage chunks. My Calabaza came from Whole Foods in Fort Lauderdale by way of Paradise Farms.

The hunk I purchased was very reasonably priced (I thought) at $1.21. It was large enough to serve about three people, I would say, or two very fanatical and starving ones. I really had no clue what to do with it. I'm not a huge pumpkin or squash eating fan. I like them in soups or the occasional Thanksgiving pie, but I'm not very enthusiastic beyond that. Normally I find the squash family to be grainy, stringy and bland. But still, I decided to give the Calabaza a try. I drizzled it with olive oil, sprinkled it with coarse salt and set it to roast. First I had the oven at 425 because I was making a pizza. Then I had to turn it down to 350 to bake a pan of brownies. The Calabaza didn't mind. In all, I cooked it a little over an hour, until a fork sunk in without putting up a big fight and the top had begun to caramelize nicely. Then I took it out and tried a bite. Wow!! This is no bitter acorn squash or disappointing sugar pumpkin. The Calabaza means business. Its flavor (it HAD flavor) was roasty, sweet and had some body to it. The Calabaza would make a mean local pumpkin pie or flan. I liked it plain though, but imagine how good it would be with a squiggle of saw palmetto honey and a scatter of crushed allspice berries. It would be impressive as an Autumn side dish. I think I'd like it mashed as a bed for some freshly caught, roasted fish too. I'm already thinking of a million uses for it. Jack 'o' Lantern though, is not one of them.

More information about the Calabaza or West Indian Pumpkin.

Possum Trot End of Summer Brunch Photos

2009-09-30T18:26:00.001-07:00

Thank you Robert, for feeding us so well and for inviting us to visit your unique and beautiful property. It was a wonderful morning.

Possum Trot End of Summer Brunch Photos

2009-09-30T18:21:00.001-07:00

Possum Trot End of Summer Brunch Photos

2009-09-30T18:04:00.001-07:00

Here's the delicious and unusual meal Chef Robert cooked for us. The brunch was served Bento style. Clockwise from the left bottom corner we have: allspice muffins, tropical fruit salad heavy on the banana and star fruit, honeyed goat labneh (yogurt), avocado stuffed with betel leaf seasoned eggs and goat cheese, a smoked egg and boiled salted jackfruit seeds, followed by callaloo, and a medley of roasted root vegetables like beets and potatoes.

Possum Trot End of Summer Brunch Photos

2009-09-30T17:57:00.001-07:00

National Coffee Day

2009-09-29T11:52:00.001-07:00

In honor of National Coffee Day today, I'd like to give you a sneak preview of two stories I'm working on.

First of all, the one thing that all Locavores around the US complain about the most (except the ones in Hawaii) is the lack of local coffee. It just doesn't really grow well in most American climates. The only American coffee we have is Kona from Hawaii, which is good, but expensive and comes from so far that it may as well come from another continent. It sort of doesn't count. The other closest coffee is Blue Mountain from Jamaica - another country yes, but good coffee that's only about an hour flight away, as opposed to a thirteen hour flight to Hawaii.

Lament no more Florida Locavores. We have local coffee. We are the luckiest locavores in America! Yes, you heard me. Coffee is grown and roasted right here in Davie, Florida. I'm not kidding you. There's not a lot of it, but you can get your hands on it. Right now the only place that sells the Davie coffee, from a company called Wagon Wheel Coffee Roaster, is at a small fruit stand in Fort Lauderdale on McNab off of Cypress (in the Pine Crest area) called "By Their Fruits" (I'm writing about them soon too).

I was in By Their Fruits a few weeks ago when I happened on the coffee. I had heard of it before, and had attempted to contact the coffee farmer himself, but to no avail. He didn't answer my emails or phone calls. The owner of By Their Fruits knows him and sells his coffee. She assured me that his experimental coffee crops had been a success and that the coffee in the bags was indeed grown right here from local beans and not simply roasted here with imported beans. I told her I had tried to contact the farmer and she took my information to pass on to him, but as yet, I still haven't heard from him. Maybe he'll read this and call or write. I really want to visit his farm and see his plants and roasting equipment.

The bag I bought pictured above cost me only $7.99 and it's delicious! It works for me and I've definitely enjoyed it. I'm enjoying it right now in honor of National Coffee Day!

Wagon Wheel Coffee Roasters in Davie

By Their Fruits Produce

Non-Local Tomatillos??

2009-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday someone left a comment saying that no tomatillos are currently growing in Homestead and that I should check the label to see if they came from a distributor in Homestead rather than a grower. I hope I haven't been duped again like I was with the non-Florida blackberries with the Florida label that I accidentally bought earlier in the summer. I bought the tomatillos and peppers at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is really good about labeling all of their locally produced wares and the produce I purchased had the orange sign under it. I was under the impression that Whole Foods labels its produce according to where it is grown and not where it's distributed. You can see the sign here. I tried to google "Southern Specialties" to see what kind of a company they are but there was no website and no information available. I could call the produce manager at Whole Foods and inquire and I may do that later, because if these tomatillos were not grown in Florida they should not be falsely labeled as such. It's deceptive advertisting to cash in on people like me who want to buy things grown nearby and that's just wrong. Or, maybe there really are some tomatillos growing somewhere in Homestead right now and not a lot of people know about them. Let's hope. Whatever their origins, the tomatillos made a delicious salsa which I served on some grilled dolphin and I know that really was caught just offshore here.

Monday

2009-09-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

The brunch yesterday morning at Possum Trot was, in my opinion, a great success and I had a lovely time. The food was unexpected and delicious and Robert was generous enough to give us a tour around his property which contains hundreds of unique species of plant life and about 13,000 terrifying banana spiders. I honestly wish I had taken a notepad to write everything down because there was just too much information to take in. Still, I learned an enormous amount and I got to try foods which never would have been available to me otherwise.

I'd like to state for the record that I have now officially lived because I've had farm fresh bananas. And wow. Yes, they really are that good. This is coming from someone who doesn't like bananas much outside of bread. To be exact, they were Orinoco Bananas. Kind of reminds me of that old Enya song from forever ago "Orinoco Flow" except my new version would be "Eat Away, Eat Away, Eat Away" instead of "Sail Away." I know, I'm corny.

Also, boiled salted jackfruit seeds are yum. They sort of reminded me of chestnuts, in theory. I'll write more on the food later.

I took so many pictures yesterday and as I'm working today (having lunch right now) I'll have to get them off the camera and all formatted nicely before I can show you some.

In the meantime, I'd like you all to know that a tiny little piece I wrote regarding my passion for home canning can be found on page 40 of the October issue of Real Simple magazine. The piece describes an experience I had around mid-summer where I raided my pantry and stood there and ate almost an entire jar of my friend's homemade apple butter with an iced tea spoon. My friend lives in Asheville where apples are local and like me, she's really into preserving her own fruits. When she came down she brought me some jars of pickles, jellies, chutneys and apple butter. Everyone needs a friend like this.

Also, it's Yom Kippur today, so it's probably best that I refrain from writing about food any more. If you celebrate this solemn holiday, I wish you an easy fast and a wonderful year to come.

How to Make a Tomatillo Salsa - Local Style

2009-09-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

You'll need a pound of tomatillos for a small dish of salsa. I had ten, but one was rotten inside, so I ended up with nine. The world did not end and the salsa was perfect. This is such a flexible sort of dish. I didn't even use a recipe. You don't have to measure anything. You just add as much or as little as you like. Tomatillos are not, by the way, little green tomatoes at all, but their own independent kind of fruit that is related to the tomato, yet not a tomato. I like how they wear a lovely lacy petticoat to protect their pretty green skin. This is formed by the calyx of the plant's flower and it has to be removed before the tomatillos are cooked an eaten. As you husk them, you will find that the tomatillos are extremely sticky and the sap will get all over your fingers. It's harmless and rinses right off. Other ingredients you will need if you want to make this salsa are: tomatillos, jalapenos, white onion, oil, salt and pepper, a lime, garlic to taste, a little bit of red onion and a handful of cilantro if you like it. Some people are genetically wired to despise cilantro. It tastes funny to them. I am not one of these people. I can't get enough of the stuff, so I used a big handful.

2009-09-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

Now that you've husked all of your tomatillos, you need to rinse them off because they're sticky and attract all sorts of dust and dirt and black stuff which you can see on one of mine in this colander. Then get an oiled roasting pan and make sure your oven is preheated to 400 degrees.

2009-09-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Cut everything up and throw it in an oiled roasting pan. I halved the tomatillos because it seemed like it would make life easier once they were roasted and needed to go into the food processor. I was right. Also in the pan is one, cut up white onion and a jalapeno which has been seeded and rid of its white pith. You should always test your jalapenos before adding them to recipe. I take a little taste and I do this because all jalapenos are different. Some aren't hot at all while others will singe your eyebrows off. This will determine how much jalapeno you should add to your recipe. This particular one was so hot I started choking and needed some chips to cool my tongue, so I only added one and it was plenty. The end result was still a pretty picante salsa verde. Removing the seeds and white part also helps to ease the heat, but it didn't do that much in this case. Somewhere I heard that chiles are hotter in the fall. This appears to be the case.

2009-09-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I left them in the oven a little too long because I was lobster-wrestling (just don't even ask and no I'm not kidding). They should have roasted for fifteen minutes at 400, but these were in more like 25 minutes. Not to worry though. Salsa verde is a very forgiving thing and no harm was done. Except to the lobster.

2009-09-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Once it cooled off I put it in the food processor. The tomatillos had shrunk enough that I was able to use the mini-prep without hauling out the heavy artillery of the Cuisinart. I also added a minced clove of garlic, juice of half a lime, some red onion and a hanfdul of cilantro with salt and pepper to taste. It seemed a tad acidic so I threw in a dash of agave nectar too. Then I whizzed it around.

Tomatillo Salsa - Local Style

2009-09-26T16:37:00.001-07:00

The finished product: roasted tomatillo and jalapeno salsa, made with tomatillos and jalapenos grown in Homestead at Southern Specialties and purchased at the Whole Foods in Fort Lauderdale.

Bee Heaven Farm Blog

2009-09-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Bee Heaven Farm has "bowed to peer pressure" and started a blog! This is so exciting, especially as the growing season is just beginning. I've renewed my CSA membership for this year and come November, I'll be posting a lot about my weekly boxes of produce and treats, many of which are grown at Bee Heaven Farm. Now that they've started a blog, we'll get to see the other side of the CSA - where all the work is done. I'm anxious to read about life on the farm. So far this week they have harvested and dehydrated all sorts of fruits, including something called a "Cotton Candy Fruit" and how on earth have I not tried something called that?? They also have ripe bananas and they swear you haven't lived if you haven't tried a fresh banana from the farm. I definitely haven't lived then, alas. Maybe I would like bananas if I got to eat a real one. Yesterday tilling began on the earth that will grow my winter's veggies. I'm beyond excited about that. Happy growing and blogging Bee Heaven Farm!

Whole Foods Local Produce This Week

2009-09-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

This morning I had to run some errands and I stopped by the Fort Lauderdale Whole Foods to see what local produce they might be carrying. There's not a lot to be had this time of year, but I know that Whole Foods always makes an effort to carry some local products and I was able to find a couple pleasant surprises. First I noticed some lovely yellow squash from Oaks Farms in Naples. I love yellow squash. My mother has always sauteed it in bacon until it gets very soft, brown and caramelized and it's delicious. You can also make squash casseroles and fritters with it or shred it up and eat it raw in salads.

Next I found a variety of exciting peppers from Southern Specialties in Homestead. These got me in the mood to make salsa. The poblanos were beautiful. I like to rub them with oil and roast them slowly on the grill until the skin chars. Then I like to use them as an accompaniment to grilled or roasted meats. They're particularly yummy as a burger topping.

Last, I was thrilled to find local tomatillos. I had no idea they grew down here. I've always been much more of a salsa verde kind of girl, though I've never tried to make it. I think these tomatillos, along with the peppers, were just the inspiration I needed to try inventing my own green salsa recipe. I can't wait to get into the kitchen this weekend when I don't have to work.

These few ingredients gave me the idea for a simple, light, local meal. I'm going to grilled up some Key West pink shrimp or some locally caught mahi-mahi, top the seafood I choose with a tomatillo salsa and a Florida grown avocado and serve it alongside sauteed yellow squash. How good does that sound? Now all I have to do is come up with an idea for dessert.

Alexa Update

2009-09-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to mention that after my initial visit to Alexa Produce in Fort Lauderdale a few weeks ago, that there seems to be a flurry of activity going on there each time I pass. It looks like they're doing some construction inside and they've done a lot to improve the appearance of the outside of the market too. I'm hoping that my initial impression was just because it was late summer, a terrible time for local produce here as we all know, and that they were just trying to get the business up and running before the real season kicks in in about a month or so. I'm really hoping that this winter they'll carry local produce and not have to rely on items shipped from far away. If they do this, I will be a loyal, devoted customer and recommend them to everyone I know. I don't even care about the price. So I'm going to give them a couple more weeks, see if the construction is done and then I'll visit them again. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements they're making.

Happy First Day of Fall

2009-09-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome new readers from the South Florida Daily Blog and elsewhere! I hope you'll like what you find here and stick around. Please feel free to leave comments. Last January, when I began envisioning what I ultimately wanted for this blog, one of the things I'd hoped for was for it to be a place where lots of people looking to learn about local eating in Florida (or other tropical places) could share tips, ideas and resources they'd learned about too. I'd like it to be more interactive. This week I've gotten some great tips and I've even been invited to an avocado tasting! (Email me about that, person who left that comment and we'll set it up.) If you know of something you'd like me to write a story about or if you know of a great event coming up that people shouldn't miss or a local product I should try, please email me.

That said, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy First Day of Fall! This is practically a holiday for me. Fall is my favorite season. I just love it, but at the same time, this is the time of year when I start to get really depressed about not living up North. My heart aches for chilly days, the smell of burning leaves and the tang of spiced cider. When we were little my parents used to take my sister and me to a cider mill in Northern New Jersey called Van Riper's Farms, to get apples, pumpkins and hot cinnamon doughnuts. I remember jack o lanterns and corn mazes, bushel baskets of Macintoshes and bird houses made out of gourds. So when October rolls around, I start longing. It's like a kind of Season Affective Disorder I think.

For a long time, after I first moved down here in 2000, I tried to recreate an artificial version of a northern fall. I notice the malls and stores do this too. Just go into any Starbucks and you'll see maple leaves and pumpkin spiced lattes everywhere. I'd scatter fake red leaves all over the house and set out decorations that reminded me of northern falls. It really only served to make me more depressed and it's a tad creepy with all those plastic pumpkins and crepe leaves.

I don't want to live like that - always wanting to be somewhere else. I want to love where I am and to bloom where I'm planted as they say. A few years ago I read Isabel Allende's novel Daughter of Fortune. In that book, there was one small paragraph that stood out for me and I've never forgotten it. The book takes place a long time ago when Europeans were colonizing and settling in Chile in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons are opposite from ours. In the book, the Europeans refused to adapt to the topsy turvy seasons, so in January, in the middle of a Chilean summer, they were used to it being winter, and they'd all wear heavy clothes and bundle up even though it was hot. Now this is not even what the book was ultimately about at all, but that one little thing stood out to me because I realized that is exactly what I was doing too, both literally and metaphorically, and frankly, it's pretty silly.

Just because Autumn means something else in South Florida than it does in a temperate climate, doesn't mean that our more subtle version of the season doesn't have a lot of things to love too. I want to figure out what these things are. I want to redefine Autumn for myself. I want to embrace a tropical fall.

So what does Autumn mean for South Florida? What happens here in the fall? What new treats does fall bring down here? What can we look forward to over the next few months?

For one thing, it will soon be lobster and stone crab season again. As the farmer's markets up North shutter their doors to the approaching sleet and slush, our markets will just be opening. The humidity will dry up pretty soon. I know right now all of our area farmers, both big and small, commercial and private are figuring out what to plant and readying the ground for new seeds and plants. In a couple weeks it will be time for planting and our growing season will take off.

What else does fall bring in South Florida? How do you define a Florida Autumn? What other things can we look forward to after today's Autumnal Equinox at 5:18 pm? Leave me some comments and let me know what the season means to you and how you've redefined it. What is your favorite thing about South Florida between now and December? What are the best fishes, fruits and vegetables that come in season during our fall?

I can't wait to hear from you. Happy Fall.

Yahoo News had an informative article this morning all about the scientifics of the Equinox. I found it really fascinating.

The above, gorgeous picture of the red sea grape leaves on palm fronds came from microgardener's Flickr photo stream. I just thought it was beautiful and really captured the season perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at this talented photographer's nature photos. You can see them all here from their original source.

Herb Foraging - Rosemary

2009-09-21T10:56:00.001-07:00

I feel like I won the lottery. The herb lottery at least. You see, I hate dried herbs and I try not to use them. They always make food taste like you opened up an old teabag and dumped its contents into a dish. I like the stronger, grassier, sometimes more medicinal flavors of the fresh versions a lot better. Fresh herbs can be expensive to buy at the grocery store, so growing your own is definitely your best option. You could also forage for fresh herbs growing wild. If you do this, just make sure that you aren't stealing from someone's property and that the plants haven't been sprayed with poisons. Remember, I don't have a yard. I don't even have a balcony or a terrace off of my condo where I could put out some pots. One of my upcoming projects is to make a container herb garden at my parents' house on their terrace, but I haven't done it yet. But look what I found! One of my neighbors has a veritable wilderness of rosemary growing in his backyard and I discovered it while visiting one day. The man, an older bachelor, had no idea it was even there or that it was edible, and not just edible, but pretty much heavenly. He gave me full permission to traipse through his yard whenever I want and pluck his rosemary 'til my heart's content. Now that is a good neighbor. I just have to give him some of whatever I make with it and of course I'm more than happy to share my culinary creations. Being a bachelor who can't cook many things, he's even thrilled to eat my disasters.

I haven't experienced any rosemary disasters. I just love this herb. My favorite use for it involves roasts. Any kind of a roast anything is pretty much delicious with rosemary. Last night I made a roasted chicken with rosemary and lemons. I've used it for pork tenderloin, beef and I especially love rosemary roasted potatoes. I always add a few sprigs to my tomato based pasta sauces. You should too. I've also used it for scented sachets, holiday decoration and I've hung bunches of it in my closet to repel moths without harsh, stinky chemicals. I adore the smell of rosemary and if I have a cold I like to boil it and inhale the steam. It's like a milder version of eucalyptus.

Rosemary is rumored to have several health benefits which you can read about here.

This site provides a detailed article about growing rosemary from a cutting or a small plant. Rosemary is very well suited for growing here in our climate.

Shana Tova

2009-09-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight at sundown, the Jewish High Holiday of Rosh Hashanah (also called the Jewish New Year) begins. All over the world, Jewish people will celebrate by dipping apples in honey and by eating lots of foods sweetened with honey. No Rosh Hashanah feast is complete without a honey cake for dessert. I'm famous for being picky when it comes to traditional Jewish fare, but I always look forward to celebrating the Jewish New Year with my family because honey is by far one of my favorite foods. Honey is also one of the most abundant of our many delicacies here in the tropics. I guess the furry little honey bees like our warm weather. They must, because down here, they make honey all year round.

There are several honey producers all over the state of Florida. In fact, Tupelo honey, which most people agree is the world's best tasting honey (but really how can you even decide something like that?), comes from Northern Florida. It's not 100 mile local, but at least it's in-state. Also, I am very fond of it. Central Florida, citrus growing territory, also has several honey producers. Up there, bees make honey from the orange blossoms and it has a distinctly light, floral taste which makes it one of the most popular commercial varieties. Orange blossom honey from Florida is shipped all over the world. I don't prefer it.

Down here in South Florida, from Palm Beach to the Keys, we enjoy many unique varieties of honey due to the diversity of plants which thrive in our area. One notable variety is Sea Grape honey. Lime Honey, made by bees who frequent lime groves, is also delicious, but beware of producers who might add flavored oils to enhance the flavor. I don't know why they do that because plain lime honey is wonderful on its own. My favorite local honeys are Saw Palmetto Honey and (get ready for it) Avocado Honey. I like these two because I prefer a darker, richer honey. The more it looks like molasses, the more I'll want to lick it out of the jar with a long handled spoon. I tend to like the more complex, smokier flavors with faint suggestions of bitterness and these two fit that description. Some people though, may be turned off by these flavors and would prefer something gentler like Jamaican Dogwood and Gallberry which are also very good. I know because I've sampled them all.

There are so many local bee-keepers who sell their wares. Some produce honey on a large scale and some are much smaller or even private affairs. In the past few months I've sampled as many different local honeys as I could find and there are still many more to go (but honey sampling is fun so I have no intention to stop).

Here are some of my favorites:

Bee Natural Honey from Homestead.

Bees N the Keys from Key Largo (with hives up and down the island chain). These guys might be my favorite, but it's hard to really pick. I tried all of their varieties at the Fairchild Food & Garden festival last Spring and they were very patient with me wanting to eat everything in sight.

BuzznBee from Gainesville. Not 100 Mile, but in-state and very good quality. BuzznBee honey is easy to find at Whole Foods and I found their honeys to be mild, yet floral and flavorful. Some honey is so mild that it has no taste, but BuzznBee had a bright flavor that went nicely with winter strawberries.

Redland Organics from the Redlands. I had to mention Redland Organics. Honestly, their raw honey was my favorite, but it's pretty hard to come by. I got plenty of it in my CSA box two winters ago when I was a member, which is how I know about it. None is available for sale now, but I know they have honey shares available in the winter, though I think it's too late to sign up now. Don't worry. They sell their wonderful goods, compiled from several area farms, at farmer's markets. Come January, I have a feeling they'll have some of their honey for sale along with their other delights. If you can find it, make sure you buy a big jar. You won't regret it.

Here is another site called the Honey Locator, which lists honey producers by state. I think that most of the companies they list are larger, more commercial operations, though the site could still prove useful.

No matter where you get your honey and no matter if you're Jewish or not, I wish you the sweetest, healthiest, happiest New Year.

A Mysterious Black Avocado

2009-09-16T10:55:00.001-07:00

In my quest to fall in love with local avocados, for whom I share little to no current affections, I purchased a strange, new variety that I hadn't seen before. I bought it at "By Their Fruits," a produce market which is getting its own post soon enough, so be patient. Of course it was just advertised as a Florida Avocado, but this one looked different. It was small and perfectly smooth, with jet black skin. It looked like it was fashioned from rubber. It was quite soft, so I cut it open as soon as I got home and found it to be mostly pit with bright green flesh - iguana green, I'm talking. The skin was very thin so I had a hard time separating it from the meat and when I tasted it, I was almost startled by its fruity, almost floral flavor. It was very unusual. I would even call it sweet. This must be the variety used in certain South American desserts. I know a kind of sweet, avocado milkshake is popular in Brazil. If this isn't what they use, this would be a good choice, because it tastes more like what one would call a fruit, than other more savory varieties. It was a bit mealy and watery, lacking that buttery, velvety wonderfulness that I wish I could find in avocados grown in Florida. Anyway, it was different. I tried it. I wouldn't get it again, but I still wanted to know what variety it was. Much googling later, I think I've settled it. I am fairly certain that this was a Criollo Avocado. It seems to fit the description. I'm filing the Criollo Avocado in the "I Would Only Eat This If I Were Trapped On a Desert Island" file, right next to the Black Sapote. And no I didn't plant this one in a cup by my kitchen sink. I resisted.

I'm Gonna Kiss Your...PINEAPPLE!!

2009-09-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Look at my pineapples and my pedicure. Both are doing very well. I got this idea to plant some pineapples because several of my friends were doing it with some success. I wanted to be cool like my friends and you can't be cool if you don't grow your own pineapples. Of course, I'm kidding. A couple months ago, apparently Walmart of all places had some kind of wild pineapple sale going on and my husband purchased several. They were from Hawaii, but did you know that pineapples originated in Brazil and that they are actually a species of bromeliad? They also grow very nicely here, as our climate is pretty similar to parts of Brazil. With many pineapples on hand, I decided to plant two. All you do is cut of the top, leaving about an inch or two of fruit attached to the greenery. Then you put it in dirt and water it and say nice things to it. Pretty soon it will take root. You can do this in the ground or in a pot. I don't have much ground, so I used a pot at my parents' house. At first one of my pineapples looked like it was about to die. I don't know what happened to it, but it eventually came around. The other one took off like a fighter jet from an aircraft carrier. The thing is huge. You can clearly see the difference in the sizes of each in the picture. There is also a weed squatting in their pot. This weekend my project is to get another pot, so each pineapple can have his (or her?) own home. I'm hoping in a couple years or less I can harvest and eat my own fruit. I need to read up on it more. My friend has six pineapple plants but she says the fruit never gets big and ripe, so I need to figure out how to avoid this.

I have elaborate pineapple fantasies. I really love it, in spite of the fact that if I eat too much of it, it makes my mouth sting. I have wonderful pineapple memories. When I was about five, I visited Florida for the first time on a road trip with my grandparents. We went to Disney and one night we went to the nightly luau at the Polynesian Village, where I had my first, virgin pina colada, garnished with a huge, spiked pineapple wedge. I was in love. All I wanted was pineapple juice after that, but when we got home to Delaware I remember being disappointed by the thin, acidic, tinny flavor of the pineapple juice that comes in the big blue cans. That was all we could get back then in the 70s.

Then, in late summer of 2002, my nearly thirty years of pineapple dreams finally came true when I spent three weeks on the island of Maui - pineapple paradise. There were fields and fields of pineapples, just rolling toward the rocky seashores, thriving in the fertile, ashen soil in the shade of Haleakala volcano. The air smelled like candy and girly cocktails and oh, the taste. The taste of those Hawaiian pineapples, plucked fresh from the fields. There are no words. You think you know pineapple. You don't know pineapple until you've eaten one that's been freshly picked. It's a wonder I managed to get on the plane back home. I could have easily stayed on Maui, gotten lei-ed every day, wearing nothing but bikini tops, grass skirts and wreaths of freesia. I could have lived on that pineapple. It was these memories that make me so enthusiastic about trying to grow my own.

I'm not the first person with such dreams. Many years ago, a Japanese farmer named George Morikami tried to start a pineapple plantation up near Delray Beach. His pineapples never quite took off and now the land which once made up his farm, is one of the most beautiful places in South Florida - The Morikami Museum.

Hopefully my pineapples will fare better than Mr. Morikami's.

Here is a detailed and easy to understand site that explains all about growing your own pineapples with several pictures and even a video.

Fruit and Spice Park Events

2009-09-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's always good to check Fruit & Spice Park's Classes and Lectures Page. This Saturday, September 19th, Chris Rollins will be giving a class on "Growing Food in Your Backyard" between 10 and 1 in the afternoon. The cost of class is $25.00 and is described as: "a realistic approach to genuinely producing useful a quantity of good food in your yard throughout the year. Emphasis will be on low maintenance plants that can be introduced into you existing landscape. Seeds and cuttings will be distributed to the class members." Seeds and cuttings!!! You get to take stuff home and plant it and it's stuff that will grow and make things you can eat. It doesn't get any more fun than that.