Currently Browsing: farmers markets
Posted by Lucy Tobias
on May 30th, 2009 | Comments Off
What are you doing Saturday morning? Here’s an idea – let’s go to the Fernandina Farmers Market, held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I like those hours. You don’t have to get up early to get the good stuff. Parking is free and plentiful.
Located at the corner of Centre Street and 7th Street north, right in the heart of Fernandina Beach’s historic district, on June 6th the blueberry growers are expected to start showing up. Yes, it is blueberry season! One June 13, the Sweet Grass Cow & Goat Cheeses will be one of the booths.
Always there are landscape plants for sale, many native plants and beautiful blooming things that I want to take home with me. You’ll find prepared foods for lunch, Growers Alliance organic shade bean coffee (yes, they give sample coffee drinks!), honey vendors, craft persons and often live music.
Ah, what a great way to start a Saturday morning. In my book “50 Great Walks in Florida”, Chapter 11 is A Stroll Through History: The Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach Centre Street Stroll and Chapter 12 is Nature’s Classroom: Willow Pond Nature Trail, Fort Clinch State Park
Saturday mornings in Gainesville let’s visit the Alachua County Farmers’ Market, the only Grower’s Only Market in North-Central Florida (that is a lot of “only”). All the produce is grown within 50 miles of the market and you get the meet the farmer.
This is “buy local” taken seriously. The market is in an open-air metal pavilion. Hours are every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until the produce is gone, whichever comes first. If you are going to GPS it, the address is 5920 N.W. 13th Street, Gainesville.
Then take a walk in Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Chapter 16: Wander through a Garden of Eden) and take a gander at the historic buildings on the University of Florida campus (Chapter 15: A Walk on the Gothic Side)
Saturday Summer Market is a big attraction in downtown St. Petersburg, starting Saturday, June 6 and continuing every Saturday through September 16. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location is the Mahaffey Theater parking garage, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg.
What you’ll find: regular and organic produce and fruit, baked goods, plants, flowers orchids, fresh herbs, prepared foods and hand-crafted wares. Fun!
St. Pete is a Bonus Point in Chapter 34: A Walk for Everyone: Fort DeSoto County Park, Tierra Verde.
Downtown Market happens in Tallahassee every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March through November. This takes place on the chain of green parks in Park Avenue Historic District, just a few blocks from the capital.
This is a lively market. You’ll meet local artisans (I have a piece of fused glass all the more special because I met the artist), see lots of artwork alongside local produce and heaering live music is a given. Don’t have breakfast or lunch before you come – because you’ll find everything from muffins to soup and salad.
The chain of parks are covered in Chapter 2: Step into History: Park Avenue Historic District, Tallahassee.
For a list of community farmer’s markets all over Florida, check out this Web site.
When you go to farmer’s markets, you are supporting your local economy, getting an artistic eyeful and having an adventure.
Who said there was nothing to do in the summertime? Sure there is. Spend your morning at a farmer’s market then open up your copy of my book. Great walks are calling. Enjoy
Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, 2008, and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA.
Posted by Lucy Tobias
on Aug 13th, 2008 | 0 comments
Here are 10 things you can do right now to reduce global warming and oh yes, save money on gas and food. This list was first developed for Vacation Bible School this summer at Fort King Presbyterian Church in Ocala. It works!
1. Buy produce grown locally. Get to know your local farmers. Support organic growers. Suggestions: Find the closest Farmer’s Market in Florida and m
ark the day on your calendar. Nothing near you? Talk it up at meetings, at church, at the next gathering of friends and start the ball rolling.
2. Pick one day a week to be car free. Park it. Walk, ride a bike, or, gasp!, stay home and get to know your back yard, front yard, even talk to the neighbors. PS you release nearly a pound of CO2 for every mile driven. Bummer.
3. Plant a vegetable garden. Start with a container or two now in the hot summer (tomatoes, peppers), work the ground for a fall planting. Remember everything you buy grown far away costs energy to deliver it to your door. Break that cycle. Don’t have room? Share a plot with a neighbor who does.
A good book to read: “Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community”, H.C. Flores, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2006. Amazon has it.
4. Shop with a neighbor. Trade off driving to the grocery store once a week.
5. Consider a carpool to church or school or work. Look around the church pews on Sunday. Look around the office or the classroom. See anyone who lives near you?
6. Start a compost pile. Make your own compost. It is richer than dirt. Those bags of topsoil you are buying at Lowes and Home Depot were produced somewhere else and lugged here. That is global warming in action. Break the cycle.
7. Take a rain barrel workshop. Save rainwater. Every drop counts. Just FYI, in Kentucky, they are making rain barrels from oak whiskey barrels. Plants watered with this rainwater are said to be smiling. (just kidding). Water use and global warming go together. The hotter it gets the more water we use. A good book to read: “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.”, Cynthia Barnett, University of Michigan Press, 2007. Amazon has this book.
In Florida, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Services at University of Florida in Gainesville, is big into rain barrels. Check out your local Agricultural Extension Service office to see if they offer rain barrel workshops and inexpensive rain barrels. In Marion County, we can get them at the Ag office for $50 and that includes all the hardware you need. See my blog on rain barrels. Have fun!
8. Get a dog. Okay, this is a little radical but think of the consequences. Dogs need to be walked. You will be walking the dog. Less time spend running around in the car doing “errands”. Plus, when you are walking the dog, you slow down enough to appreciate natural beauty. Pretty soon you’ll want to spend more time outdoors and less time at the mall. A win win situation for you and the planet, not to mention the dog.
9. Drive the speed limit. Set your cruise control. It is a concept, driving the speed limit. More people are actually doing it with gas prices going up. You will save gas driving slower. Trust me.
10. Turn off your sprinklers. Don’t water your lawn. Let God do it. Plant native plants that are drought tolerant.
To get in the mood, take this test to see the size of your ecological footprint. Ah! Revealing isn’t it, how many planets it takes to support your lifestyle. Now read the list of 10 things you can do again and get started. Good luck!
©2008 Lucy Beebe Tobias, author, artist, authentic Florida expert
Posted by Lucy Tobias
on Aug 13th, 2008 | 0 comments
Back in the dinosaur days before computer games and cell phones, most kids played outside, riding bikes, playing baseball, doing anything to stay out of the house until dinnertime.
But not Maria Muscalo. She was in the kitchen at the family’s Tampa home, soaking up the vibes and loving it. Maria said she’d sit in a kitchen chair and ask lots of questions.
“I hung out in the kitchen with the old folks,” Maria says, her face glowing with good memories. Her grandfather and grandmother came over from Naples, Italy in 1890.
There were eight boys and two girls. Aunt Phil (short for Philomena) taught her younger sister, who became Maria’s mom, the family recipe for biscotti.
I’m hearing the family history as we sit at a table under an umbrella at the Thursday Farmer’s Market at Circle Square Commons in Ocala. Two women approach the nearby kiosk loaded with packaged biscotti of different kinds and sample pieces. Their eyes cut to the free samples.
“Excuse me,” Maria sa
ys, gets up and heads for the potential customers. She’s wearing a white shirt with the name “Grandma Rie” in red on one side (the name her grandchildren call her) and the words “Bodacious Biscotti” on the other.
“Hello, would you like to try some bodacious biscotti?”
The two women stand rooted, interested but not moving forward.
“Our biscotti is famous for what is NOT in it,” Grandma Rie says, giving them her 100-watt smile that comes straight from the heart.
The two women look at each other. This is certainly different! They step up, get some free coffee and try the samples. One bite and they’re hooked. Biscotti means twice baked, that’s why it is dry and crunchy, just right for dipping in coffee.
“When I was 10 years old, I learned how to make biscotti,” Maria says. “I often made it with my Aunt Phil but my mom stopped making it after my brother was born when I was 11.”
Maria never stopped. She picked up the family recipe and ran with it.
“Over the years I’ve given at least 10,000 biscotti away to family and friends.”
Her full name is Maria Musalo Canerossi Buchman. She made biscotti growing up, during a first marriage, while raising t
wo sons, all through working full time, then while divorced and remarried now for 30 years to Ralph Buchman.
Last year while making biscotti in her son’s kitchen in North Carolina, her daughter in law said, “Why don’t you stop giving away your bodacious biscotti?”
She came home, pitched the idea to Ralph, a retired CPA, and he said, “Let’s go for it.” And so the business was born. He took care of all the legal stuff.
Did I mention Grandma Rie is 73 years old? What a wonderful role model. Go Grandma!
She holds up a package of her biscotti and says to the two women: “You go to a grocery story and you need a magnifying glass to read the ingredients in biscotti. Not mine, it is very simple. There are no artificial flavors, no preservatives, no added fats.”
Here’s the ingredient list for her Classic Almond: Unbleached wheat flour, white sugar, whole almonds, whole eggs, baking power, salt vanilla extract, almond extract.
Underneath the ingredient list it says, “We only add Love!” I believe it.
The two women buy several packages and walk away smiling.
“I’m having a blast,” says Grandma Rie. “It is my turn.” Here is what she means by that: “I helped my first husband get an education. I helped my second husband with his practice. Now it is my turn. I never had anything I did on my own.”
As we’re sitting at the table, Ralph is helping more customers. He’s smiling. Looks like being at the Farmer’s Market beats being a CPA. Right now they are putting out 200 dozen biscotti a week, baking them under contract with a bakery. You can find Grandma Rie at Circle Square Farmers Market on Thursdays and Union Street Farmers Market in Gainesville on Wednesdays. They hope to expand to local coffee houses and later to national markets.
And now you can order Bodacious Biscotti on line. Her sons worked on a web site and it just went live.
“I love my sons, they are so smart,” Marie says, eyes sparkling. Marie herself had straight As and her dad wanted to send her to college. Instead she opted to stay home and went to work.
Here is this Italian grandmother, starting a new business at 73. She is vivacious and outgoing. I realize when I buy her biscotti (I’m VERY partial to Classic Almond) that I’m also getting a bite of Grandma Rie’s beautiful take on life.
We hug and I’m about to leave. Grandma Rie draws herself up straight, looks me right in the eye and says “You are never too old to start something new.”
Now that is truly bodacious.
©2008 Lucy Beebe Tobias. Her book “50 Great Walks in Florida” , University Press of Florida, February, 2008, is available here.
Posted by Lucy Tobias
on Jun 4th, 2008 | 0 comments
Need a thrill?
Have a blueberry, or two or three or more. Your body will be thrilled. All berries are antioxidants. A holistic practitioner, Dr. Andrew Weil, says just a half cup of blueberries has the same antioxidant punch as five servings of peas, carrots, apples, squash or broccoli.
Heck, I’d rather eat blueberries than anything on that list. Especially now that blueberry-picking season has arrived. There is nothing quite as wonderful as fresh blueberries you pick with family and friends. Marion County has a number of blueberry farms and some are organic including Bay Lake Blueberry Farm on Highway 315, Ft. McCoy (phone 352-546-3834). Picking season doesn’t last long. Find out what days places are open. Grab those pails and go.
When my boys were little and we lived in Gainesville, we had the blueberry bushes completely covered. No blueberry was safe. Philip, the youngest and the shortest, picked on the lower part of the bush. Martin, middle son, worked the middle. Chris, oldest son, worked higher up and tall Mom got the tops. Yummm. One time Philip tasted so many berries his face was purple. The owner of the blueberry patch suggested weighting him to get a price for the blueberries but fortunately he was just kidding.
The big payoff is going home and making blueberry pie. Personally, I could just eat them straight up anytime but my family prefers pie.
Here is a blueberry recipe from Forest resident Terry Hopkins called “Aunt Kitty’s Favorite”
Blueberry Dessert
2 c. blueberries
Juice of ½ lemon
½ t. cinnamon
Butter an 8×8 inch pan, turn blueberries into pan, dribble lemon juice over them and sprinkle cinnamon over berries.
¾ c. sugar
3 T. butter
1 c. sifted flour
1 t. baking power
¼ t. salt
¼ c. milk
Cream butter and sugar. Add sifted dry ingredients alternatively with milk. Note: there are no eggs in this recipe. Spread butter on top of berries.
1 c. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
Dash of cornstarch
1 c. boiling water
Mix sugar, salt and cornstarch. Turn dry mixture over batter. Then pour 1 c. boiling water over top. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour.
Serve warm, topped with a small serving of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Yum.
If you want to be truly adventuresome, check out Cook’s Illustrated, the issue for July/August 2008 that just came in the mail and their recipe for blueberry pie using grated apple as a thickener. Trust Cooks to come up with something creative.
Bon appetit or better yet, bon blueberry.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida” published by University Press of Florida and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA.
Posted by Lucy Tobias
on May 16th, 2008 | 0 comments
Something special sat on my kitchen windowsill this week – The first ripe tomato from the garden! It didn’t last long. Ended up sliced in a salad. Organically grown, red and delicious, there’s another one sitting on the windowsill now. What a blessing! Thank you Lord.
This year the whole growing veggies thing started when the price of gas shot up like a geyser. I’d better grow close to home, I thought and promptly started sowing seeds and seedlings in
containers and in the ground.
Of course, the big planter that you saw when this adventure started (see spring blog below) got seeds and seedlings that have grown and overflowed as you can see from the recent photo.
That yellow flower? It is a squash blossom. Quite lovely. When the morning sun rises, the flower opens. As the heat of the day progresses, it closes up tight. Squash flowers are good to eat. Pick them fresh and open and add at the last minute to scrambled eggs for a sweet delicate flavor. The small white flowers you see are from the arugula gone to seed. I read this week that arugula blossoms are good to eat. Perhaps with the new tomato!
Between gas prices rising and the recession (yes, it is here) growing food in your yard and going to local farmer’s markets is starting to look VERY attractive.
I love farmer’s markets, especially ones with organic food. Why put pesticides in your tummy?
In Ocala a farmers market has started at Circle Square on SR 200 every Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon. Wahoo! Something nearby. We went the first day they opened and I came home with . . . .an olive tree. Yes, I know. It is not produce. But someday there will be olives.
If you want to know where the Florida Community Farmer’s Markets are, go to the Florida Agriculture site and look up your county. Some markets are expanded and have farmers and craftspeopl
e and cooked food and . . .well, they are just an adventure. Stroll slowly and be enthralled. You may find something homemade or homegrown with your name on it.
I was in Tallahassee last weekend, staying high up in a hotel overlooking the chain of parks. On Friday night the park below was springtime green with big oak trees. The next morning, as if by magic, the same park still had the trees but you could hardly see the green grass. Tents had sprung up everywhere,
an instant city. Craftspeople, farmers, food vendors and even a horse and carriage showed up to give people rides around the parks the old fashioned way. One of the crafts was a lady making beautiful baskets out of pine needles.
The Downtown Market Place happens every Saturday from March through November.
Fernandina Beach has a Farmer’s Market on Saturdays in the historic district. This is a lovely stroll anytime and the market makes it even more special. Funny thing about local markets – you meet people growing plants, raising food, making jams who turn out to live not so far from you and usually know someone you know. It’s called connections. We need them. Buying locally means using less gas and supporting your home community.
While all of that works for me, it may also be what can happen organically when the distribution system breaks down. Did you know that any given grocery store has about two days worth of goods? I didn’t until I read my son Martin’s review in his blog DeepGreenCrystals of the book “World Made By Hand: A Novel” by James Howard Kunstler who thinks the post industrial world will arrive as a slow steady slide. Martin gave it five stars. Yes, this is a pessimistic subject but it doesn’t hurt to ask the question “What if?” Well, what if there were no grocery stores? We’d be back to the way people did business – farmer’s markets, co-operatives, barter and trade, neighbors helping neighbors.
Maybe if we did more of that right now, the slow slide will be put off for a very long time. In fact, growing vegetables and using farmer’s market could be a whole new world for us and squash blossoms are definitely part of the equation. So are ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden. Yum.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is a freelance writer, artist and photographer in Ocala, Florida. Her book “50 Great Walks in Florida” is part of the Wild Florida series published by University Press of Florida
There were eight boys and two girls. Aunt Phil (short for Philomena) taught her younger sister, who became Maria’s mom, the family recipe for biscotti.
ys, gets up and heads for the potential customers. She’s wearing a white shirt with the name “Grandma Rie” in red on one side (the name her grandchildren call her) and the words “Bodacious Biscotti” on the other.
wo sons, all through working full time, then while divorced and remarried now for 30 years to Ralph Buchman.
