A Local Folkus » Markets

Road Trip 2010 – Brunswick, Charlotte and Harrisonburg, VA

John — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:05:28 +0000

Had a good couple days driving. We left the park in Brunswick and stopped by the Farmers Market to grab some grub for the road. Murphy and I had the good fortune of meeting Del and Debra Ferguson, grass-fed cattle farmers from Georgia who had set up their booth at the market in Brunswick for the first time.

I mentioned I was on the way up to the Slow Money National Gathering and a bit about the movement and their interest was peaked to say the least. When you talk about opening up new flows of capital to farmers and entrepreneurs in our local food system people perk up.

I picked up some pre-shaped burgers and a nice T-bone from them along with some “Devil Crab” cakes and a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade from another nice couple. Fat and happy we hit the road and rendezvoused with Kam, Keltin, Michelle and Whit who were attending a bridal shower for Whit’s brother in law’s fiance.

It was great getting to see Keltin and Kamrin. Even though it had only been two days I missed them and getting to hold Kelty girl and kiss my wife really did my heart good. It was a great stop of in Charlotte as I also got to see Leigh and Kevin Mays and their little tike Tyson.

Murph and I headed north along the hilly and pastoral Hwy 81. We set up shop in an RV park in the Shenandoa National Park and pulled the grill out to do a proper “Guys Grill Out”. Following the “Cooking Grass Fed Beef” outline that Del gave I produced a perfectly cooked medium-rare steak. Murphy devoured the bone like a Savannah lion and both of us just have to just say that life on the road is pretty darn good (minus the absence of the lady folk of course).

Audio of our interview with Slow Money founder Woody Tasch.

John — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:19:04 +0000

The audio of yesterday’s interview with Woody Tasch is now online and you can listen below.

As always joining Julie and Jeremy in the WPRK studio is always a pleasure but yesterday’s interview was particularly incredible. Slow Money is such a great “catch-all” for me. About 85% of my posts have to do with food and in particular our local food system and the consumers and producers that make it all happen.

I can think of no greater investment of my time and finances then to support our local food producers. There are so many local consumers who have never tasted a real vine ripe tomato or who settle for produce the ripened on a cross country truck rather than down the street. Slow Money is the perfect combination of ethos and praxis and our interview with Woody should have a little bit of something for everyone.

Hope you enjoy!

Urban Farmer’s Market Thrives in Miami

John — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:34:05 +0000

Having lived in Miami years ago it is heartening to see a story like this. We are so close to having something like this in Central Florida. With the success of our community gardens it is only a matter of time until we could have a proper Urban CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). CNN thanks for the inspiration.

I’m a Scot and proud of it! Central Florida Scottish Highland Games

John — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:40:03 +0000

I am a proud member of the MacGregor clan and an avid attendee of Central Florida’s Scottish Highland Games (CFSHG) festival each year. If you have never been to a highland games you are missing quite a spectacle. Great food, Excellent brew, superb music, top notch athletic competition, high stepping highland dancing and medieval weaponry demonstrations – I ask you – Who could ask for more?

We’re heading out to the festival this weekend to partake in our annual Scottish pilgrimage. If you were following our Twitter feed this summer you would have noticed that we were up in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the longest running North American Scottish Highland games. It is only fair to say that as “authentic” as that Antigonish festival is the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games is far more enjoyable. It is hard to peg exactly why but we love that CFSHG serves meat pies, has instruments and clan gear for sale, brings in world class Celtic rock bands like Enter the Haggis to rock the center stage and with Dunedin Brewing in house pouring the best ales it is just hard to compete with no matter how un-authentic a “highland games” may seem amidst the flatland of Florida.

Click here for details and hope to see you there. I’ll be in my McGregor kilt with a baby girl strapped to my chest.

Hymn For Her – Nomadic musical duo at the Audubon Park Community Market

John — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:30:57 +0000

As many of you know Kamrin and I have another blog called Finding America TV where we document our love of hitting the open road. We have traveled through 39 US states and 5 states of Canada with our trusty travel trailer Kodi and filmed the whole thing. So when we heard the nomadic Airstream trekking musical duo Hymn 4 Her being interviewed by Julie Norris on Front Porch Radio we knew we had to see them live.

This duo, well trio if you include their full-time roadie their 3 year old daughter Diver, stopped through Orlando last week to play two gigs. Here is some video I shot of their show at the Audubon Park Community Market hosted at Stardust. Since the K’s were out of town I was flying solo but it turned out that Diver ended up being my table mate for the show. Armed with a coloring book, 32 color box of crayons and wearing a set of noise canceling headphones she proved to be well equipped and content to let her folks do their thing.

Hymn for Her also played at Dandelion for urban sketcher Thomas Thorspecken’s art opening. That is his sketch of their performance above. They will be back Jan 17th at the Copper Rocket’s 2nd Anniversary of their Southern Fried Sunday jams. You can catch them in February at Orlando Brewing as well, so hop over to their website for details and to check out the music video they put together as a tribute to their Airstream’s previous owners – pretty cool.

Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st – A Slow Food Orlando Event

John — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:23:22 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter or have checked into any of my blogs over the last few years you would undoubtedly have heard me championing the work of Slow Food Orlando. Back in 2007 when I filmed a documentary about the burgeoning Local Food movement in Central Florida, I had the good fortune to cross pas with Slow Food Orlando’s Vice President Rebecca Reise-Miller. You can catch her segment of the documentary at the 20 minute mark.

Since meeting Rebecca, Kamrin and I have made an effort to both attend Slow Food events as well as incorporate many of its tenants into our family’s food practices. We now have a 300 Sft vegetable garden where we grow our own produce organically and with heirloom varieties. We also have made an effort to buy from artisan and locally sourced food producers like Big Wheel Provisions, Olde Hearth Bakery, Wild Ocean Seafood, Lake Meadow Naturals, Winter Park Dairy, Winter Park Honey and others.

Eating locally is more than just buying food that is at the peak of freshness and not shipped cross country from California, more importantly it is about supporting our local food economy, its community and its unique culture. By doing so it becomes normal to know your producers, to build relationship with the local farmers who supply your free-range eggs and organically grown produce and to know that you are getting the highest quality food for your food dollar. By supporting the “local” farmer’s markets like Audubon Park Community Market you are strengthening the bonds that connect each of us to the land from which our food comes and to the caring hands that provided these food stuffs for our consumption.

Slow Food in an effort to champion this vital connection is sponsoring an Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st. Below is an excerpt from their promotional materials for this event. You can be sure Kamrin and I will be fully supporting this week long event and you can expect to see a few write ups and videos on our site about it. So take a look at the excerpt below and let us know in the comments what you are doing to participate in Eat Local Week. Following an excerpt is a video of the mother of America’s Slow Food movement Alice Waters to give you a bit more insight into what Slow Food is all about.

EAT LOCAL WEEK - January 25th – 31st

Participate in a week-long celebration promoting connection, community, culture and cuisine in Central Florida. Grab your family, friends and neighbors and head to participating dining establishments during the last week of January, 2010

Goals of Eat Local Week:

Emphasize that eating local in Central Florida is not only possible, it’s delicious –  The Eat Local Week definition of “local” is anything within 200 miles of Orlando’s city center. Featured farmers and artisans for Eat Local week come from as far away as Clewiston.

Help local restaurants, farmers and artisans to develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships –  Slow Food Orlando wants to see locally owned and operated farms and restaurants succeed. By facilitating relationship building between Central Florida dining establishments, farmers, ranchers, and artisans we hope to help businesses grow and become more profitable.

Build consumer awareness of local food and farmers, and promote reconnection with family and friends around the dinner table –  Slow Food is all about taking the time to savor the food we eat and the people we share it with. When our food is produced in a sustainable, responsible and consciences manner it is healthier for the environment and healthier for us.

Raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy and keeping money in our community –  Purchasing food direct from producers or dining out at restaurants that feature locally grown ingredients cuts out the middle man and puts your money directly in the pocket of the people who produce your food. When you, the consumer, spend your money with local businesses those businesses reinvest your dollars in the community, thus contributing to a more sustainable future for Central Florida’s food system.

Click here to see a list of the 18 or so participating restaurants.

Grandma Party Today at Stardust Video, Winter Park, FL

John — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:46:26 +0000

Details: Sunday, December 20, 2009, 10am-7pm at stardust video and coffee (1842 E. Winter Park Rd).

Ryan Price of Florida Creatives has been telling me to get out to the Grandma Party since it began. Well this year we are finally going to make it. Ryan has posted some videos over at Orlando Scene if you want to see what you’ve been missing today and what you can still enjoy if you get off the couch and get going. Below is just one of the interesting videos Ryan shot at the last Grandma Party.

For the uninitiated this is what you can expect.

Over 40 local arts and crafters, musicians and independent businesses will transform the parking lot in front of Stardust Video and Coffee into a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) extravaganza at the Grandma Party Bazaar. The event will feature work from local fashion designers, bookbinders, painters, knitters, silversmiths, vintage dealers, bakers and print makers, as well as live art, custom songs written and recorded while you wait and more! WPRK 91.5 FM presents live music throughout the day. Local artist Doug Rhodehamel will create something magically spectacular for the event, while Justin Luper will create a large scale sheet-fort installation indoors for tarot readings and a special surprise after dark.

Farm to Table Retrospective – Central Flrorida Locavores FTW

John — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:45:26 +0000

What an exciting time to be a Locavore in Central Florida. It appears that during our baby hiatus the movement has grown real roots. There is no better example of this than at last Sunday’s Farm to Table event at the Enzian.

The excellent people over at Ourlando cooked up this idea of showing a thought provoking film like “Food Fight” (Which was excellent BTW) and paring it with the outstanding locally sourced kitchen creations of Chef Josh Oakley. I want to say a few things about the event but I figure the best place to start is with Lance Turner’s opening words before the “Food Fight” film. So poignant! I love this guy’s passion!

We particularly salivated over the pulled pork sandwich. Turns out the pork came from Jim Wood’s happy pigs at Palmetto Creek Farms. As Kamrin and I are part of the omnivore contingent championing of our local food scene it was refreshing to meet Jim after the movie and see that being a Locavore doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a vegetarian. In addition to ethically raise pork, Kam would like to mention that when she stepped out with our daughter during the film and she talked with Trish at Deep Creek farm. They are out of Deland and offer grass fed and finished beef and lamb.

We were more than happy to wash down our lunch with a Blonde Ale from Orlando Brewing and a glass of delicious herbal tea from Dandelion CommuniTEA cafe. Also sipping on some Austin’s fair trade coffee afterward was a nice pick-me-up after leaving the sleepy darkness of the theater.

It was also great talking to some of the other family farmers among the tents and tables wrapped around the Enzian. We had fun hanging with the Green Flamingo Farms community and talking about small scale sustainable farming. Also loved their homemade business cards made out of the backs of cereal boxes.

Finally got to catch up with the peeps over at Lake Meadow Naturals our source for Cage Free, Free Range, Free Roaming and Locally produced eggs. We picked up a flyer and are sure to get out there with our camera a vlog about it soon. Until then you can check out the video posted on Big Wheel’s site. Oh yeah we talked with Tony from Big Wheel Provisions too. Oh let me mention that I just got their e-mail about their offerings at tonight’s Audubon Park Community market and I can’t wait to pick up some of their lentil soup made with their proprietary local vegetable stock and herbs.

So much more to say. But that’s enough when I have a research paper due this evening. Procrastination how I love and hate you. Grrrrrr.

Oh oh I also want to mention Gus with My Yard Farms. These guys take the typical grass covered lawns and convert them into edible landscapes. Awesome.

Ok back to work John. Seriously…..

Audubon Community Market and Big Wheel Provisions

John — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:32:25 +0000

Kam and I hit up the Audubon Community Market on Wednesday. Every Wednesday the parking log of Stardust is converted into a farmer’s/vendor’s market. Lots of great locally sourced food and craft. A big hit for us was the Muhamra spread from Big Wheel Provisions. Just a short video to thank Chef Tony for the grub.