Happy National Farmers Market Week!

I’m looking forward to seeing you all tonight to celebrate National Farmers Market Week. Farmers Markets are a great way to bring community together, connecting growers, producers, neighbors, artists, and everyone else in one fabulous place! We’ll have all the usual goodness tonight, plus some special extras to mark this special occasion. Be sure to visit the authors of Field to Feast (an awesome cookbook that chronicles many of Florida’s wonderful farmers & chefs) for samples and book signings.  I personally love this book and like to keep it on my coffee table because it does such a wonderful job of showing off Florida’s food communities.  We’ll also have a knife sharpener at the market tonight, so be sure to bring along your favorite knives (serrated ones, too!) to get sharpened by an expert.  Most importantly though, we’ll all be gathering together around food and community, and that’s what farmers markets are really about!  See ya’ll there!

What's Cooking in Your Kitchen?

National Farmers Market week is coming up, August 4th-10th, and we want to celebrate by highlighting what’s fresh from the market!  When I check in with the farmers and food artisans, they often tell me that their customers don’t always know what to do with the seasonal produce or specialty items.  The challenge of finding new recipes and learning new kitchen skills is one of my favorite things about shopping at a farmers market!  And over the years, market-goers and vendors alike have taught me a lot of new ways to make delicious, seasonal meals at home.  With that in mind, I am officially launching the What’s Cooking in Your Kitchen contest!
Over the next 2 weeks, I am inviting you to send in your favorite recipe using items you’ve purchased at the market this summer.  All submissions will be published to this blog, and winners will be randomly selected on Friday, August 2nd.
Here are the details:

1. Recipes can be for entrees, sides, snacks, drinks or desserts, but must feature products available at Audubon Park Community Market.
2. Please provide as much detail as possible (ingredients, step-by-step instructions, etc)
3. Photos are not required but are definitely welcome!
4. Send your submission to director@audubonmarket.com
5. All complete and qualifying recipes will be published to this blog and shared through our social networks
6. The deadline for submissions is Midnight, EDT, on Thursday, August 1st.

Winners will be randomly selected, and prizes include $25 in Bird Bucks (redeemable with all market vendors), a copy of Field to Feast: Recipes Celebrating Florida Farmers, Chefs and Artisans (Brandon, Farmand, McPherson, 2012) a year of home delivery of Edible Orlando, and a one-year membership with the Audubon Park Garden District.    That means that in addition to all recipes being published on this blog, there are 4 opportunities to win prizes!

I look forward to receiving your submissions and sharing them with the community!

This Market is for the Dogs (too)!

If you’re a regular market-goer, the dogs of Audubon Park Community Market are one of the cutest parts of the event (meet some of them here).  Many of you have met Yogi, the adorable mascot of Iced Bakery (makers of my most favorite handmade nutella s’mores).  He’s so important, he has his own Facebook page!

Next week we’ll be celebrating his 9th birthday, and his humans are hosting a party to benefit the SPCA of Central Florida.  Bring any item on the SPCA donation wishlist (see below), and Iced Bakery will give you $1 off a baked good!  The market is in many ways a family, and it’s pretty great to get the opportunity to celebrate and support a good cause!  See you and your pups there!

Reminder: Rain or Shine!

As much as we love spending leisurely evenings outside, shopping for local goodies, sipping wine, and enjoying the live entertainment on Monday nights, sometimes we get that Florida rain. While it’s not as fun as a “regular” market night, we ARE open on rainy evenings.

Some of you may have seen our wonderful and tenacious merchants making do in the weather, cramming as many “booths” as possible inside Stardust, and setting up our now infamous “tent colony” just outside the Stardust doors.

Rain or shine, we want to do our best to keep local goodies available on a dependable, weekly basis. We do hope you’ll join us all summer long, as we improvise our way through the rainy Florida summer!

Cheers,

Gabby

Where to Park?

Lately, we’ve noticed a lot of new traffic at the market, and that makes us very happy!  But it also means that it’s probably time to refresh everyone on parking.  There are lots of places to park in the neighborhood, but there are some places where YOU WILL GET A TICKET of GET TOWED!  For instance, if you park on the side of Winter Park Road anywhere north of ABC liquors, you will get a ticket.  If you park at ABC liquors, you will get towed.  We don’t want your night of local goodness to be ruined by a parking ticket or a towed car, so we want to make sure you know where to park. We’ve worked with the Audubon Park Garden District to put out a map of places where you may legally park (all within VERY close walking distance of the market) during market hours.

Of course, there is always plenty of bicycle parking, and we love that some many of our neighbors can walk to the market.  Which reminds us, the Audubon Park Market takes place in a community where people work and live, so please be mindful of our residential neighbors as you park.

Thank you for Nearly 4 Years of Tasty Goodness!

This week and next are your last chances to enjoy Big Wheel Provisions at the market before they go on summer hiatus.  Those of you who are fans have already heard that Chef Tony Adams will spend the summer as Head Chef of Company of the Cauldron in Nantucket.  Their final Orlando event before they leave will be the market on April 15th.  I’m honored that they are making the market their finale, after nearly 4 years of being an Audubon Park Community Market fixture.  Over the years, Tony and his team at Big Wheel have made local food the stars, showing us new ways to eat and enjoy seasonal food from Florida artisans and farmers.  So with only 2 markets to go until a summer without Big Wheel, I want to say thank you.  Thank you to Tony Adams, Leah Mojer, and the Big Wheel Provisions team for making local food a delicious priority!
The little video up top is from a couple of years ago, featuring market patrons sharing the love.  And here are some of our photos of Big Wheel over the years:

Wild-Caught Seafood: One of the perks of being in Florida!

Wild Ocean Seafood has been an Audubon Park Community Market staple for a few years now.  This family-owned business has brought fresh, wild-caught seafood to Central Florida for generations.  At the market, they’ve taught a lot of us (including me!) all there is to know about seafood in Florida.  They specialize in shrimp – fresh, local, and never from a farm – but they also carry a lot of great fish, beyond your run-of-the-mill grouper or mahi.  I never knew I liked mullet until they came to the market.  Visit them to learn about what is available when, how to cook it, and what to serve it with.

In the coming months, Wild Ocean will be opening a retail location at the East End Market.  The video below was produced in time to promote that upcoming venture.  Until then, Audubon Park Community Market is the only place you can buy their fresh goodies.

New Vendor: Lake Catherine Blueberries

Tonight will be the first night at Audubon Park Community Market for Lake Catherine Blueberries.  This blueberry and citrus farm has been in farmer Dustin Lowe’s family for over 100 years (first as a citrus grove, and more recently with blueberries).  Dustin and his wife Jamie run the farm with their family, opening it to the public for u-pick when the berries are in full swing.  I drove out there with Heather (A Local Folkus‘ and East End Markets‘ Communications Guru) to check the place out and get to know the growers.  We hopped into a snazzy Green Gator and drove around the property with them, seeing the lovely sights on the shore of Lake Catherine. We had an absolutely lovely visit on the farm, and we are excited to invite another wonderful family farm to the market.
Be sure to visit and get to know them yourselves, at the market tonight!  In the meantime, here are some photos from our visit!

Cheers,

Gabby

Farmer Spotlight: R&B Organics/Viera Meadow Farm

Every so often, we check in with our producers to check out where they are growing or crafting their wares.  It’s partly about keeping everything as out in the open as possible, but also because it’s a fun way to connect the dots in our local food system.  I recently made it out to visit Dan Jameson of R&B Organics/Viera Meadow Farm. Dan grew up on a farm up north, and I’m grateful he brought his knowledge of growing to Florida.  He’s also very committed to keeping the farmers in farmers markets, which we love here at A Local Folkus.  Out on his farm in Melbourne, he grows a little bit of everything.  It’s all grown in the ground to organic standards, and I have found all of his produce to be quite delicious.  I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
Cheers,

Gabby Othon Lothrop, Market Director

PS – Yes, they DO have A LOT of collards (3 different varieties!).  Should we have a recipe contest? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

Welcome our newest grower to the market!

Last week, I paid a visit to a new local grower, Sista Susie’s Organic Garden.  As you may know, I like to get to know our producers by visiting them where they grow, make, catch, or raise their goods.  It was an absolute pleasure meeting this avid gardener, who has turned what started out as a kitchen garden into an urban oasis.  Suzy and her brother started the garden in order to grow healthier food for themselves and their friends.  Luckily for all of us, this means lots of surplus goods for Suzy to sell at the market.  Check out some of the highlights from my visit below!
Cheers,

Gabby Othon Lothrop, Market Director