The Harvest Bee Blog

The honey has started to flow and life at The Hive is sweet, indeed! The first trays of Fall seedlings have been started and the major seed order for Fall crops has been ordered. These seeds will be started pretty much immediately upon arrival. Meanwhile, the CSA is almost full, although there are still a few spots left and we will be having a waiting list, in which we may possibly add more memberships as the Fall unfolds, depending on how the field responds (positivly, we hope). We have confirmed our committment to the Shoppes at Vanderbilt FarmersbMarket this season and are so excited to see some familiar faces soon. We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Juicelation, as well! You have to check out these incredible local, organic enthusiasts if you haven't already. They are at various area Farmers Markets and will be opening a store in Liberty Plaza soon. We have several new partneships with other area chefs and restaurants in the works, as well, and we will definitely let you know as soon as these are solidified. So....even though the heat may still be rising, clearly, the summer season is "Falling", which means here comes the goodies from The Hive! In our last blog, we briefly talked about the unfortunate reality of organic and/or local farming fraud found at the farmers markets and restaurants around town. We suppose it was only a matter of time that the local and organic food environment would become an avenue for the deceiful and dishonest to exploit the purity true advocates of this movement are working so passionately to create and sustain. As unfortunate as this is, people who want to make sure they are buying and eating truly organic and sustainable food from local fsrmers must understand that they can combat these jokers by educating themselves about the need to ask questions and what questions to ask farmers and restaurants when frequenting these places. Sadlu, we cannot trust many of these food purveyors to disclose the truth outright. How do these quacks get away with this? It's simple. They totally twist the nomenclatures of words like "healthy", "local", "seasonal", and "farmer". Examples: 1) Calling the food someone sells either at the market or at a restaurant "local" because they bought garlic from Mexico or kiwi from New Zealand from a "local" distributer. Local does NOT mean food from thousands of miles away and a distributer is NOT a farmer.. Furthermore, while a person may be allowed to sell that food at a FARMERS market under false precepts, they are NOT FARMERS, either. 2) A restaurant calling their meals "healthy" yet the majority of the dishes are prepared using conventional food. But hey, if they slide 1 or 2 plates on the menu that use organic food then naturally all the plates must use organic ingredients, right? Wrong. It is understandable that many people still are not convinced that local and organic food is unequivocally healthier than conventional. However, for those that believe the science and seek to fashion a diet consisting of only organic food they deserve to know the truth. 3) Last example, when a restaurant says they support "local farmers" or "local food" that does not necessarily mean they support "local AND organic" food. Retailers have cleverly, if abusively, figured how to prey on people's good will by distorting these terms. If you want local and organic because you believe that only when it is both is it truly sustainable and sincerely supporting local farmers make sure to inquire into this if you do not see both words in explanations or titles. Furthermore, we find lots of residents using the word "seasonal", which in and of itself directly correlates with local and organic, Yet, often times farmers who are growing number seasonal food are turned away from chefs because they say they "cannot use" those goods or even worse, they ask the farmer to be willing to take a significant discount for their food on account that they can get the same food much cheaper from a larger distributer (never mind that it is probably conventional or from long distances and thus, far inferior in quality) Ok, no problem. That is really just business. Just do not claim to support local farmers who grow organic and seasonal food then at the end of the day reject the food the farm is growing because you do not know how to use it or do not want to pay the price of it. Part of creating a menu that supports local food entails being very flexible with what you use. However, if the majority of your menu uses ingredients that cannot be grown during our SW Florida seasons, at least not organically, you are not truly a farm to table restaurant or chef and you are really not supporting local farmers when you try to rip them off. We may be farmers, but we are not stupid. Again, knowing how hard "farm to table" really is, many chefs and restaurants intelligently and honestly do not claim they are 100% F2T, but do what they can. We appreciate that honesty. It's the ones that claim they are something they are not that we take issue with because it really insults not only the farmers and the people, but undermines what people/chefs like Alice Waters and Dan Barber are creating on a National scale, or more locally, what someone like John Hart of Organically Twisted Food Truck is manifesting, as well many other chefs. Of course, counteless examples abound, but these are just a few of the common ways some people and entities are exploiting the whole meaning of local, organic, and sustainable. And why wouldn't they? The literature continues to prove the superiority in taste and nutrition in local, organic food over anything else and sales organic food continue to rise each year throughout the country. Not everyone is cut out to fully commit to this lifestyle and there is nothing wrong with admitting how difficult is is to completely change ones habits. There is no excuse, however, for outright deceit and no room for those imposters either. The bright side, there are several area farmers who grow only organic and seasonal food and only use sustainable methods in doing so. Also, there are awesome chefs and restaurants in the area who either use all organic ingredients or focus as much as they can on purchasing from local AND organic farmers and when they don't do one or the other they are honest and wilingly inform their constituents, even before they are asked. We do not intend to imply that this way of growing and cooking is easy. However, it is exactly for that reason that the more people stand together and defend true sustainability and real food, the better able we will be curing the disease of falsehood in the area movement. We can assure you, that Harvest Bee always seeks to only work restaurants and chefs that support the same values we do. While we are committed to growing real, organic, seasonal food we also clearly believe that it is our mission to be activists and educators in the movement, as well. Thus, when we see people and places adding negative publicity on what we do we intend to inform you and when we see inspiring examples of people doing the right thing to enhance the movement of sustainability we want to share those stories, too. With the market season so close, though, and the SW Florida farming season beginning soon we really wanted to bring this issue to light and encourage everyone to bee educated, bee persistent, and bee aware! "Onen" The Harvest Bees Questions to ask at the farmers markets and at restaurants advertising F2T and support for local/organic farmers: At the market: •Do you grow the food you are selling? •Do you use only organic methods to grow your food? •Is everything at your stand organic and if not, what is and what isn't organic? •Is everything at your stand grown on and from your farm? •is anything at your stand conventional? •When did you harvest the food you are selling? •Do you use any sprays or fertilizers, even if they are organic? •Can we visit your farm? (If they say no, be aware). At a restaurant or from a chef: •What local farmers do you purchase from? Are they organic? Where are they located? (local usually means within a couple of hundred miles at the most and if you don't see a really local farm, as in one located in Collier County, ask why they do not source from them? •What on your menu uses produce from which farm? •What on your menu is seasonal to SW Florida's growing season and are these ingredients purchased from local farmers? •Do you use any conventional ingredients? If so, which plates do so? •Is everything on your menu prepared using organic ingredients? If not, what is and what isn't? •Has your chef or staff visited the farms you purchase from?