Eat Local Wherever You Go
For the last few years, I (Michelle) have been traveling to Florida around the end of the year. It's really easy to leave Bellair over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, because there isn't as much going on in the email inbox or on the ground at the farm. Between family being there, the warm weather, and the birds and wildlife, Florida is a perfect winter vacation destination for me.
The first time I went down to south Florida, about 3 years ago, I wasn't in the loop about the Florida farm season. However, Nat filled me in. Fun fact: he got his start farming on an urban farm in the Tampa/St. Pete area! He told me about how different farming in Florida is to Virginia. The "off" season in Florida is actually the high summer. It's too hot to grow pretty much anything except the most tropical of fruits. They grow tomatoes, melons, eggplant, and other "summer" veggies in spring and fall. And then, of course, that leaves winter! Winter is the time for all kinds of delicious produce in central and south Florida: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, greens, beans, and of course, CITRUS!!
I was turned on to the idea of Florida citrus by receiving one of those really nice boxes in the mail as a Christmas gift. The fruit was incredible, but so, I'm sure, was the price tag. The same year I got that gift box, Nat went to Tampa for a visit and came back with a bushel of pick-your-own citrus. A bit rough-around-the-edges, the fruit was still delicious and cost about the same amount for an entire bushel as it probably did for the 6 pieces of fruit in the fancy box. I made a note to hit up the citrus grove next time I was down there.
The first PYO we tried out was called Dooley Groves, which is almost unbelievably close to Tampa. Their groves were full of mostly a type called honeybell, a cross between a tangerine and a navel orange. The honeybell trees were loaded down and the picking was incredibly easy. The fruits themselves? Perfection. They have thin skins and are juicy beyond belief. I was actually hand juicing them into a glass daily for about a month after I returned. They also had a farm store with pretty much every other type of citrus there is, including the monstrously large ponderosa lemon, larger than a grapefruit. I couldn't help myself and loaded up with an incredible abundance. "Most of this is for gifts," I told my husband as we stuffed about 150 lbs worth of citrus around our suitcases and gear.
When I got back from Florida with our haul, I did, indeed, give a lot away and I took a bunch more over to my mom's house to make marmalade. Despite masking the entire time (this was during Covid Winter #1), we had a great time and even though we made what my husband called a "laughable amount," guess what? We were all out before the year was done. The answer was clear: I needed more next time.
This past trip, we were up a little further north than Tampa and so I looked up another citrus grove, Vo-Lasalle Farms. This one didn't offer as much variety: just pomelos, navel oranges and grapefruits were picking at the time. But the fruit was beautiful, with imperceptible blemishes and even better, pre-picked! This year, I used some of Vo-Lasalle haul to make two different types of marmalade. In addition to citrus, they had a really incredible u-pick veggie patch with some of the most incredible cauliflower and romaine lettuce I'd ever seen. We were on our way back up to Virginia, so we picked all our cooler would hold in veggies and maybe a couple hundred pounds of citrus for an incredibly affordable rate.
Grapefruit-Pomelo & Naval Orange marmalade made with my Vo-Lasalle citrus.
As a farmer, I absolutely love the quality of the food, and it's kind of cool to get to be on the customer side for once. The price and quality of the citrus is truly so incredible, I'm considering arranging a larger-scale pre-order and pickup for our CSA members for next year!
While Florida is really a land of plentiful produce, there are farm experiences to be had wherever you go: wild blueberry picking in Maine, pecan plantations in Louisiana, hatch chile festivals in New Mexico. I encourage you to explore the foodways and agricultural tourism opportunities wherever you travel next!
