GROW FEST 2013

This past Saturday October 19, Savy and I decided to take a short trip to Redlands, FL (about an hour from Miami) to visit this beautiful area, characterized by the number of farms and nurseries that it has. Also we took the opportunity to attend Grow Fest, a festival that I saw advertised at Whole Foods in support of organic agriculture (for me any excuse to be outdoors is fantastic). Today in the "green spots" section, I'll give you a photo tour and my review on the event.

Grow Fest is a very good initiative to raise awareness about how to grow your own food, see where it come from and how it's cultivated, as well as to support the farms that still maintain their position against GMO and work towards giving us better quality product, but I really thought it lacked activities and things to see and explore.

There were several booths selling seeds to grow in your garden (I want a house for this, thanks), honey, homemade jams, small veggie sales, two stands of food, a band playing and various booths promoting great causes...but in my very personal opinion, I think it must have been transformed more into a "farmer's market" where literally you could do your organic fruit and vegetable shopping at a good price while enjoying the information. There were no juice or smoothie stands (which is what you crave the most when you 're under the sun in a park), and I also wish there was an alternative homemade dessert stand (maybe with dairy and gluten free goodies), local natural products, samples of exotic fruits, and more variety of food where you could enjoy the freshness of what nature gives us.

I loved that they had so many interesting workshops about how to raise your own chickens and the laws that you must follow, how to grow vegetables in your garden, vermicomposting, quick and healthy meals for children, how to grow mangoes, tropical fruits of south Florida, classes on how to culture food (kimchi, sauerkraut), among other things. But sadly I couldn't attend most because I had nothing to do between them, and even though I went for a walk in the Fruit and Spice Park (where the event was held), which is a beautiful botanical park, the heat of the area and lack of shady places to sit, made us leave earlier that what I would've liked (I was there only for an hour).

This doesn't mean that I don't recommend it, I give this constructive criticism because the potential that I know this festival has, and hopefully in the years to come they consider adding more activities and ways to show us the blessing that comes from the earth. Miami is a city that is not very supportive of the organic, raw, natural or vegan movement (like Los Angeles or New York) and it's my wish that events like these start to multiply and expand connecting and informing communities of different areas about the importance of these topics. I was really happy, spending time doing something different, away from the city and enjoying a lovely date outdoors with my beautiful husband.

If you are from Florida and know great green sites, markets/organic restaurants and places that I should visit, I'm always on the lookout!

With Love,

Romina