Dandelion Communitea Cafe

I’d like to invite ya’ll down to the Florida Film Festival to a special screening of What’s “Organic” About Organic? on Saturday, April 10th at 3:30pm. This film explores many of the issues I discussed in my last post. There will be a mini farmers market hosted by the Ourlando Local Food Alliance after the [...]

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question, and the frustration that ensues because the answer is not absolute.
The answer is: It depends.
Our Food Philosophy outlines our thought process in depth when it comes to making these choices  in our region, but deserves some elaboration in light of a [...]

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This speech makes my heart sing with joy. Mr Oliver, thank you for saving lives. I’ve never been so bold as to suggest that Dandelion’s role in our community is to do this, but the reason we serve REAL food at the cafe is because, quite frankly, we couldn’t knowingly served you stuff we knew [...]

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Excerpt from the article:
Julie Norris, co-proprietor of Dandelion Communitea Cafe near downtown Orlando, said that the local farmers were not only chosen for their proximity. Their independence from the mass markets allows them the freedom to emphasize quality. “It’s so important to know your grower,” Norris said. She said with the overuse of pesticides, environmental [...]

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The next couple of weeks are going to be delicious, educational and entertaining, we promise. Here are some highlights:
For more on the local food movement, watch the above video (taped in 2007) and check out our answer to Why Local?
Eat Local Week by Slow Food Orlando is January 25-31st
As you know, Dandelion is dedicated [...]

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Intro To Flexitarianism
Facilitated by Julie Norris, Co-Owner of Dandelion
Tuesday, November 17th // 6:30 to 8:30pm
Includes dinner & wine or beer. Julie answers your questions about sustainable, organic, local and ethical eating while exploring the concepts of Flexitarianism with open discussion amongst participants who want to share their own knowledge with each other.
Limited space available. [...]

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Featuring the the documentary “Food Fight”
by Chris Taylor and food by Chef Josh Oakley.
Tickets: $18, includes hors d’oeuvre, beer, coffee and tea.
Durng last year’s Florida Film Festival, I watched the film Food Fight with a couple of other sassy ladies in the local food movement & we immediately began planning this “Farm To Table” event, [...]

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By Michelle Gienow
For the past three years, following the typical Michael Pollan–fueled, now-I’ve-seen-the-locavore-light conversion experience, I’ve been trying hard to feed my family good food. It’s more difficult than it sounds; the supermarkets are full of tempting, affordable, food-like products that ultimately owe more to industry than agriculture, once you start reading the labels. It [...]

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UCF student, Stefanie Kuncman put together a little voice/video piece on our potlucks. She came to the Ourlando hosted potluck this week. Check it out here or read her article about it here.

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Just saw this great trailer for Fresh, a movie that looks to be a follow up to Food, Inc. Shows the solutions that are already in place in parts of the country to act as alternatives to our overprocessed fake food system. Take a look:

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Aug. 14, 2009 | By Megan Stokes in The Voice
When Sarah Slack feels like having a salad, she doesn’t head for the refrigerator. Instead she goes out to the garden behind her home near the Orlando International Airport and picks salad greens and peppers to quench her craving.”It’s a great feeling to know where my [...]

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Jack sends us this tip: “Simply make everything on the food menu $5.00. People will be lining up down the street. People will return over and over again. Everybody likes a bargain.”
Interesting suggestion, unfortunately, doing that would be the quickest way to put us out of business as we would be selling below cost (also [...]

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Food, Inc. could not have come at a more crucial time. What is revealed about our mass produced food system in this documentary were the main reasons that Chris & I opened Dandelion several years ago.
When I saw it recently, I knew that despite the hard times, we had to make sure Dandelion kept keepin [...]

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I’m curious to see when the connection to eating locally & seasonally and living within strong community cultures are linked to reductions in health issues. – Julie
“There is a universal wisdom to healthy eating. Pile on the fruits, vegetables and whole grains and skip the meat and saturated fat. Consume everything in moderation, especially alcohol.
But [...]

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