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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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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HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself “the world’s local bank.” Starbucks is un-branding at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as “15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.” Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, “Local [...]

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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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Thor sketched his own Art Opening at Dandelion – check out the photos below & then read Thor’s take about the evening and see the sketch here. This is the public’s first opportunity to buy what are the most famous Orlando sketches to date. Also view him in Winter Park Magazine sketching a Front Porch [...]

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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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Thanks to alert friend & customer Nanette, we’ve just been turned onto a brilliant concept called Slow Money.
Think about it: A million Americans contributing to a grassroots, non-profit seed fund supporting small food enterprises and building the nurture capital industry. . . Is it typical philanthropy? No. Is it investing as we’ve come to know [...]

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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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After I opened Dandelion, I quickly began to understand that one community-focused cafe wouldn’t (and couldn’t) make it all by itself. Judy Wicks transformed her entire community through her own cafe in Philly & in this interview she explains my own observation about sustainable business so well:
“You cannot have one sustainable business. That’s not what [...]

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