Happy Holidays

We hope you are enjoying this delightful holiday weather as you make your final preparation for the holidays!

Just a quick reminder that we will be CLOSED on Christmas and CLOSING EARLY at 4pm on Christmas Eve.

Even though the cafe is closed, there will still be a moon circle on Christmas Eve in the garden if you would like to join in.

Our favorite picks for last-minute holiday idea:

• Gift certificates and Gift Baskets from Dandelion are still available at the cafe
• The Ourlando 2012 Event Calendar is also available in the cafe and features the urban sketches of Thomas Thorspecken of Analog Artist Digital World. A collectors item for the local lover in your life. One is on display in the front room of the cafe for you to check out!
• Membership to Homegrown Co-op for the new year!

And here are some cool things we’ve found to make the holidays just an itty bit more enjoyable…

• Local Listen. Hey, It’s Christmas – Put this awesome album of local orlando musicians in your iPod rotation. Totally Free Download. This is volume two featuring a majority of Florida musicians. Volume one is just as awesome, see link at bottom of page.
• Gather. Around the tree – local, u-pick Christmas trees complete with hayride, petting zoo, zip lines, kettle corn at this family farm just 35 minutes north of downtown for your last minute tree needs. Trim off the branches when you are done and cut the trunk into block sized pieces – instant present for the cool kid in your life!
• Mystical Santa. We love holiday myths and legends of all kinds and we recently discovered the Mushroom-Santa Link. Should make for delightful conversation around the yule log!
• Simplify.Too often, the holidays seem to exhaust rather than uplift us. Take the 2011 Simplify the Holidays Challenge and get a free e-book full of ideas!

With love from the entire Dandelion Tribe!

Click for larger view of menu

We are happy to announce a delicious dinner menu available after 6pm during Eat Local Week. Dandelion is also hosting a film about the young farming movement. Click here for trailer & information.

Local Seasonal Vegetable Medley Soup featuring Jonathan’s Farms local produce including: Squash, Zucchini, and Green Beans.
Stuffed Portobella Caps featuring Zellwood Farms Portobella Mushroom Caps stuffed and served on a bed of organic spring greens drizzled with red wine demi-glace.
served with Quinoa Pilaf featuring Organic Tempeh from Gainesville’s Tempeh Shop

Local Beverage Options
Autumn Tea Blended by Local Herbalist Dawn Gates featuring 100% organic and feature biodynamically harvested Spanish Needles from Dawn’s Enchanted Garden and
Orlando Brewing Organic Beers

Click Image to go to Facebook Event

Sparkle is back! For More Information, click here.

This is our chance to change the world.

Hello sweet breezy weather that makes you want to get cozy with a fresh brewed cup of hot tea and a big bowl of homemade chili!!!! As we prepare for VegFest this weekend and with an eye on the upcoming Eat Local Week and Winter Park Harvest Festival, we cannot help but notice the sweet sound of transformation all around us. Dandelion is a place for everyone in our community to find common ground and our patrons make up a deliciously diverse cross section of ages, ethnicities, preferences, faiths, professions and income levels. We are a place where the 100% enjoy good food, including at least one of the 1%, the late Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace.

Chris and I opened the cafe because we became aware of injustices occurring across the globe that adversely affect the quality of life for everything and everyone on this planet of ours. We experienced moments of deep sadness and anger and even helplessness. We wanted to make a positive difference  but weren’t sure how. After many attempts and deep thought we realized our particular talents might best be put to use with our training in business and penchant for dinner parties.  Looking back at our beginnings, we understood so little compared with what we have learned from all of you in the past five years, but we knew in our heart of hearts that we had to be the change we wanted to see in the world. One of the most heartening and hopeful things we are witnessing is regular folks standing up for their rights, finding their voice, telling their stories and finding ways to create the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible.

We may disagree on who or what broke the system, but we all agree that is is broken. Here are my picks for some of the most inspiring, informative, interesting and intelligent concepts to help restore vitality, personal freedom and equality.

Further Resources

• Yes! Magazine —- the BEST publication in the world!!!!
• Center for a New American Dream
• Living Economies Forum with David Korten
• Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein
• The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist
• Business Alliance for Local Living Economies — of particular interest to small business owners
• Slow Money with Woody Tasch
• Economic Podcasts from Front Porch Radio hosted locally by Julie Norris

Do you have a resources you want the world to know about? Please leave a comment below!

Green Drinks

This month’s Green Drinks will be especially informative for those of you interested in creating a local food business or those who would like to meet other business representatives in the local food industry. Based on a recent suggestion, we will be discussing the new Cottage Industry law, as well as shared commercial kitchens, and the process it takes to get products into farmers markets and restaurants.

Green Drinks is held the third Thursday of every month starting at 7pm.

In order for us to fully understand the new Cottage Industry Law, which allows some small-scale food production for farmers markets to take place at the home, LuAnn Duncan will be joining us.  She is the Orange County Nutrition Agent and her focus is on nutrition, health, and food safety. http://orange.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty.html#LuAnn_Duncan

While the new Cottage Industry Law is a huge break-through, shared kitchens can bring almost any small food business to reality.  Talking with us this month we will also have Joshua Weinberg from the Kissimmee Kitchen Share, where their mission is “to provide culinary entrepreneurs with the tools and resources to build their dream business and succeed in today’s marketplace.” http://www.kissimmeekitchenshare.com/

Once the food is made, the next step is getting it to market.Gabriela Othon Lothrop the director of the Audubon Park Community Market will be sharing the ins and outs of getting into local farmer/community markets.   The Audubon Park Community Market is truly local market, supporting local artisans, farmers, ranchers, chefs, musicians, and so many more.  These authentic markets are springing up all over town, so come find out what it takes to get a space. http://audubonparkmarket.com/

The Green Drinks session is hosted by Emily Rankin, Founder of Audubon Park Community Market, Co-Founder of Ourlando and Proprietor of Local Roots Farm to Restaurant Distribution.

Click for photos of the nursery!

Looking for a good variety of vegetables and herbs from heirloom and organic seeds for your garden? Well, look no further! My Yard Farm has a fully stocked edible nursery on our patio with lots to choose from, and several varieties of your favorites like tomatoes & beans. Sweet Potato, Collard Greens, Tomatillo, Cucumber, Okra, Kale, Chives, Basil, Mint and SO MUCH MORE! While you are picking up some veggies, check out our own garden, in phase one of development. You can’t get more local than this!!!

Click for more info on the big hug event!

We were just casting our ballot for theOW Best of Orlando and realized that Orlando is SO coming into it’s own…. there are SO many quality options to choose from this year that it is hard to decide. Of course, we hope you will consider us for the Best Vegetarianand Best Teahouse categories again this year.

When we first started the cafe, we were avid promoters of some cool stuff going on in town because there were not that many outlets to discover what was happening when. Today’ there are lots of resources to choose from and we leave it up to those folks to keep you informed about what is going down in O-town. Here is our favorite list of go to resources for the latest and greatest in this town of ours (besides the Weekly, of course). If we’ve missed something, please let us know!

• Publications: Edible Orlando * Velocity Magazine * Playground Magazine
• Blogs: The Daily City * Central Florida Green Guide * Thor’s Sketch Blog *
• Radio/Podcasts: Front Porch Radio * Out and About
• Guides: Ourlando Local Business Guide * Slow Food Orlando * Simple Living Institute’s Sustainable Food Guide

Speaking of things going down, we do have just one itty bitty thing to whisper in your ear. It’s actually big. REALLY big. So big, it’s got three big’s in the title. And it’s going to be bigger than big if you participate and invite your friends. It’s a Big Big Big Hug happening Saturday, May 28th at 6pm on the lawn at the Fringe Festival. That’s right, a gathering of folks who just get together to give each other hugs. Big Bear Hugs. One Armed Patting Hugs. Quick Squeezes. Maybe even a few high fives for those needing their space. RSVP on Facebook or stay tuned to the blog for more info as it becomes available. Collaborators and co-conspirators are encouraged to get involved.

WHAT’S “ORGANIC” ABOUT ORGANIC? is an entertaining and educational documentary feature that dives into the challenges that arise when a grassroots agricultural movement evolves into a booming international market. Through the stories of farmers who steward land from upstate New York to Central Florida, the film offers audiences a deeper understanding of the difficulties involved in creating a more sustainable food system and creating a healthier environment. As we experience the devotion and passion that the farmers demonstrate in their adherence to the ecological and social principles of the organic movement, our questions begin to be answered. The audience is compelled to understand the marketplace challenges these farmers face and gain respect for their efforts to produce food that is not only healthier for the public, but is also a positive solution for our environmental crises. This movement is taking place in our own back yard—Co-Producer Marty Mesh, Executive Director of Florida Organic Growers and Consumers (FOG), head-quartered in Gainesville, is featured in the film for his involvement in the Florida Organic movement. Director and Co-Producer Shelley Rogers will be in attendance to answer your questions and discuss issues raised by this important film.

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 recent surge in local food.  In this article, organic is dismissed as a tree-hugging environmentalist cause in favor of local & seasonal like the Europeans do it. The fact of the matter is, the Europeans do it local, seasonal AND organic, all three go together almost without exception. Most of em go one step further and do it biodynamic, but I digress. I’d love to see how customers would respond to a menu that states: we use local tomatoes, plucked fresh from the pesticide-laden vine – enjoy!

The article, dismisses organic entirely as if it’s some green fad, yet most of the local suppliers mentioned are organic in practice, if not in certification. In fact, Deep Creek Ranch gives a really awesome explanation of why here, Rest Haven Farms talks about their methods here, Long & Scott tells it to us here. A distinction needs to be made about the challenges in certifying products and not decrying the practice of sustainably managing our crops, flocks and herds.

Let’s ask this question again, but in a different way. Would you rather feed your kids:

(A) a locally grown strawberry from a medium size farm you’ve never been to that has been grown with pesticides that are known carcinogens (see list of chemicals commonly used)

(B) a batch of certified organic strawberries from a big farm trucked in from California

(C) strawberries which were locally grown using organic principles, but were not “certified” organic since the small-scale farmer who grew them can’t afford the certification process and/or has a steady stream of customers who know him personally & take him on his word that he’s not poisoning your family or the rivers & streams.

(D) strawberries you grew yourself in your backyard, without pesticides.

I’m not the one to tell you what the correct choice is for your family, but it is important that you understand your food options at a deeper level so you can make the most informed decision given your circumstances, which may also be influenced by convenience, cost and how you prioritize your time. At Dandelion, we choose a blend of B, C & D.

Now, let’s elaborate on our answer. It depends… first on what your definitions of “local” & “organic” include. These words used to imply small scale, independent, sustainable, fair, artisan crafted, heirloom varieties. Nowadays, these words have been stripped of their soul. For example, Lay’s markets their potatoes as “local” in Florida because of their proximity, regardless of the fact that they operate as a huge industrialized agricultural operation. Additionally, the crops are not organic in the least, the potatoes are grown in fields where farmworkers are treated poorly, and the end product is actually under massive recall (not being reported in American press) at the moment. (Interesting piece about Lay’s Local marketing effort by a potato industry insider and a fabulous NYT piece here. More on the Localwashing movement in general here.)

On the organic front, a distinction can be made between “certified organic” and what I call “relationship organic” which happens when small scale growers & producers follow or often exceed organic standards but are not officially certified due to any number of factors including: cost of certification, use of hydroponics (not able to be certified), or simply because the consumer has a relationship with the grower and can discuss what pest-control, fertilization, etc methods that are used.

For more elaboration on Dandelion’s approach & practice, read Our Food Philosophy and our sections dedicated to Local & Organic.

I will leave you with one final thought – this one about flavor. On the one hand, choosing local, organic, seasonal & artisan food almost always ensures the best flavor, and I’m a big fan of delicious tasting food (as ya’ll know since you eat at Dandelion). However, let’s keep it in our consciousness that our palette cannot distinguish whether or not the health of a farmworker, animal or ecosystem was sacrificed for our momentary pleasure. We must first see & hear for ourselves what has brought some morsel onto our plate so that all of our senses might be delighted in knowing that people, animals and earth were all respected and honored in order to satisfy our hunger.