Direct Sourcing & More
A growing trend among produce suppliers in Miami and elsewhere is working directly— sometimes exclusively—with local growers. “A lot of chefs are asking about what we’re sourcing locally,” explains Nick Politis, who heads up sales at Mr. Green’s Produce, a distributor serving Miami restaurants, country clubs, and hotels. “There are interesting products grown here in Florida such as tomatoes, watermelon, and peppers, but it depends on the time of year.”
Before the next growing season, Politis plans to visit farms in nearby growing areas, including Homestead, Immokalee, and north of West Palm Beach. “We want to cultivate stronger relationships with the farmers directly, and set up agreements where we can suggest what items we want to grow,” he explains. “I have a meeting with the gentleman who supplies us with shishito peppers, and I’m going to talk to him about growing some other specialty peppers chefs are asking for, such as ‘long hots’ [a mildly spicy pepper often served fried or roasted with Italian food] and habañeros. Instead of trying to source them, we’re going to try to work with farmers to grow the products we need.”
New Varieties & Promising Produce
Florida’s innovative growers are constantly exploring exciting new fruit and vegetable varieties. During the 2014-15 growing season, the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, part of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food & Agricultural Services (IFAS) released a new strawberry variety called “Florida 127.”
The Florida 127, which is marketed to consumers under the much more exciting name “Sensation,” offers a number of advantages, including excellent fruit size, great flavor, and longer shelf life. Perhaps most importantly, the variety offers early fruit production.
According to a University of Florida IFAS study, the Sunshine State’s strawberry growers must produce more fruit earlier in the growing season to keep a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. To help with this initiative, the IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, located in Wimauma, FL, about a half hour southeast of Tampa, has patented nine Florida strawberry varieties in the past 25 years.
Florida growers are also testing three new blueberry varieties, which could lead to significant growth in the state’s blueberry industry. The three new blueberry bushes—Arcadia, Avanti, and Endura—were bred to grow in Florida’s warmer climates. Although most of Florida’s blueberries are currently grown in Gainesville and Ocala in the northern part of the state, these new varieties can be grown as far south as Arcadia in South Central Florida.
Additionally, some Florida growers have been experimenting with another fruit that isn’t commonly harvested in the Sunshine State: olives. Working with University of Florida agriculture professors and entomologists, these pioneering growers are trying to determine which varieties of olives would work best in Florida’s subtropical climate—and where and when the crop should be planted and harvested.
