World Famous Strawberry Shortcake is Back!

Posted on December 23, 2012 by fmadmin

As soon as we start planting our strawberry plants, the phones at the market start ringing.  People calling and emailing wanting to know when will we start serving our Strawberry Shortcake.  The disappointment in their voice is heartbreaking when we have to tell them “not yet”.

You see, enjoying our Strawberry Shortcake is sort of a big deal.  We only serve it from January to mid April while we have our very own locally grown fresh strawberries.  We wouldn’t have it any other way.  You just can’t make strawberry shortcake with frozen berries.  It’s just not right! 😉

This year we started serving our “World Famous” Strawberry Shortcake on December 21st, just in time for Christmas!  The recipe has been the same for over 30 years.  And while I can’t share it, I will tell you what makes our Strawberry Shortcake the best!

You can’t go wrong when you use fresh ingredients.  The key to a great Strawberry Shortcake is the strawberries.  Growing our own berries gives us an advantage.  The berries you are eating in your Strawberry Shortcake were most likely picked that morning!  Easy as that!  Fresh berries grown right here in Plant City.  It doesn’t get any better than that!

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Parkesdale Market gets an upgrade

Posted on December 22, 2012 by fmadmin

When was the last time you stopped by our market?  If you’ve come by and seen a lot of heavy machinery keep reading and I’ll tell you why…

The girls have had a lot of fun with all the heavy equipment at the market.  Here’s a view of the parking lot in the back area of the market.  As you can tell, we are just getting started.

 

 

Further back some trees were removed to dig a “pond” for water retention/detention.

Quite a bit of dirt was removed.  Yes, the girls did climb up the dirt mountain.  Probably more times than I care to admit. 😉

Then came the trucks with crushed asphalt.  That certainly took a while.

Earlier this year we purchased the adjacent property to the east of our market with plans of expanding our current parking lot.

Here it is.  Sixteen more parking spots!

And while we were at it, it only made sense to make our main parking lot a little bit prettier.  Don’t you think?

 

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Canning and Preserving Demo with Chef Petraski from The Ravenous Pig

Posted on December 14, 2012 by fmadmin

On a recent trip to Winter Park, we stopped at The Ravenous Pig for dinner.  We’ve eaten lunch there once this past summer and loved it.  So we couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to try their dinner menu.  The restaurant is located in downtown Winter Park just off I-4.  They call themselves a “GastroPub” meaning a pub-like experience but with amazing food you would find at fancier restaurants.   Wonderfully prepared food in a cozy, comfortable environment? Sold!

Photo courtesy of Ravenous Pig

We started the evening with the house-made charcuterie and artisan cheese table with house made pickled vegetables.  If I’m ever left on a stranded island, please give me meats and cheese like these to survive.  I will be just fine.

Whenever I go to a restaurant I always look for items I can’t cook at home, so the pan seared tuna with olives and watermelon beets caught my eye.  The fresh and roasted pomegranate seeds were a nice surprise in this dish.  But the winner had to be the Kalamata olive puree/cream whatever it was, I want more of it!  After eating this pan seared tuna I don’t think I can ever order pan seared tuna if it comes with soy sauce and sesame seeds.

While I didn’t have the pleasure to meet Chef James Petrakis, I was contacted by their Marketing Manager in hopes to create an event to promote their newly released cookbook The Ravenous Pig: Seasons of Florida.  You can read some great reviews from Eat Local Orlando.  After reading more about their philosophy, we agreed to host them at our market for a demo/book signing event.

Chef James Petrakis will be at our market on December 15th from 9 am to 12 pm demonstrating his canning and preserving techniques as well as some other “secrets” from his kitchen. Signed copies of his book will also be available for sale and will make great Christmas presents this Holiday.  The event is free and if you would like to RSVP for the event, please click here.  We’d love to see you tomorrow!

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