How does your garden grow?

Posted on December 6, 2012 by fmadmin

About a month ago, I finally had some time to clear the weeds out of our vegetable growing box and decided to plant some seeds for the winter growing season.  This is something I started to do with the girls last year just for fun.  I think its important for kids to know where their food comes from.  After looking through our seed packets, my assistant picked broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, lettuce, eggplant and swiss chards.

After choosing the packets, it was time to get to work.  My assistant insisted she had to be properly dressed in order to begin her garden. 🙂  Who am I to argue with her?

Carefully selecting the seeds.

A gentle pat on the ground to cover the seeds.  Around the gardening box we went.  Last year we had great success with the cauliflower and broccoli plants we bought from Lowes.  So, I’m really curious to see how we do with them because this time we are starting from seed.  So far, with very minimal care I must add, the chards, lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli seem to be going at full speed.

This picture was taken about 20 days after planting.  Previously we’ve had problems with snails and slugs.  After a quick google search, I learned that ground coffee beans have been used to combat slugs and snails.  So, off to Starbucks I went!  It seems to be working so far.  I’ve also learned that ground coffee beans are great as mulch.  I’d say its probably time for me to pick some more up!

Here are some other useful links on growing vegetables at home:

 

 

 

 

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Let us help you with your Christmas shopping list

Posted on December 1, 2012 by fmadmin

Do you have friends or family on your Christmas list who live out of state?  Why not send them a little bit of Florida Sunshine?  Or better yet, send them a little bit of Plant City!  For over 30 years, Parkesdale Market has been packing and shipping the best Florida Citrus across the US.  With over 30 Gift Fruit packages, you’ll be able to choose a gift sure to please anyone!  Our gift fruit packages have always been 100% guaranteed!

 

 

Our most popular all-citrus packs are the full bushel (approximately 36 pounds), ¾ bushel (approximately 27 lbs), ½ bushel (approximately 18 pounds) and the ¼ bushel (approximately 9 lbs).  These packages are available with all Navels, Ruby Red Grapefruit or mixed.  The Navels and Ruby Red Grapefruit are seedless, sweet and juicy.  Prices start at $30.95 for the ¼ bushel.  Shipping charges are $10.95 for any package anywhere in the US.

 

Take advantage of our $2.00 off coupon on every ½, ¾ and full bushel package.  The coupon can be found at our market inside every brochure. For website purchases, just write “$2Flyer” in the comments section. 🙂

 

A new package this year is the Field Citrus Crate.  This super cute, hand made wooden crate can be used for so many things around the house.  You’ll surely be remembered after the citrus is gone!  These crates are available with Navel oranges and Ruby Red Grapefruit for $48.99 (plus $10.95 anywhere in the US).  You may upgrade it by shipping Honeybells instead of Navel oranges for an additional $5.

 

For your convenience, we’ve created a couple of gifts featuring our favorite products.  Our Taste of Parkesdale basket is made up of our strawberry dressing, strawberry salsa, strawberry butter, strawberry preserves and No-Sugar added strawberry preserves for $30.95 (plus shipping charges).  This is one basket for the Strawberry lover in your family!

 

Another crowd pleaser basket is the Strawberry cookies and Strawberry bread packed with our Strawberry preserves for $16.95 (plus UPS shipping charges).  Because seriously, who can resist our strawberry cookies or bread?

 

But if you’d like to pick your own items, we’d gladly help you prepare a custom basket.   Nancy and Maribel  from our Gift Fruit Department are very knowledgeable when it comes to choosing the right items for every budget.  Let us help you take some stress out of your Holiday shopping!  You can give us a call at 813-754-2704 or toll free at 888-311-1701, visit our website at www.parkesdale.com or stop by for a visit before December 10th to guarantee gift fruit delivery by Christmas!  We love seeing y’all!

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Where did you shop on Small Business Saturday?

Posted on November 25, 2012 by fmadmin

November 24th was Small Business Saturday.  The people over at American Express began promoting small businesses about 3 years ago with their Annual Small Business Saturday.  As part of the promotion, American Express offered their card members a $25 statement credit for a single purchase made at a small business on November 24th.  They also offered small businesses free printed materials as well as advertising on social media sites to help promote Small Business Saturday.

This year, we decided to have our first Small Business Saturday Tasting Event.  An invitation went out to all of our customers who are signed up to receive our monthly email newsletter.  If you would like to receive our monthly email newsletter, just visit our website and click on the “Join our Email” button to sign up on the left navigation bar.

Customers who signed up for the Sampling Event were greeted by Jordan Parke and given a card for two of our milkshake samples: Strawberry and Pumpkin Pie.  Then the sampling began!

Seven new jams and marmalades were available for sampling: Traffic Jam, Huckleberry Jam, Christmas Jam (Strawberries and Cranberries), Tropical Jam (Banana, Kiwi, Mango, Toasted Coconut), Red Raspberry Jalapeno Jam, TOE (Tangerine-Orange-Elderberry) Jam and Gooseberry Jam.  It’s pretty difficult to pick out a favorite out of all those.  There are all very different and equally delicious.

Did you know we have about ten different salsa flavors?  They range from very mild to super hot.  For this event, we offered a few mild ones like the Strawberry, Red Peach and Red Apple.  For those who like it hot, we offered the following salsas: Five Amigos Fire Roasted, Salsa Grande, and Mango Lime.  As always, the Strawberry Salsa is the clear favorite!

The pickled tray was also a great addition.  Most people are afraid to purchase these items because they’ve never had them before.  In the tray we had Dilled Pickled Brussel Sprouts, Baby Beets, Dilly Beans, Marinated Mushrooms, Mild Pickle Okra, and Marinated Artichokes.  The favorite from this group had to be the Dilled Pickled Brussel Sprouts.  Not surprising to me because we have customers who buy it by the case!

Early this summer we started carrying two flavors of Amish Granola: Apple Cinnamon and of course Triple Berry.  Granola is great to have on its own with milk as a morning cereal or as a topping for oatmeal or yogurt.  Our snack candy is now back for the Holidays!  Two new ones are the Sweet and Salty Mix and the Honey Crunch Mix.  If you like chocolate, then you’ll love the Sweet and Salty Mix.  It’s made up of peanuts, chocolate chips and sesame sticks.  The Honey Crunch Mix is my favorite.  It’s made up of dried bananas, dried papaya, peanuts and sesame sticks.  🙂

It couldn’t be a Tasting Event without these beauties!  Our Strawberry cookies and Strawberry Bread were also available for sampling.  Most customers are unaware that we sell refrigerated Troyer Amish products.  As such, Troyer Amish Butter, Cottage Ham, and Cheese Curds were also available for sampling.  Our guests were very impressed with the taste of our Troyer Amish Butter!

Our guests did not leave empty handed.  Every guest left with a bottle of our Parkesdale Farms Pure Strawberry Syrup made with Plant City strawberries.  This syrup is wonderful on pancakes, waffles, ice cream and even on roasted pork!  In addition, as part of our Small Business Saturday promotion one of our guest won a free Gift Fruit package of their choice to be shipped for the Holidays.  We had such a great response from this event that we hope to have more in the near future.  Please remember to check our website and sign up for our monthly email newsletter!

 

 

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