{"id":716,"date":"2016-08-03T18:23:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T18:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/?p=716"},"modified":"2017-05-23T19:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T19:27:08","slug":"farm-to-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/2016\/08\/03\/farm-to-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm to Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking Root in Tallahassee:\u00a0The Miccosukee Root Cellar<\/em><\/h3>\n

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\"TFM_Summer_Web_Page_25_Image_0001\"When you walk into the Miccosukee Root Cellar you\u2019re\u00a0met with the aroma of homemade bread straight from the\u00a0oven. A towheaded sprite, Lina, is clambering atop the piano\u00a0while her mother, owner Sarah Keith Valentine, kneads the\u00a0last of that night\u2019s bread. Valentine\u2019s husband and co-owner,\u00a0Ruben Fields, is holding a tasting for the staff \u2013 smoky heirloom\u00a0tomato gazpacho, blackened gulf shrimp, tasso-seafood\u00a0gravy. The aromas mix with the farm-fresh produce\u00a0and herbs, tomatoes so ripe you can smell the pungent sweet\u00a0fragrance from across the room.<\/p>\n

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Fields and Valentine have roots planted firmly in the Tallahassee\u00a0area and the Miccosukee Root Cellar, a farm-to-table\u00a0restaurant that serves fresh, naturally grown organic\u00a0food is the culmination of lives spent crafting a life worth\u00a0living.<\/p>\n

An FSU graduate with a bachelor\u2019s degree in environmental\u00a0science and a master\u2019s in the same field from FAMU, Valentine\u00a0has a passion for the environment. Couple that with\u00a0Fields\u2019 head for business and restaurant experience and you\u00a0have a powerful combination. They met in 2005 while Valentine\u00a0worked for Fields’ parents at their farm, and got married\u00a0in 2011. A visit to\u00a0a restaurant in Georgia\u00a0that serves farm-raised\u00a0food sparked the idea
\nto open a restaurant\u00a0of their own. \u201cIt was\u00a0exactly what we wanted,\u201d Valentine said. After they were\u00a0married, the couple took a leap of faith and decided to open\u00a0what is now the Miccosukee Root Cellar.<\/p>\n

\"TFM_Summer_Web_Page_27_Image_0001\"Part of their job is to communicate with local farms including\u00a0Full Earth Farm, Longview Farms, Orchard Pond\u00a0Organics, Sweet Grass Dairy and many others including\u00a0Turkey Hill Farm, which is run by Fields\u2019 parents. Crops\u00a0are available to buyers at different times throughout the year\u00a0depending on the growing season, and as a result, customers\u00a0have the opportunity to enjoy a variety of seasonal fruits\u00a0and vegetables. \u201cWe buy a lot from others farms in the area.\u00a0Through the support of restaurants like ours, small farms\u00a0are able to earn a living wage,\u201d says Valentine. “The farm-to-table movement is helping people get back in touch with\u00a0the seasons and regional climate by showcasing the freshest\u00a0produce (on this writing that would be tomatoes, pole beans\u00a0and zucchini) and highlighting foods that are only found in\u00a0this area (like Tupelo honey, Sweet Grass Dairy cheeses and\u00a0cane syrup). This type of eating connects people to place. It\u00a0also makes a difference by supporting local businesses and\u00a0small farms.<\/p>\n

Helping to support sustainable agriculture and encouraging\u00a0the community to buy local is something that Valentine\u00a0and Fields hold dear to their hearts. \u201cAt a basic level, we\u00a0need to make sure to keep our money circulating and have\u00a0food security,\u201d Valentine says. If you choose to buy local food\u00a0you\u2019ll find that the taste is richer, the food is healthier, it protects\u00a0the environment and economically it keeps taxes down.\u00a0More importantly, there is a sense of community when locals\u00a0can establish relationships with farmers who not only\u00a0know how to handle produce with care, but can share their\u00a0knowledge of farming as well. The popularity of events like\u00a0the annual Tomato Festival, which was recently hosted by\u00a0Turkey Hill Farms, shows how celebrating local and seasonal\u00a0food is important to the people in the area.<\/p>\n

Many businesses in Tallahassee are catching on to buying\u00a0local. \u201cPeople are getting more interested in local food,\u201d Valentine\u00a0says. \u201cThere are always new restaurants serving local\u00a0food. The more we promote that, the better we will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farm<\/p>\n

Along with being parents and proactive members of the\u00a0Local Food Alliance, Valentine works as a full-time baker\u00a0at the restaurant while Fields takes on the role as head chef.\u00a0The duo works side-by-side with their employees, and they\u00a0wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. In a few years they wish to\u00a0oversee the restaurant while spending more time tending to\u00a0Fields\u2019 parents’ farm, in the hopes of one day having a farm\u00a0of their own<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking Root in Tallahassee:\u00a0The Miccosukee Root Cellar   When you walk into the Miccosukee Root Cellar you\u2019re\u00a0met with the aroma of homemade bread straight from the\u00a0oven. A towheaded sprite, Lina, is clambering atop the piano\u00a0while her mother, owner Sarah Keith Valentine, kneads the\u00a0last of that night\u2019s bread. Valentine\u2019s husband and co-owner,\u00a0Ruben Fields, is holding a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,66],"tags":[186,69,189,95,188,185,187],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover","category-food","tag-farm","tag-food","tag-grown","tag-local","tag-organic","tag-restaurant","tag-table"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":729,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions\/729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tallahasseefamilymagazine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}