2013 Black Gold Jubilee, Belle Glade, Fla.

The Black Gold Jubilee celebrates the rich black soil around Belle Glade, Florida. The April 13th festivities started at 7:45 am with a 5K run/walk and ended with nighttime fireworks. There was a Green Market this year featuring locally grown products in a farmers market, and cooking contest.

Mary Orsenigo, Sara Phillips, and Maud Vereen of
Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce Tent, 2013 Black
Gold Jubilee, Belle Glade, Fla.

A happy bunch of Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce volunteers worked the Farmers Market tent. They were selling Florida grown produce like romaine, tomatoes, yellow zucchini, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and rice.

Mary Orsenigo said, "My son, Paul, grew the romaine, cilantro, and lettuce."

The farmers that contributed to the tent were: Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, Duda Farm Fresh Foods, TKM Bengard Farms, Orsenigo Farms, Growers Management, Sem Chi Rice, and Florida Crystals.

Proceeds of the tent went to the Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce.

Cooking contest judges trying dishes that required corn,
2013 Black Gold Jubilee, Belle Glade, Fla.

The cooking contest was broken into two divisions both with a mandatory ingredient of either sugar or corn. Cheryl Stein, whose family came to Belle Glade in 1918, organized the event.

Pineapple corn muffins, 2013 Black Gold Jubilee, Belle
Glade, Fla.

One of the corn dishes had delicious tangy flavor--Pineapple Corn muffins, baked by First Place winner Sarah Mielke.

There was also corn-on-the cob served in a surprising way. It was wrapped in bacon, dipped in batter, and deep fried.

Overall it was a tasty, locally sourced day, and well worth the hour drive from West Palm Beach.

Check out their FaceBook page to learn more details of the day:

https://www.facebook.com/blackgoldjubilee#!/blackgoldjubilee

Grandma's Just Plain Country Preserves, Belle Glade, Fla.

Grandma's Just Plain Country makes preserves with Florida-grown ingredients. They also raise money for the JPC scholarship fund. I met them at the Black Gold Jubilee in Belle Glade, Florida. They had towers of glass jars filled with guava jelly, bread & butter pickles, and pickled okra.

Grandma Yvonne Guerri and daughter Donna Cohick
of Grandma's Just Plain Country at 2013 Black Gold
Jubilee, Belle Glade, Fla.

"The guava juice came from our guava tree. It has produced 900 jars of jelly this season. The pickles came from Homestead produce. And the okra came from our backyard," said Donna Cohick, co-owner of Grandma's Just Plain Country.

Their products are very popular even though they do not have a website or FaceBook page. The first 400 jars of guava jelly sold in just two-weeks through word-of-mouth sales. They still have a few more hundred available.

Cohick said, "All proceeds go to the JPC Scholarship fund in honor of my son, John Presley Cohick, who died two-years ago in a car crash. It is for students who want to attend either an Agricultural School or Technical College."

If you want to help out with the scholarship or buy some of these seasonal preserves then call Donna at 561-261-1892 or email her at jdcohick@aol.com

Or you can call her husband, John, at 561-261-9790

"Our products are very seasonal. The next batch of guava jelly won't be available again until August."

 

Chef Rita Romano's Raw-Vegan Vegetarian Dinner Club, Lake Worth, Fla.

Raw-vegan vegetarian food, called living-food, is more manipulated than cooked. Chef Rita Romano hosts a private raw-vegan vegetarian food dinner club each month at her Lake Worth, Florida, Institute for Culinary Regeneration. There she manipulates raw, uncooked, vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, and legumes into gourmet dishes.

It's Italian night at Chef Rita Romano's raw-vegan vegetarian
private dinner club, Lake Worth, Fla.

Last month it was an Italian themed dinner. Forty or so friends and guests gathered to talk about why they had just switched to the raw-vegan vegetarian lifestyle or why they had been living this lifestyle for some time.

Many guests were former Hippocrates Health Institute employees and/or patients. Some were veg-curious, attending their first raw-vegan vegetarian meal. All were hungry to see what Chef Romano had created for their $40 per person reservation.

Sprouted raw-vegan vegetarian salad, Chef Rita Romano's
private raw-vegan vegetarian dinner club, Lake Worth, Fla.

What followed was a typical American style meal with appetizers, a choice of soup or many salads, a choice of main dishes, bread items, and dessert. Most of the vegetable ingredients were sourced from QV Farms in Loxahatchee, Florida.

Raw-vegan vegetarian Macadamia nut pesto slathered
tomato appetizer, Chef Rita Romano's private
raw-vegan vegetarian dinner club, Lake Worth, Fla.
Copyright 2013 by Helen A Lockey

For the appetizers there were melt-in-your-mouth macadamia nut pesto slathered tomatoes, and spinach stuffed dehydrated mushroom caps.

Raw-vegan vegetarian zucchini marinara pasta dish, Chef
Rita Romano's private raw-vegan vegetarian dinner
club, Lake Worth, Fla.

There were serveral main course choices including a pasta dish made with long strands of zucchini spagetti topped with a spicy, fresh tomato sauce.

Raw-vegan vegetarian pizza, Chef Rita Romano's
private raw-vegan vegetarian dinner club, Lake Worth, Fla.
Copyright 2013 by Helen A Lockey

For guests craving bread-like items, there was a choice of crackers or pizza. Raw-vegan vegetarian cooks, sometimes use dehydrators, which heats ingredients from 104 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, to make more complex items like pizza crust or crackers.

Tiramisu made the raw-vegan vegetarian way, Chef Rita
Romano's private raw-vegan vegetarian dinner club,
Lake Worth, Fla.
Copyright 2013 by Helen A Lockey

And then dessert arrived. Chef Romano served a semi-raw vegan vegetarian tiramisu made with maple syrup, coconut oil, fresh coconut, and an espresso soaked almond pulp crust. A drizzle of raw-strawberry puree sauce and fresh berries completed this delicious dish.

These are just a few of the dishes prepared at the dinner. If you want to experience this raw-vegan vegetarian dinner club food for yourself, contact Chef Romano at 561-324-5794 or go to her website http://www.rawkitchen.com/