Community Market: Wednesday, January 27, 6-10 pm

 

Eat Local Week is finally here!  The Audubon Park Community Market is thrilled to participate in this event, organized by Slow Food Orlando. 

 According to the friendly, hard-working folks at Slow Food, the goals of Eat Local Week are to:

Emphasize that eating local in Central Florida is not only possible, it’s delicious –
The Eat Local Week definition of “local” is anything within 200 miles of Orlando’s city center.  Featured farmers and artisans for Eat Local week come from as far away as Clewiston.

Help local restaurants, farmers and artisans to develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships –
Slow Food Orlando wants to see locally owned and operated farms and restaurants succeed.  By facilitating relationship building between Central Florida dining establishments, farmers, ranchers, and artisans we hope to help businesses grow and become more profitable.

Build consumer awareness of local food and farmers, and promote reconnection with family and friends around the dinner table –
Slow Food is all about taking the time to savor the food we eat and the people we share it with.  When our food is produced in a sustainable, responsible and conscientious manner it is healthier for the environment and healthier for us.

Raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy and keeping money in our community –
Purchasing food direct from producers or dining out at restaurants that feature locally grown ingredients cuts out the middle man and puts your money directly in the pocket of the people who produce your food.  When you, the consumer, spend your money with local businesses those businesses reinvest your dollars in the community, thus contributing to a more sustainable future for Central Florida’s food system.

This event is aimed at showcasing beautiful food that showcases the best local ingredients Florida has to offer, and that’s exactly the kind of eating Ourlando and the Audubon Park Community Market want to support!  You’ll find offerings from Big Wheel Provisions, Wild Ocean Seafood Market, and Stardust Video and Coffee.  Pair those with delicious local beer  or other tasty beverages at the Stardust bar or coffee counter. 

Enjoy this dinner with live music and the market’s festive atmosphere.  As always, you’ll have a great selection of locally grown and locally made foods to take home with you, along with art, crafts, handmade soaps, and more.

A Reminder About Parking:

Please do not park at the ABC Liquors across the street from Stardust.  This is a tow-away zone and towing has been enforced.  The map below will take you to various public parking spaces that present no towing threat.  There is some additional street parking in residential areas, but please be mindful of our neighbors: do not block any driveways and respect everyone’s property.

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Community Market: Wednesday January 20th, 6-10 p.m.

The beautiful weather is back just in time for a wonderful market this week!  We think it will be an extra-festive experience with live music from Matt Butcher and Barnstorm Quartet!  This will be the first time local darling Matt Butcher plays the market, so be sure to give him a warm welcome.  And you might remember the Barnstorm Quartet from their performance back in October – everyone had a blast! 

In addition to all this great music and lovely local food and art, the market will also be hosting another VegCF fundraiser this week.  They’ll be pairing up with Animal Activists of Central Florida to sel yummy vegan baked goods.  All proceeds will go to Journey’s End Animal Sanctuary.

Save the Date!

Next week, the market will be participating in Eat Local Week, brought to you by Slow Food Orlando.  Stardust, Big Wheel Provisions, and Wild Ocean Seafood Market will be serving up special dinner menus at great prices – all with delicious local ingredients.  We hope you’ll check out the list of all participating establishments, but we especially hope you’ll put the market on your list!

Community Market, Wednesday, January 6, 6-10 PM

 

Happy New Year!  We are very happy to be back this week, and are ready to brave the cold!  We hope you had a lovely holiday and are ready to stock up on local goodness at the market this week.  In light of this extraordinaly cold weather, we will be setting up a little differently to stay cozy.  Browse the lovely local food, art, and more from vendors both inside Stardust and outside.  Warm up with a hot coffee, tea, or cocoa from Stardust (You can also order and Irish Coffee or Hot Toddy from the bar!)  and an Indian-insipired menu from ROOTS.   You can warm up to the music of visitng band Hymn for Her as you stock up on some of the best local food our community has to offer. 

LOOKING FOR FIREWOOD?!

Firewood has been a hot commodity with this week’s weather and is sold out in most places.  Luckily for us, the UCF Arboretum only sells their firewood at the market and has let us know they will bring their supply for sale at the market.  Come get some before it sells out!

See you there, from 6-10 on Wednesday night!

No Market on Wednesday, December 30th

As 2009 comes to an end, we’d like to thank everyone for helping make this market so wonderful for us.  Our vendors worked extra-hard to make this holiday season special, bringing locally-focused gifts and goodies to the community.  In order to give them all a break and prepare for a new year of local goodness, the Audubon Park Community Market will NOT take place on Wednesday, December 30th.  We will return after the new year, on Wednesday, January 6th.  Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, and come see us next year!

December at the Audubon Park Community Market (Wednesday Evenings, 6-10 pm)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: PARKING IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AT ABC.  THIS IS NOW A TOW-AWAY ZONE.  PLEASE VISIT OUT “CONTACTS AND LOCATION” PAGE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT PARKING

This December, joins us as we Think Local First for the Holidays.  The Audubon Park Community Market has so much of the best the Ourlando community has to offer, we think you’ll be able to make it an all-local holiday.

Handmade for the Holidays

This month, browse our expanded selection of handmade goods this month and choose from the best unique gifts for your friends and family.  You’ll find a showcase of some of our community’s best artists, including handmade jewelry, pottery, accessories, paper goods, clothing items, vintage reconstruction, and so much more!  Vendors who will be at the market all (or most) weeks this month include:

 Joyas – A Mother’s Gift – ArtFul – Henrietta Handmade – Jill Shea – Absent Muse Design – What the Fork? – Krista Berman – Maggie Sharar – Maria Bolton – Mimiques de Valerie – The Pottery Syndicate – ZombieHead Jewelry – Karie Sue Creations – Loop Loop – Ensemble Pieces – Many More!

And don’t forget about the beautiful handmade soaps and bodycare products from our regular vendors, Sim.Bliss.ity!

Give Local Gourmet for the Holidays

This year, give the foodie in your life delicious, local gourmet goodies from our fabulous local food vendors. 

Ask the friendly folks at Big Wheel Provisions about their holiday gift baskets, which range in price from $40 to $240 and are sure to please a variety of recipients.  These baskets include lovely handmade food with fresh, local ingredients, such as pumpkin butter, herb salt, candied Florida orange peels, meringue cookies, and even local Big Wheel bacon! 

If your looking for the perfetct gift for a sweet-tooth, check out the gift options from Chateau Confections.  Gift bags and baskets range in price and include a variety of tasty treats, including unique flavors like espresso bean barkolate featuring Barnie’s Santa’s White Christmas Coffee for the coffee lover, Smokin’ chipolte barkolate, and honey almond barkolate featuring local honey. 

Still Stumped?  Build your own localvore gift basket!  You can put together a fresh, local produce basket for your favorite cook, or include some yummy snacks, like Loco Miguel’s Salsa, AE Foods Spinach Pesto Hummus, local honey from Dansk Farms, baked treats and fresh breads from Olde Hearth Bakery, and individual products in gift packaging from Chateau Confections and Big Wheel.

Entertain Local

If your holiday season is all about entertaining, consider making this one local-focused.  You can find unique, delicious ingredients for your holiday meals at the market.  Fresh, seasonal produce is always a nice start, and you can get seasonal, locally grown veggies, greens, and more from the UCF Arboretum Organic Garden and Backyard Gardening.  More local options include grass-fed/grass-finished beef from Deep Creek Ranch (DeLeon Springs, FL), fresh, Florida-caught seafood from Wild Ocean Seafood Market (Brevard County, FL), Natural, free-range, heritage breed pork from Palmetto Creek Farms (Avon Park, FL), and free-range, local eggs from Lake Meadow Naturals (Ocoee, FL).  And don’t forget to adorn your house with potted plants and fresh-cut flowers from the UCF Arboretum, Backyard Gardening, Orchid Nirvana, and AJM environmental.

Gift Certificates!

If you’re shopping for the picky type, never fear!  Many of our vendors are offering gift certificates this season.  Give the gift of relaxing massage from Karmonic Hands, or a reading from Connected Earth Healing.  If all the options from Big Wheel Provisions have you stumped, you can buy a gift certificate that’s good for food, cooking classes, or catering.  Feel free to ask our other vendors about gift certificat options, and don’t forget about gift certificates to Stardust!

Have we given you enough ideas?  If you haven’t read about just the right gift for everyone on your list, then just come by the market this month for live music, delicious vegan dinners from ROOTS, and some of the best local shopping in Ourlando!

Community Market, Wednesday November 25, 6-10 PM

Happy (early) Thanksgiving!  Why not kick off this holiday weekend with an evening at the Audubon Park Community Market?  We’ll all be out there for yet another evening of beautiful local food, handmade goods, art, music and more.  You’ll have a chance to pick up those last-minute items for the holiday, like select Thanksgiving items from Big Wheel Provisions, fresh-picked organically grown greens from Backyard Gardening, freshly baked dinner rolls from Olde Hearth Bakery, vegan breads and desserts from ROOTS, and so much more!  We’d also like to welcome a new market participant: UCF’s Arboretum and Student Sustainability Alliance.  They’ll be joining the market starting this week selling produce, herbs, and cut flowers grown in their volunteer-run organic garden.  This fundraising effort will support all the positive actions these folks are taking to transform UCF, and we have it on authority that their produce is delicious!

Shop to the lovely sounds of Wilbur and our own Sarah Purser, with sets beginning around 7:00.  Worried about the gloomy weather?  Never fear!  We are ALWAYS convinced that rainy weather will clear up in time for the market, but if it doesn’t, we’ll still have most of our selections available inside Stardust, so you’ll still be able to stock up on local goodness!

 

Community Market: November 18, 2009, 6-10 PM

After Sunday’s Farm to Table event at Enzian theater, all of us at the Audubon Park Community Market are feeling energized about beautiful, local food.  And with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we’d like to encourage you to include fresh, locally grown or locally handmade items to your holiday menu.  For a hassle-free way to serve up Thanksgiving dinner or side dishes, check out Big Wheel Provisions’ options available for order.  You can check the list out here, and stop by the market to make your order.  If you just need to arrive at your holiday dinner with an appetizer, side dish, or dessert, the market has that too.  Bring along a loaf of freshly baked bread from Olde Hearth, or some fresh salsa from Loco Miguel’s, or a bag of handmade chocolates from Chateau Confections.

But Thanksgiving isn’t the only thing on our minds!  We are also very excited about all the fun at this week’s market, including a charity vegan bake sale from the friendly folks at VegCF:

Oh, and come hungry, because ROOTS will be serving up the lovely menu they had to cancel last week:

Artichoke, Eggplant, & Tomato pasta

a marinara sauce of california artichokes, homegrown eggplant, and carolina tomatoes served over a bed of quinoa spaghetti pasta

Stuffed Peppers

Florida red peppers stuffed with wild rice, gainsville tempeh, fresh herbs, and broccoli greens with a balsamic dressing and a side of garlic toasted olde hearth bread with a herb and olive oil dip

And that’s not all!  We are also pleased to have the Barnstorm Quartet.  For a preview, visit them online and check out their music.  It looks like it’ll be a lively night at the market!

Special Event, November 15, 2009

Join us this weekend at the Enzian for the Farm to Table event, hosted by Ourlando’s Local Food Alliance. this event aimed at jump-starting a truly local food system in Central Florida. This Sunday, November 15, from 12:30-2:30 you will have a chance to meet our local farmers and local food vendors, including some of the Audubon Park Community Market’s wonderful vendors. The event begins with passed hors d’oeuvre made with locally grown produce by Chef Josh Oakley, the executive chef of Enzian, followed with the showing of Food Fight. After the documentary, there will be plenty of time to meet and mingle with our local farmers and vendors. We will also be featuring the organically sourced, fresh brewed beer of Orlando Brewery, fair trade coffee from Austin’s and assorted blends of tea from Dandelion Communitea.  All of this is covered in the cost of each ticket, which can be purchased on the Enzian website or at the door.  For more information, click here.

Community Market, November 11, 2009

It looks like all the rain Ida sent down will pass and we will have a rain-free market this week.  This is good news, because it will give you the chance to plan out the great local food and gifts you can include in your updoming holiday meals and parties.  The Audubon Park Community Market is a great place to pick up appetizeres, side dishes, desserts, and other great ingredients to include in your locally-minded or just plain delicious holiday meals.  Ask the folks at Big Wheel Provisions about their Thanksgiving packages, which will be available by pre-order for pickup right before the holiday.  Spending Thanskgiving at a friend or family member’s home?  Don’t arrive empty-handed!  You can bring a loaf of locally made, fresh bread from Olde Hearth, handmade chocolates from Chateau Confections, or bring a Florida-fresh appetizer like Wild Ocean Seafood’s smoked mullet paired with Big Wheel crostini.  And if you’d like to bring a thoughtful gift for your host or the chef, browse our handmade vendors for unique items ranging from jewelry and accessories to soaps and lotions.

And as always, come hungry, because ROOTS is sereving up an Italian-themed menu:

Artichoke, Eggplant, & Tomato pasta

a marinara sauce of california artichokes, homegrown eggplant, and carolina tomatoes served over a bed of quinoa spaghetti pasta

Stuffed Peppers

Florida red peppers stuffed with wild rice, gainsville tempeh, fresh herbs, and broccoli greens with a balsamic dressing and a side of garlic toasted olde hearth bread with a herb and olive oil dip

See you there!

Community Market, November 4, 2009

Have you heard about Ourlando’s Farm to Table Event?  On November 15, Enzian Theater is graciously hosting this event aimed at jump-starting a truly local food system in Central Florida. Join the Ourlando Local Food Alliance on Sunday, November 15, from 12:30-2:30 to meet our local farmers and local food vendors, including some of the Audubon Park Community Market’s wonderful vendors. The event begins with passed hors d’oeuvre made with locally grown produce by Chef Josh Oakley, the executive chef of Enzian, followed with the showing of Food Fight. After the documentary, there will be plenty of time to meet and mingle with our local farmers and vendors. We will also be featuring the organically, fresh brewed beer of Orlando Brewery, fair trade coffee from Austin’s and assorted blends of tea from Dandelion Communitea.  All of this is covered in the cost of each ticket, which can be purchased on the Enzian website.

 Not sure you can swing the ticket price?  Come to the Audubon Park Community Market this week and next for TWO chances to win gift baskets with tickets for you and a friend to attend the event!  Stop by the Ourlando tent at the market for more details. 

And while you’re there, you might be tempted to buy your dinner from ROOTS.  This week they’re serving up:

Sweet and Sour Tempeh

Gainesville Tempeh smothered in a homemade sweet and sour sauce, and served with a generous portion of brown fried rice with homegrown eggplant, georgia zucchini, california carrots, and california snow peas

Red Thai Curry

Florida bell peppers, califorina carrots, homegrown eggplant, and homegrown basil simmed in coconut milk served with a side of brown basmati rice

You can enjoy live music from Tony Macaluso too! 

See you at the community market!