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by Amy Tarr
Five minutes away from Everglades
National Park in Homestead, Florida, lies a precious parcel of land
– a five-acre organic lot called Paradise Farms. The proprietor
of this idyllic farm is Gabriele Marewski. With her mane of wavy
blond locks, she resembles an ethereal angel. But her firm handshake
and deeply furrowed brow tell you she is a woman of strength, a
woman of the earth.
Specializing in delicate greens,
heirloom tomatoes, herbs and edible flowers, Paradise Farms has
been in business for five years now, and Marewski sells exclusively
to the best chefs in Miami. Just prior to the StarChefs Miami Rising
Stars Revue last November, we sent some of our chef honorees to
Gabriele to select product for the event and to learn more about
her farm. Chefs Sergio Sigala of Casa Tua, Jordi Vallès
of Mosaico and Salero, Max Santiago of Mundo,
Joseluis Flores of Ola, and Marc Erhler of Loews Miami
Beach Hotel, experienced heaven on earth for a day.
 Chefs
Vallès, Santiago and Erhler are regular customers of Paradise
Farms, though rarely do they get a chance to visit. “I’ve
dealt with Gabriele many times before, but that was the first time
I’ve been there,” Santiago said. “I’m constantly
looking for new funky little flowers to put on my plates. I mainly
get blossoms, like rose petals, and hyacinth bean flowers –
they’re these little purple flowers and they taste just like
fresh green beans.”
Marewski, who has a B.S degree
in agronomy from the University of Maryland, used the proceeds from
another land sale to buy a parcel of land next door to her home,
a wood house by a lake. “My commute to work is just a walk
away! The 5 acres I purchased was an abandoned avocado grove with
no irrigation and weeds up to my waist. It took a year to get the
basics going - installing irrigation, and building planting beds.
We progressed to building a walk-in cooler and grow areas for the
microgreens.”
For Marewski, bigger is not necessarily
better. She limits her business to about 20 restaurants and focuses
on building strong relationships with all her customers.
“I'm not soliciting for more business. I would rather grow
more and better for a few than try to be everywhere. I still have
the same four restaurants I started with.”
 In
fact, one of those original customers is Marc Ehrler, who served
as Host Chef for the Rising Stars Revue. When he first met Gabriele,
he told her that if she ever had too much or couldn’t sell
certain things, he would buy it. “Because we are big enough,
we have the volume. So she brings it to us.” Literally. One
of the ways that Gabriele differentiates herself among her peers
is that she comes to deliver her produce in person.
“She comes down to Miami
twice a week, and any new products she has in season she brings
down to show us,” says Jordi Vallès. “She makes
it very personal.” Jordi especially appreciates Mareski’s
delicate touch with microgreens and other fragile products like
corn shoots. “She wraps them very carefully in paper so they
don’t brown when the light hits them.”
 Because
Marewski values the relationship she has with the chefs, she makes
time to visit with them every week. “It’s all about
the chef-farmer connection. It’s in the personal interactions
that we learn from each other: for me, what to grow; for the chefs,
what's available.”
So how exactly does one woman
manage to farm the most delectable organic produce and personally
deliver it to Miami’s top kitchens? Aside from one employee
who works almost full-time planting and harvesting microgreens,
Marewski enlists the labor of volunteers who come to live on the
farm for typically 15 days, though some for longer, working in exchange
for food, accommodation and an unparalleled education in organic
farming practices. “I've had the good fortune to have a volunteer
move up to farm manager for the past 6 months.” Even so, she
says she’s always understaffed and there’s always plenty
of work to do.
 Marewski
also involves her chef customers when it comes to planning ahead
for the following season. “We plan together, so that she has
what we want,” says Chef Ehrler. “A while back we wanted
Peruvian chilies. So she went and got a hold of the seeds and planted
them. She goes everywhere to find things for us. Last summer, I
told her I wanted to find oxtail tomatoes or beef heart tomatoes
– they are all over Europe but not here. She found seeds out
in California and planted them.”
 So
what’s on the horizon in Paradise? Gabriele says she’s
developing a baby root mix to introduce next season. Chef Ehrler
hopes to collaborate with Marewski to develop leeks that have huge
white bulbs. “Over here if you get a leek with three inches
of white, you’re lucky. I’ve seen in Holland they are
eight to nine inches long of white. So that’s what I want
to work with her on.”
We’re just thrilled
that we could send our Rising Stars directly to the source to see
where all the gorgeous products that land on their cutting boards
grow. And, judging from their reaction, they thoroughly enjoyed
the experience. “All the aromas of flowers and vegetables
and herbs in the air – it was like getting high,” said
Santiago. “The fragrances were so strong, I just wanted to
roll around in the fields!”
To enquire about volunteering at Paradise
Farms, go to www.paradisefarms.net
   
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