Taxonomy: 2023 Winter Tour

Rex Clonts is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up here in Oviedo, a charming town populated by chickens that freely roam the streets. Rex’s grand-dad was the original Big Daddy, who moved his young family to central Florida in 1923 and started out with a plot of celery planted in the rich Black Hammock soil of Seminole County. Today Rex and his wife Denise still grow celery for their neighbors, selling it along with a vast variety of other vegetable crops, from choi sum to purple-topped turnips. Committed to organic agriculture, BigDaddy’s re-certifies their farm every year and regularly tests the soil to monitor fertility, using carefully selected cover crops and no-till farming to rebuild the fields as a vital living ecosystem. Summer is downtime for Florida farmers, but in January, the place will be bustling with energy, and burgeoning fields will give Chef Bruno plenty to work with. Brazilian-born Bruno has lots of experience with improvising, having worked in high-end spots like Normans, taught at Le Cordon Bleu, operated a food truck and captivated central Florida tastebuds with his roving, after-hours Foreigner Experience pop-ups. Now he’s settled into his own brick-and-mortar place, and he’ll bring his omakase menu to BigDaddy’s field.

Chris Kenrick’s six-acre farm in Tampa is beaming with life and overflowing with all sorts of organically grown vegetables and herbs. It’s also home to the area’s oldest-running CSA program and farmer’s market, providing hundreds of Tampa Bay residents with fresh-as-it-gets produce year-round. Chris is a champion of local foodsheds and sustainable agriculture and believes in growing community from the ground up. His community-driven ethos includes farmer apprenticeship programs, hands-on educational workshops, farm tours and events for both children and adults. We’ll celebrate this inspiring work with a feast in their beautiful fields along Sweetwater Creek. Guest chef Eric McHugh spent more than twenty years in Tampa Bay area restaurants, including Hew Parlor at The Fenway Hotel, before helming the pans at Hotel Haya’s famed Flor Fina. He’ll bring us a taste of the restaurant’s unique menu inspired by the Cuban and Latin roots of Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood. Think coconut clam chowder, calamansi ceviche and wood-fired brick chicken with plantains.

This 7-mile stretch of white sand beaches and turquoise waters is spectacularly beautiful and beaming with Old Florida charm. You’ll feel your shoulders relax the moment you arrive here, and once you dig your toes into the silky sand, you may never want to leave. The island’s laid-back lifestyle is one of the reasons we keep coming back. The other is the plethora of fresh seafood and locally grown produce we’re lucky to feast on at the table. And then there’s the views of swimming dolphins and manatees paired with glorious sunsets over the Gulf. This year we are thrilled to welcome Ed Chiles—owner of the Anna Maria restaurant, Sandbar—and his team to the beach kitchen for the third time. Ed’s restaurant Sandbar is known for its seasonal seafood-centric menu sourced from nearby waters and nearby Florida farms. He’ll be joined by four other star chefs from the Chiles Group including Ted Louloudes & Helena Vavrikova of Anna Maria Bake House, Thomas Villetto of Beach House Waterfront Restaurant, and Aaron Kulzer of Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant. Host fisherman Brian Lacey is a good friend of the Chiles restaurant group, supplying them with everything from stone crab to Spanish mackerel to mullet. And farmers Zack Rasmussen & Natasha Ahuja of Gamble Creek Farms provide the vegetables. The three of them will join us at the table to tell us the story of what’s on our plates, while we toast to their hard work with a few glasses of crisp wine on the beach.

An abundance of organic salad greens, tropical fruit trees and pastured hens pecking through lush green fields. This family-run farm provides ample places to dine and an inspiring story to boot. Farmers Marty and Liza Holman use permaculture practices to keep their soil healthy, their crops nutritious, and their ecosystem thriving—which means farming without synthetic herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, and using permanent bed systems to protect the delicate fungal networks and root systems underground. We’ll learn all about their impressive farming system on the farm tour before sitting down at the long table for a delectable four-course feast from guest chef Jason Weiner. This will be our 16th (!) event with Jason, an OITF celebrity known for his hearty seasonal meals and friendly demeanor in the field kitchen. 

In 2020, he opened a Palm Beach outpost of his highly acclaimed New York restaurant Almond, quickly linking up with local farmers like the Holmans. Jason joined us at the Holmans’ last winter and cooked up a particularly delicious dessert with Liza and Marty’s star fruit, hibiscus and pink peppercorns. We can’t wait to see what he does for his sweet 16th!