Agro-Marvel Thrives on People-Packed Peninsula!

It’s frickin’ hot out. Again.

That’s when I always seem to visit. Of course, that’s when the busy (an understatement) Farmer and Farmer’s Wife can stop and take a breath—between hectic growing seasons—to show me what’s new.

I’ve been an admirer of Gateway Organic Farm since I first pitched a story on this Pinellas County (FL) wonderland to my editor at Bay Area Business Magazine in the summer of 2008. Gateway is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) operation offering annual memberships that garner weekly or bi-weekly pick-ups of freshly harvested produce, November to May.

Hank and Pamela Sindlinger have been working hard with their grandchildren, scores of volunteers and grateful local-food enthusiasts and chefs, turning slow but steady miracles on this three-acre green strip wedged into suburbia.

This time, I was greeted by rows of giant black pots lining the fence—some 250 of them left over from the property’s landscape nursery days—put to good use, overflowing with squash and kiwi vines and herbs. (Photo, right: Muscadines on another fence)

They’ve cleared more land for more herb and vegetable gardens. The greenhouses contain a variety of alternative gardening experiments, from a tilapia tank and earthworm enclosures to hydroponic towers. Every project is made of recycled material. Their creativity turns someone else’s trash into useful components that meet their needs without wasting resources.

Everything has a purpose at Gateway. The chickens peck away at grubs and weeds when they’re rolled along the rows in the “chicken tractor,” leaving rich “chicken gold” behind. The bees buzz away from their hive boxes to help with pollination.

One of the greenhouses is used for special dinners, herb society klatches, and other get-togethers. The Sindlingers have big plans for future farm activities beyond planting and harvesting.

As usual, I came home with armloads of foraged treats from the now-scraggly gardens: kale, collards, buttery yellow squash blossoms, tawny and brittle coriander stems gone to seed, dill, oregano, sunflowers. The herbs immediately went into a lunch pasta tossed with olive oil, Roma tomatoes and garlic.

Supper was an adventure. I’d always wanted to make stuffed squash blossoms. Now I could. I carefully untwisted the delicate flowers, spooned a blob of feta and herbs softened with a little Greek yogurt into the cup of the bloom, dunked the bundles into a slapdash tempura batter and popped them into hot oil. Amazing and delicious.

I sautéed the greens with paper-thin sliced garlic from the tender bulb tugged gently from the earth only a few hours earlier. Now that I’ve tried home-grown garlic, I can say its light ethereal taste stood out like a dewey Merchant-Ivory heroine compared to the tightly papered, pungent Abe Vigodas you get at the grocery store.

Locally-grown food just makes sense, given today’s health concerns, energy woes and economic conundrums. Backyard plots and community gardens are sprouting up all over. With CSAs like Gateway providing yet another opportunity to eat local, we really have little excuse not to try it.

Gateway welcomes visits by appointment only during the summer. For more information, visit the website: http://www.gatewayorganicfarm.com/.