The 2012 Florida Herbal Conference in Ocala

I had a great time last weekend at the Florida Herbal conference in the Ocala National Forest! I know some of you might be thinking...wasn't she at the Food Blog Forum the weekend before that? Two week ends in a row away from her family?! How could she? Well, we all should! Especially if you homeschool your kids like me :) It is hard to get away, but I have found I need to do it for my own sanity, so I seek out these educational trips and thankfully my parents can help out with watching the kids if my husband is traveling for his work.

The first talk we listened to was called "Growing Herbs in Florida's Climate", led by Jim Steele, owner of The Herb Garden.  What I learned from this talk is that herbs grow the best in spring and they do better in a cool, dry climate in general.  I've been telling my husband not to use Miracle-Gro because it's not an organic fertilizer and I found out from Jim that it does nothing for the soil.  It only makes the plant grow bigger in a short period of time but then you have to keep using it because the soil does not retain the nutrition from it.  So if you use Miracle-Gro, please stop!  

Go buy organic potting soil or you can buy the individual nutrients and make your own organic soil.  When I did a raised bed for a school garden project I just used Black Cow Cow Manure, Peet Moss, and Vermiculite.  I wasn't there to water every day and the plants did well even though I planted them late in the season.  There was no fruiting but they grew like crazy.  My husband still thinks that I was lucky to have these results and he doesn't want to spend the money on raised beds with fancy soil so long as our garden is producing.

There weren't enough chairs for me to sit in the shade so I ended up sitting on a pick-nick bench behind the tent.  As you can see, we had a good size crowd just for this class.  There were 5 classes happening in different parts of the camp simultaneously.

Rosemary Caspary was talking about "Healthy Cooking with Herbs and Spices" in the above photo. One of the books she mentioned that she uses a lot is called Wild Fermentation.  She also talked about making Water Kefir, Milk Kefir, and Kombucha and the basics of stocking a "clean eating" pantry.  She gave us a very useful handout that listed the various herbs, how to use them as food and for what ailments.  If you post a comment this month I will email you a copy of the document if you ask me :)

Emily Ruff, who is the Director of the Florida School of Holistic Living and also the event manager for the Herbal Conference, was speaking about "Food as Medicine" in the photo below.  She prepared several snacks made with herbs.  One thing she mentioned that I had not thought of was putting green powders in applesauce!  The sweetness of the applesauce hides the bitterness of the greens.  I use apple juice with the green powders all the time for my kids, so now I will try it with the sauce.

The last few photos are from the "Eat the Weeds Walk" with Deane Jordan.  Most of the weeds he showed us would be something to sustain us should we be lost in the woods.  I didn't take notes so I can't even tell you the names of the weeds below, but the pictures turned out really nice.

2012 Food Blog Forum at Disney in Orlando

I attended the first Food Blog Forum in Orlando last year and really enjoyed it. I had no expectations, I only wanted to learn how to improve my blog and to network with other food bloggers.  I was really pleased with the quality of the event, but this year they took the forum to the next level (or two!) by getting Disney World to sponsor it.  And when I say they sponsored it, I mean they paid for our hotel rooms at the Polynesian Resort, several food tasting events and Park Hopper Passes! WOW!

It was a tremendous savings and a huge value for me as a vegan food blogger because Disney food service is more than willing to provide vegan options.  In fact, they went out of their way to make sure that I always had several options, starting with this dessert pictured below from the Friday evening reception at the Grand Floridian Resort.

I decided to make it a weekend for me, so I didn't bring the family.  I felt a bit guilty about it while I was there, but I know I would not have had the opportunity to spend time connecting with other bloggers in between the event.   It was also relaxing for me to get away and have some time to myself, which I think is important for me to do as a homeschooling mom.  God knows I don't do it often enough.

Below are some of the food samples from the World Showcase Tasting Event that was open only to attendees of the Food Blog Forum.  We sampled featured dishes from several of the theme park restaurants.  I have to say I really felt pampered at this part of the event.  The food and the ambiance was incredible.

Stewed Lentils, Spicy Cauliflower, Onions, Tomatoes, and Mint served with Basmati Rice, Pappadam, and an assortment of Sanaa Signature Dips and Spreads.  Sanaa restaurant is at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.
 

From Park Event Operations at Epcot we sampled amazing Super Grain Fries made from quinoa and flax seeds!

Jaden and Scott Hair, owners of Steamy Kitchen and Diane Cu and Todd Porter, of White On Rice Couple were featured speakers and moderators of the event.  Not pictured but worth mentioning is Julie Deily, author of The Little Kitchen, who was the main organizer of the event.

On Sunday we enjoyed a free brunch at the Bayhill Whole Foods.  Besides the fruit, other vegan options included a tofu scramble and an oatmeal cookie. 

And here's a photo of all the "booty" I came home with.  Well, most of it!  OXO was generous in giving out the hand held kitchen tools and little plastic storage containers (not pictured).  I also won a Le Creuset Dutch Oven!!  I don't own one, so I am excited to try it out.

Kitchen Aid was also a big sponsor of the event and even gave away 2 major appliances.  Which reminds me I need to tweet about it to enter for their second giveaway :)  And I can say that with confidence because I learned all about Twitter from a couple of bloggers at the event.  I have a Twitter account but I had no idea I  was not using Twitter to it's fullest potential!  So if you want to follow me on Twitter, I know how to respond to Tweets now @fruityveggie.

Attending the 2012 Food Blog Forum in Orlando next week!

It's official!  I applied a few weeks ago but just got word today that I'll be attending the Food Blog Forum at Walt Disney World the weekend of March 17th!   I feel honored that I was invited to be there with some of the top food bloggers, food photographers, cookbook authors, web designers and others. I'm hoping some of their awesomeness rubs off on me!

The line up of speakers at the conference sounds amazing.  We'll be learning about Food Photography & Styling, lessons in Public Relations, how to write "bigger, better more badass food posts", how to take a blog to the next level (oh I need help there!), and networking sessions with experts in the field!


I attended last year's Food Blog Forum and felt like I made some improvements based on the information that I learned from the conference, mostly with food photography.  Though I admit I sometimes still use my iPhone to take photos and so I'm not talking about *those* photos!


Who else is going to the Food Blog Forum?!  Post in the comments section!

Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with "Sprinkle Shots"

 

Why is it that when most kids see the color green, even on a CUPCAKE, they want nothing to do with eating it?  I took these beauties to a birthday party and my kids were the only kids who ate them!  It's a good thing when your kids love green :)

These little cakes are DELICIOUS!  I promise you will love them, especially if you are a green tea drinker.  I didn't invent the recipe but I invented the creative sprinkle shot toppings.   Those plastic tubes are mini test tubes left over from a science experiment kit.  We only needed 4 or 5 for the experiment and there were 24 leftover. I didn't want to throw them out so I decided to use them as a decoration.  I was wanting them to look more like a test tube for a birthday party with a "Science Potions" theme.  But a friend at the party said they looked more like a little shot glass.  I agree!

The cupcakes can be expensive, especially if you try to buy your Matcha at the health food store.  My health food store wanted $25 for a 1 ounce container of Eden Organic Matcha powder.  I went to my local Asian store, Dong-A Supermarket, and paid $9 for the Maeda-En brand Matcha from Japan. You will notice if you go to the link for Maeda-En that it will cost $12 if you buy it online!  It's not organic, but it's made in Japan, and that's good enough.

You can go to the Post Punk Kitchen for the recipe and notice that they are decorated with little marzipan flowers there.  Well if you happen to make them with the marzipan flowers please let me know how that goes!