{"id":303065,"date":"2026-06-10T21:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303065\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:13:10","slug":"the-advantage-of-fresh-and-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303065\/","title":{"rendered":"The advantage of fresh and local"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Rooster\u2019s Manager Amanda Bodiot. -ROOSTER\u2019S \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

It\u2019s well over 90 degrees, knee-deep in a June afternoon east of the sprawl on State Road 80 in Lee County, where a bustling Rooster\u2019s Produce farm market almost appears out of place among nearby fields and cow pastures.\n<\/p>\n

Most Floridians are living in air conditioning on a day like this. But not at Rooster\u2019s, now open for the first summer ever, like some northern country standard, somehow out of place but happy to be there.\n<\/p>\n

This can\u2019t be real, can it?\n<\/p>\n

There are long tables groaning with fresh vegetables and abundant fresh local fruit. There are coolers loaded with Florida fish or pasture-raised pork and beef from a farm less than 10 miles distant. There are shelves chock-a-block with local honey and sauces. There are locally made breads and ice creams richer than Liechtenstein. And there\u2019s a lot more.\n<\/p>\n

Outside under the great oaks stands a picnic table or two, but nobody\u2019s sitting there. Instead, they\u2019re clustered around a large shady pen containing animals for adults and children to see and pet, like goats and piglets.\n<\/p>\n

Traditionally, this time of year, Rooster\u2019s and most other farm stands are huddled up in a slumbering summer silence, as if the subtropics had forbidden any fresh local produce to rise from Florida gardens and fields after the first days of May.\n<\/p>\n

But now the CLOSED sign says OPEN. Seven days a week.\n<\/p>\n

The same was true of a number of good restaurants that shuttered for the summer.\n<\/p>\n

But some things have changed \u2014 not the weather, but other things. Demand, skill and will, perhaps. More people, certainly, people who don\u2019t leave with the snowbirds.\n<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this hasn\u2019t changed, apparently: When food can be grown or raised in fields near their communities, people will come, no matter how hot it is outside. And they\u2019ll bring it home eagerly to their tables.\n<\/p>\n

Unless.\n<\/p>\n

Unless fine restaurateurs prepare it, people like chef Melissa Donahue and her partner Thomas Juneau at Sweet Melissa\u2019s (sweetmelissasrestaurant.com<\/a>). Then people will arrive to partake.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tRooster\u2019s co-owner Trevor Baer (center) with employees Ara (L) and Ulise Luquez.. -ROOSTER\u2019S \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMelissa Donahue and Thomas Juneau at Sweet Melissa\u2019s restaurant. -COURTESY PHOTO
\n\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n

Those appear to be laws of nature, even in the subtropics. Donahue, a James Beard Award nominee, reopened on Summerlin Road in Fort Myers after Hurricane Ian destroyed her original restaurant on Sanibel Island. For her, such fresh produce is essential not only for taste and health, but for longevity after a storm.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFresh local food has more shelf life, so it\u2019s easier to avoid losing so much produce after a hurricane,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n

But the work required is significant, not to mention the preparation for things they probably won\u2019t face in, say, the Chicago farm or restaurant scene: hurricanes, for example.\n<\/p>\n

Trevor Baer, co-owner of Rooster\u2019s with his brother Tyler, says it just makes sense to stay open and supply people and restaurants.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here anyways. Landscaping, prepping fields, taking care of animals \u2026 in a business like this, it\u2019s tough to walk away.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

His farm and store manager, Amanda Bodiot, puts it this way: \u201cFresh is important. Maybe not to all, but to some, and most definitely to me.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal, during the summer, can\u2019t be the (sole) focus because not as much does grow down here during these hottest days.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But she loves selling the things that do.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal mangoes and tropical fruit mostly. Fresh okra that we can grow right here, even.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s something else they\u2019ve grown and intend to maintain right through summer. \u201cI want to maintain the vibe, the \u201cRooster\u201d energy,\u201d Bodiot says.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI want us to maintain routine \u2014 our locals\u2019 routines. We love our customers, and they love us, so it\u2019s fun to be here for them. We may look a little different in summer since it\u2019s not the best time for growing, but our vibe will remain, along with our love for what our customers want.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s going to be hot. They don\u2019t care, apparently. And neither do the customers.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Farm to table means right from the field next to the market. -ROOSTER\u2019S \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

The fields flanking Rooster\u2019s, complete with an iconic scarecrow, are a relatively new endeavor. After producing thousands of tomatoes and greens in the winter and spring, this summer they\u2019re sporting not only okra but black-eyed peas, representing both the geography and the food culture of the South.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese summer crops can take the heat and rain, and you don\u2019t have to worry,\u201d Baer explains.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd black-eyed peas add nitrogen to the soil, so when you\u2019re done, you add them back in, till it in, and the earth loves them too. Then we\u2019ll get prepped for the fall, get back to tomatoes, pepper, collards for the holidays, squashes, eggplants \u2014 the goal is to pick year around and always have something available here growing on the farm, whether it\u2019s peas, melons or even flowers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Among the prominent suppliers of Rooster\u2019s is Cypress Creek Farms and Ranch in Alva.\n<\/p>\n

There, says Baer, \u201cThey grow a bunch of organic greens, tomatoes, radishes, herbs, peppers, onions \u2014 it\u2019s all organic. And we get the meat from him year around.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

There are rib-eye steaks and ground beef, along with pork chops, sausages and bacon, all from grass-fed grazing animals.\n<\/p>\n

Now the place has customers all the time. And the Rooster\u2019s crew have made adjustments.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put up plastic flaps for shade \u2014 that helps the coolers keep up \u2014 and we make small adjustments for heat and rain. We built a lean-to off the big cooler to keep stuff out of the weather,\u201d Baer says.\n<\/p>\n

In the event of a big storm?\n<\/p>\n

Both Sweet Melissa\u2019s and Rooster\u2019s are ready, they say.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a long time ago when I was living in Washington, D.C., and we had a really bad storm with power out at the restaurant \u2014 you put everything in the coolers, you empty out the ice vessel and fill it with ice, and you move that into the cooler,\u201d Donahue says. \u201cAnd at home we make sure we have a lot of propane tanks in case power is out for a while, like it was in Helene and Milton.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a chef who can make watermelon heirloom tomato salad, sweet and spicy shrimp and grits, blue crab pasta, ancho and honey braised short ribs, roasted redfish \u2014 that\u2019s with andouille sausage ravioli, saut\u00e9ed holy trinity and a Creole beurre blanc sauce she learned in her New Orleans days, which ended when another hurricane, Katrina, destroyed her restaurant there \u2014 all without ever depending on a refrigerated semi-truck delivering food already delivered in the refrigerated hold of a ship or plane from a distant continent.\n<\/p>\n

For Donahue, \u201cI keep inventory super, super tight\u201d in seasons when storms are more likely.\n<\/p>\n

And for Baer and his crew, \u201cWe know somebody who can get us generators,\u201d so they can maintain power and refrigeration.\n<\/p>\n

For both of them, though, if food is at risk of being lost, they just give it away to neighbors or people in need.\n<\/p>\n

They\u2019re happy to do that if it comes to it, they both say.\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s farm-to-table in Florida for you.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rooster\u2019s Manager Amanda Bodiot. -ROOSTER\u2019S \/ COURTESY PHOTO It\u2019s well over 90 degrees, knee-deep in a June afternoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-303065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}