There’s a reason why some of the finest restaurants in Palm Beach use vegetables, micro-greens, herbs and edible flowers grown by Swank Specialty Produce in Loxahatchee.
The family-owned and -operated hydroponic farm grows some of the highest quality produce in South Florida.
So just imagine if one of the region’s preeminent chefs cooked an amazing lunch for you at the Swank family’s farm—a repast brimming with just-picked, flavor-exploding, nutrient-rich fare.
Sounds like a relatively special experience.
Well, avail yourself of it.
Chef Dean James Max of 3030 Ocean, the award-winning restaurant at Marriott’s Harbor Beach Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale, is headed to Swank Specialty Produce on Jan. 23 to prepare a luncheon.
The event also will feature a tour of the all-natural farm, which includes 70,000 square feet of produce grown hydroponically, an above-ground method of growing plants in nutrient solutions without the use of fungicides, herbicides and pesticides.
Well-known Max, who has won numerous awards, grew up on a farm so from an early age, he would help harvest crops, then pick only the finest to test his creativity in the kitchen.
He’ll be right at home at Swank Specialty Produce, which has become regionally famous for the impeccable quality of its vegetables and herbs. The produce supplies fine area restaurants and is sold on Saturdays at the Green Market in downtown West Palm Beach.
Husband and wife Darrin and Jodi Swank grow (with a little help from their three young children) more than 200 products—five types of arugula, four varieties of radishes, eggplant, squash, zucchini, baby carrots, beats, shelling peas, all sorts of tomatoes, basil, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, lemon verbena, mint, watercress and much more.
The Jan. 23 lunch and tour, says Jodi, “should be a great learning experience about what we do and how food is grown hydroponically. And in the hands of Chef Dean, the lunch should be amazing.”
The menu is still in the works.
One hundred tickets are available for the tour and lunch, which begins at noon. Tickets are $100 apiece, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Slow Foods Glades to Coast.
To buy tickets, log on to swankspecialtyproduce.com; order before Jan. 21.
To reserve a spot by mail, send $106.50 by check, money order or cashier’s check payable to Swank Farm. Address: 14311 North Road, Loxahatchee, FL 33470.
For more information, call Swank Specialty Produce at 202-5648.