NEWS

NEWS

September 06, 2017

Produce from neighborhood garden now served at Babcock Ranch

By: Vicki Parsons - IT

August 30, 2017

Farm-to-table produce and herbs from the Lake Timber neighborhood garden

Above: Farm-to-table produce and herbs from the Lake Timber neighborhood garden now served at the Table & Tap restaurant at Babcock Ranch will be available to customers at the Slater’s Goods & Provisions market nearing completion in the new town’s Downtown District. Far Left: Chef David Rashty continues to develop menu selections to suit Table & Tap’s diverse indoor and outdoor dining areas and appeal to Babcock Ranch residents and visitors from points near and far. Left: Farm-to-table produce and herbs grown and harvested in Babcock Ranch’s Lake Timber neighborhood garden have been incorporated in the menu items at the new town’s Table & Tap restaurant.

For those who prefer their food locally grown, it does not get any better than the dishes being served at the Table & Tap lakefront restaurant in downtown Babcock Ranch, a new solar-powered town being built by Kitson & Partners in Charlotte County off Florida State Road 31 just north of the Lee County Civic Center. Food and Beverage Director Matt Seiler and Chef David Rashty have created menu choices that incorporate produce and herbs grown in Babcock’s Lake Timber neighborhood garden that is a five-minute walk from Table & Tap. Neighborhood garden-grown Egyptian spinach and blueberry barley are featured in the restaurant’s tasty spinach salad. The same spinach enhances the Lion Fish dish, a sea to table offering from a source so local the fish arrives under the boat Captain’s name along with an indication of where it was caught. Eggplant from the garden is used in Table & Tap’s short rib tagliatelle dish. The garden’s lemon balm and lemon verbena are slow cooked in water. The zestful water is used for a perfect blend of taste and fragrance while preparing Basmati rice. Opal basil and rosemary from the garden add yet another layer of aroma and flavor to a menu that has quickly established Table & Tap as a favored dining destination.

Matt Seiler

“The garden fits into Table & Tap’s motif perfectly,” said Seiler. “Not having to outsource our fresh ingredients and growing on property is what our farm-to-table concept is all about. The garden is helping to generate an immediate supply of herbs and vegetables. We’ll also be making produce from the garden available to customers at the Slater’s Goods & Provisions market that is nearing completion downtown. Everything we grow is seasonal and will change as weather conditions dictate what we can cultivate.”

vegatables

Within the next 50 days, Seiler and Rashty are expecting a full yield of Red Bearded Glaberrima Rice and Carolina Black Rye. Bradford seedless watermelons should be ready for sale at Slater’s in November along with Benne that can be used from its early low leaves for fresh salads, as cooked greens, or as green pods in any okra application; tiny Petit Rouge Red Rice Peas that have an amazing aroma and flavor profile when dried; Sea Island White Rice Peas; Popping African Red Grain Sorghum that can be popped or parched and ground to flour and also offers an exquisite reduction from the syrup pressed from the plant’s stalks; and Scots Bere Barley, the first grain of the North American Atlantic coastal colonial settlement that malts like no other barley and is wicked great in all baking. To learn more about the solar-powered town being created by Kitson & Partners at Babcock Ranch, visit babcockranch.com.