![]() All these fine dining places started not only using our product, but displaying our name on the menu,” Jodi said. But the product spoke for itself, and it wasn’t long before Swank was being served at The Ritz-Carlton and Café Boulud in Palm Beach, and 32 East in Delray Beach. ![]() To this day, our best-seller is called the Swank Color and Texture Spring Mix.”įrom there, Jodi evolved into Swank’s sole salesperson, knocking on the backdoors of every kitchen in Palm Beach County, her kids in car seats alongside bushels of produce. “Darrin started researching seed catalogues the next day, and we began growing these beautiful lettuces like amaranth, cress, and Mâche. He was eager to place his own order, but with one piece of advice: the lettuce was gorgeous, but it needed “more color and texture.” The turning point came when the executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach discovered the Swank lettuce on his plate while dining at Buonasera one evening. Only two people responded, including Swank’s first customer: Leonardo Cuomo, the chef/owner of Jupiter’s Buonasera Ristorante.īut if he was interested, she knew others would be, too, and she was right. Jodi sent out 20 letters to South Florida chefs, each a beautiful invitation to tour the farm and see the produce. According to Jodi, it’s mostly thanks to a calligraphed letter. It was an epiphany that changed the course of the business, and a bold move that would soon create a name for Swank Specialty Produce. I went on the Internet, did some research on high- end restaurants in Palm Beach County, and got to work.” “I knew we had to cut out the middle-man and go right to the source – the chefs. “We did it a few times, but we weren’t making any money,” recalls Jodi. Everything was hand- cut, cleaned, and packaged by the couple who began selling them to A One A Produce and Dairy, now Fresh Point, offering them a chance to peddle their goods via the specialty department. In the early days, the Swanks grew just three crops: tufts of baby let- tuce, fragrant arugula, and hardy basil plants. The year was 1999, but it would be several years before the couple had anything close to a farm. “We were on the road to becoming farmers, and I was following my husband’s dream.” “One day he came home and told me he’d found some land in Loxahatchee for the farm,” recalls Jodi. The love of farming was an early memory, inspired by family in Pennsylvania who grew crops like corn and hay.īefore the farm, Darrin worked as an electrician, but a side job in landscaping frequently brought him north into Palm Beach County’s acreage. His father a lieutenant for the Washington, D.C. If you ask, Jodi will tell you Darrin grew up in Maryland alongside four siblings. “We were that couple that said, ‘Let’s take a chance,’” Jodi said. First, it would take years of research, including reading every issue of The Best of Growing EDGE Darrin could get his hands on, and several years of growing pains.Įven today, Jodi is still in awe of her husband, 20 years after the then-newlyweds set up the area’s first hydroponic farm in South Florida. It would be decades before Darrin and Jodi would start Swank Specialty Produce, however. “He knew this would be the way to farm in the future.” “The first time he saw it, his mind was blown,” said Jodi Swank, co-owner of Swank Specialty Produce. At the time, growing food this way wasn’t simply innovative, it was inspiring. Originally constructed in 1982, the greenhouse tour gave Darrin an early glimpse into Disney’s hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquafarming methods. ![]() Palm Beach County’s most beloved farm actually has its roots at Epcot’s Living with the Land exhibit, to be exact. They say Disney is the stuff of dreams, and for Darrin Swank of Swank Specialty Produce, that’s certainly true. Fields provide melons, strawberries, tomatoes, root vegetables and wild flowers, while two 23,000-square-foot hydroponic shade houses produce around 350 different types of fruit, vegetables, herbs, and lettuces - even flowers. These days, the farm is thriving since its humble beginnings. ![]() and taste the bounty of its land, or marvel at one of the infamous farm dinners, you’d never guess founder Darrin Swank’s knowledge of farming is largely self-taught. When you roam the 20-acre farm at the edge of Loxahatchee Groves, Fla. This year, Swank Specialty Produce celebrates 20 years of business – but it hasn’t come easy, and the road to this success is paved with more than just basil, arugula, and lettuce. Swank Specialty Produce Sowing The Seeds For Success ![]()
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