GreenMarket Summer Workshop: Poor Man’s Caviar

Following a nearly 10 year tradition, the Alliance for the Arts GreenMarket will host free summer workshops every Saturday this June at 10:30 a.m.

The first workshop begins June 2 and continues during subsequent June Saturdays to offer visitors an opportunity to learn five different recipes using locally grown ingredients. Visitors will get a taste of the finished product and complimentary refreshment at the end of each class.

The first presentation is instructed by local farmer, gardener and GreenMarket manager Santiago De Choch. De Choch will introduce students to Poor Man’s Caviar, a vegetarian dip that combines eggplants and sweet peppers  as the main ingredients, both abundant and easy to grow this time of year in southwest Florida.

The recipe comes from De Choch’s grandmother, a music lover, Holocaust survivor and prodigious cook, who in turn learned it from her own mother in her native Sofia, Bulgaria.

Saturday recipe presentations continue with Tatiana Logvinova, Green Paradise Eco Farm; Robert Pascuzzi, owner of Brisket Brothers restaurant in Fort Myers; Ana Escalon, SOL Urban Farm; and Gina Ortiz, Gina’s Tamales and Oaxacan Cuisine. Recipes will be vegetarian, although eggs and dairy products may be used. Each workshop will feature as many local ingredients as possible, all of which are available at the GreenMarket.