The Tempeh Shop in the news

A taste for tempeh
The Gainesville Sun
Begin with a 50-pound batch of soybeans. De-hull them, boil them, dry them, then add the tempeh culture that uses the spores of a specific mold to inoculate the beans to ferment them. After about 30 hours, this process produces what Jose Caraballo, 65, is so proud to tell people about: tempeh.

Caraballo turned his homemade tempeh into a 25-year-old business that supplies more than 20 restaurants in the Gainesville area with the soy-based meat alternative. With apprentices - including one now supplying more than 100 restaurants in North Central Florida - he hopes to ensure that small, local tempeh shops in every town will defeat the few factories mass-producing tempeh. Read full article...

The Tempeh Master
The North Central Florida Business Report
When José Caraballo first took on the vegan lifestyle, he found he wasn’t getting as much nutrition as he needed. Then someone introduced him to tempeh, a protein made from fermented soybeans.

It was a move that not only satisfied his hunger but led him to a satisfying career as a tempeh manufacturer.

Caraballo’s Tempeh Shop now provides product to more than 15 Gainesville venues, as well as restaurants in Key West, Orlando and St. Augustine. He also sells to commercial and private buyers in Florida and South Georgia because UPS Ground can deliver to those areas overnight so the tempeh remains fresh. Read full article...

A Local Food Solution
The Gainesville Sun
Family farmers and local business owners gathered Sunday evening in the hopes of finding a place in Gainesville to sell their products, which include a cold-hardy avocado that produces fruit in Gainesville's coldest winter, biodynamically grown produce and unpasteurized goat's milk and cheese.

About a dozen vendors gathered at the Citizen's Food Expo to inform a large crowd interested in learning how to eat locally and gain support for the Citizen's Co-op of Gainesville. Read full article...

Diners 'Jonesing' for freshness can search no more
The Gainesville Sun
Back in the dark ages of the 20th Century, "jones" could be more than a last name. It could be a verb.

If someone was craving something, a Coke, a burger, a beer or even something more exotic, they could be said to be "jonesing" for it. The actual patois might go something like this: "Man, I'm really jonesing for a cheeseburger."

Those 20th century dark ages did not foresee a newer restaurant in Northeast Gainesville called The Jones Eastside, but after you've been here a few times, I can imagine how you might "jones" for The Jones, especially on a weekend morning. Read full article...

The Farmer's Market: A Community United
The Gainesville Sun
The sickly sweet smell of harvest sunflowers permeates the air as lively acoustic music dodges in between stands. Babies walk barefoot while sucking on sorbet pops and businesswomen take pleasure in an outdoor smoke.

Everyone's all smiles at the Union Street Farmer's Market. Every Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m., local farmers and vendors sell their wares to the community.

The delicious and the eclectic can be found here. From hand bags, jewelry, freshly picked vegetables and fruits to homemade bakery items, there's a little something for everybody. Read full article...

A Caribbean experience

Omar Oselimo came to Gainesville six years ago planning to launch a successful leap into the radio industry. Instead, he has become the owner of one of the most popular Caribbean restaurants in the city.

"I came to Gainesville in 2003 with DJ Klarc Shepard to do a weekend show on MAGIC 101.3 called 'Reggae Boombox,' " said Oselimo, the owner of Reggae Shack Cafe, at 619 W. University Ave.

Oselimo said the weekend radio show didn't work out, and Shepard, knowing Oselimo had a passion for cooking dishes from his native Jamaica, told him about the empty building where the Reggae Shack is now located. Read full article...