'Our family goal is to live as clean as possible but to aim for 80 percent organic. We don't try to pretend to be purists. When I'm speaking to people and I pop open a Diet Coke, they all go, `phew.' We all have enough rules in our life already.''

The Rosases host a variety of paying guests and friends, from local families and visiting tourists throwing gourmet adult and children's birthday parties to companies holding corporate retreats.

The first time I arranged for lunch there, in the spring, I was lucky enough to be in the area the same day the couple was hosting cookbook writer and Irish transplant Noreen Kinney.

Now a resident of St. Petersburg, two hours south, Kinney was one of the first writers to celebrate new Irish cuisine. From her Florida home she also runs the international cookbook and culinary awards program called Cordon d'Or. She met the Rosases after Al received the award for Culinary Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007. Now they are working together to boost organic and local food, along with agritourism, in Florida.

''For 20 years we've kept thinking, this is the tipping point, but then it fails to happen,'' Erin says. ``We have better name recognition nationally than in our own back yard.''

DINNER TIME

For the meal with Kinney, Al cooked turnip cake with sausage, shrimp, and mushrooms; quail eggs and smoked wild boar in a white sauce; larb with lamb; and shrimp (caught wild on the North Carolina coast) served in stone ground white grits. For dessert, he topped an aebleskiver, or Danish doughnut, with homemade salted chocolate.

Before dining, guests sit at the granite counter top between the dining room table crafted from a 300-year-old monastery door from China and the large kitchen stocked with KitchenAid equipment to watch the chef at work. Two decorative signs on the walls read ''anticipation'' and ''family,'' words that resonant here.

While Al enthusiastically describes what he's concocting, Erin cheerfully provides running commentary on the health benefits of organics and the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup, as well as hormones and antibiotics in milk.

During both my meals there, we took a break between dinner and dessert to tour the chicken and quail coops and the pig pens.

''Guests can help with the chickens, cows and pigs,'' Erin says. ``The chickens all come home at night, so the chicken run in the morning, when they all go out at the same time, is pretty exciting to see, especially for children.''

The children's birthday parties they stage include not only gathering food from the farm, but making meals from scratch.

''We've made bison corndogs, lobster tacos, made pasta from scratch, and even churned the butter for the homemade cake,'' Erin says. ``I had the mother of four boys tell me that her kids said it was the coolest party they'd been to.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@