Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamer and Claire Hutin Harpke.
After working in the restaurant and fine wine business for many years, husband and wife duo, Tamer and Claire joined forces in 2013 to focus on their urban farm labor of love, full-time.
While Tamer has always been an avid gardener by hobby, his interest in traditional farming was piqued after several trips to the great wine regions of Europe, where he worked the grape harvests in Italy. He now pours that passion into his modest boutique farm, where he grows hard-to-find, specialty produce year-round.
Both Harpkes share a background in hospitality management, having worked in fine dining restaurants throughout South Florida and having managed fine wine import portfolios. With many established relationships from his days in fine wine sales, Tamer is both Farm Manager and Sales Manager, while Claire handles all administrative and marketing aspects of their operation. But as with many start-ups, both parties wear many different hats!
Harpke Family Farm has enjoyed much organic growth of their small business which now serves dozens of restaurants in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, provides provisions for yachts and offers a year-round Microgreen CSA program. Last year, Harpke Family Farm was awarded Best Farm by the Miami New Times and has recently launched an impressive Farm Table dinner series as well.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with any start-up, we had to take several steps back in order to take some big leaps forward. From financial limitations to hurricane damage, we have toughed it out through moments of major self-doubt but we’re always spurred on by the amazing response in the market.
Most recently, Claire faced some serious health concerns battling cancer and a shattered pelvis, but is happily on the upswing. Shocked and deeply humbled, Harpke Family Farm directly benefitted from multiple community organized fundraisers in our time of need. Recipes for Change, held at Casa Florida thanks to Chef Santiago Gomez (Tacology, Cantina La Veinte) was an enormous help after Hurricane Irma, while Slow Food’s Snail Social at Books and Books, courtesy of Chef Julie Frans (The Palms, Wynwood Yard) and Chef Allen Susser most recently assisted the farm following Claire’s pelvic injury.
It is beyond motivating to know how deeply we are cared for by our customers, neighbors and peers. We wholeheartedly look forward to continuing to cultivate community, along with our specialty produce.
Harpke Family Farm – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We focus on growing specialty produce: edible flowers, live microgreens, gem lettuces, heirloom tomatoes and petite root vegetables, for instance. While we are not certified organic, we employ only organic farming practices and never use synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.
We are always looking to push ourselves, offering unique crops not widely available locally and never stop our process of research and development, We self-distribute to our valued wholesale partners and offer weekly CSA pick-up on the farm for CSA members.
We are certainly proud of finally getting to a place where we’re showing sound proof of concept, fiscal sustainability and lots of organic growth. We are now most excited to be partnering with SoFla’s top chefs to launch our Farm Table Dinner Series under our Seminole-built Chickee hut.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Very hard to point to one moment in particular, it’s more like a series of moments where all our hard, back-breaking, sweaty work pays off. For instance, whenever a Chef or consumer has an “ah-ha moment” of bliss eating our food; or when visitors to the farm can’t get over the surroundings; or when our community supports us through our rough patches… there are moments nearly every day that remind us to be thankful for being able to do what we love.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2781 SW 36th Street
Dania Beach, FL 33312
(Visits by appointment only please) - Website: www.HarpkeFamilyFarm.com
- Email: harpkefamilyfarm@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harpkefamilyfarm/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/harpkefamilyfarm
Image Credit:
Tamer Harpke
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