Get ready to start your gardens! After a two-year hiatus, GrowFest! is back at Redland Fruit and Spice Park Oct. 15-16. This festival, which kicks off the South Florida growing season and the upcoming Miami-Dade Farmers Month in November, features lots of seedlings and fruit trees to buy, two local culinary cook-offs, workshops and demonstrations, food and activities for the whole family.

“GrowFest! is about connecting the dots between the farm or garden and the dinner table,” says Bee Heaven Farm’s Margie Pikarsky. “It’s about providing the knowledge and materials to grow, forage, buy, prepare, and eat good, local, seasonal food.”

This year’s theme is The Hidden Life of Soil, focusing on fungi and the soil microbiome, mycelium networks, healing, and regeneration. The beneficiary is Miami Seed Share for their work establishing Miami’s first Public Seed Library promoting native and heirloom plantings and providing growing resources for teachers and residents.

Don’s miss the Local Chef Cookoff Challenge, for amateurs on Saturday and pros on Sunday, a Chopped-style competition in which contestants have one hour to prepare a dish using produce found in a mystery box of locally grown ingredients.

And this is the place to buy local seedlings, including heirloom tomatoes, peppers, herbs and other vegetables, along with fruit trees. Get the best advice for successful growing, too.

Buy tickets here: https://beeheavenfarm.ticketspice.com/redland-growfest-2022