Peggy Henry grew up in Fort Lauderdale, and now calls Gulf Stream home. She recently was named chairman of the board at the Florence Fuller Child Development Center.
Photo by Jerry Lower 

Fourteen years ago, Peggy Henry was invited to tour the Florence Fuller Childhood Development Center in Boca Raton. The nonprofit center, now 40 years old, provides after-school programs for children from low-income families.
A new mother at the time, Henry remembers anticipating feeling sad seeing the children who had so little and knowing her daughter had so much.
“But when I went there, I was so happy to see they were happy,” she said. “It was a profound moment for me. It was not about having stuff, it was about having basic needs and feeling safe.”
“I wanted to help them continue the service,” Henry said. She has been involved with the center ever since and this month takes on a leadership role as chairman of the board of directors.
Before Christmas, Henry and her daughter adopted a class and went shopping for gifts for them.
A long-time Boca Raton philanthropist, Henry is the ex-wife of commodities trader John Henry, who owns the Boston Red Sox and once owned the Florida Marlins.
When she moved from their Boca Raton home two years ago, she didn’t think about moving as far as Gulf Stream, she said, “not that it’s that far away.” A friend had always spoken highly of the town and showed her the house that has since become her home.
“I fell in love with it immediately,” said Henry, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale. “It has a real Florida feeling. I’m not a fan of the Mediterranean or Mizner looks. It (her home) has a more eclectic look. It has a great flow to it. Coming from a much larger house, it gives me a great deal of happiness.”
She and her former husband share custody of their teenage daughter, who recently became a big sister when her dad and his new wife had a child.
“I have a home in Boston, too, so I can be close to my daughter when she’s with her father.”
Henry’s family also includes a scruffy little adopted Bichon named Perry.
“He’s just the best,” Henry said.“I’m happy where I am in life right now, having good friends, knowing who I am and living a more authentic life.”
—  Mary Thurwachter

10 Questions

Q. Where did you grow up? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I’m a native Floridian! I was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale. The past eight years I’ve spent part of my time in Boston. It’s a great city to live in and there is so much to do. I’ve traveled to many places, but it always feel likes home when I return to Florida. 
I didn’t have the opportunities growing up that I have been fortunate to have now.  I feel that has kept me grounded and grateful. 

Q. What life accomplishments are you most proud of?
A.  I am most proud of my accomplishments as a mother. I am so proud of the young woman my daughter has become. There isn’t anything else as important to me than her happiness. She has a wonderful life filled with unique experiences that she doesn’t take for granted. She’s a very special person and I am proud.

Q. What is it about the Florence Fuller Child Development Centers that inspires you to become involved?
A. I became involved with the centers over 14 years ago, just after having my daughter. I was invited to a tour and still remember that day. The children were so happy and friendly as we walked into each classroom. It was evident that they were provided a safe and nurturing environment. The centers provide quality child care, early education and family support and prepare the children for a lifetime commitment of learning and social achievement, while empowering their families to build a brighter future.
It is important to me to do my part in ensuring the children have the same opportunities of those more fortunate. I’m excited to be taking a bigger role as incoming chair of the board.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Gulf Stream?
A. One of my best friends and [a] Gulf Stream resident, Caron Dockerty, helped me find my perfect home after a long search. I was beginning a new life and it was important to find a place I would be happy. I’ve enjoyed making it a home and I feel it reflects who I am today. I couldn’t be happier with my choice!

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Gulf Stream? 
A. My favorite part of living in Gulf Stream is being close to the ocean. Late at night when it’s quiet and a clear sky, I’ll stand in my back garden and look up at the moon while listening to the ocean. It’s a beautiful, calming sound. 
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax? 
A. Since my teenager controls the radio selection most often, we listen to the Top 40. When I find myself driving and singing along, I know I’m having a good day.
When I want to relax, I like to be quiet. I have a fountain outside that is just the perfect background sound to relax. When I really want to relax, I put golf on TV!

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, whom would you want to play you?
A. Diane Lane. She’s timeless, classic and gracious. I’ve always enjoyed her as an actress and I think she would be a woman I could have a friendship with.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. I’ve been fortunate to have several mentors in my life.  My first mentor has become a dear friend that I met more than 20 years ago when I was dating John. Marian was an interior designer from Memphis, helping him with a new home in Connecticut. We spent years working together on several projects. She was the most interesting, chic older woman that I had met and I admired her in many ways  I found a love for interior design while learning from Marian. It wasn’t long that I realized the lessons I learned helped me in life as well. I feel my sense of style, balance and confidence developed during my years with Marian and continue to help me be the person I am today.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. My friends make me laugh! I count on my friends more than ever and it is so good to have friends that you can laugh with in good times and bad. I’m lucky to have some very funny friends.  Also, my daughter and I always enjoy funny animal videos! She searches on YouTube for the best and we always have a good laugh together.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 
A. “It is what it is!” I’m not sure who said it originally, but I have a friend that says it often. For me, it’s a simple way of putting a situation into perspective. A decision isn’t such a challenge when you accept the reality.

Svetlana Simon’s heirloom hens lay colorful eggs at her farm west of Boynton Beach. You can buy free-range eggs like these, plus locally produced cheeses and vegetables at local green markets. Photos by Jerry Lower

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Eating locally grown foods is trendy.
 Whether you are a locavore who only consumes foods produced within 100 miles of home or someone who just wants to enjoy a truly vine-ripened tomato once in a while, you are part of the growing crop of people buying their produce from local farmers.
“It’s all about local growers and freshness,” says Roderick Smith, owner of Farm to Chef, a Lake Worth company that supplies restaurants with local produce. In fact, Smith claims that within six hours, corn picked in Pahokee, is shucked, chilled and on his truck ready to be delivered.
Geoffrey Sagrans has seen the buy-local trend grow quickly over the last two to three years. He’s the president of Localecopia, a nonprofit group that promotes local, sustainable businesses by bringing buyers and sellers together.
But even for the home cook, it’s relatively easy to buy local during the South Florida growing season that lasts from now until about May.
“When you buy local produce, there are no food miles involved. It’s all fresh, local, wholesome and nutritious,” Sagrans says. Food miles are how far your food has to travel to reach your plate. On average, produce covers 1,500 food miles, according to Sagrans.
He adds that by purchasing local produce, you get better flavor.  He explains that a tomato grown in California is picked green and then treated with gas to make it ripen. But a tomato grown and sold in Florida can be truly vine ripened.
“Those two tomatoes have whole different flavor profiles that are as different as day and night,” Sagrans says.
By purchasing local produce, you support the local economy. “They talk about creating jobs in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., but we are actually creating them when we purchase food from local growers,” he says.
For those living in Palm Beach County, there are many options when it comes to buying local produce. Farm stands and local markets are carrying an increasing array of locally harvested items.
“We grow 90 percent of what we sell and the rest we purchase from our neighbors,” says Marie Bedner of Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market in Boynton Beach.
Here they also offer customer-picked strawberries and tomatoes beginning in December. It doesn’t get more local or fresher than that.

And farmers markets have become more than just a Saturday social event. However, if you want to be sure you are getting local produce at the market, ask the seller about the provenance of his fruits and veggies.
 If those goods are produced locally, chances are, you’ll be talking to the grower.
Peter Robinson, founder of the Oceanside Farmers Market on Lake Worth beach, allows only local produce to be sold at his markets.
He also is in charge of a new farmers market just opened at the Morse Life Campus in West Palm Beach.
Originally set up to help the 500-member staff at this senior living facility eat better, the market also is open to the public on Wednesdays.
Many people are signing up for community-supported agriculture ventures, or CSAs. You become a member by purchasing shares in a local farm, such as Green Cay Produce in Boynton Beach or Swank Specialty Produce in Loxahatchee. 
When the harvest is good, you take home a predetermined amount of fruits, vegetables and herbs or whatever else the farm produces. At Green Cay, you get a large or small box each week.
If there’s a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or invasion of pests, you and the farm share in the loss.
The selection of items you receive each week depends upon the harvest, of course.
“Everything we share is harvested from 1½ acres of our 20-acre farm,” says Jodi Swank, owner of Swank Specialty Produce. There’s plenty of room for this CSA to grow from its current 65 shareholders, she adds.
And at the Ocean Avenue Green Market Urban Farming Project, they not only offer produce to CSA members but sell their harvest at the Boynton Beach Green Market and Cafe, says executive director Sherry Johnson.
If you want to try growing your own fruits and veggies, but you don’t have the land for it, you can rent space in a community garden. At the Cason Community Garden at Cason United Methodist Church in Delray Beach, some growers have had good luck with tomatoes.          
Local foods
For a taste of local produce, here are some places to find it:
Farm Stands/Markets
• 4th Generation Organic Market, 75 SE Third St., Boca Raton, 338-9920, www.4thGenerationMarket.com
• Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market, 12033 State Road 7, Boynton Beach, 733-5490, www.bedners.com
• The Boys, 14378 S Military Trail, Delray Beach, 496-0810
• Harvest Time Market, 4361 Hypoluxo Road, Lantana, 641-6199, www.HarvestTimeMarket.com
• Woolbright Farmers Market, 141 SW Woolbright Road, Boynton Beach, 732-2454, www.woolbrightfarmersmarket.com

Green Markets
• Boca Raton Green Market, Royal Palm Place Shopping Center (corner of
South Federal Highway and South Mizner Boulevard), 368-6875,
www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/rec/specialevents/, Saturday 8 am-1 pm.
• Delray Green Market, SE 4th Ave. a half block south of Atlantic Ave.,
Delray Beach, 276-7511, www.delraycra.org, Saturday 8 am-1 pm.
• Morse Life Green Market, 4847 Fred Gladstone Drive, West Palm Beach, 547-3100, Wednesday 1-5 pm.
• Ocean Avenue Green Market, 400 E. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach, 752-8598, Saturday 8 am-
3 pm.
• The Oceanside Farmers Market, Lake Worth Beach south of The Four
Seasons Palm Beach, east of the Intracoastal waterway, 547-3100,
www.oceansidefarmersmarket.com/wordpress/, Saturday
8 am-1 pm.
• West Palm Beach GreenMarket, 101 N. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, 822-1515, www.wpb.org/greenmarket, Saturday 8 am-1 pm.

CSAs
• Aaldmon Farm, 5470 Colbright Road, Lake Worth,  294-5797, www.aaldmonfarm.com
• Green Cay Produce, Boynton Beach, 638-2755, www.veggies4u.com
• Ocean Avenue Green Market Urban Farming Project, 400 E. Boynton Beach
Blvd., Boynton Beach, 752-8598,
www.localharvest.org/ocean-ave-green-market-urban-farming-project-M32315.
• Swank Specialty Produce, 14311 North Road, Loxahatchee, 202-5648, www.swankspecialtyproduce.com

Community Gardens
• Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market (see above), strawberries and tomatoes
• The Cason Community Garden, Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N.
Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, 271-2010,  casonumc.org/CommunityGarden.html
Customer-picked (call for availability)
• The Girls Strawberry U-Pick 14466 S. Military Trail, Suite 3, Delray Beach, 496-0188, www.thegirlsstrawberryupick.com
• Harvest Time Market (see above), strawberries

Svetlana Simon sells eggs, yogurt, cheese and milk from her Heritage Farm at the Delray Beach Green Market. BELOW: A sign at her stand describes her products and her philosophy. Photos by Jerry Lower

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
   
At the Saturday Delray Green Market, Svetlana Simon is in her white-tented booth with a caged white rooster. The Sultan rooster, a rare ancient breed with red comb and wattles, draws people who stop to talk to Svetlana about what she has to offer.
She’s providing eggs, yogurt, cheese and milk from the Heritage Hen Farm (heritagehen.com) in Boynton Beach that she owns with her husband, Marty. 
“I’m a big fan of their products and a faithful customer,” says Susan Paulus, of Delray Beach, who has been buying their chicken, turkey, duck and guinea eggs since the farm opened its booth about a year ago. She uses the duck eggs to make cakes and pies because they are high in protein and have rich yolks.
“You can really tell the difference between their eggs and even the organic ones you buy at the store,” Paulus says.
That’s because the farm fosters rare breeds raised naturally.
Svetlana also works as construction supervisor for the Delray Beach Community Land Trust; Marty is a licensed contractor involved with sustainable architecture and coatings.
But together, with the help of Svetlana’s mother, Ilinka Bogdanovic, they take care of the 15-acre farm and their 300 chickens, ducks, turkeys, quail, geese and French and African guinea hens. They also have four cows, a 30-year-old Brama bull named Romeo, and a 4-week-old calf named Coco Chanel.
The animals take a lot of care. Chicks must be 7 to 8 months old before they even lay one egg. And the free-range animals are prey for natural predators. In fact, a hawk killed two Dutch Welsummer chickens and a Penedesenca hen, a Spanish breed, one recent morning.
“Losses with traditional farming are immense,” Svetlana says. “It’s a lot of work and then you can lose animals.” 
But Svetlana comes by her love of the farm rightly. She was born in Serbia (then one of the republics of Yugoslavia). “It was natural to see people raising their own staples,” she says.
Her family and one set of grandparents moved to Michigan when she was 11. Her grandmother came to this country with tomato seeds, pepper seeds and yogurt she could use as culture. The seeds were the start of a backyard garden in the New World.
The garden became a family affair. “I used to hate canning season because my clothes would smell of garlic,” Svetlana says. Her mother would be in the basement making wine and vinegar and roasting peppers.
Summers, Svetlana visited her grandparents still in Yugoslavia. “My brother and I thought it would be boring to go stay with them on a farm without television. But it was a blast,” she says. In fact, at the end of one visit, they missed the plane home on purpose so they could stay longer.
When Svetlana moved to Delray Beach in 2005, she missed the family’s fresh food. “I was blessed that my parents had grown our food; it was so nourishing. But when I got to Florida, I got sick and tired of wondering where my food came from,” she says.
So she and Marty started raising chickens on leased parcels of land. But they wanted more.
In 2009, they bought their farm and moved into the little 1930s house with copper screens that’s on the property. “It’s such a pleasure raising your own food. I nourish the animals, and they nourish me. It’s beautiful,” Svetlana says.
They turned an orchid house into a place to sprout flax and sunflower seeds as well as grow wheat grass, herbs and other fresh food for the baby chicks. They have two pastures where the chickens, ducks and other birds forage, and the cows graze and eat fruit dropped from the many bearing trees on the property.
The 70-year-old fruit trees have never been sprayed with pesticides, Svetlana says. They include lychee, star fruit, coconut, passion fruit, bananas, avocados, guava, mangos, sour oranges, figs, macadamia nuts, jaboticaba and more. “I can’t remember them all right now,” Svetlana says.
She bags the duck, turkey, quail, goose and guinea hen eggs atop alfalfa hay to sell at the green market. “The customers go home with a little bit of the farm,” she says.
At the market, you can also buy her mother’s handiwork. “There were two solutions to any problem in my family. My father’s solution was an onion,” she says, remembering having a pungent globe held under her nose when she had a cold. “My mother’s was yogurt,” she adds.
Today, Ilinka prepares yogurt with a culture that she brought from Michigan and perfected for Florida’s heat and humidity. It took her more than a year to get it right. But it was worth it.
“Everyone loves her yogurt. It’s creamy and rich,” says Svetlana who also uses the cow’s milk to make raw butter and a cheese similar to cream cheese.
“If you work with nature and are patient with nature, you will be rewarded,” she says.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley can be reached at debhartz@att.net.

Bob Knorr and Linda Scheele ride their Trikkes throughout Ocean Ridge to stay in shape.
Photo by
Jerry Lower

By Paula Detwiller

There they go again. That man and woman propelling themselves silently along Old Ocean Boulevard on strange, three-wheeled vehicles as the sun rises over the ocean. They stand upright, hands gripping handlebars, shifting their weight back and forth, back and forth, sway, sway, sway. What are those things they’re riding?
Bob Knorr and Linda Scheele are more than happy to tell you about the three-wheelers they ride through Ocean Ridge every morning.  Part scooter, part tricycle, the vehicle goes by the brand name of Trikke (pronounced “trike”). Unlike a regular tricycle, it has no pedals.
“You use the same body motion you would to ski or skate,” says Knorr. The rider’s feet are planted on metal platforms above each back wheel. Shifting their weight as they “push off” from one foot platform to the other creates forward momentum, much like speed skating.
“It’s kind of addictive,” Scheele says. “The trick is to get your body in synch with the machine. Once you hit the sweet spot, you feel it.”
Invented by a Brazilian athlete, the Trikke is gaining in popularity among older adults seeking a safe, low-impact, full-body workout.
Danilo Cedeño Jr., co-owner of Hollywood Beach Trikke, says, “Our main clientele are middle-aged people looking for a new way to stay in shape.” Cedeño claims to have sold more than 100 Trikkes since opening his store three months ago.
For people like Knorr, 61, a retired insurance company owner, this new way of staying in shape is more fun —  and better exercise — than walking or bike riding.
“It’s a total workout for your legs, hips, and back,” he says. Knorr hangs his heels slightly off the foot platforms, which relieves his plantar fasciitis and “I can really get it going that way.”
He’s been known to reach 15 miles per hour (verified by a friend in a car).
Scheele, who is Knorr’s neighbor in the Murano Bay community of Boynton Beach, is equally enthusiastic. “It’s so fantastic for your joints,” she says. “It keeps everything oiled. I used to get all this neck and shoulder pain, but not anymore.”
A longtime businesswoman (she owns Food Features International and Xbac, LLC), Scheele is an active, youthful 68. She has a total hip replacement, arthritis and degenerative disk disease — but you’d never know it by the way she turns up the heat on her Trikke.
“Women come up to me and say, ‘Gosh, if that can make me look like you, I’m definitely doing it!’ ” she laughs.
The pair’s daily fitness ritual begins at 6:45 a.m. (or “oh-dark-hundred,” as Knorr jokingly calls it), when they load the collapsible Trikkes in Scheele’s SUV and drive to Oceanfront Park. They wave to the park’s morning maintenance crew, jump on the Trikkes and proceed to “carve” (Trikke-speak for the propelling motion) up and down Old Ocean for about 50 minutes, covering six miles.
Along the way they are met with quizzical looks, barking dogs and an occasional snake crossing the road.
Knorr smiles as he adds: “Some people don’t close their blinds when getting dressed in the morning. It’s hard not to notice.”
Scheele isn’t looking in the windows. She’s feeling the rhythm of the Trikke, getting in the zone, planning her day ahead.
“Every morning, to look over while riding this thing and see the sunrise — there’s no better way to start the
day.”       

Where to Buy
You can buy a Trikke online directly from the manufacturer, Trikke Tech Inc. of Buellton, Calif. (www.trikke.com), or from a local sales representative listed on its website.
Prices range from $220 for the adult-sized introductory model to $600 for the high-performance model.
To test drive a Trikke before purchase, check out these South Florida retailers.

Hollywood Beach Trikke
(Certified Trikke Trainer and Authorized Dealer)
101 N. Ocean Drive,
Suite 125
Hollywood 33019
(305) 316-7764
www.hollywood
beachtrikke.com

Brownies Yacht Toys
2301 S. Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale 33316
(954) 463-9446
www.yachtdiver.com

Brownies Palm Beach Divers
3619 Broadway
Riviera Beach 33404
(561) 844-3483
www.yachtdiver.com

Ron Foresta Sr. of Ocean Ridge and his grandson Nate wave while riding the carousel at Old School Square in Delray Beach. A 100-foot-tall Christmas tree and skating add to holiday activities that are expected to draw nearly 250,000 visitors to downtown before New Year’s. Photo by Jerry Lower