Farm Fresh

Farm Fresh is the first Food and Wine Festival marketplace on the Mexico side of World Showcase.

Last year’s Griddled “Yard Bird” is replaced by the Chicken & Dumplings and Pickled Beet Salad.

Loaded Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Nueske’s Pepper Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Peppers and Green Onions – $4.50

This dish typically gets more positive reviews from others than it does from this website. In my experience, the portion is on the chintzy side, the pasta is overcooked, there isn’t enough cheese involved, and the mushy noodles are overpowered by the bread crumbs and heavy pinch of crunchy green onions that do little to complement the flavor of the bacon.

But it might be worth sticking your fork into if you’re going to order something else from the booth – it’s pretty shareable. Above is the 2016 version.

This was in 2015 when the portion was smaller and the green onion even more abundant.

Taste: 3/10

Value: 3/10

Chicken and Dumplings: Stewed Chicken with Mushrooms and Spinach – $4.75

The broth is on the bland side, but it does complement the chewy dumplings quite well. The chicken is kind of stringy and being stewed, doesn’t offer a lot of texture. There’s only a couple of bites. This is comfort food at its finest, but I think it’s a pretty easy skip for most people as nothing here is revelatory. Homecoming Florida at Disney Springs does it a lot better and you get four times as much food for twice the money.

Taste: 4/10

Value: 3/10

Pickled Beet Salad with Herbed Goat Cheese, Minus 8 Vinaigrette and Toasted Walnuts – $3.75

The creamy goat cheese is what carries this salad with the creaminess contrasting nicely with the vinegar in the salad dressing and beets and  to make for a delightfully contrasting flavor profile, which is livened up even more by the slightly sweet, crunchy, earthy walnuts.

With surprisingly few “actual” salads available at the various Marketplaces, I appreciated the opportunity to try a few bites of spinach and other fresh, vibrant flavors, even if I am not historically a “beet person.”

Taste: 7/10

Value: 5/10

• Woodchuck Raspberry Hard Cider – $3.75
• Wyder’s Dry Pear Hard Cider – $3.75
• Two Henrys Elderberry Hard Cider – $4.00

In 2015, the three ciders above, in addition to an Ace Hard Pumpkin version, were available as part of a flight. I like the Two Henrys Elderberry Hard Cider, which is locally produced and tastes a little different than the other two that are available at most grocery stores nationwide.

Florida Orange Groves Mango Mama Wine – $5.50

Florida Orange Groves wines are ubiquitous at each of the Food/Wine/Flower/Garden Festivals in one flavor or another. They typically smell better than they taste, though the flavor on the Mango Mama is more intensely sweet than the Key Lime or Pineapple that have appeared in the past. If you have interest, you can pick up a bottle of the same wine at the Festival Center for $19 over $5.50 for three ounces, but if you’d like to try a wine and don’t like your typical cabernet or chardonnay then this is potentially a good choice.