We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Ramos recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I started my career in the food industry as a dish washer and worked my way up through the trenches. Obviously, I was hooked from day one on how the environment made me feel. I’ve been cooking in professional kitchens my whole life. Being a chef and trying to “make it” while trying to have a family life has always been very hard for me to balance. Its amazing to me how my whole career has always been laid out for me. Meaning the next opportunity has always presented itself at the most opportune time. This leads me to the mission of where I am now and where my career is headed. Fastforward to today, a chef who is learning how to farm and selling our own grown local produce at a green market is a dream come true. I have always felt a connection with farming and growing food so when the opportunity came up to leave the kitchen and learn to grow food, I knew that was the right path. This our first season growing and selling. I have been part of the Delray Green Market for many years now. I started there as Red Splendor Sausage selling my artisan sausages and bone broths. Now we are Red Splendor Farm selling our own organically grown herbs, greens, edible flowers, and vegetables. I’m so lucky to be able to grow food with my family and at the same time do farm to table dinners in homes as a private chef.
Our mission is to provide clean healthy food grown locally to our community. Our plan is providing more locally grown food to the community around the farm. Thats how farms should work, is by support from those who lives around you would benefit from having a farmer nearby. Our farmers market delivery services the communities in west Boynton Beach and hopefully next season we can expand that distance more east.

We grow everything ourselves. We grow many varieties of heirloom peppers, which range from sweet to extremely hot. Tomatoes are in season right now, my favorite is the Tiger and Bumblebee varieties. The herbs we grow are not your traditional basic ones. We have a basils like African Blue and Blue Spice that have so much more flavor. All our greens are cut, cleaned and packed just a day before we sell them at the Delray Green Market. We sell dried medicinal herbs that are blended with other herbs for teas. This first season was about getting out there and establishing our presence as a local farm, which I feel we have accomplished.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am one lucky guy to be able to say I’m a chef and a farmer. If it wasn’t for Melodye I would still be cooking and running kitchens all day every day. She is the reason why Red Splendor Farm exists. Call it fate but I was done with restaurants and partners at the same time she wasn’t done with growing after her retirement from the nursery business. I remember the day I was on her farm picking June Plums for the restaurant, and I sat down on the grass for a break and said I could do this all day and be very happy. I think she was so happy to hear me say that. She knew I was done with restaurant life and so was my family. It was then that I finally found a way out of a business that hated and loved at the same time. There are many local farms to support but I feel our advantage is my chef experience. I’m learning how to grow but also I can show and teach our customers what to do with the ingredients.
Every day I go out onto the farm and I’m welcomed by Melodye who is always happy and ready to teach. We do everything ourselves from seed to market. We have no special equipment or machines; it’s all done by hand. There is so much time that goes into every herb, plant, green, and flower we sell. For me that is something to be very proud of.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Here is a story about the most important pivot in my career that saved me in business, career and life. I stared Red Splendor Sausage with my longtime friend in 2015 while we were both full time country club chefs. We had a vison to start an artisan sandwich shop and the green markets was a good way to get into business selling our artisan meats. We then started doing sandwich pop ups in local breweries to get ourselves known for craft sandwiches. I wanted so bad to get our Red Splendor Sandwich Shop open and it didn’t seem that would happen without help. I partnered with a group, and we opened a butcher shop and bar concept that would be the home for Red Splendor Sandwich Shop. After a year into this project, it became clear that this was not what I have envisioned for Red Splendor as a business model. With support from my wife, I realized that Red Splendor can be whatever I want it to be. Red Splendor is now a farm. It’s a green market vendor selling all our own produce. It’s a private chef farm to table dinner in your home. It’s a farmers market delivery service. Thanks to a community driven business such as Plam Beach Meats, Red Splendor is a biscuit pop up once a month. There are more Red Splendors coming soon. But for now, I put on my straw hat and meet Melodye on the farm and we get ready for our customers at the Delray Beach Green Market. So, you never know when you have to pivot but when the time comes do so with confidence and faith.

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We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

As far as her official title goes, she is my family. My wife’s aunt to be technical. so basically my aunt too. Melodye is the reason why Red Splendor exists today as farm. There is no question about it. Melodye and Ray Abell were in the nursery business for over 40 years and know how to grow. She has such a love and passion for growing food on her farm in west lake worth. She has always shared her bounty with the family and neighbors. It’s on her property that Red Splendor is growing. As I was a chef, Melodye would come by weekly with all kinds of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggs and fresh picked herbs. I would try to come by the farm every Monday to spend at least some time picking and harvesting things I could use in my menus. She and Ray are my teachers on the farm. I always have questions and she is always there to answer them, From seed to harvest and everything in between, which is a lot.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Redsplendorfarm
• Facebook: Red Splendor