North Fort Myers farm-to-table restaurant wants you to know what’s in your food

Reporter: Lindsey Sablan Writer: Matthew Seaver
Published: Updated:
(Credit: WINK News)

Your food shouldn’t be a mystery, but often the ingredients in your dinner are. Rose O’Dell King, the owner of Rosy Tomorrows Heritage Farm at 8250 Nalle grade Road in North Fort Myers, is trying to change that.

With a breeze blowing through the garden and the sun shining down on the longhorns, the farm-to-table experience is as authentic as it gets at Rosy Tomorrows.

“Most of everything we serve comes from here,” said O’Dell King.

She started the 100-acre farm nestled in North Fort Myers to feed her family. The restaurateur said she didn’t like not knowing what was in her food. “When they come into this country they get sprayed even organic vegetables get sprayed,” said O’Dell King. So she grows her own vegetables.

She also raises her own livestock. “Beef can come from any place and as long as it passes through the USDA facility can be labeled as American beef.”

O’Dell King also puts an emphasis on regenerative farming, making sure there is no waste. “We don’t have feedlots where you just put animals on a feedlot where there’s no grass. we have 600 and some laying hens. We have them in this beautiful mobile structure that goes around the farm and there are holes on the bottom so that all their excrement goes down through and that fertilizes the grass as they go.”

That simple mobile home keeps them from needing to buy manure to spread on the pasture and keeps the grass growing for the animals.

In just a short eight years, the farm purchased to feed her family has become a sought-after restaurant with white table cloths and delicious food.

(Credit: WINK News)

“I’d like to at some point have everything that we, everything we grow here for the restaurant,” said O’Dell King.

Rose O’Dell King was just recognized by WINK News’ partners at Gulfshore Life as one of the women of the year.

During the pandemic, she found a creative way to pivot in the restaurant business.

O’Dell King created boxes of fresh food, including meats and veggies, even bread dough, and sold them to families.

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