A Word on our Local Food Economy

Good folks,

I've got a quick bunch of stories for you, a couple food garden pointers, and a (workshop) announcement.

1.) Stories: When I've got a book to write and only got a page

The challenge every time I try to write a newsletter or blog is whittling down the list of possible stories to share. Living amidst the Tallahassee Food Network (TFN), there is so much good work going on and so many dynamic stories to report. We need a documentary and journalism crew on the team just to capture all the stories: from the 75+ community gardens in town to the hundreds of youth that Qasimah Boston has trained in leadership and nutrition, from the Red Hills Tomato "Feastival" this past weekend to the wheat threshing/grinding demonstration today at the iGrow Youth Farm. And that's not to mention the many home gardeners who tell me their stories of family recipes, of their parents who planted by the moon, and their children who, "Just today!" harvested their own bell peppers and ate them "right, then and there." (If you are a journalist or know someone who would be willing to lend their time to document food movement stories, please let me know).

To prioritize, I found myself inspired today by the open conversation at the TFN Collard and Cornbread Gathering on Farm-to-Table Economic Development, so I'll share a few tidbits from my world in that arena:

iGrow Whatever You Like, TFN's youth empowerment and urban ag program has harvested over 1600lbs from their Dunn St Youth Farm and earned over $4000 from produce sales + another $3000 (this year, $14,000 total) from iGrow Bucket Sales. Did I mention that iGrow teenagers are equipped to accept credit and debit cards using an iPad Ap? 21st Century farmers!
Sundiata Ameh-El, my friend and iGrow colleague launched his new compost pick-up service business, Compost Community, which takes the food economy full circle. He's working with both individual households and restaurants. The finished compost generated is donated to area community gardens.
Red Hills Online (Farmers) Market is doing more business than ever. Last week's sales were the highest they've ever been!
Cetta Barnhart's Seed Time Harvest, a local food distribution company is connecting rural growers who have crops going to waste with customers who want local, fresh produce. She packages seasonal produce from half a dozen farmers into CSA-like bags and delivers her orders weekly. Though she's web-savy (order forms are on googledocs), she's phone calling seniors to make sure they don't fall into the food economy digital divide.
Claire Mitchell and Danielle launched Ten Speed Greens Urban Farm this past winter, and their farm (and business) is thriving: bike-delivered produce to local restaurants, workshops, farm t-shirts, potlucks; the "whole nine."
Tallahassee Food Network and partners are investigating a possible local food certification program for local farmers as well as for restaurants and grocers who sell local products. The certification would ensure geographic "local-ness" as well as guarantee agricultural standards. With the proper branding, it would provide a marketing advantage to farm-to-table restaurants and other businesses who support the local food economy. Imagine walking into Publix to find a North Florida Grown or TallyFresh section. Appalachian Grown is a model we're looking into.
Whole Foods is looking for local suppliers; their goal is to source 25% of their produce locally.
TFN needs more hands on deck to continue developing the Good Food Directory that will help local folks find healthy, fresh, green, fair, and affordable food.
People in the Tallahassee MSA (metropolitan service area) purchase $178million* of fruits and vegetables every year. We're talking hundreds (thousands!) of local jobs if we re-root our food economy in the region. (*figure is from the T/LC Econ Dev Council).

The roots for a thriving local food economy are growing, but it's going to take all of us to develop it to its full potential. What's your piece?

2.) Food Garden Tips

If you're leaving on vacation for a while or otherwise don't want to be bothered with food gardening over the summer, plant sweet potatoes. (Man in Overalls YoutTube "How To" video). Plant them anyway; they love the heat, block out the weeds, and serve as a living mulch. Speaking of which: mulch, mulch, mulch, 2" or 8". (Oak leaves are my favorite). Mulch does three things: it conserves water, blocks the weeds from growing, and regulates your soil temperature against the sun. Cooler, moister soil = healthier plants = fewer pests. (Come to the workshop, I'll explain :)

1.)Workshop Announcement:

Summertime Urban Farm Workshop

A workshop taught by Man in Overalls, Sundiata (Compost Community), Efrayim (Growing Green Gardens), and the iGrow Youth. Learn to grow food in the heat without headaches or heat exhaustion. 9-11am, Sat., June 29th at the iGrow Youth Farm (514 Dunn St). Registration is $20/Adults ($25 at the door), $5 for children and youth. Sign up on Facebook or by email. Workshop Flier PDF.

Happy growing and stay cool,

Nathan, the Man in Overalls

iGrow Buckets and Raised Beds for sale online!

Magic Compost Mix delivery and topdressing, 1 yard for only $99 + tax

PS- Food Garden Questions. Email or FB me.

***Sign up for semi-monthly updates from the Man in Overalls by emailing me with the subject line "Count Me In."

Why Can I Eat Bread in France, but not the USA?

Updated 10/31/2017 as the National Organic Standards Board meets in Jacksonville, FL. This may well be the most important thing you read this year for your health. (Originally written in 2015 while I was traveling-- and eating bread-- with my wife in France.) I've got a food riddle for you from Paris, France: Why can I eat bread over here when it makes me sick at home? I'll share my best guess in a minute, but first, a little personal background. Since my senior year of high school, I've not been able to eat much bread at all. For five years, I was severely hypoglycemic, and everything I ate had to have more protein than carbohydrates. That meant, in effect, that I spent my years of college beer-less and eating lots of salad with meat on top. I ate tons of vegetables, very little fruit, basically no carbohydrates to speak of, meat, nuts, eggs, and cheese. If I accidentally ate, say, meat loaf that was, unbeknownst to me, made with bread in it, I'd spend the n

Man in Overalls - It's Like Washing Your Dishes

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Good soil will basically grow your groceries for you, but how do you build great soil? The answer is that there are two options: a quick & easy way and a DIY, hard(er) way. So we're on the same page, I'm continuing my #GrowYourGroceries The Easy Way series by digging into the how-tos of growing great soil. These stories and techniques will likely make the most sense after reading Geeking on Good Soil , my last update. (I outlined where I was headed in The Big Picture.) As I was saying, the easy way to build a great soil is to fill raised beds with a terrific compost-based soil mix like my Magic Mix to jump start your food garden productivity from year one. From there, seasonally, you simply top-dress each season before planting with another few inches of compost-based soil mix. This is how I manage my own food garden and those of my customers. Why? Because at the root of things, I'm a lazy food gardener, and long ago I decided to embrace it. 😎

Man In Overalls - My Compost System

Composting, they say, is an art form. But, truth be told, I'm just too lazy for all that. My own compost philosophy is, "Crap rots in the woods, doesn't it?" But really. :) Whenever I think of home gardening systems, I always reflect back on my grandmother. She gardened up until the week she died at 93. She planted by the signs and assured me that's why her collards were not eaten up by bugs and were able to grow for 3 years running and up to 8 or 9 feet tall. She had a little rototiller, planted straight rows, mulched by spreading leaves to keep the weeds down. She threw out a little 10-10-10 from time to time and kept the cabbage worms at bay with Sevin dust. She hoed if the weeds called for it. But mostly, she harvested. Her pots were always full and her freezer always stuffed with produce: collards, mustards, turnips, peas, tomato gravy, squash, you name it. Now, I don't use 10-10-10 or sevin dust, and I'm not big on tilling. However, the thi

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I love growing my groceries in the fall - watching the miracle of growth, having ready-access to the freshest produce money-can't buy, the many flavors, getting to try new varieties - all while the temperature drops to more and more pleasant levels. I enjoy growing most anything in the fall, but, if I had to choose just one thing to grow every fall for the rest of my life, it would be collard greens, hands down. It's a health thing and an effort-to-yield calculation, but in the beginning, the roots of my collard green passion were seeded by family. When I was a kid about 9 or 10, just a couple years into gardening in the front yard , my aunt, the family documentarian showed me a clipping of my late grandfather from the Graceville New (or was it the Jackson County Times?) beneath his 9ft collard greens that he had kept alive multiple years, growing them into small trees. Not to be outdone, my grandmother grew a collard forest of her own. Seizing the moment, my

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