Skip to main content

Growing Forward: Who to Call in Tallahassee

By
(Apologies in advance for the length of this note. It is a resource of who's who info in light of my departure, so save it for another day if you don't have a few moments right now).

Update: As of 2015, I've rooted in Jacksonville, FL where I am now growing and connecting with an awesome bunch of people and efforts related to good food. To stay up to date on my work and dreams, check me out on facebook, instagram or send me an email with subject line "Count Me In" to receive my "semi-monthly" updates which include a story and food gardening tip.

 A few years back, I drafted a dream for a Tallahassee Center for Urban Agriculture:

The Tallahassee Center for Urban Agriculture will serve as a hub of Tallahassee’s food movement, an incubator, a food “movement halfway house.” Akin to Milwaukee’s Growing Power, Birmingham’s Jones Valley Urban Farm, and Detroit area’s Growing Hope.  On a surface level, the Center will simply be a functioning urban farm: a farm in the heart of the city. If you take a second look, however, you’d see a institution funded via earned-income that will offer and coordinate an urban ag job training program for the unemployed, "Youth Grow" (i.e., GED ed + urban farming/food gardening training), a community workshop garden, community garden leadership development, school & church garden incubation workshops, cooking classes, community nutrition initiatives, and roundtable discussions to explore policies that would magnify local efforts working to create community based food systems. The Center will be engaged in and engaging its host community. The Center could serve as a centralized farmers’ market location and a staging ground for a local food gardening business. Lastly, the Center will seek to partner with and facilitate the food movement dreams of other organizations, institutions and individuals.

I had a dream, and reality is better. What we've got is an integrated movement, a mosaic of organizations, programs, and businesses making all this and more come to fruition. The growth over the past five to ten years of our community-based food systems and supporting efforts has been exponential.  Tallahassee Food Network (TFN), Red Hills Small Farms Alliance and Online Market, COPE Coalition, the Frenchtown Heritage Market,Tallahassee Sustainability Group, Seed Time Harvest Farms, TFN's Good Food Directory (community garden listings now online), the Youth Symposium on Food and Hunger, the city andcounty's community garden programs, and TFN's iGrow Whatever You Like youth farm were all launched within the last five years.  Add to these entities the countless producers connected with the markets, the dozens of organizations tied to COPE, the hundred-plus organizational affiliates of TFN, the food-based businesses that are on the rise, and the thousands of individuals and personal relationships that bind us together within and across organizational, network, race, income, neighborhood, age, political-affiliation, and gender lines.

We have a movement on our hands.

- - -

Strangely, in my opinion, people think that my departure is profound enough to call this movement into question. On the one hand, I am honored by the thought that I've had a large enough role in our good food movement that my presence in Tallahassee has mattered; that I'll be missed; that folks are making arrangements for me to serve as a traveling representative of TFN, so Tallahassee doesn't "lose" me.

On the other hand, I am well-aware of two things: 1)The movement daily surprises me by its growth and impact, and I am but one player of many, hardly responsible for its breadth and depth. I'm confident it will continue to thrive without my presence in Tallahassee.  2)We have a team in place that will continue the work, so we shouldn't miss a beat.

Speaking of the team, make a note of the below folks' names and their contact info. Call them. Introduce yourself. Invite them to lunch. Email them with ideas, with questions, with opportunities. Ask them about their life experience, their work with TFN, their dreams. I could write pages about each one of them, but I'll spare you the details. Just know: they are incredible folks who - if they haven't already - will inspire you.

Tallahassee Food Network staff team:
  • Bakari McClendon, coordinator (989.992.7513) ~ Go-to for "who's who," for grants, for partnership ideas, organizational oversight & development. He will be linking up the network.
  • Sundiata Ameh-El, iGrow co-coordinator (850.497.4306) ~ Go-to for iGrow, for urban ag services including compost deliveries, raised beds, community gardens, youth education
  • Alexis Simoneau, outreach coordinator (386.527.3914) ~ Go-to for website, newsletter, Community Food Report, publicity, outreach, sponsorships
  • Kristen Goldsmith, iGrow volunteer coordinator (419.356.9006) ~ Go-to for volunteer opportunities (short term and internships)
  • Edwige Toussaint, iGrow site manager (561.419.4886)
  • Clarenia White, iGrow workday chef and market staff (850.341.4385)
  • Ebony Smith, Finance Administrator (850 629 8665) ~ Go-to for TFN financials
TFN Board of Directors
  • TFN co-founder, Ms. Miaisha Mitchell with Frenchtown Revitalization Council
  • TFN co-founder, Dr. Qasimah Boston with Project FOOD Now
  • TFN co-founder, Ms. Joyce Brown with Cultural Arts Natural Design International
  • Shelley Gomez with Knight Creative Community Initiative and Frenchtown Heritage Market Action Team
  • Sue Hansen from Betton Hills Community Garden and New Leaf Market
  • Martin Chavez, a former iGrow intern from Faith Presbyterian Church, TCC student
  • Reginal Glover from Distinguished Young Gentlemen & COPE Youth Health Leadership Council, recent graduate from Richards High
  • Al Smith with Community Business Service
  • Sandy Porras-Guitierrez from Florida Department of Children and Families
  • Ed Duffee of Duffee Enterprises (aka the farm on Alabama Street)
And, of course, no listing of our team would be complete without TFN's following key partners:
  • Mr. Jim Bellamy, founder of the Frenchtown Heritage Market, President of Frenchtown Neighborhood Improvement Association
  • Minister Charlotta Ivy of Sowing Seeds Sewing Comfort Ministry - also the go-to for Manna on Meridian Garden
  • Chef Shacafrica Simmons with Empowered by Food; continues to workshop and lay foundation for her N. Florida Culinary Incubator project
  • Louise Divine and Katie Harris, co-founders of Red Hills Small Farms Alliance (and online market) and Karen Goodlett, RHO Market manager
  • Cetta Barnhart of Seed Time Harvest Farms
  • Peter Kelly, Maurizio Bertoldi, and Jeff Phipps who comprise the Incubator Group
  • Wes Shaffer of Tallahassee Sustainability Group
  • Betsy and Nikki Henderson of Dent Street Diggers Community Garden, Hi Fi Jazz, & Innovation Reality
  • Kristi Hatakka, Portia Lundy, and Mark Tancig with Damayan
  • Anthony Gaudio with Sustainable Tallahassee, Knight Creative Community Initiative and Frenchtown Heritage Market Action Team
  • Sue Wiley and Betty Addition with the Wiley Sunshine Foundation
Let's not forget:
  • Lindsey Grubbs with Farm to School in FL Dept of Ag and Consumer Services, Food Nutrition and Wellness Division.
  • COPE Leadership Team: Sokoya Finch, Cynthia Harris, Penny Ralston, and Miaisha Mitchell
  • Kathryn Ziewitz and Maggie Theriot in the Leon County Office of Resource Stewardship
  • Cynthia Barber, John Baker, and Lisa Galocy in the City's Office of Environmental Policy and Energy Resources
  • Patricia Byrd with the Macon Community Garden
  • Courtney Atkins with Whole Child Leon 
  • Trevor Hylton with Leon County and FAMU Extension, and 
  • Claire Mitchell, co-founder of Ten Speed Greens and the garden advisor to the iGrow team when they were gardening at Second Harvest.
*I am sure there are key folks that I've forgotten to list. The fault is my own. Just let me know. As I'm able, I will set the record straight.

- - - 

As I make arrangements for my departure, I am struck with excitement about the capacity of our team and the many exciting developments that are in the works. Here's a heads up about a few things on the radar that you should listen out for:
  • The Frenchtown Heritage Market is in negotiations with a restauranteur and the Frenchtown-Southside Community Redevelopment Agency regarding the construction of a permanent central market for Tallahassee.
  • Representatives from Tallahassee's SouthCity; Thomasville, GA; Sarasota, FL; and Americus, GA have either already commenced or plan to replicate the iGrow model in their communities.
  • TFN is in conversations with FDACS about ways that we can replicate TFN and iGrow models around the state.
  • TFN is going to continue coordinating and/or establish Farm-to-Table, urban gardening, and youth engagement working-groups to aid people in connecting with their good food movement peers
  • Leon County Office of Resources Stewardship - in partnership with TFN, COPE, Red Hills and others -- have identified three priority areas for their office to assist community leaders in implementing: 1)A food hub, 2)farmer and consumer education in conjunction with the food hub, and 3)developing the Good Food Directory.
  • A team is in place including Bakari, Sundiata, Peter, Shac, and Alexis to ensure that Collards and Cornbread continues every 2nd Thursday of the month, 1:30pm at the iGrow Youth Farm.
And just so you know: Sundiata, Clarenia, my wife Mary Elizabeth, and I will be representing Tallahassee Food Network in Washington, DC June 16-18th at the Jefferson Awards.  From there, Mary Elizabeth and I will be headed to Glacier National Park to work for the summer season. Following that, we will be embarking on a traveling adventure.  

I plan to stay in touch, and come back through town semi-regularly.We are exploring ways that I could continue learning from and growing the good food movement by serving as a national/international TFN representative. More on that as it develops.

In closing, as you have supported me, I simply request that you find ways to support TFN, its programs, partners; and that you continue to connect and grow the movement across lines of division.

Keep up the good work my friends,
Nathan





Labels:

Most viewed Man in Overalls posts of all time

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

By
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...
Read more

Man in Overalls - It's Like Washing Your Dishes

By
I often hear folks joke, "Yeah, I had a garden once. I put in all this money & effort, and I only got a handful of tomatoes. Each one of them cost $27!" And they usually end by saying something about not having a green thumb. My first tomatoes of the season I smile and think about a mental model I've been working on: Growing your groceries is like washing your dishes. While they're raving about how many plants they've killed, I'm thinking, "It's not your thumbs. I bet you don't have a sink. And if you do, are you using decent soap or that garbage from the dollar store? And did you mention you've never washed dishes before in your life? And you're surprised you broke a couple wine glasses with no more experience than a four-year-old?" My eyebrows furrow involuntarily belying my thoughts, "Really? That doesn't seem all that surprising to me." But, of course, not only would saying all that confuse people, it...
Read more

Man in Overalls - The Valley of Food & Ag Startups: Warren Wilson College

By
If you're interested in tech, pay attention to Silicon Valley. If you're interested in food and agriculture, Swannnoa Valley, more specifically  Warren Wilson College , is the place to keep on your radar. Man in Overalls with (L to R) Mary Elizabeth, my wife and Rachel (Williamson) Perry, WW alum and herbal tea entrepreneuer I'm an alum and proud of it, class of 2008. I studied community organizing, wrote a 140 page thesis about social movements as my capstone. Nathan, as college Freshman on WW Electric Crew. (Look for the blue water bottle) It's a work college, one of seven in the country. Think universal work-study, so in addition to whatever one's academic track, students are also working in the cafeteria, the library, admissions, as carpenters, lock smiths, lab techs, and-- per the agricultural legacy of Warren Wilson-- as row crop, animal, and vegetable farmers, gardeners, and edible landscapers.  Personally, I worked on the electric crew a...
Read more

Man in Overalls - Growing Great Soil

By
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 gar...
Read more

Man In Overalls - My Compost System

By
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...
Read more

Man in Overalls - Summer Garden Blues & What To Do

By
Welcome to mid summer in the Deep South! If you're anything like me, you're actively looking for excuses to avoid going outside this time of year. The heat doesn't so much radiate down from the sun as it seems to rise from the side walk. Rain helps- for about ten minutes- and then simply adds to the humidity as it vaporizes on the payment, so that it feels like you need a snorkel to make it from the house to the car, but of course, it only gets worse when you turn on the AC, and that first puff of hot air feels as though someone just wrapped your face in a plastic bag - not to mention that if you cut your grass yesterday, you're going to have to do it again... tomorrow. And, lets not even talk about how fast the weeds grow this time of year! Or the insects seem to multiply! Oh, home... :) Here's the good news: If your garden looks a little worse for wear, it's okay. Really. Mine does too. As much as I aim for- and largely achieve- a productive & beauti...
Read more

Man in Overalls - How to Start a School Garden: Design

By
Before you get to build your school garden like this, before you can help kids get their hands dirty like this,  or teach kids in your school garden like this, there are a few things you've got to take care of first. The #1 most important thing you've got to do is build your team. I say- with no exaggeration-- that human infrastructure is THE most important aspect of developing a successful school garden. But, I already wrote about building your school garden team last time. Assuming you're on track with that, a simultaneous step is to begin developing your school garden design. Here are a few things to should consider as you develop a school garden design: Purpose In your school garden interest meeting, one of the first questions you should ask is: "Why are you interested in a school garden?" Interestingly, this question serves two purposes. First, it helps the team gel because there will likely be a lot of overlap in answers. This will ...
Read more

Man in Overalls - When to Plant Tomatoes

By
" Plant 'em in the spring. Eat 'em the summer. All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer ," as John Denver sings in "Home Grown Tomatoes."  So, just when should you plant* your homegrown tomatoes? Or, more generally, when should you plant your spring food garden? (For an abbreviated version of this post revised & published in Edible Northeast Florida, click here. ) Since tomatoes along with other spring favorites like squash, corn, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and the like are "frost sensitive" (in other words, they'll die if it freezes), it's all about the "last frost date" for your area. Unless you're a weather savant and remember the last freeze for the past twenty years, you'll have to do some investigating. You could look up your Plant Hardiness Zone  on this cool "interactive" map from the USDA, and you'd learn that Jacksonville is in zone 9a, Tallahassee is in 8b, and At...
Read more

Man in Overalls - An Ode to Collards (Now with my recipes)

By
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...
Read more