Man in Overalls

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!" harve...

What follows is a paraphrase of the presentation about emergent movements and asset-based community development that I gave at the COPE (Childhood Obesity Prevention Education) Coalition meeting on Tuesday evening, 4/30/2013. COPE is a comprehensive coalition of public and private sector agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals in our capital city working to address childhood obesity. The focus is on holistic prevention strategies rather than weight loss. Many Tallahassee Food Network partners received $10,000 COPE mini-grants to scale-up their efforts.  Learn more on the COPE webpage. Tallahassee Food Network hosts monthly Collard and Cornbread Gatherings to connect folks and spokes of the food movement to one another around good food. Good Evening! My name is Nathan Ballentine. I'm here tonight as a co-founder of the Tallahassee Food Network . Folks around town know me as the Man in Overalls. Before I get started, I'd like to take just a momen...

Hey there good folks, I've got a quick little story for you and a couple of pointers as you begin your summer garden. 1.) Story: A Hidden Garden Last week, Sundiata Ameh-El, co-coordinator of  iGrow  and I were installing raised beds around town together. Because we were in the area and because my father had told me about it, we swung by for a look at an unlikely farm. It's hidden behind a Tallahassee shopping center, behind a hedge on a steep hillside above a storm drain. It's absolutely gorgeous, everything a mini farm should be, and it's maintained by a gentleman from China who doesn't speak any English. (To protect his privacy, I'm being intentionally vague about his farm's location.) Aside from the beautiful produce, the most impressive aspect in my opinion was the terracing itself. I've always wondered how indigenous peoples the world over have farmed on hillsides without loosing their beds to the first rain. Take a look. No...

Southwood Community Garden looking great (12/2012) So lets say you're starting a community garden. You've done your homework, so you realize that when you're starting a community garden, the community  aspect is just as important as the garden  aspect. In that light, before breaking ground or applying for land from the City of Tallahassee  or Leon County , you'll likely organize a community garden interest meeting. A year ago, I mentioned  asset-based community development ( ABCD ) in a post about my friend and mentor, Amanda Edmonds at Growing Hope in Michigan.  At the core of ABCD is the premise that everyone-- and by extension, every community-- has assets: skills, knowledge, resources, people they know, and organizational affiliations that teams can fit together like pieces of a puzzle to better their community. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to put ABCD into practice when I aided Cristin Burns (marketing manager at New Leaf) in facilitating...

How does a team of dedicated youth and adults create a major food-producing, educational, and inviting urban agriculture demonstration project on a 1/3rd acre vacant lot? How much food can we raise? How many people -- especially young people-- can we engage in urban agriculture? Can we make money raising and selling healthy, green, fair, and affordable food ? These are the questions we've been wrestling with at the Dunn St. Youth Farm , the main initiative of iGrow-"Whatever You Like," the urban ag youth program of the  Tallahassee Food Network . My job as the program coordinator is connecting the team with area experts and arranging hands-on experiences, so we can discover our own answers to those questions. Youth began work on the farm in July. The picture below shows Tierra, Khadijah, and Martin smoothing out the compost-mix in a 4'x4' raised bed, which they planted with sweet potatoes. Throughout the summer and early fall, the iGrow team visited o...

Check it out! I've been working with the FL Dept of Ag to create a bunch of "How To" Food Gardening Videos.  For example: "How to build raised beds," "How to plant," "How to water," and all kind of other basics.  Below are a few to get your started.  For the rest (and for the ones still to be released), stay tuned to the Fresh for Florida Kids Youtube Channel . While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and show you a few other things as well. I'm super excited about this: The City of Tallahassee TV station, WCOT did an "Eco-Smart" program on the new City Community Gardening Program .  It's half an hour and contains loads of info including the new process by which neighborhood groups can apply for and get access to city land on which to start community gardens -- a program that emerged from a partnership between the Tallahassee Food Network and the City of Tallahassee. Lastly, I've got two more quick pre...

  My largest and most exciting project this spring has been the Fresh for Florida Kids Food Garden at the Holland Building, downtown on Calhoun Street. Here are a couple pictures: The garden has received a lot of press: Florida Helps Mom with Age Old Message (Tampa Bay ch 10)   Commissioner Putnam Opens Fresh for Florida Kids Food Garden (Capital Soup) Adam Putnam Plants Healthy Eating Gardens in Tallahassee (Sunshine State News)      Adam Putnam on YouTube Florida School Garden Program (WCTV) Learning We've Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden (Tallahassee Democrat) Amy Campbell-Smith at the FL Dept of Ag and Consumer Services (Food, Nutrition, and Wellness) has been doing a superb job of overseeing and writing about the garden.  Here's a sample of one of her fun updates written to her fellow gardeners: Happy Wednesday, everyone! Kathy Sanders and I were just outside gathering good things from our garden!  There...