A Shout Out for Good Work

Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Nonetheless, I'm going to say it again: there is SO much good work being done locally as it relates to the food movement, as it relates to building a resilient community-based food system*. When I consider highlighting great work and to whom to offer thanks, I am often at a loss because I don't know where to start.

Allow me to chronicle the list by memory and dates as I've encountered the food movement recently.

April 13th, I met with Betsy Henderson at her Dunn Street property (currently a vacant lot); she dreams of a thriving French Town Community Garden that involves both young and old, hosts community food workshops, provides space to local churches to raise food for the hungry, and hosts periodic cook outs where neighbors can meet neighbors.

April 14th, via the coordination of Ms Miaisha Mitchell of the Frenchtown Revitilization Council and Harriette Hudson with Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, I conducted a workshop at TMH with Health Ministry leaders from area churches interested in investigating the potential of starting church gardens.

That weekend, Esposito Garden Center hosted me for a Food Gardening 101 workshop. Later in the day, I attended Damayan's Shakespeare Garden celebration at Lichgate. Later that evening, I attended the Red Hills Small Farms Alliance Kick Off at Turkey Hill Farm where they announced the launch of the Red Hills Online Farmers Market, which greatly facilitates the purchase and sale of local food-- likely to take our local food distribution system to the next level.

April 23rd, 47 folks joined at the Havana Community Gardens for the 2nd Annual Community Garden Gathering of the Big Bend where folks heard how the Havana gardens got started, shared ideas, stories and lunch. Additionally, Damon Miller, coordinator of the FAMU Community Garden reported on their 79 plots on Orange Ave, and invited everyone out for the FAMU C.G. Open House on May 28th. Thanks to Jennifer Taylor of the FAMU Small Farms program, Miaisha Mitchell with the Frenchtown Revitalization Council and the Havana community gardeners for co-organizing this event with me. Here's a couple pictures:

The last week in April, FBMC launched (to my knowledge) the first company food garden in town. I hear the Florida Commerce Credit Union is also discussing the possibility.

Over the course of late April and Early May, Working Well, Crawfordville Elementary, and New St Johns AME church hosted me for gardening workshops. Can I mention that at Crawfordville, little miss Madison- known as the "class priss"- helped me out with my presentation by walking around with worms in her hands to accentuate my discussion about soil micro organisms? Can I also mention that all 285 kids that cycled through my workshop space got their hands in the compost, planted a green bean seed, and pretended to make it rain by snapping, clapping, stomping and "thundering"? And later, that they pretended to eat a giant bowl of vegetables like "Vegetable Monsters" akin to the Cookie Monster? Here's a few pictures.

Did I mention that the Crawfordville Elementary workshops took place immediately adjacent to their beautiful school garden? There's one 4'x16' raised bed for each grade level. Just wonderful:

Sat, May 7th, Fort Braden Community Garden hosted visitors for their Open House. Their garden is awesome! With (40) 15'x15' plots, their entire garden is 100'x200'. From the community feel to the deer fence, the information kiosk to the tidy pathways between all their beds, the Fort Braden Community Garden is a sight to see. Sarah Smith and Dave Watkins, gardeners, shared, "Our meetings always turn into idea sharing sessions where we report our our different experiments and teach each other about things like how to avoid using chemicals." This simple story in itself is enough to cause me to sing Fort Braden's praises. What a learning space! Here are a few pictures:

I love these refurb'ed chairs.

Ms Dorothy insisted that we take an American Gothic picture. What a hoot! Fun lady.

Saturday, May 14th, SouthWood will break ground on their Community Garden, approved for Town Center, across from Early's. Take a look at their snazzy flier:

To wrap up, again I'll say: "There's a lot going on." What I've reported hardly comes close to giving a full picture of the Tallahassee-area food movement. Just Saturday at Fort Braden, I met a man named George with aspirations to start an agricultural rehab center. There's talk of--and a proposed design for-- a Frenchtown-based urban agriculture job-training/re-entry program for women incarcerated at FCI Women's Prison who will soon re-join the community. I hear there are new gardens getting started at Killarn Lakes Elementary and Kate Sullivan; a group of high schoolers in Frenchtown will soon start a food gardening entrepreneurship program; the Social Work grad students at FAMU are starting a youth gardening program; folks in Indianhead Acres are brainstorming with Hartsfield Elementary about how neighbors might could supplement the cafeteria fare with homegrown produce. The examples are endless. The local food movement is rising.

*Resilient Community Based Food Systems: community and church gardens, a local food industry of thriving local farms and busy farmers' markets, retailers that emphasize healthy and local options, CSAs, cooperatively organized local growers, school gardens, company gardens, countless home gardening workshops and classes, city farms, innovative urban agricultural demonstrations, food security efforts that address quality, backyard and industrial scaled compost operations, seed saving, food prep education, etc. You know the list.

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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Man in Overalls - Growing Great Soil

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

Man in Overalls - Summer Garden Blues & What To Do

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

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

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