Resources

Below I've copied my Resources Page because I've grown aware that a lot of folks don't know I've got one and/or don't know where to turn for a go-to destination on the web related to food gardening and food movement resources. Take a quick (or long) look through. In the short or long-term future, you can come back and find them by clicking the "resources" link just over to the right under the google search box.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz...

Tallahassee Food Gardens Quick Reference Guides
What Can You Grow in a Square
- Square Foot Gardening (in raised beds), plant spacing, seasonal varieties
Food Gardening 101
- The Basics: local planting dates, how to prep beds, plant, water, etc
Cover Up that Soil
- Primer on the what, why, when, and best practices of growing cover crops
Types of Community Gardens
-Outlines the three major models of community gardens with local examples

Additional Quick References
Just Fruits and Exotics' Vegetable Planting Guide

- Planting dates, depths, yields, days to harvest, row spacing
Just Fruits and Exotics' "Just the Facts" about N FL Fruit Trees
- Locally adapted fruit trees, berries, grapes, kiwis and more
Native Nurseries' Pest Solutions

- A table that lists pests on one axis and available pest products on the other.

Just Fruits and Exotics' Beneficial Insect Guide
- Most insects are on your team. How to bring the good ones in.

Cornell's "Home Composting"
- Composting Essentials, How to compost yard waste, food scraps, etc

Community Garden Resources

Tallahassee's Local Community Gardens

"Starting a Community Garden" from UF IFAS

NC State's "How to Start a Community Garden" Guide

How to Start a Community Garden by the ACGA

ACGA's Best Practices Website

Local Sources (From which I secure 90% or more of my supplies)
Lumber/Hardware:
Capital City Lumber (2501 Lonnbladh Rd, (850) 385-0315)
J H Dowling (705 W. Madison Street, (850) 222-2616)
Capital Cash and Carry (1021 Railroad Avenue, (850) 224-2131)

Vegetable and herb plants, Seeds, and Soil Amendments:
Gramlings Seed Store (1010 S. Adams Street, (850) 222-4812)
Native Nurseries
Tallahassee Nurseries
Esposito
Heinz Nurseries
Natural Matters (local Fertrell -organic- Fertilizer distributor)

Fruit Trees, Berries and Grape Vines:
Just Fruits and Exotics

I Also occasionally Order Seeds, Tools, Extra Supplies, etc from
Bountiful Gardens
Seed Savers Exchange
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
A M Leonard

My Top Three "Go-To" Food Gardening Books
1)Down to Earth Gardening Down South (Tallahassee native, Lacy Bullard)
2)How to Grow More Vegetables (John Jevons)
3)Square Foot Gardening (Mel Bartholomew)

For Aspiring Community Food System (Food Movement) Facilitators
On Community Organizing and Facilitating:
The Long Haul (Myles Horton)
     - the best book I've read about building and sustaining social movements
Growing Communities Curriculum (from the ACGA)
    - "How to" on Community Garden Facilitation and Com. Organizing
Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship...
     - Great stories about facilitating vs doing thing "for" others
Change by Design
    - use design-thinking in your efforts to grow a new food system

Understanding the Food Movement
"The Food Movement, Rising" (Michael Pollan)
"A Good Food Manifesto" (Will Allen)

Urban Agriculture
CFSC Urban Ag Primer
City Farmer (Urban Ag News Blog)
"Start an Urban Farm" (ATTRA/NCAT publication)
Beginning Farmer's Amazing resource of Urban Ag Links

To Understand the Current Industrialized Food System
Food, Inc. (movie)
King Corn (movie)
Fresh (the movie)

Addressing Privilege and Oppression amidst the movement
"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (Peggy McIntosh)
History of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
Growing Food and Justice for all Initiative on Race and the Food System

Organizations to Track and/or Join, which offer great conferences
American Community Gardening Association (ACGA)
Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC)
Growing Power
Seed Savers Exchange

Urban Ag; Micro Ag Educational Opportunities and Resources
Georgia Organics Urban Ag Training (Atlanta, GA)
Growing Growers (Kansas City)
Michigan State University Student Organic Farm
San Diego City College Urban Agriculture Certificate Program
SPIN (Small Plot INtensive) Farming
Grow Biointensive/ Ecology Action
Beginning Farmers Blog
"Start a Farm in the City" (joint effort between ATTRA and NCAT)
Also See SARE publications (below)

Additional Books and Resources on Sustainable Food Production
Weedless Gardening (Lee Reich)
The Organic Manual (Howard Garrett)
How to Grow World Record Tomatoes (Charles Wilber)
Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (Bradley, Ellis, and Phillips)

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways (David Holmgren)
Introduction to Permaculture (Bill Mollison)
Edible Forest Gardens (Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier)

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA)
Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (SARE)

SARE Publications-- free to download
Building Soils for Better Crops (Magdoff and Vanes)
Managing Cover Crops Profitably
Manage Insects on Your Farm: A Guide to Ecological Strategies
Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual
Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms...
How to Direct-Market Your Beef

Land and Power: Sustainable Agriculture and African Americans

Our Very Own Local Food Raising Experts
FAMU's CESTA (agricultural extension)
UF's IFAS (agricultural extension)
Farmer Pam at Backyard Farm in Monticello, FL
Damayan Garden Project
Front-Yard Farmer in Niceville, FL
FSU's Tallahassee Sustainability Group (a student organization)

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

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...

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

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...

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 gar...

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...

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

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 ...

Man in Overalls - When to Plant Tomatoes

" 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...

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

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...

Man in Overalls

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