Man in Overalls

Front yard gardens, school gardens, community gardens, church gardens, workshops and iGrow Buckets... it all happens at once in the spring time.  Below is a sampling of what's been keeping Wendell and I busy the past several weeks. Fresh for Florida Kids Dept of Ag and Consumer Services (Holland Building) Garden (which is going to serve as the set for You Tube Food Garden Education clips to be shared state-wide with students and teachers as part of the DOA's new Farm to School program). Seminole Montessori Preschool Garden (Lots of fun working with parents and children throughout the day.) Faith Presbyterian Church Garden (Kids grow food to give away through Manna on Meridian food pantry. Also the location for workshops that we offer on distribution Saturdays with folks coming to get food.) Whole Child Leon / Wesson VPK Garden -- TD article (Engaging kids in the 95210; encouraging children to get their five fruits and veggies every day.) Dena and Jenna...

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 TM...

What a workshop! Man in Overalls standing in the shadow of Will Allen Will Allen , pre-eminent urban agriculture leader, MacArthur Genius presented, Sunday, Mar. 6th, on the work of his Milwaukee-based non-profit, Growing Power .  Additionally, he led a workshop on how to develop a compost-producing/food-raising initiative to address the ills of urban decay-- including a hands-on composting and worm composting segment that involved over 75 participants. Here are a few notes: -Every year Growing Power diverts 22 million pounds of food (waste) residue from landfills and uses it to grow compost for their Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago sites. -Vegetables today are 50% less nutritious than those of the 1950's due to agricultural soil degradation and depletion.  Thus, the need to grow healthy soil (i.e. compost). -Growing Power started as a youth empowerment organization: when they found that the kids in their Youth Corps struggled in school, they implemented a reading/...

Over the course of this spring, I've had the awesome pleasure of gardening with two different sets of young people-- aged two to eleven.  I.E., I hosted two groups of kids' workshops in my front yard.  Back in February/March, we met to build, fill and plant raised beds complete with shallots, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and squash.  In April when we gathered again for our monthly workshop, we tended the garden: identified and pulled weeds, staked tomatoes, etc.  Finally, we're meeting in May to do some early spring harvesting.  Our main crops are potatoes, shallots, and green beans.  Although a few banana peppers are ready, the tomatoes are not.  Give it another couple weeks.  In addition, every week, we checked in on the bees in my backyard--managed by Heather Gamper, my neighbor and beekeeper extraordinaire.  Lastly, the workshops visited with my family's new chicken flock-- acquired just two weeks before the first set of w...

" The Man in Overalls Wants you to Have a Garden " By Kathleen Laufenberg For Nathan Ballentine, gardening began as an elementary school pastime. Now, however, the 24-year-old Tallahasseean is on a mission to grow his own food, convince you to grow your own food — and get everybody to share some of what they've grown. "I love how food is able to bring so many different and disparate communities together," said Ballentine, who also is known as "The Man in Overalls" and is a regular blogger about his gardening adventures at http://maninoveralls.blogspot.com . His gardening career — he makes a modest living mostly by building raised-bed gardens, teaching gardening workshops for kids and adults and, occasionally, substitute teaching — allows the 2004 SAIL graduate to unite his all-consuming interests of community organizing and edible landscaping. "I really like what he's doing — he's got it right," Brandy Cowley-Gilbe...

People invite me to their houses to for me to offer ideas and advice and/or to scout out sites for where I'll place their new Square Foot Gardens... and every now-and-again, they ask, "So is this all you do?"  This question always makes me smile. I know (I assume) this question originates from intrigue.  How cool , they must think, I'm able to keep busy just doing food gardens.  If they only knew... It's springtime and the soil is growing warm. Starting at 8am yesterday morning, I led a team of high school boys (who are members at my church) around town doing community and school garden projects.  We started at our church, Faith Presbyterian where we top-dressed and-- with the help of the elementary kids-- planted "God's Giving Garden."  From there, we took two trips to Hartsfield Elementary to deliver a load of compost (compliments of the Damayan Garden Project ) for their newly cleaned-up garden.  Last, the boys and I visited Bethel Towers ...

3-4pm, Sat., February 13th, March 13th, April 10th, and May 22nd (Mostly) in the Garden at the Pink House, 1920 Chowkeebin Nene with Nathan Ballentine, aka the Man in Overalls ( http://maninoveralls. blogspot.com ) Are your kids full of questions?  Why this and why that?  Do your kids like playing in the dirt?  Do they like playing with worms and bugs? Do you wish they'd eat more vegetables?  Do you wish they'd learn where their food comes from?  Are they up for the challenge of starting their own vegetable garden? Starting in February, we'll construct, fill and plant a raised bed full of seasonally appropriate vegetables.   Over the course of four months, we'll build, fill, and plant a raised-vegetable garden; plant some more, mulch, troubleshoot pests and sick plants; and finally, with help we'll, pick, cook, and eat vegetables.  Every month when we re-group, we'll start the morning by sharing stories from our own gardens, asking questions, an...