Man in Overalls

In early October, our urban ag ordinance was filed with Jacksonville’s City Council. On October 13th, I stood before the Council to say: I am here tonight to support Bill 2026-0807 —Pathways for Urban Ag, formerly the Free to Garden Act. First, I want to thank Councilmen Arias and Peluso for introducing this legislation; Councilwoman Pittman for years of support; and Councilman White for calling this “common sense” legislation. I also want to thank the Mayor’s office and Planning Department for the summer re-write. We are getting really close to making market and community gardens permissible by right here in Jacksonville. However , to make this ordinance truly work as intended, we need a few critical amendments. As currently written , any gathering on a market garden over five people is defined as a "market day" and capped at 12 per year, anchored to the city’s garage sale limit. This rule penalizes the very neighbors it seeks to protect as I’ll explain. Furthermore, stri...

On January 22, 2026, nearly two years after first applying, Overalls Farm Three secured its Certificate of Use from the City of Jacksonville to operate legally as a neighborhood farm.  Winning a certificate of use granting us permission to grow took 2 years, 3 citations, 4 meetings with city officials, the backing of 5 operational non-profit partners, 11 letters of support from neighborhood business leaders, 13 Greens & Beans community meals, 15 American Gothic inspired community posts , 125 neighborhood uPick Farm Members, 500+ families on our farm member wait list, over 1350 signers on the Petition for Permission to Grow (including 350 immediate neighbors), and over $50,000 in lost revenue – not to mention: having our USDA farm serial number & state level Green Belt exemption, three Florida state-level legal preemptions against local governments “limiting” the operations of bonafide farms, being honored as the Outstanding Agriculturalist at Farm City Luncheon , a story ...

  September 8th marks six years since we launched our first Overalls Farm. You may have missed it in the beginning because we didn’t post publicly about it for years. Growing up-an-alley in Jacksonville’s Springfield neighborhood- tucked in a residential backyard (mine, as it were)- it was intentionally kept on the down-low, except as far as the neighborhood was concerned.  But then, in June 2023, I shared the origin story on the stage of Florida Theater ending with the dream to replicate our neighborhood farm model.  Now, with Overalls Farms One and Two thriving, we’re growing Farm Three to fruition, and we need a little help making it happen. When we started, to ensure we were growing in service of our immediate community, we asked ourselves: 1)How can we grow food IN our neighborhood FOR the neighborhood, 2)What business model will allow us to keep growing for the long haul? And, 3) How can we cultivate neighborly community atop the farm? In other words, “How do we g...