Man in Overalls

Pushing three years ago, I clambered into overalls to earn my living encouraging and assisting folks to grow food for self and neighbor. I got my start standing beside the road with a pitchfork and sign that read, "Will Garden for Food." On one level, I launched my business to earn an income*. On a deeper level, however, I got into food gardening, I reclaimed the overall-style of my grandfather because I sought to develop a platform of legitimacy from which I could support the food movement by connecting and aiding the many local players working to grow a resilient , community-based food system. (Much of my food movement facilitation work these days I do through the Tallahassee Food Network and with iGrow-"Whatever You Like," a Frenchtown-based youth-empowerment and urban ag project.) The iGrow Team just after hearing the news that they had won the Junior League's Big, Bold Idea Grant. The past few years have certainly been an exciting time to do food...

Over the July 4th holiday, I made it to Asheville to visit a friend from college .  While in town, I snuck by Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church where I used to serve as a youth adviser.  Rumor had it, they'd started an amazing garden smack-dab in the middle of their front lawn.  Rumor was true. They have ten 5ft beds that reach 60 to 100ft.  In other words, they've got a 4000sq.ft. food garden in their front yard. They're right along Merimon Ave, a major thoroughfare in Asheville.  (Notice the golden arches.) The rumor also mentioned a team of volunteers who maintain the garden, who grow the food to give it away.  According to the grapevine, they grew and gave away 500 pound of broccoli last year.  The story was confirmed by their website .  And from the looks of it, they've got more broccoli on the way. While we're exploring what's going on in Asheville, I'll go ahead and point you in the direction of the Apalachian Sustainable Agric...

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...

2 nd Annual  Community Gardening   Gathering   (of the Big Bend) Pot luck, 12-2pm, Sat., April 23rd @ the Havana Community Gardens on US 27 N. of Tallahassee, on the Right just before you reach Havana ( map ) Click here to register It is time to join again to support one another, to learn, strategize, and chat about community gardens’ contribution to healthy, affordable and good-tasting food in the Big Bend. Come hear the story of Havana’s Community Gardens; learn and share with fellow community gardeners, garden educators and activists; and explore how we can encourage and further the community gardening movement in our area.   Already have or or aspire to start a church, school, after school, organizational, donation or business garden?   Hope to see you there. Please bring stories of garden successes and a challenge or question you are currently facing, and if it works, bring a covered dish to share.  Drinks will be provided. ...

Guest post by Lindsay , who's still in Tallahassee, still growing food About 5 months ago, I took a bus down to Tallahassee just in time to plant a fall garden with the kids from Nathan's church. I learned how to plant collards, mustards, turnips, lettuce, and shallots, and then turned right around and taught kids--from preschoolers who were barely speaking right up to sweet, awkward 5th graders--how to do the same. We planted five 4'x10' raised beds; a year before, the beds had been built and the students decided that they wanted the food they grew in "God's Giving Garden" to get donated to the food pantry that their church (Faith Presbyterian) ran along with other Meridian Rd. churches. Since then, any month when there's produce ready to be harvested, some students and other volunteers pick the vegetables, wash them, and walk the across the parking lot where they get added to the bags of food. In addition to the canned and boxed staples, folks ...

Last spring up visiting Warren Wilson, my Alma Mater I touched base with my buddy, Lindsay Popper, poet extraordinaire, college-mama/grand-ma, admissions guru, plumber and all around amazing person.  I asked, "So, say, Lindsay, where are you going to be come next September?"  She was on the threshold of graduation, and, rather than hem and haw, she quick-responded, "Where do you think I should be?"  "How about," I offered, "you come to Tallahassee and help me out with gardening work?"  She told me she liked that idea.  "Can I make it my 'Plan B'?"  Absolutely. Lindsay planting lettuce.  In three weeks time, this lettuce was ready to harvest.  I just forgot the camera when I went back. Well Plan A didn't end up fitting the schedule of the summer camp she's worked at for four years running--and she wasn't about to give that up-- so she came on down.  Lindsay's been here since the end of September; she's he...

I've been out of town the past two weeks, went up to North Carolina to keynote at a youth retreat and took the opportunity to make a road trip out of the deal.  My partner, Mary Elizabeth (with whom I posed my Tallahasseean Gothic images) and I took the opportunity to visit friends, mentors, and sites along the way.  We stopped in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Asheville on the way north to Banner Elk, the site of the retreat.  On the way back down, we passed through Warren Wilson and camped just south of Savannah, GA. Vacation though it was, I hardly left food gardening in Tallahassee. In Charlotte, I stopped in at Providence Presbyterian Church , to touch base with some folks I've been advising that are expanding their church's food-bank garden into a full-on community garden with participating (non-member) gardeners from the neighborhood. During free time in Banner Elk at the retreat, Beth, a new acquaintance invited me to join her on a quick visit to her friends' f...

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 ...

This past week, I made a trip up to North Carolina to my alma mater, Warren Wilson College for homecoming with two friends, fellow alums. Warren Wilson is a work college, which means that all students on campus have a 15-hour-per-week job. Most of the routine maintenance and tasks are performed by students. For example, there's a plumbing crew, a library crew, cafeteria (dish-washing) crew, etc. And, as there is a working farm and a three-acre garden on campus-- both which supply food to the dinning halls-- there are farm and garden student crews as well. I actually didn't work on either. Instead I spent two years on Electric and two years on Landscaping. As part of my duties on Landscaping, I managed an edible landscape around a student dorm. The extended weekend was a great chance to catch up with friends, professors and old crew-bosses. I shared the "dollars and cents" of Tallahassee Food Gardens with four friends who are investigating the possibilitie...

It was a busy day today. First, I built, filled and planted a raised-bed vegetable garden at Jackie's house. Collard and cabbage plants, carrot, mustard, radish and lettuce sees. You can see the finished bed to the right. And then, I moved on to spruce up Faith Presbyterian's -my home church- children's garden before the young folks arrived for Wednesday night program: Planting the fall garden. We planted brussels sprout, collard, lettuce, rosemary, and a few late winter squash and basil plants; carrot, radish, and snap pea seeds. Last spring, the kids named it "God's Giving Garden." Any surplus food will be distributed through a food-pantry being developed in partnership with St. Stevens Lutheran, a church across the street. Take a look at the kids at work. Around the edges of work, I made a little stop-action video. It makes me laugh. If I can figure out how to upload it... A h, well, here's the link to the video on   YouTube . - - - ...