A Local Folkus » Local

Central Florida Sustainable Food Project and Guide

John — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:30:30 +0000

Last night at Stardust Cafe I attended a meeting of the “local food” pioneers behind an exciting Local Food Map project. Chief among these pioneers were: Tia Meer (Simple Living Institute), Andrew Landis (CFL Regional Planning Council) and Lance Turner (AeonBlu/Ourlando). These leaders are at the helm of a truly exciting initiative for our local food system.

Their vision is for the continued development of the Central Florida Sustainable Food Project which includes a detailed database of the area’s farmers and producers as well as the retailers, restaurateurs and the general consumers of our locally produced meats, veggies and goods.

Their hope is to launch a print version of the Local Food Guide and an online search able database format by early spring next year. The may be able to do a soft launch of the web application as soon as this fall. Perhaps we can have a little launch ceremony / ribbon cutting at the Nov 20th Winter Park Harvest Festival. There a ton of way to get involved with this exciting project. Please stop by the Facebook page and become a fan of the project and you can stay abreast of the latest on the Simply Living Institute’s website as well.

I hope to see you at the next meeting.

A Visit to Polyface Farm in Virginia

John — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:27:46 +0000

As I was driving up to the KOA north of Harrisonburg, VA I remembered that Joel Salatin’s farm Polyface was somewhere in western Virginia. Well once Murph and I settled into our site a little visit to Google let me know that we were only 30 minutes away from Polyface, a farm thats sustainable, synergistic model of animal husbandry was made famous by its coverage in Michael Pollan’s eponymous book “Omnivore’s Dilemma”.

Rather than go for a hike in the morning, Murph and I packed up Kodi and drove the winding back roads to Polyface’s front drive. I had read on the website that “self-guided” tours were available so once I deftly parked Kodi, I ventured up the long drive towards the farm. There was a lot of activity with several young college-aged folks gathered around a barn full of farming equipment.

Following signs to the “store” I ended up in the currently under construction farm store. Wendy was nice enough to give me the low down and I browsed the offerings. All of the meat, produce and eggs are kept in old refrigerators with masking tape labels. I love it…..Wendy did say it was in the works to create glass cases, but the mystery of opening a fridge door to pursue the goods has a special sort of mystique to it.

I asked if it was ok to take picture. LOL…She said “Of course go wherever you want, nothing is off limits. They are moving the mobile chicken coops in the back pasture now if you want to see that.” Wait, wait, wait … I can go WHEREVER I want. Who the heck lets people do that anymore. Guaranteed no industrial producer would let you photograph and tour their facilities un-attended or without signing some restrictive waiver.

The regulars and the summer interns were in the pasture moving the mesh electrical fencing to create a temporary paddock for the egg laying hens to forage upon. It was so neat to see the team working together and to be honest the interns looked just as excited to be there as I did. Well Ben used the tractor to pull the mobile henhouse into the new field and then they build fence alleys towards the permanent hen house. The idea is to open the doors on the permanent henhouse and like the running of the pulls of Pamplona to funnel these birds into the new field.

It is such a neat set up. The cows graze the field first, eating the long grass and leaving their piles of manure to mature in the open Virginia air. Flies and beetles have there way with the piles for 3 days and let their larva get good and fat. Then the crew moves the cows to a new field and brings the mobile chicken and turkey enclosures into the cow’s old field to feast on the fat larva of the flies and spread the manure around the field as they forage. What an incredible symbiosis.

Polyface also rears pigs and rabbits as well, with the same attention to quality of life as the chickens and cows enjoy. To say the least the self-guided tour was an eye opening experience and made me long for a larger piece of land in Central Florida in which to put Salatin’s principles to work. There was just such harmony and wholeness to the entire operation. My hat goes of to Joel and his hipster vision and very much look forward to hearing him speak at the conference tomorrow.

Farm to Table Retrospective – Central Flrorida Locavores FTW

Audio of our interview with Slow Money founder Woody Tasch.

John — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:19:04 +0000

The audio of yesterday’s interview with Woody Tasch is now online and you can listen below.

As always joining Julie and Jeremy in the WPRK studio is always a pleasure but yesterday’s interview was particularly incredible. Slow Money is such a great “catch-all” for me. About 85% of my posts have to do with food and in particular our local food system and the consumers and producers that make it all happen.

I can think of no greater investment of my time and finances then to support our local food producers. There are so many local consumers who have never tasted a real vine ripe tomato or who settle for produce the ripened on a cross country truck rather than down the street. Slow Money is the perfect combination of ethos and praxis and our interview with Woody should have a little bit of something for everyone.

Hope you enjoy!

We Interview Woody Tasch of Slow Money today at noon on Front Porch Radio.

John — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:37:11 +0000

I’ll be joining Julie and Jeremy today on Front Porch Radio WPRK 91.5 to interview Woody Tasch the author of “Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money“. He is also the president of the non-profit that bears the same name which seeks to create sources of capital to nurture the services and social networks necessary to support 1% of our assets being invested in our local food systems. We’ll post the recorded version here and on FPR as soon as we can if you aren’t able to listen live.

You can listen life from FPR website – follow this link – and click on the “listen Live” options on the right side of the page.

Urgan Gardening in Orlando

John — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:24:56 +0000

Just want to share a link to a nice write up in the O-Sentinel about Urban Gardening titled:”Our future FarmVille?” by Víctor Manuel Ramos. While I knew about the Winter Park Health Foundations $150k grant for community gardens in our area it was news to me that:

“The University of Central Florida partnered with the city-managed Get Active Orlando fitness initiative to provide thousands of dollars for the Orlando community gardens — funded through a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for programs encouraging physical activity.”

Thank you Victor for the coverage and hats off to Patty Sheehan and other City Commissioners for supporting the community gardening effort.

Urban Farmer’s Market Thrives in Miami

John — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:34:05 +0000

Having lived in Miami years ago it is heartening to see a story like this. We are so close to having something like this in Central Florida. With the success of our community gardens it is only a matter of time until we could have a proper Urban CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). CNN thanks for the inspiration.

Wendell Berry is speaking at Stetson Monday Feb 1

John — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:23:20 +0000

What what what ….. Wendell Berry is in Florida?

Yes my friends it is true. Wendell Berry one of my favorite authors is speaking at Stetson University in a free lecture series Monday night the 1st of February. I’m heading up to attend the lecture and I can’t even express how excited I am. Berry’s non-fiction writing has played a pivotal role in developing many of my beliefs. Through his writing I’ve come to appreciate the importance of nurturing of our local community, that the good life is more than consuming and that working with the earth, even in the middle of a modern city, is vitally important to the health and well-being of my family.

The lecture is sponsored by the university’s Values Council. His talk, “Simple Solutions and Package Deals,” is based on the council’s theme for the year, “How Shall We Live?”. Berry will be discussing the impact of economic globalization on the way we live and it’s sure to be lecture chock-full of thought provoking ideas.

According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life (via wiki).

Here are the details of the lecture: Stetson University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Lee Chapel of Elizabeth Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hope to see you there.

Winter Park Community Garden Workday at DePugh: Volunteers Needed

John — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:30:22 +0000

For those of you who didn’t know, the Winter Park Health Foundation has awarded a grant for several community gardens to be constructed in our city. The first garden was installed behind Winter Park Presbyterian on Lakemont Ave and now a second garden site is being prepared.

Volunteers are needed tomorrow Saturday January 16th from 8-10 am to help clear the area where the Spring garden will be planted behind the DePugh Center in Winter Park.

Anyone can participate and you are encouraged to bring any work tools you may have as well as bringing your own gloves and water. We may be clearing away an old chain link fence as well so please bring any tools specific to that job.

The Center is located at 550 West Morse Blvd, Winter Park.
If you have any questions about the garden or if you would like to donate a monetary contribution or donate material items for the building of the garden, please contact Denise Riccio at 407-246-2212. Any assistance is greatly appreciated! You can also get more info at Our Whole Community’s website.

How now should we eat: Michael Pollan and the Rule of Food

John — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:57:24 +0000

If you’ve been following the Locavore Movement for any length of time then you will surely be familiar with the name Michael Pollan. Well, thanks to a timely Tweet I caught him being interviewed on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart yesterday. He was promoting his newest book “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual“. In his previous book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” he expounded on the simple mantra “To be healthy, Humans should eat food, not too much and mostly plants“. With such a simple mantra you’d expect a short book. However as the page count grew and as Pollan expounded on the travails of industrial food system I began to realize that his simple mantra was an impregnable ideal.

To that end, to help demystify how to eat ethically, healthfully and to avoid the “edible food like substances” being marketed to us, Pollan has come to our rescue with a pocket sized “eater’s manual.” It is a shame that an eater’s manual is even necessary but when our local grocery store offerings are 85% processed, non-whole food, food substitutes, finding the genuine article can be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. So I’m going to pick the book up tomorrow and will write a proper review once I’ve given it a read, but to tide you over below is his interview on the Daily Show. Enjoy and eat consciously.

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Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st – A Slow Food Orlando Event

John — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:23:22 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter or have checked into any of my blogs over the last few years you would undoubtedly have heard me championing the work of Slow Food Orlando. Back in 2007 when I filmed a documentary about the burgeoning Local Food movement in Central Florida, I had the good fortune to cross pas with Slow Food Orlando’s Vice President Rebecca Reise-Miller. You can catch her segment of the documentary at the 20 minute mark.

Since meeting Rebecca, Kamrin and I have made an effort to both attend Slow Food events as well as incorporate many of its tenants into our family’s food practices. We now have a 300 Sft vegetable garden where we grow our own produce organically and with heirloom varieties. We also have made an effort to buy from artisan and locally sourced food producers like Big Wheel Provisions, Olde Hearth Bakery, Wild Ocean Seafood, Lake Meadow Naturals, Winter Park Dairy, Winter Park Honey and others.

Eating locally is more than just buying food that is at the peak of freshness and not shipped cross country from California, more importantly it is about supporting our local food economy, its community and its unique culture. By doing so it becomes normal to know your producers, to build relationship with the local farmers who supply your free-range eggs and organically grown produce and to know that you are getting the highest quality food for your food dollar. By supporting the “local” farmer’s markets like Audubon Park Community Market you are strengthening the bonds that connect each of us to the land from which our food comes and to the caring hands that provided these food stuffs for our consumption.

Slow Food in an effort to champion this vital connection is sponsoring an Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st. Below is an excerpt from their promotional materials for this event. You can be sure Kamrin and I will be fully supporting this week long event and you can expect to see a few write ups and videos on our site about it. So take a look at the excerpt below and let us know in the comments what you are doing to participate in Eat Local Week. Following an excerpt is a video of the mother of America’s Slow Food movement Alice Waters to give you a bit more insight into what Slow Food is all about.

EAT LOCAL WEEK - January 25th – 31st

Participate in a week-long celebration promoting connection, community, culture and cuisine in Central Florida. Grab your family, friends and neighbors and head to participating dining establishments during the last week of January, 2010

Goals of Eat Local Week:

Emphasize that eating local in Central Florida is not only possible, it’s delicious –  The Eat Local Week definition of “local” is anything within 200 miles of Orlando’s city center. Featured farmers and artisans for Eat Local week come from as far away as Clewiston.

Help local restaurants, farmers and artisans to develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships –  Slow Food Orlando wants to see locally owned and operated farms and restaurants succeed. By facilitating relationship building between Central Florida dining establishments, farmers, ranchers, and artisans we hope to help businesses grow and become more profitable.

Build consumer awareness of local food and farmers, and promote reconnection with family and friends around the dinner table –  Slow Food is all about taking the time to savor the food we eat and the people we share it with. When our food is produced in a sustainable, responsible and consciences manner it is healthier for the environment and healthier for us.

Raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy and keeping money in our community –  Purchasing food direct from producers or dining out at restaurants that feature locally grown ingredients cuts out the middle man and puts your money directly in the pocket of the people who produce your food. When you, the consumer, spend your money with local businesses those businesses reinvest your dollars in the community, thus contributing to a more sustainable future for Central Florida’s food system.

Click here to see a list of the 18 or so participating restaurants.