We’re approaching 3-years in business! Those 3-short years ago I stumbled upon a long last passion – growing plants. I loved my annual vegetable garden growing up, but after childhood I stopped playing in the dirt and resigned to a life in the office. Were it not for life throwing me back into it – by mere happenstance – I am not sure I would have realized how incredibly rewarding it is to grow your own food. As I look back, I am grateful that I left the comfort of my office to spend a few months helping start a new business on my family’s farm.
I never would have expected that a few months would turn into years or that the thought of returning to the office would never cross my mind. As I began developing the inventory management system, while creating protocols, procedures, hiring employees and performing numerous other tasks, I learned the difficulties of farming. Though, I also learned the joys, sense of accomplishment and euphoria that comes with working the land. Though I loved, and still love, our palm trees, I found my true calling when I began growing edible plants. There is nothing quite like tending to nature and reaping the rewards of creating and maintaining systems that benefit nature, the community and farmer alike. And I believe it is my mission to teach others the incredible benefits, happiness and tremendous health benefits of growing their own food.
I recently had an amazing conversation with a non-profit leader I’ve worked with about working together again to teach members in our county about growing their own food and working to eliminate food deserts in Orange County.
Food Deserts marked in green are defined by the USDA as urban areas which don’t have access to healthy foods within a mile or rural areas without healthy food access within ten miles. Think of areas that cater more to transient populations rather than to the residents – areas which have plenty of fast-food and convenience stores, but few, if any supermarkets.
The limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, predominantly in lower-income communities, is troubling – and a major contributor to obesity and other health problems within these communities. This problem unfortunately spans nearly every major city within the United States. Teaching residents of these communities how to grow their own food as well as the numerous benefits of doing so is imperative. Orange County, Florida alone has at least 16 USDA-identified food deserts.
Solving huge problems can be daunting. However, when broken down in into smaller pieces can be much easier to chew. We have 16 areas to target within our county that could benefit from fresh local food. Focusing our efforts on providing resources and knowledge to those particularly vulnerable communities can lead to substantial change in the lives of folks that live within those communities.
Educating the masses within these communities about how to grow their own food on their own properties is the largest effort we see to solving these issues. One fantastic thing about growing food is that fruit and nut trees produce an abundant crop, oftentimes to the point of being able to provide for many more families with very few trees. My former neighbor shares his Avocados with the entire street – he gets around 800 Avocados a year from one medium sized tree, which he generously shares. His passion for his yard, which has been a food forest for many years, certainly inspired me with my own efforts.
While I no longer live there, we still occasionally share and trade the fruits of our respective labor and gardens. Trading out excess fruits allows residents to gain further nutritional output and variety in their diet even with constraints on their growing area. I had 23 edible plants on the quarter acre property I resided at and had the space and ability to plant so many more.
The front yard had four Barbados cherries, which have the highest Vitamin C concentration of any fruit. In fact, at one time they were used in multi-vitamins. One small cherry has as much Vitamin C as an orange. These super cherries are incredibly delicious, but don’t store well so aren’t typically seen even in communities that have access to supermarkets.
Anyone with access to a yard or outdoor space can create an abundant food forest. Many trees can even produce fruit in containers! Vacant land should also be utilized for growing food. The sub-tropical climate in Central Florida allows our community to grow a plethora of nutritious crops. Many plants can be vegetatively propagated, which allows for a cheap or even free method of growing more food for even the neediest citizens, if given the knowledge of how to do so. We could all have a health store in our backyard, we could all create an edible landscape that helps develop a communal barter system and a healthy food network.
Orlando’s former director of sustainability, Chris Castro, led the way laying the groundwork for sustainability and urban farms in Orlando. His initiatives, including the Parramore neighborhood leaders that have brought farming back to the urban neighborhood and developed a farmers’ market to provide fresh produce to residents, have transformed communities. Orlando received a grant The Farmer’s Market Promotion Program, which was received by 13 communities across the United States which aims to help address food insecurity issues. Orlando is also fortunate enough to have Fleet Farming, a fantastic organization that works at farming in urban environments, eliminating lawns and producing an abundance of food on previously underutilized lands.
We still have a long way to go, which is why we need YOU! We need each of us to work to grow our own food, to share our resources, to eliminate food deserts and ultimately to create a better, healthier, ecological, and more productive community.