October 7, 2024 • 48 mins
Curious how a chef champions urban farming? Meet Mike Garcia, who traded his chef’s knife for a garden trowel and founded Everoak Farm in Orlando, Florida. In this episode, we explore Mike's journey from culinary school to sustainable farming, where his expertise helps him provide fresh, local produce that exceeds customer expectations.
Mike shares his vision for a collaborative food system in Orlando, emphasizing community-supported agriculture and the potential of urban farming networks. He offers practical advice for aspiring farmers, including land leasing and reinvesting earnings.
Join us at the Florida Local Food Project's Field to Fork Farm Day at Everoak Farm on November 14, 2024! This event provides you with an excellent opportunity to network, learn from experts, and foster meaningful connections with others who are passionate about local food.
This event is offered to local food actors at no cost and is limited to 50 attendees.
Register here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Fresh Take , where we at Florida Organic
Growers speak to food systemsexperts about topics related to
organic and sustainableagriculture, healthy lifestyles
and the environment.
To help us continue ourprograms at FOG, including our
podcast, consider becoming asponsor.
For more information onsponsorship, check out our Get
Involved page on our website,wwwfoginfoorg.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello and welcome to Fresh Take.
Today we're taking you on ajourney to Orlando, florida, to
a farm that's not just growingfood but cultivating a
sustainable community and futureEver Oak Farm.
Ever Oak Farm is more than justa farm.
It's a hub of sustainability,community engagement and a
shining example of what modernfarming can achieve.
(00:48):
We'll be diving deep into whatsustainable farming really means
in today's world and how EverOak Farm is leading the way by
partnering with Florida OrganicGrowers Programs.
What makes this story even moreinspiring is hearing it from
the perspective of a youngfarmer who is not only keeping
the business thriving but alsoredefining what it means to be a
(01:09):
farmer in the 21st century.
If you're interested insustainability, local food
movements or simply love hearingabout innovative approaches in
farming, this episode is for you.
Mike Garcia, welcome to our show.
For you, mike Garcia, welcometo our show.
Hey, well, so I'm really happyto have you with us today, and
you are a familiar face sinceI've seen you at the Organic
(01:32):
Food and Farming Summit thispast April with Fog, so it's a
pleasure seeing you again andhaving the chance to speak with
you.
So I'm really curious to diveright into your story and find
out more about your backgroundin farming and what really
inspired you to pursue this typeof career.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, totally Well, it's been a long journey.
I always say my journey kind ofstarted back when I started
culinary school.
I never had the intentions ingetting into agriculture.
It kind of is something that Istumbled across.
I've always the intentions ingetting into agriculture.
It kind of is something that Istumbled across.
I've always been passionateabout food and cooking.
And then with that passion, youkind of start thinking about
like, where are theseingredients coming from?
(02:15):
What are the quality of theingredient?
So I started what is it like?
Four years into cooking, Ipicked up gardening and I
started backyard gardening in myhouse in downtown Orlando.
I started with a little four byeight garden bed and just
tinkered with that.
Then, over the years, thegarden just kept growing, dove
into permaculture.
(02:36):
Meanwhile I'm still cooking,studying the whole industry,
studying every form ofagriculture.
There is the ins and the outsand that journey kept pursuing.
Eventually, it's just I startedgetting a little burnt out
working in the kitchens.
I knew I wanted to settle down,have a family and I wanted
something a little morewholesome and that's why I
(02:58):
stumbled across market gardeningback in 2015.
I was like, all right, cool,let me give this a try.
Started at a 3,000 square footplot up in Sorrento, did that
for a season.
And then our housemates at thetime and I decided to partner up
and started urban farming,literally ripped the
(03:20):
play-by-play book of the urbanfarmer by Curtin Stone and put
that model to practice here inOrlando and just applying it to
our context, and we realized,implementing these practices and
techniques and these methods,you can make a decent living off
of it.
Not tremendous like this is nota big money scheme, but it's a
(03:40):
good, honest living.
And so that's where it wentfrom cooking to growing yeah, I
always like to say too um,within 10 years, less than 10
years, I went from a four byeight garden bed to a three acre
farm wow yeah, 2019 is when weestablished ever oak farm, um,
and then that's when I keptscaling things up, so incredible
(04:03):
.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So you mentioned market farming.
What exactly is market farming?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So direct to consumer sales, that's our main focus.
When someone or a farmaddresses themselves as a market
farm, there's so many differenttypes of farms out there but on
the small scale, family basedfarms are typically-type farms
which you're growing the productto sell directly to your
consumer or to restaurants ormaybe to a wholesaler, bypassing
(04:33):
going through a packing houseor a distributor, and all that.
When you're small-scale growingI imagine something 20 acres or
less, that business model makesthe most sense of trying to get
those direct to consumer sales,other than when you start going
past that, you start wanting tolook into being more crop focus
and also look into differentdistribution outlets.
(04:55):
I didn't want that and I'm notlooking to ever really scale up
like that.
I like direct to consumer, yeah,I like community engagement.
Food brings people together andalso being connected with like
what it really means living andeating local and seasonal.
I always kind of tell peopleit's like everyone has their
(05:15):
doctor, their lawyers, their CPA, those once in a while, but the
one thing you need every day isa farmer and it's a good.
Yeah, that direct relationship.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, so building that bond in that community has
always been my goal, so that'swhy I've always focused in the
realm of market farming andtrying to stay small.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So that really is what I think makes you guys
stand out is the emphasis on thecommunity.
Makes you guys stand out is theemphasis on the community.
And you also have thatbackground in culinary, which I
think also puts you on adifferent, you know starting
point because you actuallyunderstand the quality.
You know what is needed for agood quality product for, in
(05:59):
terms of flavor, nutritionalvalue, all of those.
You know the color, texture,everything.
So how do you think that thatbackground in cooking has shaped
you as a farmer?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Well, thinking about that now, there's like two
things.
One is that I think the bigpart is being able to relate,
like be able to understand theingredient and how to prepare it
, and to be able to communicatethat to our customers as well,
because it's great.
You have people that come up tothe farm stand or at the
farmer's market and some people,some ingredients are new that
(06:36):
you don't see every day, andthey're like hey, how can I go
about preparing this?
Or sometimes you see producethat are fully intact, like
turnips with tops or beets withtops, and the tops are edible,
and it's like how else can Iprepare this?
So having that culinarybackground and that insight of
food preparation helps a lot.
(06:57):
Another thing is what standard,like what's the quality standard
that most consumers and evenrestaurants are looking for as
well kind of helps with that.
And then also the last thing soI guess it was three things
would be having that way to talkto chefs and work, like walk
(07:17):
into a kitchen and be able tolike it's comforting, like I
spent so many hours in thekitchen and I know how it is, I
know how the hours are and thelong days are, and so you'd be
able to relate on that and eventhinking about it now.
Farmers and chefs pretty muchalmost have the same lifestyles.
One starts earlier in the dayand one starts later in the day.
(07:41):
You're out there hustling andyou're trying to feed and
nourish your community and bringan end product to yeah, to keep
your community nourished andfed, wow.
So.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I think just
what you said about knowing theschedule.
I think that's a huge leg upbecause then I think you are
already, you have an advantagein terms of communication with
these key actors in thecommunity.
So it sounds like you reallyknow what you're doing and I
think that, for the region ofCentral Florida, seems to be
(08:18):
like the farming community isreally growing there.
How do you think that thelandscape of agriculture has
looked in that region in termsof its history and now?
Do you see it changing?
Is there a positive future, youknow, coming to fruition?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I definitely think that there is a good, positive
future and there is changing.
It's crazy to think that I'vebeen in Orlando since.
Was it December 2007.
So what is that?
I don't know how many years Ican't do math right now I've
been here and seen the change,even how the culinary food scene
, the whole culinary scene, haschanged over those years and now
(09:00):
even seeing more farms slowlycoming about and emerging, most
of them being urban farms orlike super small scale farms,
which is great.
Central Florida always did havelike their commercial farms,
like in larger industrial typefarms, especially on the outer
parts of Orlando getting towardsApopka.
(09:21):
Apopka was more nursery andfoliage, but they also, uh,
foliar and ornamental typeplants.
But you still have like a lotlarger farms like producing
cabbage, cucumbers and sometomatoes and citrus industry
slowly dying.
But also what's big and thenreally changing is the
development.
Farmland is getting consumedlike crazy.
(09:43):
So, so constraints is kind of astruggle and you see more farms
closing.
I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like the farmsare popping up and then I see
some farms closing.
So but it's there and the foodscene is there and there are
smaller farms really coming upto the scene.
When I first started too, therewasn't really much small scale
(10:07):
farms around that I could reallyget my hands like dirty and get
involved and really learn thatexperience because I was totally
self-taught and now being ableto have the space that I have,
that's smack down in the middleof Orlando I'm 10 minutes from
downtown back down in the middleof Orlando, 10 minutes from
(10:28):
downtown, and now I've beenhaving interns coming on and
being able to offer them a placeto get hands-on learning
experience and learn from myfailures and also learn from my
success and be able to learn alot of these techniques and
methods of growing at a smallerscale, and hopefully that
encourages to keep having moresmall farms pop up in and around
the area.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And speaking of interns, you said that you were
self-taught, so you haven't,prior to starting UN Farm,
shadowed another farmer orinterned or done any of that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
No, I literally just picked up a few books, read some
articles on UF, ifas and justput it to practice.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
You could theorize all this like everything, all
the literature, all day, but youreally don't know until you put
it in full practice.
And yeah, there's been a lot offailures.
But a lot of those failures youlearn and each season just
keeps getting better and better.
It would have been nice to havethe mentor and actually learn.
It probably would have saved mesome times and some heartaches
(11:29):
and headaches.
But it was part of where I waswith my life and it was hard to
step away from kitchens becausethat was my paying gig and
juggle both.
So I've been farming full timeand living off our farm income
since 2019.
(11:53):
So from 2015 to 2019, for fouryears I was working in kitchens
and working on the field on ourown farm, doing that hustle.
So it was like wake up in themorning, farm, make it happen
and then later in the afternoongo into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, too, I was pickingup private chef gigs, so I was
able to kind of work my own.
So, but that's wild your.
Your work weeks must have beenyeah 80 plus hours about that,
(12:16):
but it was at a good flow and agood time.
I didn't have my wife and I Ididn't have any children at the
time, so it was definitelyeasier.
Hustle and bustle, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, are there any farmers in the area that you
look up to or feel like you areable to learn from?
Because I know that there's alot of.
You know a big community that'sgrowing there, so I'm curious
to know if there's that kind ofmentor in the making, if there's
that kind of mentor in themaking.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I don't really have a mentor there, but just talking
to all the other local producersand us just talking, shop and
learning our own personalexperiences and sharing that.
That's why I really loveconnecting with other producers
and just be like what do you dothis?
Or I've ran into this problem.
We all have something to bringto the table and there's a lot
(13:05):
of great urban producers hereNow.
You got Mason from Winter ParkUrban Farm, kate from Open Hand
Farms there are just the two onthe top of my head that are in
the immediate area that take onthe market and talking to them
is fantastic and just sharingour experience, which I that
(13:26):
community thing.
I feel like there is nocompetition and I never will
ever feel there is competition.
I always tell people too.
I think the most idealsituations have every
neighborhood has its own littleurban farm, like I truly believe
our food is so centralized, ourfood system is so centralized,
(13:47):
and to have thatdecentralization of multiple
small farms in differentneighborhoods, like our farm
right now caters within 10 miles, so all the CSA deliveries that
we make are within 10 milesfrom the farm and all the
restaurants we cater to is 10miles on the farm and I tell
people I wouldn't mind cuttingthat by half and it would be
nice to encourage otherproducers to come in and take on
(14:09):
some urban farming and do it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And and tackle that on the markets.
Big enough.
I have hotels and resortsreaching out to me and I'm just
always turning them down.
I'm like, look, I'm at capacity.
I'm super small, Just kind ofkeeping within that super hyper
local, really catering withinthe neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So yeah, well, you said it, with decentralization,
that's like the key to our, youknow, building out these local
food systems.
Have set yourself up in a waythat you could serve as a mentor
for another small farm,considering your partnership
with Florida Organic Growers anda couple of these really
(14:52):
exciting projects that I'd loveto get into.
The first, I guesscollaboration of sorts.
You were, you know, kind of Idon't want to say voluntold, but
excited to become one of thehubs for the market that is
aiming to get farm fresh foodinto homes of average consumers
(15:15):
and help become another.
Have it new or additionalrevenue stream for farmers to
make and deliver orders asidefrom their current stance,
whether that's in a farmer'smarket, just from their farm.
This is another additional wayof being able to sell more
locally grown foods.
(15:35):
So how has that process beenfor you in being the hub in
Orlando?
What have been some things thatyou've learned, some challenges
you face?
I'm curious to hear all aboutit.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I think this, the timing of it, is great because
it's nice to start easing to itNow, as now and then the next
few weeks, we have our fallcrops coming on and, as things
slowly start coming off thefield, we're able to upload it
onto the Agri platform and whileother producers, too, are
slowly learning the wholeplatform and just now educating
(16:11):
people like, hey, there'sanother way to get your local
produce, and just spreading theword out there.
So, yeah, and right now it'sjust the very early stages of it
and I see a big potential on it.
It's just getting the consumersto look into it and to give it
a try, especially in individualsthat have busy schedules as
(16:35):
well that can't always make itto a farmer's market and be like
, but still want to buy andsupport local.
Absolutely, have a platform tobe like.
Okay, cool, this could workinto my, my busy schedule.
Um, because, also, too,sometimes you go to the farmer's
market and if you go too latethey're sold out.
Yeah, able to have this pre, uh, an option like you're
pre-ordering your order and haveit guaranteed.
(16:58):
Like cool, I'm gonna have allthis ready to pick up from where
we're conveniently located,like I said, 10 minutes from
downtown orlando.
We're off two major roads, on436 and on state road 50.
So where we're at location,wise, is perfect too to be a hub
.
And, too, you not only are youbuying and supporting from other
(17:21):
local farms, you're able tocome to visit a small urban farm
that's practicing a lot ofsustainable and regenerative
practices and to be able to getconnected and see, like, what is
possible out there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, and that's it's interesting.
You say that because and sothere's a lot of different types
of spaces that you can considerto be a food hub, and a farm
can definitely be one of them.
So I find that to be really,you know, a plus to that kind of
hub where you can actually evensee the farm that's growing
(17:57):
some of these foods andaggregating from other local
farms as well.
So I'm curious to know whattype of foods can people find at
the Orlando hub in terms ofordering online, and are these
vendors also small producers?
What is the mix of the bag thatyou guys have?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, so right now we're producing only a couple
items, right, we're sellingactually CSA shares through it
as well, so you have the optionto even buy CSA shares through
the Agri platform.
But then we also have a poultryproducer that's out in Tavares
selling eggs, other cottagegoods and poultry.
(18:40):
We have a mushroom producerthat's just joined a couple
weeks ago and, yeah, mushrooms.
Yeah, it's great to have that,and yeah, so right now we got
poultry, we have mushrooms andall the produce.
Folks, myself included, we'repretty quiet right now, just
(19:01):
waiting for the season to comeon.
Oh yeah.
We do have some fruits comingoff here soon and some perennial
type tropical type greens onthere like morangas available,
but for the most part that's fora special type of individuals
that know how to eat and consumefoods like that.
But yeah, right now it's slow.
(19:21):
It's the summer, everyone'splanting for fall and probably
in the next few weeks we shouldsee more greens coming on.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's really exciting.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, so I'm really excited to see when October
comes full throttle and seeingeverything that we have
available and all the otherlocal farms around that are
producing to slowly start seeingthings come back online lettuce
, kales, tomatoes, peppers,eggplants, and yeah, and that's
(19:52):
I mean those are really bigseasons for growing.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So what you mentioned earlier about being able to
pre-order, you're basically likea loyalty vip member of the
farm um that can just choosewhat you want ahead of time and
not have to worry about, youknow, missing out on things that
have sold out or, you know allthose other factors.
So it's a really coolalternative for folks,
(20:16):
especially, like you said, whoare busy, who work on the
weekends or who even have adisability and cannot make it
out to those markets or to thefarm and have you know another
avenue of being able to pick upfrom a different venue.
So there's a lot of differentbenefits to this and I'm
wondering for you why did youchoose to become a hub on top of
(20:38):
farming?
Because I know you have a verybusy schedule.
So what?
What are the benefits thatyou've seen so far?
And I know it's the early days,but you know just in the couple
of months that you've beendoing this.
What have you seen?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
um, one thing I'm also looking forward to that.
I mentioned that we're alsotrying to be able to have the
ability to accept uh, ebt andsnap, ebt, snap.
That's going to be a big thing.
That's definitely something asa farm myself want to accept
more.
And being able to have thisplatform, once we get to that
level that we're able to process, nap, to offer that to
(21:14):
consumers like hey, yeah, justorder through here and use your,
your snap to purchase locallygrown and seasonal food straight
from the farm.
But being the hub, it's justlike it goes back to our
conversation what I said earlierbeing a community base and to
be able to offer a space wherenot only where I'm able to sell,
(21:35):
but to have other producerssell.
Some of these farms in andaround the area, and even urban
farms, don't have the ability tosell produce straight from
their farm just because oflocation, and some people just
don't because they'd rather havetheir privacy, and then some
farmers don't want to deal withindividuals coming on too and to
(21:56):
offer a centralized place wheremyself and other producers
could offer their products tosell.
I the more the merrier.
I want more people to haveaccessibility to locally grown
food and to eat with the seasons.
And that's the goal.
And that's why I was open to bea hub, because I got to want to
(22:18):
practice what I preach, andwhen this opportunity was
proposed to me as an option, I'mlike yeah, it was.
I didn't think twice about it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We also are really excited to see the Ever Oak Farm
as the venue for an upcomingfall event for the Florida Local
Food Project, which I oversee,and we are really ecstatic about
this because it's the last ofthree farm events that we have
put on for this USDA project andI think we're going to go off
(22:53):
with a bang, because CentralFlorida has a lot to offer and
I'm looking forward to, you know, inviting very you know
selective chefs and growers andentrepreneurs to really have an
intimate gathering whereby theycan connect and kind of learn
different things from each other.
So what are you looking forwardto with this type of
(23:16):
collaboration with the FloridaLocal Food Project?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
The networking and connection and just keep
building and enhancing our localfood community and get other
restaurants connected with otherproducers and producers
connected to chefs and theirrestaurants.
And also just the networkingaspect is learn from each other
and for us to all share what wehave to say and how we want to
(23:41):
contribute or what we would liketo see where our food culture
goes from, where we're at now.
So that's what I'm prettystoked about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, and you mentioned you know that you're
not in competition with othergrowers and I think some growers
might not think the same inother parts of the state or city
, and I think that shifting thatnarrative to creating a more
collaborative food system isreally what we're trying to do
(24:10):
with that particular project andbringing these key people
together, having a space wherewe can actually talk about the
needs, the barriers, developworkshops around those things.
So, in terms of the biggestneeds that you think your
specific community is lookingfor when it comes to local food,
(24:32):
I mean, what do you think arethe biggest needs and barriers
for that particular region?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
More farms.
There isn't a tremendous amountof small scale or even just
farms in and around this area.
So just to have that influenceand also just to get consumers
more educated on food Mostpeople don't even know how a
tomato is grown or the processthat goes into that, and most of
the times it's being shippedover from Mexico and just that
(25:04):
whole seasonality of likenutrition and wellness too,
because as soon as foods harvestit starts to degrade in
nutritional value.
So when you have something beingshipped across, it's like the
state or the country or theworld it's losing its
nutritional value and somepeople don't think too much
about that, right.
Also, people don't think toomuch about their food and I
(25:25):
think we've gone so far fromthat, like I grew up not really
thinking or caring too muchabout food and sourcing and
where it went through, and mostother people aren't.
So bringing more education andawareness and more producers
because how it is now, theindustrial food complex is
what's keeping us likeindustrial agriculture is what's
(25:46):
keeping us fed, and if thatdoes go down, there's still not
enough local small scaleproducers to keep up with the
demand.
So we need more producers andjust more awareness, and that's
what I'm always hoping to bringawareness.
Every time people come here tothe farm, I try and educate them
(26:06):
as much as I can and share asmuch as I can of the complexity
of our food system and what goesinto it and all the little
nuances of everything absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's complicated.
It's complicated yet simple.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat we can do as educators to
relay some of these processes toconsumers, and not just I mean.
We're all consumers at the endof the day, but even chefs have
sometimes a lack of awareness ora lack of knowledge on the
(26:42):
growing seasons and the inputsand all the things that it takes
to grow a proper tomato right.
And I think that having theseeducational moments whereby
chefs and other experts can cometo a farm, harvest their own
food, learn about the techniquesand the things to keep it
(27:03):
sustainable, it really changeseverything.
Because even you know it'sproven for for even young
children that when they picktheir own fruits and vegetables
and I'm sure you know, as as afather now, that it like their
whole world shifts and now theyare, like, are excited to eat
this, this carrot that theypulled out of the ground or this
(27:24):
onion Do you find that thatadults can really reap those
same benefits?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I think so too.
So too, I really do think so.
Um, or at least adults learningto tap into their inner child
and being relearning and beingopen to look at it at a
different perspective, butdefinitely.
But going back to what you weresaying about the chefs not even
were, uh like, aware ofseasonality and food, and that's
such a true thing.
And making it adaptable to ourregion, central florida and
(27:53):
florida in general is sodifferent compared to where it
is, what it is throughout thewhole united states yeah I think
a lot of people don't realizethat even when I teach gardening
class, we're talking aboutgardening.
People that moved to the statestill think, like you're
planting things late spring intothe summer, it's like.
No, our growing season istotally different.
Like we, we're harvestingstrawberries in December, while
(28:22):
most people get strawberries byJune, july, blueberries come in
by March, peaches come in lateApril, like this.
Our seasonality is so differentthan what it is through the
whole United States and evenpeople living within Central
Florida or in Florida in generalembracing the Florida
seasonality to consume thoseitems when they're being
produced here in the state.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And I think a lot of chefs too aren't fully aware of
that as well.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So yeah, yeah, well, we at we with the Florida local
food project, one of the toolsthat we're trying to build is
actually that exact thing, whichis a regional Florida
seasonality calendar or tool, sothat people that are, you know,
in South Florida, north Florida, west Coast, can all see what
(29:12):
is available in their particulararea, because our state is
diverse and it is large and somany different types of soil,
climate you name it.
So it's just very everything isdifferent, you know, in those
various regions that we have.
So it's really important yeah,like what you just said, for
folks in whatever region they'reliving in, to really know what
(29:36):
those specifics are.
So we're excited to be puttingthat together and hopefully can
pull some input from folks likeyourself to really round out
that kind of resource.
So that's a really excitingthing for the Florida Local Food
Project and this upcoming event.
But I also wanted to ask, youknow, in terms of the fall
(30:00):
produce, what can we expect tosee at your farm during this
event?
And even the people you know,are there specific experts or
professionals you're expectingto see coming this November?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yep, yeah, so that's the events happening mid
November, so by then it shouldbe oh, cabbage, napa, cabbage,
green cabbage, broccoli,cauliflower tomatoes Roselle
should be coming on around thattime, which is hibiscus For
those who don't know it, asRoselle should have kohlrabi,
(30:34):
lettuce falls the best time inFlorida yeah, lots of yummy
greens yeah, a lot of greens, alot of greens and even peppers
and a plants.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
We grow 20 different fruits and vegetables here on
the property, so amazing yeah,which a good chunk of that
should be available about fall,so so yeah, so we I mean I want
to take a step back for a secondand talk about your perspective
on keeping a successful smallfarm running right.
(31:08):
What are key elements to thefoundation of a small farm?
What do you need to really getstarted?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Man.
It all depends and everyindividual is different.
Every individual has their ownneeds.
So once you really fully definewhat you need out of that farm
or that business, then you'reable to kind of make the
decisions you need to make.
I think a lot of people like tosee that copy and paste or the
(31:36):
one size fit all, but it reallyis and it's.
There's a little bit morecomplexity, but a good general
thing is what keeps us going ishaving a diversified market
stream.
Like I said, back when we didfirst started this farm, we were
primarily just selling torestaurants and then COVID
happened.
I'm like that's not sustainableand that's where I'm like okay,
it's nice to have three sourcesof revenue of restaurants and
(32:01):
wholesalers, csa, and then ourfarmers market, farmstan.
I think diversity is key.
I like to have our farm and thecrops that we grow as diverse
as possible.
So I think having a diversityinto your business is key.
We're now even expanding anddoing a little bit of nursery
stuff.
We're planning our first fallplant sale that we're also
(32:24):
collaborating with a few otherlocal folks here.
So cause I always tell peoplelike the best thing you can do
is grow your own, but there'sonly so much you can grow
yourself or be able to do that.
And then the next thing issupport a local farm.
So I'm always encouraged peopledo it and also I think when
people learn what it takes togrow something, they value it a
(32:47):
lot more and they understandwhere the cost is and why it
costs, what it costs to produceor what it is like.
But for going back to theoriginal question of like what
keeps the farm going success, Ithink this is the diversity of
market streams.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, so for a small farm that's just getting started
, do you recommend them kind ofworking with their local
nurseries and obtaining likefruit or vegetable trees to
plant, or starting out from theseed, or kind of doing a mix of
both?
Speaker 3 (33:31):
most of the time you're going to just be focusing
on mostly annual production andyou're going to learn to start
your own things from seeds,depending on how big in the
scale you are and if you startintroducing fruit trees because
we also produce a fair amount ofwell, getting close to
producing a fair amount of otherperennial type crops because we
have half an acre of peacheshere, probably almost half an
acre of bananas into productionavocados, mangoes, guavas those
(33:55):
we slowly attain over time andsometimes it's just buying one
or two.
It depends on your budget andwhat you're able to spend and
whatnot, but a lot of times Ilike to buy a few trees and then
propagate from my ownespecially.
It's budget, more budgetfriendly that way and the
smaller the plant that goes intothe ground, I feel like, gives
you a more hardier like rootedtype tree versus the tree going
(34:18):
into, like planting things inone gallons is always, in my
opinion, the most ideal size touh for, at least when it comes
into fruit trees yeah theyounger they are they're able to
get in, and then they're notmolding.
The roots aren't molding intothe pots.
But but yeah, for annualvegetables starting your own.
Everything else is probablybest working with other local
(34:41):
nurseries.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Are there expectations for how much a new
small farmer should expect to beputting down in order to get
started?
What is your perspective on allthat, and even securing a land
too?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, so that's another thing.
I don't own the land.
I don't own any land, I leaseland.
I always thought, too, I waslike, oh man, I want to be a
farmer, I want to grow food, Ineed to own my own land.
I always thought, too, I waslike, oh man.
I didn't want to be a farmer.
I want to grow food.
I need to own my own land, andland is so expensive and
sometimes it's kind of best tomaybe not own by land till you
actually have a few yearsunderneath your way and then
(35:26):
before you make that fullinvestment.
But once you attain land andthis is tough because we
originally started our farm backin well, we started market
farming, I said, back in 2015.
But 2016 was really the yearthat we really put a lot in,
when we started our first urbanfarms with our housemate that we
started that with $2,000, barebones quarter acre lot and just
(35:54):
started super small, super lean.
And then over the years, whileworking um the money that you
get from the farm, you just keepkind of putting it back in and
throwing it back in and grow itorganically that way that's
incredible yeah, I don't knowhow it would be this day of age,
because that's 2016 and whereis it 2024?
right now, much different, ohyeah.
(36:15):
So maybe double.
That is what you kind of needto maybe start up something
super small, and I think it'swise if young farmers are
getting into it like start small, smart, lean, and like kind of
do the farming part time andease into it.
I kind of do the farmingpart-time and ease into it.
It sucks in the beginning,being so stretched thin at times
, but it's definitely worthtaking that slow, organic
(36:40):
approach of building it With ourfarm.
I always struggle getting anyproper financing, even from the
institutes that are supposed tobe there to help fund farms, and
I've never been one to gosearching for grants, because
that's a full-time job, justwriting grants, and a lot of
times they're justreimbursements and I don't have
the upfront funding for it.
So, working with your communitythat's another reason why I
(37:01):
started the CSA to have thatupfront investment.
I'm like, okay, cool, Iallocate some of this to build
up and put into thisinfrastructure and then this to
keep paying the bills andwhatnot.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
And that's what I tell people too, as well as I
wouldn't be here for thecommunity and if I wasn't wanted
like I'm only here because ofcommunity support, If the
community didn't want this andthere's no reason for being here
, I'll just go homesteading andjust go.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, Well, I was.
I was just about to get tosupport systems, but right
before that I was going toquickly ask you in terms of
equipment.
Obviously there's like yourdream equipment, and then
there's the basic necessities.
Have you found like if youcould list your top three farm
(37:50):
tools.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
So I told if I would do this all again.
Oh man, top three, can I throwa fourth one?
Yeah, if I would do this allagain and like had to do it at a
small scale.
I have my most ideal and whereI'm at now, but in the beginning
of how I started, small tilder,paper pot transplanter, jank
cedar, and then quick greens uh,the quick greens harvester or
(38:16):
cut, cut greens, harvester,whatever.
Uh, those four equipment I feellike is what I would start off
with and then from there slowlybuild up to the bigger stuff.
Like I'm still looking intohopefully getting a BCS walk
behind tractor.
There's still equipment thatI've been trying to achieve that
I haven't been able to getthere.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, christmas list.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, there's an ongoing list and as things scale
up, and then it's like, allright, yeah, in order for me to
keep scaling up, I need to getthis, and it's just like waiting
till I'm able to attain that.
But yeah, it's just going back.
Those top four would be tostart off with.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, that's excellent.
We'll include a link to that inour about text and even the
upcoming dates for all of ouryou know exciting events and how
to get involved in the hub ifyou are interested or live in
that area.
But before we wrap up, I dowant to give you a chance to
speak a bit more about you know,your support system with the
(39:19):
community, how you foresee thischanging or evolving and really
what kind of advice you wouldgive to anyone else who's who
was in your position, you know,several years ago and might not
feel confident taking that nextstep.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
So the future of where we are and what I see
ourself going, as my goal is tokind of eventually move out of
this urban setting and scale upon what I'm doing.
We've been diving more intoagroforestry.
My goal is always to go beyondsustainability, because if you
think about the word sustainable, it's just like you kind of
(39:59):
flatline, you hit a plateau andI think we need to thrive and go
beyond sustainability or toslowly not rely on external
inputs and rely on producing asmuch as your own fertility
within or sourcing fertilitywithin and around the
(40:20):
surrounding areas.
Like we are partners withO-Town Compost.
We compost here on site andhave a partnership with O-Town
Compost, which they bring infood scraps from the hotels and
resorts and even some of our CSAmembers, our Oat Town
subscribers or even some of therestaurants we deal with, also
get there, so it's cool to seetheir waste kind of get cycled
back over here to the farm.
(40:41):
And then, since we'reconveniently located in the
middle of the city, it's easyfor us to get wood chips, which
is our carbon material, so tohave that excess nitrogen
material, food scraps material.
So to have that excess nitrogenmaterial of food scraps and
that excess material of carbonand mixing those, and so over
the years I've actually totallybacked away from using any even
organic fertilizer, integratingpoultry and because we also do
(41:05):
produce poultry here on the farmand utilizing them as a way to
build up fertility of theirmanure.
And even we do process birdschicken for meat as well.
Here we operate under FDEC'slimited poultry license, which
is a federal PL exemption, pl9043 or whatever it is, and even
(41:26):
yeah, exactly, and using evenlike their.
After their we're processingyou have their, their innards,
the blood, the feather, andwhich most people don't realize
like when it comes into organicagriculture, you typically are
relying on a lot of animalbyproducts.
Yes, usually manures, bloodmeal, feather meal, bone meal,
(41:47):
all those type amendments and mythoughts like well, typically
those are coming from CAFOsystems and buying organic
fertilizer.
You're still supporting thatpassively.
In my opinion, my eyes, so tolike, cut those loops out.
All these processes and thesesteps that I've implemented into
the farm have been baby steps.
(42:08):
I don't recommend anybodytrying to conquer this overnight
.
These are slow, like beenslowly integrated into our
outfit.
But going back and then evenimplementing agroforestry and
more perennial systems into ourfarms and have that integration
of perennials with annualgrowing because at the end of
the day we need to plant moretrees, try and sequester as much
(42:29):
carbon as possible.
Perennial systems are moresustainable than annual
production because there's lesshappening, more, less ground
prep, there's less inputtypically going in into
perennials than there are.
So to kind of have that balanceas well and to have that
support and to also enhance ourecology here on the farm because
(42:53):
that's what our goal is is topromote as much life as possible
on this farm, like it's niceseeing over the years of certain
insects I've never seen before,native bees I haven't seen
before and over the years seeingthe enhancement of our local
ecology here years seeing theenhancement of our local ecology
(43:16):
here.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yes, the idea of agroforestry and incorporating
that into a, you know, farmspace is so critical for the
biodiversity, and I think we didan episode actually before
about landscaping and it wasreally this idea of creating
your own ecosystem in yourbackyard by using perennial
plants, by attracting nativeanimal species and insects and
(43:37):
really creating a very livelyenvironment just in your own
backyard.
So even for folks that are notactively growing they are
listening to this episode it'ssomething that we can all
practice, even by living in anapartment complex, like I do.
So there's just I totally agreewith that.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, yeah, because I think the idea is to promote
more life.
I was that I'm going two yearswithout spraying here on the
farm that, even any organicstuff.
I always look at pests anddisease as a stress response and
learning to see why the stressresponse presented themselves in
(44:19):
the first place and a lot oftimes it's excess or lacking up.
I always tell give these twoprime examples with our farms
and what I've personally dealtwith in the past and some of the
there are actual publishedpublished literature on this
like aphids, for example, areattracted to plants that are
taking in a high amount ofexcess nitrogen and going
(44:39):
through that growth.
If it's are attracted to thatand water stress.
But if you have a good,balanced soil it's going on a
good, steady pace.
You typically don't deal withthat.
Another thing too is I deal withyellow mosaic virus.
It only for my zucchini, so Iin the fall I ended up getting
deformed zucchinis but I couldgrow zucchinis in the spring and
(45:01):
the reason for that is becauseplanting in the fall is the heat
and humidity still high.
The plant experienced thatstress.
It doesn't exert those symptomsor it doesn't show that it's
still present here on the farmversus the spring, I can grow
zucchini with no problem, um,and I don't see any of the the
symptoms of having yellow mosaic, yellow zucchini mosaic fires.
(45:23):
So knowing that and workingwith nature has always been the
goal.
And and another thing too pestsis sometimes a seasonal as well.
We deal with flea beetles everyMarch that they always go after
anything in the Brassica rapafamily, which is typically your
Chinese type or Asian type,brassica greens, napa, takchoy,
(45:47):
mizunos, tatsuo those are plantsin the Brassica rapa family and
we just take that path of leastresistant and not grow that.
Yeah, I can get insect netting,but that's me relying on buying
more infrastructure.
Or I can spray, which is morelabor for me to spray, but
organic sprays or syntheticspray, it doesn't matter what it
(46:09):
is.
It doesn't pick and choose thebenefits or the ones that you're
trying to terminate.
So that's why I avoid sprayingin general and just work with
the ecology.
So to enhance the naturalecology and just to work with
the rhythm of what's beingpresented, yeah, working with
nature, not against nature.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
that's it Exactly.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
So that's how my approach is, and you just can't
be afraid of failure.
You just got to jump in it.
You can, like I said earlier,you can theorize this stuff all
day, but you don't know untilyou really put it into practice.
And yeah, don't be afraid tofail, because you're going to
have a lot of failures.
(46:51):
But those failures it's how youovercome those failures is
where you're going to becomesuccessful.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Well, thank you so much for sharing that advice and
, honestly, you know we've had,mike, the absolute pleasure just
speaking with you, learningabout your story, and just
grateful that you could takesome time out of your busy, busy
farming schedule today.
So, you know, thank you againso much for sharing your advice
and making the commitment tobeyond sustainable as a farm
(47:22):
food hub and community space.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, totally, it was a pleasure.
I could actually keep talkingabout this stuff for hours.
I know we're so limited fortime.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We are exactly the same.
You know I could be here forhours, maybe days on end, but
you know we've had really agreat wrap up of, I think, a lot
of really great key points forour listeners to take away.
For those listening, whetheryou're a farmer, a foodie or
someone who simply cares aboutwhere your food comes from, I
hope this episode has inspiredyou to think more deeply about
(47:54):
sustainability and the impact wecan all have when we support
local organic agriculture andbeyond.
Thank you for joining us today.
Be sure to keep an eye on EverOak Farms upcoming events and
our social media and continue tosupport your local farms.
Until next time, stay rooted insustainability, stay connected
(48:14):
with your community and keepcultivating positive change.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
We hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Florida Organic Growers is a501c3 non-profit organization,
so to keep our content availableand free to the public, we need
your help.
Please subscribe, rate andreview wherever you listen, and
consider making a tax-deductibledonation or become a sponsor.
Learn more about our work andhow you can become a sponsor
from our website, wwwboginfoorg.
Welcome to Fresh Take , where we at Florida Organic
Growers speak to food systemsexperts about topics related to
organic and sustainableagriculture, healthy lifestyles
and the environment.
To help us continue ourprograms at FOG, including our
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For more information onsponsorship, check out our Get
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello and welcome to Fresh Take.
Today we're taking you on ajourney to Orlando, florida, to
a farm that's not just growingfood but cultivating a
sustainable community and futureEver Oak Farm.
Ever Oak Farm is more than justa farm.
It's a hub of sustainability,community engagement and a
shining example of what modernfarming can achieve.
(00:48):
We'll be diving deep into whatsustainable farming really means
in today's world and how EverOak Farm is leading the way by
partnering with Florida OrganicGrowers Programs.
What makes this story even moreinspiring is hearing it from
the perspective of a youngfarmer who is not only keeping
the business thriving but alsoredefining what it means to be a
(01:09):
farmer in the 21st century.
If you're interested insustainability, local food
movements or simply love hearingabout innovative approaches in
farming, this episode is for you.
Mike Garcia, welcome to our show.
For you, mike Garcia, welcometo our show.
Hey, well, so I'm really happyto have you with us today, and
you are a familiar face sinceI've seen you at the Organic
(01:32):
Food and Farming Summit thispast April with Fog, so it's a
pleasure seeing you again andhaving the chance to speak with
you.
So I'm really curious to diveright into your story and find
out more about your backgroundin farming and what really
inspired you to pursue this typeof career.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, totally Well, it's been a long journey.
I always say my journey kind ofstarted back when I started
culinary school.
I never had the intentions ingetting into agriculture.
It kind of is something that Istumbled across.
I've always the intentions ingetting into agriculture.
It kind of is something that Istumbled across.
I've always been passionateabout food and cooking.
And then with that passion, youkind of start thinking about
like, where are theseingredients coming from?
(02:15):
What are the quality of theingredient?
So I started what is it like?
Four years into cooking, Ipicked up gardening and I
started backyard gardening in myhouse in downtown Orlando.
I started with a little four byeight garden bed and just
tinkered with that.
Then, over the years, thegarden just kept growing, dove
into permaculture.
(02:36):
Meanwhile I'm still cooking,studying the whole industry,
studying every form ofagriculture.
There is the ins and the outsand that journey kept pursuing.
Eventually, it's just I startedgetting a little burnt out
working in the kitchens.
I knew I wanted to settle down,have a family and I wanted
something a little morewholesome and that's why I
(02:58):
stumbled across market gardeningback in 2015.
I was like, all right, cool,let me give this a try.
Started at a 3,000 square footplot up in Sorrento, did that
for a season.
And then our housemates at thetime and I decided to partner up
and started urban farming,literally ripped the
(03:20):
play-by-play book of the urbanfarmer by Curtin Stone and put
that model to practice here inOrlando and just applying it to
our context, and we realized,implementing these practices and
techniques and these methods,you can make a decent living off
of it.
Not tremendous like this is nota big money scheme, but it's a
(03:40):
good, honest living.
And so that's where it wentfrom cooking to growing yeah, I
always like to say too um,within 10 years, less than 10
years, I went from a four byeight garden bed to a three acre
farm wow yeah, 2019 is when weestablished ever oak farm, um,
and then that's when I keptscaling things up, so incredible
(04:03):
.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So you mentioned market farming.
What exactly is market farming?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So direct to consumer sales, that's our main focus.
When someone or a farmaddresses themselves as a market
farm, there's so many differenttypes of farms out there but on
the small scale, family basedfarms are typically-type farms
which you're growing the productto sell directly to your
consumer or to restaurants ormaybe to a wholesaler, bypassing
(04:33):
going through a packing houseor a distributor, and all that.
When you're small-scale growingI imagine something 20 acres or
less, that business model makesthe most sense of trying to get
those direct to consumer sales,other than when you start going
past that, you start wanting tolook into being more crop focus
and also look into differentdistribution outlets.
(04:55):
I didn't want that and I'm notlooking to ever really scale up
like that.
I like direct to consumer, yeah,I like community engagement.
Food brings people together andalso being connected with like
what it really means living andeating local and seasonal.
I always kind of tell peopleit's like everyone has their
(05:15):
doctor, their lawyers, their CPA, those once in a while, but the
one thing you need every day isa farmer and it's a good.
Yeah, that direct relationship.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, so building that bond in that community has
always been my goal, so that'swhy I've always focused in the
realm of market farming andtrying to stay small.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So that really is what I think makes you guys
stand out is the emphasis on thecommunity.
Makes you guys stand out is theemphasis on the community.
And you also have thatbackground in culinary, which I
think also puts you on adifferent, you know starting
point because you actuallyunderstand the quality.
You know what is needed for agood quality product for, in
(05:59):
terms of flavor, nutritionalvalue, all of those.
You know the color, texture,everything.
So how do you think that thatbackground in cooking has shaped
you as a farmer?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Well, thinking about that now, there's like two
things.
One is that I think the bigpart is being able to relate,
like be able to understand theingredient and how to prepare it
, and to be able to communicatethat to our customers as well,
because it's great.
You have people that come up tothe farm stand or at the
farmer's market and some people,some ingredients are new that
(06:36):
you don't see every day, andthey're like hey, how can I go
about preparing this?
Or sometimes you see producethat are fully intact, like
turnips with tops or beets withtops, and the tops are edible,
and it's like how else can Iprepare this?
So having that culinarybackground and that insight of
food preparation helps a lot.
(06:57):
Another thing is what standard,like what's the quality standard
that most consumers and evenrestaurants are looking for as
well kind of helps with that.
And then also the last thing soI guess it was three things
would be having that way to talkto chefs and work, like walk
(07:17):
into a kitchen and be able tolike it's comforting, like I
spent so many hours in thekitchen and I know how it is, I
know how the hours are and thelong days are, and so you'd be
able to relate on that and eventhinking about it now.
Farmers and chefs pretty muchalmost have the same lifestyles.
One starts earlier in the dayand one starts later in the day.
(07:41):
You're out there hustling andyou're trying to feed and
nourish your community and bringan end product to yeah, to keep
your community nourished andfed, wow.
So.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I think just
what you said about knowing theschedule.
I think that's a huge leg upbecause then I think you are
already, you have an advantagein terms of communication with
these key actors in thecommunity.
So it sounds like you reallyknow what you're doing and I
think that, for the region ofCentral Florida, seems to be
(08:18):
like the farming community isreally growing there.
How do you think that thelandscape of agriculture has
looked in that region in termsof its history and now?
Do you see it changing?
Is there a positive future, youknow, coming to fruition?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I definitely think that there is a good, positive
future and there is changing.
It's crazy to think that I'vebeen in Orlando since.
Was it December 2007.
So what is that?
I don't know how many years Ican't do math right now I've
been here and seen the change,even how the culinary food scene
, the whole culinary scene, haschanged over those years and now
(09:00):
even seeing more farms slowlycoming about and emerging, most
of them being urban farms orlike super small scale farms,
which is great.
Central Florida always did havelike their commercial farms,
like in larger industrial typefarms, especially on the outer
parts of Orlando getting towardsApopka.
(09:21):
Apopka was more nursery andfoliage, but they also, uh,
foliar and ornamental typeplants.
But you still have like a lotlarger farms like producing
cabbage, cucumbers and sometomatoes and citrus industry
slowly dying.
But also what's big and thenreally changing is the
development.
Farmland is getting consumedlike crazy.
(09:43):
So, so constraints is kind of astruggle and you see more farms
closing.
I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like the farmsare popping up and then I see
some farms closing.
So but it's there and the foodscene is there and there are
smaller farms really coming upto the scene.
When I first started too, therewasn't really much small scale
(10:07):
farms around that I could reallyget my hands like dirty and get
involved and really learn thatexperience because I was totally
self-taught and now being ableto have the space that I have,
that's smack down in the middleof Orlando I'm 10 minutes from
downtown back down in the middleof Orlando, 10 minutes from
(10:28):
downtown, and now I've beenhaving interns coming on and
being able to offer them a placeto get hands-on learning
experience and learn from myfailures and also learn from my
success and be able to learn alot of these techniques and
methods of growing at a smallerscale, and hopefully that
encourages to keep having moresmall farms pop up in and around
the area.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And speaking of interns, you said that you were
self-taught, so you haven't,prior to starting UN Farm,
shadowed another farmer orinterned or done any of that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
No, I literally just picked up a few books, read some
articles on UF, ifas and justput it to practice.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
You could theorize all this like everything, all
the literature, all day, but youreally don't know until you put
it in full practice.
And yeah, there's been a lot offailures.
But a lot of those failures youlearn and each season just
keeps getting better and better.
It would have been nice to havethe mentor and actually learn.
It probably would have saved mesome times and some heartaches
(11:29):
and headaches.
But it was part of where I waswith my life and it was hard to
step away from kitchens becausethat was my paying gig and
juggle both.
So I've been farming full timeand living off our farm income
since 2019.
(11:53):
So from 2015 to 2019, for fouryears I was working in kitchens
and working on the field on ourown farm, doing that hustle.
So it was like wake up in themorning, farm, make it happen
and then later in the afternoongo into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, too, I was pickingup private chef gigs, so I was
able to kind of work my own.
So, but that's wild your.
Your work weeks must have beenyeah 80 plus hours about that,
(12:16):
but it was at a good flow and agood time.
I didn't have my wife and I Ididn't have any children at the
time, so it was definitelyeasier.
Hustle and bustle, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, are there any farmers in the area that you
look up to or feel like you areable to learn from?
Because I know that there's alot of.
You know a big community that'sgrowing there, so I'm curious
to know if there's that kind ofmentor in the making, if there's
that kind of mentor in themaking.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I don't really have a mentor there, but just talking
to all the other local producersand us just talking, shop and
learning our own personalexperiences and sharing that.
That's why I really loveconnecting with other producers
and just be like what do you dothis?
Or I've ran into this problem.
We all have something to bringto the table and there's a lot
(13:05):
of great urban producers hereNow.
You got Mason from Winter ParkUrban Farm, kate from Open Hand
Farms there are just the two onthe top of my head that are in
the immediate area that take onthe market and talking to them
is fantastic and just sharingour experience, which I that
(13:26):
community thing.
I feel like there is nocompetition and I never will
ever feel there is competition.
I always tell people too.
I think the most idealsituations have every
neighborhood has its own littleurban farm, like I truly believe
our food is so centralized, ourfood system is so centralized,
(13:47):
and to have thatdecentralization of multiple
small farms in differentneighborhoods, like our farm
right now caters within 10 miles, so all the CSA deliveries that
we make are within 10 milesfrom the farm and all the
restaurants we cater to is 10miles on the farm and I tell
people I wouldn't mind cuttingthat by half and it would be
nice to encourage otherproducers to come in and take on
(14:09):
some urban farming and do it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And and tackle that on the markets.
Big enough.
I have hotels and resortsreaching out to me and I'm just
always turning them down.
I'm like, look, I'm at capacity.
I'm super small, Just kind ofkeeping within that super hyper
local, really catering withinthe neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So yeah, well, you said it, with decentralization,
that's like the key to our, youknow, building out these local
food systems.
Have set yourself up in a waythat you could serve as a mentor
for another small farm,considering your partnership
with Florida Organic Growers anda couple of these really
(14:52):
exciting projects that I'd loveto get into.
The first, I guesscollaboration of sorts.
You were, you know, kind of Idon't want to say voluntold, but
excited to become one of thehubs for the market that is
aiming to get farm fresh foodinto homes of average consumers
(15:15):
and help become another.
Have it new or additionalrevenue stream for farmers to
make and deliver orders asidefrom their current stance,
whether that's in a farmer'smarket, just from their farm.
This is another additional wayof being able to sell more
locally grown foods.
(15:35):
So how has that process beenfor you in being the hub in
Orlando?
What have been some things thatyou've learned, some challenges
you face?
I'm curious to hear all aboutit.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I think this, the timing of it, is great because
it's nice to start easing to itNow, as now and then the next
few weeks, we have our fallcrops coming on and, as things
slowly start coming off thefield, we're able to upload it
onto the Agri platform and whileother producers, too, are
slowly learning the wholeplatform and just now educating
(16:11):
people like, hey, there'sanother way to get your local
produce, and just spreading theword out there.
So, yeah, and right now it'sjust the very early stages of it
and I see a big potential on it.
It's just getting the consumersto look into it and to give it
a try, especially in individualsthat have busy schedules as
(16:35):
well that can't always make itto a farmer's market and be like
, but still want to buy andsupport local.
Absolutely, have a platform tobe like.
Okay, cool, this could workinto my, my busy schedule.
Um, because, also, too,sometimes you go to the farmer's
market and if you go too latethey're sold out.
Yeah, able to have this pre, uh, an option like you're
pre-ordering your order and haveit guaranteed.
(16:58):
Like cool, I'm gonna have allthis ready to pick up from where
we're conveniently located,like I said, 10 minutes from
downtown orlando.
We're off two major roads, on436 and on state road 50.
So where we're at location,wise, is perfect too to be a hub
.
And, too, you not only are youbuying and supporting from other
(17:21):
local farms, you're able tocome to visit a small urban farm
that's practicing a lot ofsustainable and regenerative
practices and to be able to getconnected and see, like, what is
possible out there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, and that's it's interesting.
You say that because and sothere's a lot of different types
of spaces that you can considerto be a food hub, and a farm
can definitely be one of them.
So I find that to be really,you know, a plus to that kind of
hub where you can actually evensee the farm that's growing
(17:57):
some of these foods andaggregating from other local
farms as well.
So I'm curious to know whattype of foods can people find at
the Orlando hub in terms ofordering online, and are these
vendors also small producers?
What is the mix of the bag thatyou guys have?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, so right now we're producing only a couple
items, right, we're sellingactually CSA shares through it
as well, so you have the optionto even buy CSA shares through
the Agri platform.
But then we also have a poultryproducer that's out in Tavares
selling eggs, other cottagegoods and poultry.
(18:40):
We have a mushroom producerthat's just joined a couple
weeks ago and, yeah, mushrooms.
Yeah, it's great to have that,and yeah, so right now we got
poultry, we have mushrooms andall the produce.
Folks, myself included, we'repretty quiet right now, just
(19:01):
waiting for the season to comeon.
Oh yeah.
We do have some fruits comingoff here soon and some perennial
type tropical type greens onthere like morangas available,
but for the most part that's fora special type of individuals
that know how to eat and consumefoods like that.
But yeah, right now it's slow.
(19:21):
It's the summer, everyone'splanting for fall and probably
in the next few weeks we shouldsee more greens coming on.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's really exciting.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, so I'm really excited to see when October
comes full throttle and seeingeverything that we have
available and all the otherlocal farms around that are
producing to slowly start seeingthings come back online lettuce
, kales, tomatoes, peppers,eggplants, and yeah, and that's
(19:52):
I mean those are really bigseasons for growing.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So what you mentioned earlier about being able to
pre-order, you're basically likea loyalty vip member of the
farm um that can just choosewhat you want ahead of time and
not have to worry about, youknow, missing out on things that
have sold out or, you know allthose other factors.
So it's a really coolalternative for folks,
(20:16):
especially, like you said, whoare busy, who work on the
weekends or who even have adisability and cannot make it
out to those markets or to thefarm and have you know another
avenue of being able to pick upfrom a different venue.
So there's a lot of differentbenefits to this and I'm
wondering for you why did youchoose to become a hub on top of
(20:38):
farming?
Because I know you have a verybusy schedule.
So what?
What are the benefits thatyou've seen so far?
And I know it's the early days,but you know just in the couple
of months that you've beendoing this.
What have you seen?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
um, one thing I'm also looking forward to that.
I mentioned that we're alsotrying to be able to have the
ability to accept uh, ebt andsnap, ebt, snap.
That's going to be a big thing.
That's definitely something asa farm myself want to accept
more.
And being able to have thisplatform, once we get to that
level that we're able to process, nap, to offer that to
(21:14):
consumers like hey, yeah, justorder through here and use your,
your snap to purchase locallygrown and seasonal food straight
from the farm.
But being the hub, it's justlike it goes back to our
conversation what I said earlierbeing a community base and to
be able to offer a space wherenot only where I'm able to sell,
(21:35):
but to have other producerssell.
Some of these farms in andaround the area, and even urban
farms, don't have the ability tosell produce straight from
their farm just because oflocation, and some people just
don't because they'd rather havetheir privacy, and then some
farmers don't want to deal withindividuals coming on too and to
(21:56):
offer a centralized place wheremyself and other producers
could offer their products tosell.
I the more the merrier.
I want more people to haveaccessibility to locally grown
food and to eat with the seasons.
And that's the goal.
And that's why I was open to bea hub, because I got to want to
(22:18):
practice what I preach, andwhen this opportunity was
proposed to me as an option, I'mlike yeah, it was.
I didn't think twice about it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We also are really excited to see the Ever Oak Farm
as the venue for an upcomingfall event for the Florida Local
Food Project, which I oversee,and we are really ecstatic about
this because it's the last ofthree farm events that we have
put on for this USDA project andI think we're going to go off
(22:53):
with a bang, because CentralFlorida has a lot to offer and
I'm looking forward to, you know, inviting very you know
selective chefs and growers andentrepreneurs to really have an
intimate gathering whereby theycan connect and kind of learn
different things from each other.
So what are you looking forwardto with this type of
(23:16):
collaboration with the FloridaLocal Food Project?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
The networking and connection and just keep
building and enhancing our localfood community and get other
restaurants connected with otherproducers and producers
connected to chefs and theirrestaurants.
And also just the networkingaspect is learn from each other
and for us to all share what wehave to say and how we want to
(23:41):
contribute or what we would liketo see where our food culture
goes from, where we're at now.
So that's what I'm prettystoked about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, and you mentioned you know that you're
not in competition with othergrowers and I think some growers
might not think the same inother parts of the state or city
, and I think that shifting thatnarrative to creating a more
collaborative food system isreally what we're trying to do
(24:10):
with that particular project andbringing these key people
together, having a space wherewe can actually talk about the
needs, the barriers, developworkshops around those things.
So, in terms of the biggestneeds that you think your
specific community is lookingfor when it comes to local food,
(24:32):
I mean, what do you think arethe biggest needs and barriers
for that particular region?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
More farms.
There isn't a tremendous amountof small scale or even just
farms in and around this area.
So just to have that influenceand also just to get consumers
more educated on food Mostpeople don't even know how a
tomato is grown or the processthat goes into that, and most of
the times it's being shippedover from Mexico and just that
(25:04):
whole seasonality of likenutrition and wellness too,
because as soon as foods harvestit starts to degrade in
nutritional value.
So when you have something beingshipped across, it's like the
state or the country or theworld it's losing its
nutritional value and somepeople don't think too much
about that, right.
Also, people don't think toomuch about their food and I
(25:25):
think we've gone so far fromthat, like I grew up not really
thinking or caring too muchabout food and sourcing and
where it went through, and mostother people aren't.
So bringing more education andawareness and more producers
because how it is now, theindustrial food complex is
what's keeping us likeindustrial agriculture is what's
(25:46):
keeping us fed, and if thatdoes go down, there's still not
enough local small scaleproducers to keep up with the
demand.
So we need more producers andjust more awareness, and that's
what I'm always hoping to bringawareness.
Every time people come here tothe farm, I try and educate them
(26:06):
as much as I can and share asmuch as I can of the complexity
of our food system and what goesinto it and all the little
nuances of everything absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's complicated.
It's complicated yet simple.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat we can do as educators to
relay some of these processes toconsumers, and not just I mean.
We're all consumers at the endof the day, but even chefs have
sometimes a lack of awareness ora lack of knowledge on the
(26:42):
growing seasons and the inputsand all the things that it takes
to grow a proper tomato right.
And I think that having theseeducational moments whereby
chefs and other experts can cometo a farm, harvest their own
food, learn about the techniquesand the things to keep it
(27:03):
sustainable, it really changeseverything.
Because even you know it'sproven for for even young
children that when they picktheir own fruits and vegetables
and I'm sure you know, as as afather now, that it like their
whole world shifts and now theyare, like, are excited to eat
this, this carrot that theypulled out of the ground or this
(27:24):
onion Do you find that thatadults can really reap those
same benefits?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I think so too.
So too, I really do think so.
Um, or at least adults learningto tap into their inner child
and being relearning and beingopen to look at it at a
different perspective, butdefinitely.
But going back to what you weresaying about the chefs not even
were, uh like, aware ofseasonality and food, and that's
such a true thing.
And making it adaptable to ourregion, central florida and
(27:53):
florida in general is sodifferent compared to where it
is, what it is throughout thewhole united states yeah I think
a lot of people don't realizethat even when I teach gardening
class, we're talking aboutgardening.
People that moved to the statestill think, like you're
planting things late spring intothe summer, it's like.
No, our growing season istotally different.
Like we, we're harvestingstrawberries in December, while
(28:22):
most people get strawberries byJune, july, blueberries come in
by March, peaches come in lateApril, like this.
Our seasonality is so differentthan what it is through the
whole United States and evenpeople living within Central
Florida or in Florida in generalembracing the Florida
seasonality to consume thoseitems when they're being
produced here in the state.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And I think a lot of chefs too aren't fully aware of
that as well.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So yeah, yeah, well, we at we with the Florida local
food project, one of the toolsthat we're trying to build is
actually that exact thing, whichis a regional Florida
seasonality calendar or tool, sothat people that are, you know,
in South Florida, north Florida, west Coast, can all see what
(29:12):
is available in their particulararea, because our state is
diverse and it is large and somany different types of soil,
climate you name it.
So it's just very everything isdifferent, you know, in those
various regions that we have.
So it's really important yeah,like what you just said, for
folks in whatever region they'reliving in, to really know what
(29:36):
those specifics are.
So we're excited to be puttingthat together and hopefully can
pull some input from folks likeyourself to really round out
that kind of resource.
So that's a really excitingthing for the Florida Local Food
Project and this upcoming event.
But I also wanted to ask, youknow, in terms of the fall
(30:00):
produce, what can we expect tosee at your farm during this
event?
And even the people you know,are there specific experts or
professionals you're expectingto see coming this November?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Yep, yeah, so that's the events happening mid
November, so by then it shouldbe oh, cabbage, napa, cabbage,
green cabbage, broccoli,cauliflower tomatoes Roselle
should be coming on around thattime, which is hibiscus For
those who don't know it, asRoselle should have kohlrabi,
(30:34):
lettuce falls the best time inFlorida yeah, lots of yummy
greens yeah, a lot of greens, alot of greens and even peppers
and a plants.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
We grow 20 different fruits and vegetables here on
the property, so amazing yeah,which a good chunk of that
should be available about fall,so so yeah, so we I mean I want
to take a step back for a secondand talk about your perspective
on keeping a successful smallfarm running right.
(31:08):
What are key elements to thefoundation of a small farm?
What do you need to really getstarted?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Man.
It all depends and everyindividual is different.
Every individual has their ownneeds.
So once you really fully definewhat you need out of that farm
or that business, then you'reable to kind of make the
decisions you need to make.
I think a lot of people like tosee that copy and paste or the
(31:36):
one size fit all, but it reallyis and it's.
There's a little bit morecomplexity, but a good general
thing is what keeps us going ishaving a diversified market
stream.
Like I said, back when we didfirst started this farm, we were
primarily just selling torestaurants and then COVID
happened.
I'm like that's not sustainableand that's where I'm like okay,
it's nice to have three sourcesof revenue of restaurants and
(32:01):
wholesalers, csa, and then ourfarmers market, farmstan.
I think diversity is key.
I like to have our farm and thecrops that we grow as diverse
as possible.
So I think having a diversityinto your business is key.
We're now even expanding anddoing a little bit of nursery
stuff.
We're planning our first fallplant sale that we're also
(32:24):
collaborating with a few otherlocal folks here.
So cause I always tell peoplelike the best thing you can do
is grow your own, but there'sonly so much you can grow
yourself or be able to do that.
And then the next thing issupport a local farm.
So I'm always encouraged peopledo it and also I think when
people learn what it takes togrow something, they value it a
(32:47):
lot more and they understandwhere the cost is and why it
costs, what it costs to produceor what it is like.
But for going back to theoriginal question of like what
keeps the farm going success, Ithink this is the diversity of
market streams.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, so for a small farm that's just getting started
, do you recommend them kind ofworking with their local
nurseries and obtaining likefruit or vegetable trees to
plant, or starting out from theseed, or kind of doing a mix of
both?
Speaker 3 (33:31):
most of the time you're going to just be focusing
on mostly annual production andyou're going to learn to start
your own things from seeds,depending on how big in the
scale you are and if you startintroducing fruit trees because
we also produce a fair amount ofwell, getting close to
producing a fair amount of otherperennial type crops because we
have half an acre of peacheshere, probably almost half an
acre of bananas into productionavocados, mangoes, guavas those
(33:55):
we slowly attain over time andsometimes it's just buying one
or two.
It depends on your budget andwhat you're able to spend and
whatnot, but a lot of times Ilike to buy a few trees and then
propagate from my ownespecially.
It's budget, more budgetfriendly that way and the
smaller the plant that goes intothe ground, I feel like, gives
you a more hardier like rootedtype tree versus the tree going
(34:18):
into, like planting things inone gallons is always, in my
opinion, the most ideal size touh for, at least when it comes
into fruit trees yeah theyounger they are they're able to
get in, and then they're notmolding.
The roots aren't molding intothe pots.
But but yeah, for annualvegetables starting your own.
Everything else is probablybest working with other local
(34:41):
nurseries.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Are there expectations for how much a new
small farmer should expect to beputting down in order to get
started?
What is your perspective on allthat, and even securing a land
too?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yeah, so that's another thing.
I don't own the land.
I don't own any land, I leaseland.
I always thought, too, I waslike, oh man, I want to be a
farmer, I want to grow food, Ineed to own my own land.
I always thought, too, I waslike, oh man.
I didn't want to be a farmer.
I want to grow food.
I need to own my own land, andland is so expensive and
sometimes it's kind of best tomaybe not own by land till you
actually have a few yearsunderneath your way and then
(35:26):
before you make that fullinvestment.
But once you attain land andthis is tough because we
originally started our farm backin well, we started market
farming, I said, back in 2015.
But 2016 was really the yearthat we really put a lot in,
when we started our first urbanfarms with our housemate that we
started that with $2,000, barebones quarter acre lot and just
(35:54):
started super small, super lean.
And then over the years, whileworking um the money that you
get from the farm, you just keepkind of putting it back in and
throwing it back in and grow itorganically that way that's
incredible yeah, I don't knowhow it would be this day of age,
because that's 2016 and whereis it 2024?
right now, much different, ohyeah.
(36:15):
So maybe double.
That is what you kind of needto maybe start up something
super small, and I think it'swise if young farmers are
getting into it like start small, smart, lean, and like kind of
do the farming part time andease into it.
I kind of do the farmingpart-time and ease into it.
It sucks in the beginning,being so stretched thin at times
, but it's definitely worthtaking that slow, organic
(36:40):
approach of building it With ourfarm.
I always struggle getting anyproper financing, even from the
institutes that are supposed tobe there to help fund farms, and
I've never been one to gosearching for grants, because
that's a full-time job, justwriting grants, and a lot of
times they're justreimbursements and I don't have
the upfront funding for it.
So, working with your communitythat's another reason why I
(37:01):
started the CSA to have thatupfront investment.
I'm like, okay, cool, Iallocate some of this to build
up and put into thisinfrastructure and then this to
keep paying the bills andwhatnot.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
And that's what I tell people too, as well as I
wouldn't be here for thecommunity and if I wasn't wanted
like I'm only here because ofcommunity support, If the
community didn't want this andthere's no reason for being here
, I'll just go homesteading andjust go.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, Well, I was.
I was just about to get tosupport systems, but right
before that I was going toquickly ask you in terms of
equipment.
Obviously there's like yourdream equipment, and then
there's the basic necessities.
Have you found like if youcould list your top three farm
(37:50):
tools.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
So I told if I would do this all again.
Oh man, top three, can I throwa fourth one?
Yeah, if I would do this allagain and like had to do it at a
small scale.
I have my most ideal and whereI'm at now, but in the beginning
of how I started, small tilder,paper pot transplanter, jank
cedar, and then quick greens uh,the quick greens harvester or
(38:16):
cut, cut greens, harvester,whatever.
Uh, those four equipment I feellike is what I would start off
with and then from there slowlybuild up to the bigger stuff.
Like I'm still looking intohopefully getting a BCS walk
behind tractor.
There's still equipment thatI've been trying to achieve that
I haven't been able to getthere.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, christmas list.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, there's an ongoing list and as things scale
up, and then it's like, allright, yeah, in order for me to
keep scaling up, I need to getthis, and it's just like waiting
till I'm able to attain that.
But yeah, it's just going back.
Those top four would be tostart off with.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, that's excellent.
We'll include a link to that inour about text and even the
upcoming dates for all of ouryou know exciting events and how
to get involved in the hub ifyou are interested or live in
that area.
But before we wrap up, I dowant to give you a chance to
speak a bit more about you know,your support system with the
(39:19):
community, how you foresee thischanging or evolving and really
what kind of advice you wouldgive to anyone else who's who
was in your position, you know,several years ago and might not
feel confident taking that nextstep.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
So the future of where we are and what I see
ourself going, as my goal is tokind of eventually move out of
this urban setting and scale upon what I'm doing.
We've been diving more intoagroforestry.
My goal is always to go beyondsustainability, because if you
think about the word sustainable, it's just like you kind of
(39:59):
flatline, you hit a plateau andI think we need to thrive and go
beyond sustainability or toslowly not rely on external
inputs and rely on producing asmuch as your own fertility
within or sourcing fertilitywithin and around the
(40:20):
surrounding areas.
Like we are partners withO-Town Compost.
We compost here on site andhave a partnership with O-Town
Compost, which they bring infood scraps from the hotels and
resorts and even some of our CSAmembers, our Oat Town
subscribers or even some of therestaurants we deal with, also
get there, so it's cool to seetheir waste kind of get cycled
back over here to the farm.
(40:41):
And then, since we'reconveniently located in the
middle of the city, it's easyfor us to get wood chips, which
is our carbon material, so tohave that excess nitrogen
material, food scraps material.
So to have that excess nitrogenmaterial of food scraps and
that excess material of carbonand mixing those, and so over
the years I've actually totallybacked away from using any even
organic fertilizer, integratingpoultry and because we also do
(41:05):
produce poultry here on the farmand utilizing them as a way to
build up fertility of theirmanure.
And even we do process birdschicken for meat as well.
Here we operate under FDEC'slimited poultry license, which
is a federal PL exemption, pl9043 or whatever it is, and even
(41:26):
yeah, exactly, and using evenlike their.
After their we're processingyou have their, their innards,
the blood, the feather, andwhich most people don't realize
like when it comes into organicagriculture, you typically are
relying on a lot of animalbyproducts.
Yes, usually manures, bloodmeal, feather meal, bone meal,
(41:47):
all those type amendments and mythoughts like well, typically
those are coming from CAFOsystems and buying organic
fertilizer.
You're still supporting thatpassively.
In my opinion, my eyes, so tolike, cut those loops out.
All these processes and thesesteps that I've implemented into
the farm have been baby steps.
(42:08):
I don't recommend anybodytrying to conquer this overnight
.
These are slow, like beenslowly integrated into our
outfit.
But going back and then evenimplementing agroforestry and
more perennial systems into ourfarms and have that integration
of perennials with annualgrowing because at the end of
the day we need to plant moretrees, try and sequester as much
(42:29):
carbon as possible.
Perennial systems are moresustainable than annual
production because there's lesshappening, more, less ground
prep, there's less inputtypically going in into
perennials than there are.
So to kind of have that balanceas well and to have that
support and to also enhance ourecology here on the farm because
(42:53):
that's what our goal is is topromote as much life as possible
on this farm, like it's niceseeing over the years of certain
insects I've never seen before,native bees I haven't seen
before and over the years seeingthe enhancement of our local
ecology here years seeing theenhancement of our local ecology
(43:16):
here.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yes, the idea of agroforestry and incorporating
that into a, you know, farmspace is so critical for the
biodiversity, and I think we didan episode actually before
about landscaping and it wasreally this idea of creating
your own ecosystem in yourbackyard by using perennial
plants, by attracting nativeanimal species and insects and
(43:37):
really creating a very livelyenvironment just in your own
backyard.
So even for folks that are notactively growing they are
listening to this episode it'ssomething that we can all
practice, even by living in anapartment complex, like I do.
So there's just I totally agreewith that.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, yeah, because I think the idea is to promote
more life.
I was that I'm going two yearswithout spraying here on the
farm that, even any organicstuff.
I always look at pests anddisease as a stress response and
learning to see why the stressresponse presented themselves in
(44:19):
the first place and a lot oftimes it's excess or lacking up.
I always tell give these twoprime examples with our farms
and what I've personally dealtwith in the past and some of the
there are actual publishedpublished literature on this
like aphids, for example, areattracted to plants that are
taking in a high amount ofexcess nitrogen and going
(44:39):
through that growth.
If it's are attracted to thatand water stress.
But if you have a good,balanced soil it's going on a
good, steady pace.
You typically don't deal withthat.
Another thing too is I deal withyellow mosaic virus.
It only for my zucchini, so Iin the fall I ended up getting
deformed zucchinis but I couldgrow zucchinis in the spring and
(45:01):
the reason for that is becauseplanting in the fall is the heat
and humidity still high.
The plant experienced thatstress.
It doesn't exert those symptomsor it doesn't show that it's
still present here on the farmversus the spring, I can grow
zucchini with no problem, um,and I don't see any of the the
symptoms of having yellow mosaic, yellow zucchini mosaic fires.
(45:23):
So knowing that and workingwith nature has always been the
goal.
And and another thing too pestsis sometimes a seasonal as well.
We deal with flea beetles everyMarch that they always go after
anything in the Brassica rapafamily, which is typically your
Chinese type or Asian type,brassica greens, napa, takchoy,
(45:47):
mizunos, tatsuo those are plantsin the Brassica rapa family and
we just take that path of leastresistant and not grow that.
Yeah, I can get insect netting,but that's me relying on buying
more infrastructure.
Or I can spray, which is morelabor for me to spray, but
organic sprays or syntheticspray, it doesn't matter what it
(46:09):
is.
It doesn't pick and choose thebenefits or the ones that you're
trying to terminate.
So that's why I avoid sprayingin general and just work with
the ecology.
So to enhance the naturalecology and just to work with
the rhythm of what's beingpresented, yeah, working with
nature, not against nature.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
that's it Exactly.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
So that's how my approach is, and you just can't
be afraid of failure.
You just got to jump in it.
You can, like I said earlier,you can theorize this stuff all
day, but you don't know untilyou really put it into practice.
And yeah, don't be afraid tofail, because you're going to
have a lot of failures.
(46:51):
But those failures it's how youovercome those failures is
where you're going to becomesuccessful.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Well, thank you so much for sharing that advice and
, honestly, you know we've had,mike, the absolute pleasure just
speaking with you, learningabout your story, and just
grateful that you could takesome time out of your busy, busy
farming schedule today.
So, you know, thank you againso much for sharing your advice
and making the commitment tobeyond sustainable as a farm
(47:22):
food hub and community space.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Yeah, totally, it was a pleasure.
I could actually keep talkingabout this stuff for hours.
I know we're so limited fortime.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We are exactly the same.
You know I could be here forhours, maybe days on end, but
you know we've had really agreat wrap up of, I think, a lot
of really great key points forour listeners to take away.
For those listening, whetheryou're a farmer, a foodie or
someone who simply cares aboutwhere your food comes from, I
hope this episode has inspiredyou to think more deeply about
(47:54):
sustainability and the impact wecan all have when we support
local organic agriculture andbeyond.
Thank you for joining us today.
Be sure to keep an eye on EverOak Farms upcoming events and
our social media and continue tosupport your local farms.
Until next time, stay rooted insustainability, stay connected
(48:14):
with your community and keepcultivating positive change.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
We hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Florida Organic Growers is a501c3 non-profit organization,
so to keep our content availableand free to the public, we need
your help.
Please subscribe, rate andreview wherever you listen, and
consider making a tax-deductibledonation or become a sponsor.
Learn more about our work andhow you can become a sponsor
from our website, wwwboginfoorg.
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