Blog – Working Food

Locally Saved Tomato Varieties

This past spring, we’ve been working with local farmers helping grow our local seed community by saving seeds on their farm. You can read more about this project here, which was funded by Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). Although tomato season seems so far away, we are gathering up our seeds and getting…

Sep202024

It’s Time to Grow Greens!

It’s the time of year when we can finally start sowing seeds for leafy greens that will nourish us all winter! Over the years we’ve become particularly fond of the diversity of Asian greens that grow really well here in North Florida from fall through early spring. We love them for so many reasons. First…

Aug162024

SARE Local Seed Project Update

Meet our University of Florida intern, Noah Allen! Noah has been working with us to create videos that highlight our work with local farmers incorporating seed saving into their farm practices! Noah is documenting the seeds, the farmers, and their stories! It’s a lot of behind the scenes work capturing farm footage in the right…

Jul312024

Tomato varieties of different sizes and colors on a white background

Results are in for the 2024 Tomato Variety Trial!

We grew 15 new (to us) varieties this year in our seed trial gardens at GROW HUB and at four other garden locations. Here are the results! Thank you to Meg from Gainesville Giving Garden, Tim, Martha and Marian for contributing their time and garden space to these experimental varieties. View the results of the…

Program Updates: Our Flourishing is Interwoven

June 2024 Newsletter Sent on June 5, 2024. Subscribe to our newsletter to get monthly updates and be the first to hear about our upcoming events and programming. This month, we’re excited to share how interwoven our programs are – both with each other and also within the local food community, including other partner nonprofits…

Tomato Jam Recipe

This is my favorite way to preserve and enjoy the harvest! This condiment is so delicious – fancy ketchup for burgers and hot dogs or a nice addition to a cheese board. The best versions involve a mix of different tomato varieties for complex flavor and burning it a little bit for a smoky flavor!…

Local Food Needs Local Seed: Project Updates

Since last spring, we’ve been actively working on a new project funded and supported by Southern SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) entitled, “Local food needs local seed: increasing production and use of locally adapted seed with a farm to community network.” The main goal of this project is to collaboratively work with local farmers…

Dudley Corn + Roselle

In this age of disconnection, food has the power to bring us back together. The seeds we sow, the food we grow, and the meals we make together create the fabric of a flourishing local food web. One of our favorite units offered through our Youth Collective begins unsurprisingly, with a seed. We observe seeds…

Apr242023

The Evvy Tomato Project

How the Seed Was Planted In 2015 we had an ambitious idea: what would happen if we tried to combine our beloved Everglades currant tomato with a dwarf variety, Tanunda Red? This is a very wide cross of tomato types and traits! Everglades is a different species altogether (Solanum pimpinellifolium) and is the wild ancestor…

Dec152022

Feaster Family Heirloom Mustard

Several years ago, Melissa was connected to Jerome Feaster through a mutual friend, Bricky who manages the historical farm at Morningside Nature Center here in Gainesville, Florida. She’d heard about his family’s variety of heirloom mustard greens that had been saved for many years, since at least around the time of the Civil War, if…

Jan302022

Ferment those winter veggies!

Written by Melissa DeSa This is the time of year to gather up that winter veg that’s in season from local farms, and stuff it into a crock or jar with some salt and herbs. Cabbage, radishes, carrots, beets are all in season. Ginger and turmeric dug in the fall is still fresh and waiting…

Oct162021

2nd women's farm to food accelerator course starting in January 2022

F2F Entrepreneurship Training Program

Are you a woman farmer in Florida looking to expand your business by developing a food product? This free online program might be for you! The Farm2Food Accelerator empowers Florida’s women farmers (including ranchers, producers, growers, fisherwomen, beekeepers and other related agriculturalists) to become more resilient by providing practical tools and knowledge to increase income…

Apr122021

WF 2020 Annual Covid Report

2020: A year of Relief, Recovery, and Resilience When food insecurity intensifies, local markets shift and shudder, online learning becomes the new way to connect, and home gardens spread like seeds in the wind – we all remember why local food community matters. The global food system staggered and revealed its weakness. But local producers,…

Apr42021

Find us this spring!

Spring Events! Spring is here and we’ll be at some great community events! Our website events page lists them all and we’ll be adding more. Come join us! Join us for the in-person TEDxUF labs FRIDAY April 09, 2021 / 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm @Heartwood Soundstage Read more about this super fun 3 day event Pop-Up…

Dec52020

Better Days Ahead

As the Sandhill Cranes return to the prairie, they remind us that it is time to reflect on another year past and what our future holds. Their arrival seems even more poignant as we approach the end of what may be one of the most difficult years in memory. Like so many in our community,…

Oct122020

Black Farms, Food Systems Disruptions & COVID-19

When COVID hit it became glaringly obvious the food system was broken. We knew to some degree it wasn’t working, but it took the gears screeching to a stop in our economy. Overnight, milk was being dumped, produce was being left to rot, animals being killed because there wasn’t room to keep them. It wasn’t…

Oct122020

Smoky Persimmon and Butternut Soup

From Chef Ashley Rella This is a great recipe to help use up two of those crops coming in right now. If you don’t have any growing at home, be sure to check out local producers from High Spring Orchard and Bakery, Frog Song Organics, and Siembra Farms, Softer persimmons like Haichau or Sajio can…

Working Food Responds to COVID-19

2020 has been a challenging year across the globe, in our community, and here at Working Food. In March, when the full realization of the pandemic hit, Working Food sprung to action to help our community with food access, while simultaneously shifting the way our programs operated. We had the opportunity to work with new…

Aug122020

What you need to know about gathering seeds this fall!

Written by Melissa DeSa It’s been a whirlwind since the last seed dispersal in February when shortly after, COVID struck and sent all our energies frantically re-aligning to keep both our doors and hearts open to this community during the crisis. Although it has been a rough ride to say the least, it presented an…

Jul52020

Okra Lovers Unite!

By Ashley Rella It has only been in the last few decades that our palates have turned away from aspic jiggly and gooey loving dishes to rubbery, and firm bites. Maybe it’s because of foodborne illnesses that have made our institutional recommendations on internal cooking temperatures to cook the hell out of your food until…

May212020

5 Reasons to Fall in Love with Molokhia!

Several years ago I was gifted these stunning tiny seeds with a jade-like color that were nestled neatly in their long slender little seed pods. The Edible Plant Project had been saving and sharing Molokhia and I was excited to try growing and eating this unknown (to me) vegetable. Like most plants, it has many…

May152020

Is It Summer Yet?

Are you tired of salads? We are too. If you are getting CSA’s or finishing up your winter garden then you have been definitely working greens and lettuce into every meal. It may be time for shaking up the recipes to get you through the last haul before we are loaded with tomatoes and squash!…

May142020

Seeds are the new toilet paper: why local seed matters

by Melissa DeSa with excerpts from Janisse Ray’s The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food. Never before has such an interest in seeds and home gardening been so popular, except for during World War II when 20 million “Victory Gardens” sprung up, in a massive and coordinated effort to provide homeland food security.…

May42020

Seed Summit & School 2020

Huuuuge exhale! Last weekend we held our first ever online workshop for the Seed Librarian Summit! 50 people were there from all over the state ranging from no seed library yet and looking for ideas, to those that have been rocking seed libraries for many years! Thanks to Jenny Eason, Naomi Baxter, and Ben Cohen, we pulled…

Southern Seed School Online is LIVE!!

We’ve been hustling and re-arranging everything with COVID 19 and are so excited to announce that our 4th Annual Southern Seed School is now online and live! We’re excited to have the opportunity and challenge to put our content online this year due to our inability to gather in person. It’s our first time facilitating…

Apr42020

Growing Food in North Florida: The Essentials

Times like these show us what really matters: food, close at hand and accessible! Many of us are finding a lot more time on our hands with shelter in place mandates in effect, to now consider starting a new garden or picking back up where you left off. There is also the realization that close…

High Gear at the Drive Through Farmers Market

Another successful Drive Through Farmers Market. 417 orders of fresh local farm products were picked up this week with very little hiccups! We are so grateful to be a positive light in these uncertain and trying times. Please visit our website for details about how this works, a list of participating farms, and a…

Mar222020

Working Food’s Drive-Thru Farmers Market CSA

Support your local farmers and your health! Working Food is helping to facilitate safe access to local products from our farms. We hope to offer for this as an alternative to farmer’s markets that have closed for the next few weeks and will make sure we keep the safety of the community first and be…

Mar92020

Tomato & Pepper Plant Sale!

It’s that time of year again! We have a greenhouse full of lovely plants, waiting for their forever homes in your garden! Thanks to our helpers at Grow Hub, we have a great collection of varieties. Plants are now on sale at Grow Hub! *Still in business. Open air, safe social distancing** Shop regular nursery…

I Love Local Food Week: Mon Feb 10

Meatless Monday Lighten your dietary impact by forgoing meat just one day a week. Instead, try adding more fresh, local veggies to your diet – good for you and the planet! Looking for some dee-lish recipes? Browse Meatless Monday for easy-to-make tummy & soul satisfiers. (And plan on going to the Gainesville VegFest or to…

Jan232020

PiesAbilities. Doing business beautifully

Working Food is happy to be base camp for Jennifer Dempsey and her PiesAbilities team. Our newest entrepreneur is expanding the pie family with delicious creations of all shapes and sizes, like PieHoles, Puffins, and Slab Pies. Flavors run the gamut too. You know things are serious when pie is offered in categories! Vintage. Classic…

Jan202020

The Dudley Family Corn Story

Written by Melissa DeSa On May 6, 2019 about 3,600 little corn seeds were planted in greenhouse trays. Normally corn is direct seeded in the field, but this corn was special and needed some extra protection- plenty can go horribly wrong for a little seed in the open field. Some of the seeds were dated…

Dec22019

2019 Video Re-cap of Working Food!

Check out these fun little videos we made to showcase our three core programs! Seeds! A little peek through our local and regional seed work. Fun with kids in the garden! See the smiling faces, gorgeous veggies and fun activities we bring to kids every week! You can also read our annual report on the program…

Oct272019

Pop-Up Pumpkin Tasting

Looking back on our Pop-Up Pumpkin Tasting, we already miss it so much! On October 19th, sampling out delicious pumpkin recipes from our local entrepreneurs and seeing the community come together made for an incredible day. We all came together to celebrate the delicious local varieties we have here and see how versatile they could…

Jun12019

3rd Annual Local Food Awards

Wow what an event! We were so humbled and honored to share a special evening with some of our favorite people; farmers, gardeners, chefs, community organizers, and all of our supporters, members, friends and volunteers. It’s always hard deciding only two people to receive recognition, when there are so many amazing people in this community…

May272019

Spring & Summer Wholesale Veggie Orders!

The wholesale orders are done for the season. Thanks for supporting our local farmers this year! — Our friends at Siembra Farm and Family Organic Garden are offering special deals on local, fresh, organic wholesale veggies through the spring and summer, while supplies last! Pre-order and pay with each farm, pick up Tuesdays 5-7pm at…

May22019

Southern Seed School 2019 Recap!

This past weekend, we hosted our 3rd annual Southern Seed School! The last two years, it was “Southern Seed School in a Day”, but there was so much great content to add, we had to make it a two-day long event. Located at the lovely and peaceful Grow Hub where our seed collective is based,…

Mar92019

Spring Seeds, Tomato and Pepper Plants!

Our seed dispersal events are done for the season. If you’ve missed them, there’s still time and plenty left! Hurry, come gather! SEEDS! Stop by the Working Food office Monday through Friday 9:30-4 to pick up seeds (but Tuesdays and Thursdays are best!) PLANTS! Stop by Grow Hub Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:00 AM till…

Feb282019

Creamed Mustards Recipe from Chef Justin Langer

Our I Love Local Food Week Valentine’s Day Dinner was delicious! A highlight for us was working with Chef Justin Langer to create exceptional dishes featuring varieties from our seed saving gardens, in combination with so much other local abundance. Here, our popular and much loved local heirloom from the Feaster family in Shiloh, Florida-…

Jan192019

Welcome, Jesse!

We’re so excited to welcome Jesse Wilson to our small and mighty team at Working Food! Jesse will be coordinating our youth garden program, that operates in partnership with the Cultural Arts Coalition’s science club program. Through gardening, we make science education fun and hands-on! Jesse brings over 10 years of experience in science outreach…

Jan192019

Saving Seeds from Eggplants

by Melissa DeSa Eggplants grow really well here in north Florida, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. If you find a variety you love, particularly if it’s a bit unusual, it would be good to consider saving your seeds. You never know when a seed company will drop a variety. I recently…

Give back this season, starting with #GivingTuesday!

#GivingTuesday is a global movement, encouraging people to give back to charities and causes they believe in. Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, comes #GivingTuesday. This season, we are excited to have the support from an anonymous donor of $20,000 that will match dollar for dollar, all of our incoming donations! Read more about our…

Jul312018

Fall & Winter Seeds!

Our seasonal seed dispersals throughout the community are now over! But there are plenty of seeds left, and it’s certainly not too late! Gardeners can plant our seeds now though about March, for a continuous crop of delicious veggies, herbs and flowers. Not sure how it all works? Read more about the Southern Heritage Seed Collective…

Jul92018

Cover Crop Bulk Seed Sale

We’ve got you covered for summer cover crop seeds! Don’t let your garden get weedy and neglected in this heat. Instead, nourish the soil with beneficial cover crops. Available: Iron and Clay Cowpeas and Sunn Hemp Sold by the pound for $4/lb. Cash or check preferred, credit cards ok if that’s all you have! If…

May222018

Guts & Glory Storytelling and Happy Hour! June 15th

Guts & Glory GNV is partnering with Working Food to tell tales of discovery, nature, farming, and some personal blossoming mixed in. A food truck from our kitchen incubator program will be onsite dishing out tasty tidbits. We’ll start off with happy hour at 5:30, and get to the stories at 7pm. More info an…

May162018

Second Annual Local Food Awards

Join us for our 2nd annual Local Food Awards! It’s an opportunity for us all to celebrate and recognize individuals in our community that work passionately for a better and more just food system. This year, we honor women change makers. Come toast Kelli Brew and Jenny Franklin, two women that have been an integral…