Homeowners Be Aware

Let's Eat Locally Grown

October 18, 2022 George Siegal Season 2 Episode 55
Homeowners Be Aware
Let's Eat Locally Grown
Show Notes Transcript

October 18, 2022
55. Let’s Eat Locally Grown Food

Chris Kenrick is the Co-Director of Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa Florida. We visited the farm and learned how important it is to know where your food is coming from, who is growing it, and the importance of supporting local farmers.

Here are some important moments with Chris from the podcast: 

At 6:39 Chris talks about the problem he has identified and tells us what he’s doing to make it better.

 At 7:53 I asked Chris “should I be concerned about the difference between locally grown and organically grown?

At 13:40 Chris talks about all the events and activities on the farm and why people might want to visit.

Here are some ways to follow or contact Sweetwater:

Website: www.sweetwater-organic.org

Facebook: (20+) Sweetwater Organic Community Farm | Facebook

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwater_organic_farm/?hl=en


Important information from Homeowners Be Aware:

Here are ways you can follow us on-line:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeownersbeaware/

Website:
https://homeownersbeaware.com/

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/


If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:

https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact

Here's the link to the documentary film I'm making
Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, don't keep it to yourself! Share it with your friends and help spread the knowledge. Remember to hit the like button, subscribe for more insightful content, and leave a review to let us know your thoughts. Your support means the world to us! 🌟

Thanks for listening!

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah, I mean, what, you know, with some of the other farmers and I, we sort of had this discussion, you know, especially when, when we get notices about farms in myakka that, you know, You know, they're, they grow one crop, so they're mono crop farm. They grow, you know, tomatoes for restaurants and, and grocery stores. And, and yeah, when the pandemic hit and all that stuff got, got cut off, I mean, that, that was good for the local farms. It brought everybody to the local farms because our distribution system isn't, you know, spread off across the state in the United States. We know who we're, we're growing for.

George Siegal:

I'm George Siegal and this is the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. Every week we introduce you to people who are working on real world problems and providing actual solutions. Tell Us How to Make It Better is partnering with The Readiness Lab, the home for podcasts webinars and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining me on this week's Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. When I originally recorded today's episode, it was going to be the kickoff episode for our second season, but then Hurricane Ian hit and it changed a lot of the things that I thought were important to talk about. So for a couple of weeks I had some guests on that were experts on hurricanes, disasters, rebuilding, all the stuff that I thought, uh, we should be talking about at the time. But now I wanna talk about today's episode, and, and it's pretty interesting because you have to say to yourself, Do you eat organic? Do you eat locally grown? Well, I found a place right here in Tampa that has both of those things going for them. I hope you like it. My guest today is Chris Kenrick. He's co-director of Sweetwater Organic Community Farm, along with his wife, Joanie Spencer, who is the co-director and head farmer. Hey Chris. Thanks for having us out here. Thank you. You appreciate your time. So you have an organic farm. What made you want to have an organic farm? It seems like kind of an unusual thing to have.

Chris Kenrick:

Well, this isn't my organic farm. This is your organic farm. You know, we're, uh, a hundred percent volunteer run. Uh, next year Sweetwater celebrates 30 years. Uh, we're the oldest community supported agricultural farm in the state of Florida. It was founded by Rick Martinez, uh, who since retired and kind of splits his time between France and and Florida. You know, this is a community organization. You know, we're all volunteers. We've, every Sunday is our volunteer day. We do everything by hand. Um, so I'm the director of Sweetwater Organic Community Farm, and then my wife. She's really in charge. She's the, the head farmer, uh, and runs everything, uh, on the farm and she really runs the farm. So if you wanna come and see how we grow and, and learn from, from my wife, uh, who's a good farmer, but you know, this area we have lot of other good farmers as well with John Butts at Eco Farm and travis at Trail Bail and you know, there's a bunch of others. Jim Koleski, uh, there's some good farmers around here.

George Siegal:

Is farming something that's in your blood? I mean, you just, like, I wouldn't end up as a farmer. I know nothing about it.

Chris Kenrick:

No, I never thought I was, would be farming. It was never in my plan. I mean, I'm from Wisconsin. I grew up around farms. I was in FFA, uh, but I went to college for business and real estate and entrepreneurship. And we live in downtown St. Petersburg, but, , you know, when we sort of were, were notified that they were gonna sell the farm, uh, which was in 2019, that's when we realized like we're, we're losing farmland, uh, at a pretty high rate and we wanna make sure, you know, this was pre pandemic and now it's sort of, we validated everything that, that we sort of were, uh, were thinking. But, you know, we wanted to be closer to our food source and, and we live in a very urban area, um, not like rural Wisconsin or anything like that. And, but our food travels a really long distance to get to us and we wanted to sort of shorten that that distance. We were members, uh, of little Ponds csa uh, program or membership program at the Saturday morning market. And, uh, Rick approached us and told us they were gonna sell the farm and we figured we'd, we'd step up to kind lead the charge. So my wife and I kinda reached out to everybody that we knew and we raised like a hundred thousand dollars in four days to save the farm. And uh, that's when we really got into farming. I mean, my wife was involved in community gardens, Uh, in St. Pete. But yeah, this is a whole new level. That's, and that's really what I kind of saw missing from the community garden was sort of the economic value. I mean, you, you came to a dinner on the farm, you know, that was a fundraiser for the farm.

George Siegal:

That was awesome, by the way. That was really impressive.

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. And so this year we're gonna be doing a lot more farm to table dinners. I mean, we've got the Planters Ball coming up in December and, um, outstanding in the field. We'll be back again on the farm in January, and then we'll do a, a farm breakfast brunch in February. And then of course our pesto festo is always a popular hit, and that'll be April 15th.

George Siegal:

Now. When I moved to Tampa, I think it was like six years ago, I think of beaches, I think of they have a lot of breweries here. We have good sports teams. I don't think of farming. What's the ground like here for farming?

Chris Kenrick:

Well, the, the, the soil where we are is very sandy. Um, and so we add a lot of organic material to it. Of course, you know, with the farm being volunteer run, we're always trying to cut our costs as much as we can. So we have a great relationship with the Tampa Zoo or the Zoo Zoo, Tampa Lowry Park. We get three dump truck loads every week of manure from the zoo.

George Siegal:

They make plenty.

Chris Kenrick:

They make plenty. So only from the plant eaters. So we don't get any, uh, manure from the, from the meat eaters. It's all the herbivores. So, uh, trying to create partnerships and relationships with other businesses that, you know, it's a waste for them but it's a resource for us. So that's one of 'em. These are farmers right here. Um, so we get three dump truck loads every week from the Tampa Zoo, and then you'll, as you like, walk around the farm, you'll see piles and piles of mulch. Those are from our tree company, uh, partners as well because they have to pay to get rid of that mul, that mulch, and they can bring it to you and they can bring it to us for free. We only take the oak mulch, but, uh, yeah, so, you know, trying to get free resources to build our soil. So Oak mulch. The manure. And then, uh, we use like fish emulsion and seaweed and other free resources as well.

George Siegal:

Now the theme of my podcast is about recognizing problems, uh, and then doing something to make them better. So what would you see as the problem? I find a lot of people just don't get on board with organic, which is amazing to me because they absolutely should be doing that. But what would you recognize as the problem and what are you saying you're doing to make it better?

Chris Kenrick:

Well, I think in, in our. I in our urban environment, probably the problem is that we don't have a relationship with a local farmer. You know, you don't know where your food's coming from. You don't know who's growing your food. We're completely disconnected from, from the system. Um, and so we're trying to. Both promote our farm and, and show people how we grow, but also creating opportunities and relationships with other farmers and, and creating, you know, farmers are not marketers, you know, they spend most of their time in the field. They're not, you know, spending on their time in the office thinking about their marketing plan and their distribution and, uh, I mean, some of them are, but you know, we are trying to also be a resource to other farmers as well, so they can focus on what they enjoy doing and, and is farming. And really bringing value back to the farming profession. You know, we've devalued farming so much and the profession of farming that uh, nobody wants to be a farmer. And so we're trying to bring that value back.

George Siegal:

Now, how would people think of it differently? Okay, Sometimes I go to these food fairs on a Saturday or Sunday and it says locally grown and then it says organically grown. Mm-hmm. is there, should I be concerned about the difference between the two?

Chris Kenrick:

I mean, if it's locally grown, that means you're gonna have a direct relationship with, with the farmer. I mean, just cuz maybe they're not certified. Uh, I would say that that's probably okay cuz you know exactly who you're buying it from and you can ask them. Okay. You know, what do you put on your, your plants? What do you put? And they're not gonna be like, Oh, I put, you know, glycifade all over everything. I mean, they're gonna be much more conscious about what they're putting on their field cuz they're dealing directly with, with the consumer. So if it's locally grown, I would be less concerned that it's organically certified, um, because they're, you know, they're feeding their neighbors and their family and their friends, so they're gonna, you know, they're gonna be much more, uh, conscious about, you know, what they're putting into the land. Um, so sometimes, you know, if I had a choice between locally grown and organic from Mexico, I would take a locally grown. All day. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're, so we're sort of reclaiming the, the farm from summertime, which, you know, typically is we grow a lot of sweet potatoes, The sweet potatoes we plant. So that way it kind of cover crops, it, it suppresses all the, all the weeds. And then, uh, you know, hopefully we get a, a bo to full, uh, sweet potato crop as well. But, so there, you know, this, we just planted our tomatoes, I think on, let's see, today's Wednesday. So they did this on Friday and, and Sunday. A lot of mulch that we use and a lot of compost from the zoo. So this is sort of, uh, two beds that have been reclaimed from summer and now we've got our first, uh, season of tomatoes in there. And then...

George Siegal:

It doesn't look like a lot. So it seems like that would be gone on a one Sunday. It's like, how, how do you make this stuff? How do you stretch it out?

Chris Kenrick:

That. What do you mean?

George Siegal:

Like, you see how many tomatoes would come from this row?

Chris Kenrick:

Well, the, I mean, the tomato plants get really large. I mean, when you come back in, in a couple months, this'll be a lot of tomatoes. Um, you know, our shares, uh, we have about 200 families that we uh, serve on a weekly basis. So that's, you know, we're not gonna grow enough food for everybody in Tampa Bay, but, you know, we can get somewhere between, uh, you know, north of 200 families is kind of our, our goal. But, um, and we've got three other fields as well, so we'll do tomato here. Last year we had tomatoes over there, so we sort of, you know, we have to get into not planting the same thing, uh, so that way we can kinda remineralize the soil and, and, uh, yeah, grow things in different area. And we're, but farming in Florida's always a, an experimentation as well.. George Siegal: Yeah. It seems like things grow here really well when they're, I mean, just with the weather we have. Yeah. But you know, Florida weather is also unpredictable too. I mean, we could, it could, it could flood if it rains for a week straight too. So, um,

George Siegal:

It does every day in South Tampa that it rains, there's flooding.

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. Yeah. So we also are building, you know, our, if you look where we're standing and then you look at where the fields are, the fields are much higher than what the walkways. But that's because we're constantly adding. Uh, organic matter and sort of building up the beds. But these are all, this one hasn't been reclaimed yet from the summer, so that's all sweet potatoes out there. And we have sweet potato patches here, you know, bananas there. Um, and then the periphery, you know, we've got hibiscus and low quads and, and, uh, other things on the periphery. Um, um, you know, there's our mulch piles over there, so the tree companies just come and, and mulch. And then we have our, our, our wheelbarrow armies on Sunday that, uh, come and move everything. We don't have a tractor on the farm. It's on our, our wishlist. But I also don't mind that we don't have a tractor one cuz we don't have to worry about maintenance and gas and repairing it. And we just gotta move it by wheelbarrow. So we need more people, people power. Uh, we've got a couple playgrounds on the farm, so we're trying to make, uh, build the infrastructure for families. Inter intermix with, uh, peach trees and papaya trees and banana trees and mango trees, avocado trees. And we're always planting new trees. What we just plant, we just planted a pome granite. So we're constantly planting more, more fruit trees, uh, our starfruit trees in, in season right now. So if you like starfruit, we can, we can try.

George Siegal:

I don't even know what starfruit is.

Chris Kenrick:

Oh man. All right, well, we're gonna guess we're gonna have to try star fruit. Find you a nice, you know, the brighter, the better. Um, let me find this star fruit. I mean, it looks like a star when you cut it all freshly, freshly harvested. All right, so here you go. You can try a star fruit. You've never had a star fruit?

George Siegal:

I've never had a star fruit. Oh man. What do you, How do you consume it? What do you do? Just like this. Wait second. You just bite into it. I just bite into it. Okay. This will be my first taste of a star fruit. Do you see, are these in the supermarket?

Chris Kenrick:

Uh, sometimes, yeah, But I think the people were interested, they'd probably be growing it themselves. They're more a local source. I mean, I don't know where they'd be coming from if they're in the grocery store., Um, I don't know. I don't know how popular they are in the grocery store, but,

George Siegal:

and not to sound like a total city boy, but you don't have to wash it when you're on an organic farm, right? You don't,

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. When did it, when did it rain last? I mean, it's should be good to go. So,

George Siegal:

And the fact that I'm gushing juice all over the place.

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. You're staying hydrated. You know, we always, you know, if you die on the farm, I gotta bury you on the farm, you know? Cause it's, Yeah. You get me outta here. You saw it on the, on the sign when you come in.

George Siegal:

So what, I get your emails regularly about what goes on here on Sundays. Mm-hmm. tell people what, what, what, what happens and why they wanna come out.

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. I mean, well, so Sunday's like our big day. It's the day that we're open to the public. Uh, every Sunday's a volunteer day, 9:00 AM to 12. You can come see how we grow. Uh, be involved in the growing process. We have yoga on the porch from 10 30 to 1130. Um, our farmer's market, which is here on the farm, that's a seasonal that goes from this year, it's October 30th, so Halloween to Mother's Day, uh, like May 14th, but we do have the cafe open every Sunday as well, 12 to three where we have produce both from our farm and other farms. So we always have produce available on Sunday. Um, and then we have a lot of classes and workshops that are going down on the farm. You can check out our website, check sign up for the newsletter like you, so you, that way you can stay up to date. Maybe you wanna teach a class or a workshop on the farm. Uh, and then we, you know, on our market season, our farmer's market, we have live music. The stage is is pretty close, so 12 to two and that's kind of in partnership with, uh, a couple DJs from WM and F and that's also open mic two to three. So you can come out and, you know, share your gifts and talents and, But yeah, we've got a lot of pizza classes. We've built a brand new pizza oven on the farm. We do have a couple Airbnbs on the farm. We're building an eco campground on the farm, so next year more people can come. You can bring your own camper, motor home, RV, VW bus, or we hope to partner with other builders and architects and designers and build like a little mini glamp ground. Maybe five structures, so that way when the kids come on field trips, cuz during the week we do a lot of field trips. Wednesday and Friday. A lot of school groups.

George Siegal:

I was gonna ask you about that because that seemed to be something that's important to you to educate young people about this.

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah, I mean we, you know, I couldn't tell you how many kids that, that come on the farm and don't know where different things come from. You know, that carrots come from the ground or that tomatoes come from a vine. You know, they, they, a lot of 'em think that it comes from a can cuz they just don't have any connection or relationship and that's really, Our mission is to get the, the kids on the farm and show them, you know, create a connection to the land and all the different things that, that we can grow because then they come back when they're older sometimes to volunteer, you know, get your bright future hours. And uh, like I said, we need more farmers so the sooner we can get them and then I ask them if they're the field trip, you know, after we tour the farm, like who wants to be a farmer? And, uh, you know, you get some of the kids to raise their hand and I don't think they're really getting that exposure or experience anywhere else. And that's kind of our mission is to instill the, the livelihood, the lifestyle, and the value in farming as both, uh, a consumer, but also as a possible career opportunity.

George Siegal:

Now when we've had problems with people talk about the supply chain and how there's things that are missing in grocery store. Does that trickle down to local? You guys are probably still growing the same stuff and still have the same things available?

Chris Kenrick:

Yeah. I mean, what, you know, with some of the other farmers and I, we sort of had this discussion, you know, especially when, when we get notices about farms in Myakka, that, you know, the. You know, they're, they grow one crop, so they're mono crop farm. They grow, you know, tomatoes for restaurants and, and grocery stores. And, and yeah, when the pandemic hit and all that stuff got, got cut off, I mean, that, that was good for the local farms. It brought everybody to the local farms because our distribution system isn't, you know, spread off across the, the state in the United States. We know who we're, we're growing for. I mean, for us in particular. A CSA farm. So people buy a membership in the farm and then on a weekly basis they get a share. I mean, that's who we're growing for. Uh, and then we have our market where we sell things for, uh, that's open to the public, but also people that have SNAP and EBT benefits. I mean, you can come and double your dollars here on the farm, so if you spend $40 of your SNAP and EBT money, we give you another $40 on top of that. So it sort of, it cuts into the cost, you know? Oh, organic. Or food from the farm is more expensive. Well if you have SNAP and EBT we, we actually help double your dollars. Mm-hmm.. So, and then, but the pandemic was good for the pandemic was good in general, for, for most local farms.

George Siegal:

What are the things you grow? So what if I come out here to buy some stuff on a Sunday? What am I looking at?

Chris Kenrick:

Well, depends on the season. Cause uh, it depends on the, the day and the, and the month. I mean, today we're harvesting uh, Eric, what are you harvesting today? Sweet potatoes. Harvesting. Yeah. Actually forming beds. Forming beds. But you know, like this past Sunday, you know, we're harvesting sweet potatoes. That's kind of our summer crop, uh, star fruit. Our star fruit tree is, is lush right now. Uh, basil, eggplant. And then we're planting, So right now we're, we're planting kind of our fall crops, uh, kale, collards, I mean like 40 different vegetables. And then of course around the perimeter we're doing our perennial food production. So I can see Barbados cherries and low quads and a lot of bananas and papayas. Um, so that way it's, we've always got food kind of growing on the farm. You know, we've got our bees around the corner, so they're our best volunteers. They show up every day, uh, and uh, we get our honey. We got our chickens over here. So we have eggs, eggs from the farm.

George Siegal:

Now you're really tucked away in a place where when I, when you're driving by, you wouldn't expect to find a farm back here?

Chris Kenrick:

You would not. No. I mean, we we're in an area called Town and Country and I say that we are the last country left in town and country. I mean, it used to be all farmland, but you know, there's so much development, pressure, uh, that everything is, you know, so many people moving here already, but just everything's for sale and everything's being developed and, and we need to make sure that we have local food production and local farms. And, you know, that's why part of our mission is helping to preserve not just this farm, putting it into a land trust or some sort of, uh, yeah, community land trust. But also, you know, what's gonna happen to Farmer John, You know, if John Butts with, you know, his 60 acres when he retires, what's the, the succession plan for that one? And creating sort of a, a community, you know, Tampa Bay Community Land Trust or farmers, uh, land trust, so that way we can preserve the land that's valuable for farming, especially that's been, uh, farming organically for 30, 40 years. I mean, that, that's really priceless. And that's kind of the way that we looked at this farm. When we, when we save it, we don't have a way to sort of value even good soil. You know, It's, it's like what's the best use for this land? You know, how many apartment units can I, can I get on this land? And is that really the best use? And where, who's, who's looking at it from a value perspective of the soil? I mean, most, most appraisers are not doing that. I mean, I was in, I'm in real estate and I can, Nobody's had having that kind of conversation, especially really in Tampa Bay.

George Siegal:

Yeah. You seem to have a real entrepreneurial Yeah. Spirit. What advice do you have for other people who maybe think they want to do something but they just are sitting around going, Ah, I can't do it. What would you tell people to encourage 'em?

Chris Kenrick:

Well, my wife would always say slow and small solutions. Uh, my dad would say moderation. My, my parents own businesses in St. Petersburg. Um, so I've sort of come from a family of, of entrepreneurs, but you, you know, you have to take action. You have, you know, putting together some sort of a plan, a business plan, um, getting involved, you know, finding, you know, Warren Buffet would say, you know, find what you're passionate about and sort of develop that into a business. Um, but you know, what is it you like to do? And you know, for me it's travel and being connected. I like to go travel and visit other farms now, but, um, you know, I, giving a slow and small solutions moderation, taking action and, uh, you know, finding your, finding your passion., How do people starting a podcast? There

George Siegal:

you go, Because nobody's doing that. I mean, there's like 5 million of 'em. So, uh, Yeah,

Chris Kenrick:

hopefully you're passionate about it. So you're, you know, that's, you're bringing your energy to, to, to your, to your, uh, to your passion.

George Siegal:

I love it. Not making any money with it, but I love it. That's, and that means a lot when you're doing something. If you don't enjoy it. I always tell people, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you're in trouble right from the beginning.

Chris Kenrick:

Well, I mean this, I mean, we're not doing this to make money. We're doing this to grow food. We're working for food. We're like, you know, holding those signs, like, we'll work for food, but it's, you know, local, organic, free range. Uh, it's all done by volunteers. I mean, today we've got three or four people working on the farm. It's not a volunteer day, but, and we've got three or four people living on the farm, caretaking the farm, and that's gonna expand with the campground. So just creating a place where people can share their gifts and talents. You know, I, I don't do a podcast. I've probably, maybe you should. Uh, no, I'll just, I'll let you do that. I'll support your, your podcast. No, I appreciate that. But, uh, you know, this is a way that you can contribute, support the farm, and that's kind of what I always say as well for this farm is, you know, how can the farm serve you? And then how, you know, how can you serve the farm because you don't even have to come to the farm to support the farm. There's a lot of ways that, uh, that people support the farm and the community supports the farm without even coming here. I mean, we can never grow enough food for, for everybody. Uh, but so find your local farmer wherever you are and connect with you're, uh, especially the organizations that are focused on preserving farm land or, um, you know, stewarding the land because we really need to think about our future and future generations and, you know, creating access, you know, where are new farmers? If I wanna be a farmer, where can I go you know, learn how to farm? We need more places like that.

George Siegal:

So now I'm, it'll be in the show notes, but if people wanna follow you on social media or mm-hmm. or get in touch with you, what's the best way for people to follow you?

Chris Kenrick:

Uh, we'll come to the farm on Sunday. That would be the, the best way. You can come volunteer, you know, participate in one of the classes, workshops, uh, go to the website and sign up for the newsletter that way you stay up to date on the farm to table dinners or, you know, anything else that, um, might be of interest to you. Um, but we're on, you know, we're on Facebook. We're on. Instagram, other, other volunteers kind of manage those, those sites. But if there's also a way that you wanna get involved, uh, in the farm, you can send the farm an email and they'll sort of direct you. And we're looking for field trip guides. So, um, you know, if you're a retired teacher or wanna be a new teacher, future teacher, you could come and, uh, volunteer on Wednesday and Sunday and help with our field trips. If you're a teacher out there and you are in a classroom and you're in Tampa Bay, we can get you on the farm. Um, But, uh, let us know how, uh, how we can serve you. We as the farm, and, uh, let us know how you wanna serve the farm.

George Siegal:

All right. Hey Chris. Thanks for having me out.

Chris Kenrick:

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for, for, uh, spreading the message and. Uh, we'll keep growing together.

George Siegal:

Thank you so much for joining me on this week's podcast. If you wanna get more information about the farm, it is in the show notes, and there's also a contact form there. If you have any ideas for future episodes or just comments about anything you've seen in this episode or season one. Please feel free to share them with me and also value you sharing the podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please become a subscriber and share the link with people you know, even people you don't know. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.