By Diane Tauber Schultz

There is a gentle revolution growing across the country, but you might have to get your hands a little dirty to discover what it’s really all about. It’s not any form of nationalization, but rather a naturalization. There is a return to things like smaller family farms with 21st century twists. Old-style Victory Gardens are popping up in backyards and community parks. There are off-the-chart increases in farmers’ markets. And people are discovering creative ways to use land to fulfill basic economic, physical, and emotional needs.

Today’s Victory Gardens
Victory gardens were popular during both world wars, when the U.S. government asked citizens to plant gardens to help support the war effort; providing food for locals freed up mass food production for U.S. troops. Eleanor Roosevelt took the lead by planting a garden at the White House, and 20 million Americans followed. First Lady Michelle Obama is a strong advocate today, and broke ground in March for a Victory Garden at the White House, which will provide food for the first family, and be used to educate children and the public about the healthful benefits of locally grown fruit and vegetables. Community and urban gardens, small local and organic farmers, and backyard farming are back in vogue. They reduce carbon footprints – that’s the affect your activities have on the environment in relation to the greenhouse gasses they produce through the burning of fossil fuels. They provide safe food sources. And they empower people during hard times. The economic landscape is literally altering the physical.
Tucked behind a children’s playground on Orange and Carter streets, adjacent to a low-income apartment building, is one of four real-life local Victory Gardens in Sarasota. A welcome sign hangs on the Orange Blossom Community Garden’s 8-foot high fence, which is located on city land in the Orange Avenue Park, and is supported by the Sarasota County Extension, which provides basic gardening needs like wheel barrels, sheds, rakes and shovels. Keep Sarasota County Beautiful pays for their water.  Residents apply to adopt any one of the 50, 10’ x 20’ plots, paying $30 to join, and $20 a year. The only requirement: keep your garden in good health and don’t steal, or you’ll be ousted.
“There’s a strong connection to Victory Gardens and the movement today, and we are most definitely seeing a resurgence of interested people,” Gaily Goolsby Harvey says. Harvey manages this community garden along with fellow master gardener Barbara Powell Harris, who is dusted with dirt from head to toe as she busily shovels compost into wheel barrels. Both were part of a previous Rosemary District community garden for 13 years. When the city reclaimed that land, they moved to this location.
A large black poodle meanders around this two-acre garden filled with plots of parsley, sage, thyme, peppers, flowers, carrots, broccoli, strawberries, collard greens, cabbage, peas, mustard greens, lettuce, pineapples, potatoes and watermelon. Gardeners keep what they harvest, or share with family members, and fellow gardeners. Some donate harvests to needy families, churches, and neighbors.
Celia Arroyo, a retired New York psychologist, offers mint cuttings, and collard greens.  “Share what you’ve been given; that’s my motto,” Arroyo says. She and her husband’s lush garden is filled with unique varieties of milk thistle, banana plants, and pigeon peas. Harris explains that each plot has one to five people working on them, and each is organic.  “It’s not just about the food,” Harris says. “It’s about a support group in a difficult time.”
Today, volunteers are creating a new children’s Healthy Pizza Garden, which will grow all things to make a healthy pizza, such as wheat, basil and tomato. It’s their second children’s garden.
Strolling through this garden is like strolling through a small town neighborhood. A shirtless, sweaty Andrew Noune, president of the Allegiance for Responsible Transportation (ART), is diligently filling the pie-shaped sections of the pizza garden with dirt. “It makes you feel connected,” he says of gardening. “I feel so stressed thinking about getting here, but when I arrive, I turn the throttle down to like two.” In the southwest corner of the garden, Dr. Lisa Merritt, a Sarasota physician, is digging and planting in her garden plot with her mother, Amara, while Merritt’s daughter fills a red wheel barrel with fresh compost — three generations working together.
Twelve-year-old MaQuan Jackson is keeping an eye on his younger siblings as he checks his plot. Jackson wandered into the garden last summer from the adjacent apartment building while the garden was being created, and asked what was going on. A member sponsored his plot so he could join. He points to a tiny leaf coming out of the ground. “That’s a potato,” he says softly. He’s already harvested potatoes and corn in his garden. His younger brother and sister are chasing a new member’s small dog. “Walk in betweeeeen the plants,” Harvey patiently shouts to the children.
“We have people in our gardens from below the poverty level to people who live in expensive high rises, people barely literate, and Ph.D.s, and M.D.s all working alongside each other,” Harvey says. “This is a community really, and everybody wants to help each other.” She points to one garden and says, “I’m watering his garden; he’s a CPA and is very busy right now.” If someone doesn’t show up for a couple of days, she or Harris call to check that all is well. “Community gardens grow more than food,” Harvey says smiling. She pulls broccoli out of her garden for dinner. “Not many people eat food 40 minutes after it’s been harvested.”

Farmers’ Markets – Going Local
Freshly harvested local produce can also be found at farmers’ markets, which is one of the reasons why the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. have increased 64 percent in the past eight years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). At Sarasota’s Saturday morning farmer’s market a tall, thin woman surveys Worden Farm’s organic produce. “Where were these strawberries grown?” she says to Eva Worden, owner of Worden Farms, who was sitting on a picnic table behind her stand. “My farm,” Worden calmly replies with a smile, as she tends to her two sons. “Ooooooh,” the inquisitor responds, then picks up several small boxes and heads to the cash register under the canvas on Lemon near Main Street. Many are farmers, but some of the stands at farmer’s markets are actually small distributors who buy from in-state farmers to sell at market.
“Here, try one,” Worden says as her blonde 2½-year-old glances up, strawberry stains encircling his mouth. A surprising sweetness without the typical tart taste makes you take a deep breath and realize why Worden’s boy is smiling. A thin 50-something man with arms full of vegetables pulls a credit card from his wallet, and holds it in the air at a Worden cashier. “You’re in the wrooong world mister,” the blonde cashier says with a smile. He laughs as he pulls cash from his pocket.

A Local Organic Farm
The Worden’s are seeing an increase in the business they get from farmers’ markets. They began cultivating just eight of their 55-acre organic farm in Punta Gorda in 2003, and have seen a steady and continual increase in their profits for the past five and a half years; they expanded their harvests onto 15 acres. Worden Farms operates a farm membership program based on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, where a designated number of members join and pay a pre-season fee (or scheduled payments). This entitles them to receive weekly harvests at one of nearly a dozen pick-up locations, or at the farm itself, as well as a weekly newsletter, tours and workshop discounts. It’s a certified organic farm that uses sustainable ecological techniques. Their memberships fill up fast. Members who pick up their harvests at the farm are allowed to go into the fields and pick some edible flowers, herbs, or green beans. “It gives people a chance to connect to the land, and have a good experience with getting their hands dirty,” Eva says.
A new generation of farmers like Chris and Eva Worden have a different take on farming than traditional farmers. “Cultivated landscapes have been treated as profit centers or factories rather than what they really are — integral biological systems that are more productive, stable, beautiful and helpful for people when they are highly diverse rather than monocultural (one crop), and if the soil is nourished rather than just having fertilizers poured on them,” Eva Worden explains. Both Chris and Eva hold doctorate degrees—Eva’s is in eco-system management; Chris’ is in crop science and plant nutrition. Eva taught urban landscape horticulture at the University of Florida, and was a state specialist for urban landscape horticulture. Eva further explains that farmland has been undervalued, because of its abundance in this country. “We haven’t preserved our farms in the context of community, and most farms aren’t feeding our local communities.”
The Wordens have had the opportunity to grow their business
at a much faster rate, yet chose not to. “Our business decisions are very much motivated by how it’s going to affect our family and quality of life,” Eva says. “Our overall philosophy is one of respect, love, and care of the land, and the relationship between people and the land.”
The Worden Farm also gives workshops in gardening, canning, pickling, freezing, and drying, so you can continue to eat locally during off-season. They want their members to feel an ownership with their farm and the land. “Human beings can’t separate themselves from the land no matter how urbanized they become or how much they think they’re scientific,” Eva says. “We’re still fundamentally connected to the earth and reliant upon it, and we need to be stewards of it. It’s a relationship that feeds us. When we take care of the earth, it takes care of us.”
“I think these unfortunate economic conditions have served as a wake-up call to help people become more focused on what is really important in their lives,” Eva adds “and health is very important, connection is important — to other people, to the community, and the land — and those are the things local farms offer.”

A Local Conventional Multi-Generation Farm
The Brown’s Grove family farm has been operating in Sarasota since 1915. Third generation, Tim and Hiedi Brown, own and operate the business. They’ve recently opened a Brown’s Grove Farm Market & Country Store on Cattleman Road. By cutting the middle man out of the equation, they’re able to sell directly at a considerable discount to consumers.
They’re also beginning a new endeavor (partnering with the local Campbell Grove), to grow heirloom tomatoes and other specialty produce, something they’ve never done before. Their groves in Sarasota, Manatee and Hardee counties have primarily grown citrus — oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes and kumquats. “I think small farms are coming back,” Tim Brown says. “People are looking for value and fresh local produce; when you eliminate the transportation costs of moving produce from one part of the country to another, you can hold the costs down. Fresher, better, cheaper is what we say,” Brown adds.
While they’re a conventional farm, they only spray three times a year using USDA approved pesticides labeled for safe use, and fertilizes only when needed. The economy hasn’t negatively affected their business. “My motto is people gotta eat,” Brown says. “We grow, pick, pack, and ship our own fruit from our own groves.” Brown’s sales have increased three to five percent annually over the last eight years.
Brown is an excellent example of multi-generation farmers who are becoming aware, using fewer pesticides and fertilizers to lower operating costs, learning to retool, applying direct and local marketing and taking conservation cues from organic growers, according to Robert Kluson, Extension Agent, Agriculture/Natural Resources, University of Florida, Sarasota County Extension. Kluson provides information and education for farmers, such as the upcoming Florida Small Farms Alternative Enterprises Conference August 1 and 2.
 
Creative Endeavors
Home food gardening is on the rise as well, according to The National Gardening Association. New businesses are popping up that bring fresh local produce to your doorstep. And backyard farming enterprises are emerging across the country, like local farm worker Ted Burt’s new Backyard MicroFarms that create edible gardens in people’s backyards. It might be time to get healthier by getting a little dirty. Who knows, you might even find a way to start a whole new career. To rephrase an old DuPont advertising slogan, “Better Living Through Chemistry,” how about, “Smarter Living Through Gardening?”