Food Forest DIY

It's gonna be an Iguana Apocalypse! 🙌🤣 Gardeners, rejoice! 🎉🎉 But seriously, cover your young Soursop, Jackfruit, Sugar Apple, Tamarind or Canistel. Inventory your most cold sensitive trees and cover with a bed sheet. 🛏

Is anyone else growing black sapote? It's a fun subtropical fruit that's high in Vitamin C and fiber. The tree has waxy green leaves 🍃 and can get very tall if not pruned. The fruit is ready once soft. It's creamy like an avocado 🥑 but sweet like chocolate. Best used in pudding, ice cream or other sweets. I like other members of the sapote family better, but this is worth mentioning, if you've got the space. It grows in zones 9b to 11. Give it a try while it's in season! In Lake Worth, buy at Excalibur Fruit Trees. In Loxahatchee, try Caribbean Plants and Produce. 🥭

Hi 👋 I'm Jen. I really, really, really like plants, and showing people plants, teaching about plants, eating plants, planting plants. 🌿 All things plants. I do a lot of things. I wrote a book, Food Forest Revolution. 📚 I speak in various venues. I design food forests + gardens. I maintain gardens for a select number of clients. I own a nature school called Forest Point, and adore playing with the kids there.

Thanks for following along. How's your garden growing?

Protect your tropical fruit trees. Bring potted plants into a garage or inside if you can. Toss a sheet over young Soursop and others outside that could get harmed by prolonged cold. 🥶❄️

This is the best winter solstice guide for families with awesome recipes, crafts and read-alouds!

🌞 Bringing Light to the Longest Night 🌞

The Winter Solstice is nearly here, and while most of the world is wrapped in snow and long, dark nights, Florida has its own way of marking the season.

Our brand new solstice activity guide is written just for Florida families—full of citrus-scented crafts, warming recipes, and a bedtime story about a gopher tortoise settling into her burrow as the longest night arrives.

Inside you'll find:
🍊 A full day’s schedule of simple, seasonal activities
🕯 Lanterns and orange suncatchers to make together
🍵 A simmer pot and solstice tea to scent the home
🍪 Recipes for a warming stew and sweet sunshine cookies
📖 A seasonal story rooted in Florida’s land and light

This isn’t about following old customs from somewhere else. It’s about making something your own, right here in Florida.

✨ Just $5 for the full guide:
👉 https://www.floridaadventureclub.com/product-page/a-florida-solstice-celebration

🌿 Nature Explorer's Club members—check the members area for your special discount

Make this weekend one to remember. Light the lantern, slice the oranges, gather close.

📖 Full table of contents in the comments.

Homeschoolers: join us for twelve weeks of fun on the farm! We’ll do outdoor play and hands-on learning related to foraging, food forest, gardening and homesteading. Jen’s hobby farm has heritage breed chickens, friendly Kune Kune pigs, food forests galore, raised beds, and a large plant nursery. There are swings under big oak trees, a slack line between pines, and a large treehouse playground. We split the day between outdoor play and structed learning, crafts, games and projects. Children get to interact with nature in new ways – tasting new things, growing, building, and gaining new skills like how to fish or build a fire. We also bring in outside experts to teach us more deeply about things like the difference between ancient grains and modern bread. We hold, touch, taste. It’s yummy and fun!

There are three options: Tuesdays, Thursdays, or for folks who want two days, Tues + Thus, from 9:00am to 1:00pm in Jupiter Farms

Email [email protected] or call/text 561-320-3191 for more information

We're grateful to be a part of this initiative to build a Food Farming Discovery Center at the South Florida Fairgrounds! Jen has been a part of the Round Table of stakeholders and ag experts working on this project for the last six months. If you are interested in seeing this project come to life, please click the link and help inspire the next generation of farmers and stewards of the earth. 🌾

https://www.southfloridafair.com/foodfarming

Jen is doing a presentation on foraging for edible and medicinal plants at Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach on Monday, October 27th at 7pm. We'd love to see you there!

Foraging for Wild Edible Plants Learn the basic principles of foraging and review the wild plants commonly found in Florida. Get to know the leaves useful for food, medicine, and collecting snacks!

We love this - a land restoration project in our backyard! 💚💚

Little bad news…BIG good news! 🌿 Cypress Creek was once a major tributary of the Loxahatchee River, flowing into the river just downstream of the Trapper Nelson camp in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Over the last century, the river and its tributaries have been heavily altered but now, restoration is underway! Through a partnership led by Ducks Unlimited (@ducksunlimitedinc), along with the South Florida Water Management District (@sfwmd_gov), Martin County (@martincountyflorida), and Palm Beach County, crews are restoring a 340-acre former agricultural field back to its natural condition. This field once acted like a giant “speedbump,” disrupting the natural flow of water. The project will also backfill canals and ditches and install new water connection structures, helping restore natural water flow across nearly 3,000 acres of connected landscape. That’s the BIG good news! 🎉 The little bad news? Since the project reconnects this former agricultural field (in Martin County) with the northern border of our Cypress Creek Natural Area, some trails near the construction area will be temporarily closed. We expect them to reopen by the holidays. In the meantime, there are still miles of trails waiting for you to explore! 🚶‍♀️🌳