The Edible Plant Project is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based group working to promote edible landscaping and local food abundance in North Central Florida. The goal of the EPP is to create positive alternatives to the unsustainable food system in this country.
A special focus of EPP is tree crops: fruit and nut trees. These wonders of nature need to be planted only once, and they yield abundantly for decades, often with little or no care. Anyone who has every stood under a tree loaded with fruit, gorging themselves on the crop, can appreciate the freely given abundance. Right now, there are mulberry, fig, loquat, pear, pecan, and persimmon trees around Gainesville that make heavy crops of delicious fruit and nuts every year. We need more of them! For many of these tree crops, it is a simple matter to start new plants, from cuttings or seed. At the EPP, we maintain a nursery for starting and growing new fruit and nut trees for distribution to the community. Prices are set just high enough to cover our expenses.
Another foundation of local abundance is vegetables. We are working on creating a seed bank of locally-adapted, non-hybrid vegetable varieties so that we can save our own seed from year to year, every year improving the crop by selecting seed from the plants which do the best. By sharing and distributing seed, we are largely independent from the seed companies and their nationally-marketed hybrid varieties that often require chemical fertilizers and pesticides for good production.Beyond spreading the germplasm of plant varieties, we also want to spread information. Recipes and processing techniques can make sure the bounty is well utilized (for example, dehydrated mulberries taste like mulberry-flavored raisins! We maintain a nursery for fruit and nut trees and a keep a seed bank of locally-adapted, non-hybrid vegetable varieties so we can select seed from the plants which do the best. We share our trees, seed, and recipes with the community. Our prices are set just high enough to cover our expenses.
Rather than food produced with massive fossil fuel usage in agriculture and transport, with large scale erosion and fertilizer and pesticide run-off, people could be eating food grown locally in yards and landscapes, with little environmental impact or fossil fuel consumption. Rather than food being a packaged, processed commodity, trucked in and purchased at the store, food would once again be something that connects people with nature, with the seasonal cycles of life.Once people realize how easy it is to grow food, there will be many opportunities for giving and sharing the abundance.
Please help us in our work. Plant fruit trees, and grow and harvest local food to help make Gainesville a more beautiful, sustainable place.
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On the 1st Wednesday of every month, 4-7 pm, The Edible Plant Project,
a not for profit nursery and collective, has a plant sale at the
Union St. Farmers’ Market in Downtown Gainesville.
An eclectic selection of edible plants, seeds, and more are available.
Most plants are well suited for Gainesville and easy to care for.
Gainesville Community Plaza, 111 E. University Avenue
http://www.unionstreetfarmersmkt.com/
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Devadeva Mirel // Jun 5, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Awesome site. I am moving to Alachua in July…leaving behind my lush 2 acres of fruit trees, bushes and edible flowers in Pennsylvania. I have a jam business (local, natural, human made) and am eager to plant stuff on our property but it will be a while till stuff is producing. I am very interested in hooking up with people…especially the kind who have so many figs they don’t know what to do with them.
2 Teresa // Jun 6, 2008 at 12:18 am
Hey, wow! What a great idea for an organization! I’m in North Florida–Tallahassee–and continue to be amazed by the variety of foods thrive in our amazing climate. Thanks for putting your ideas out here for the rest of us to be inspired by :).
3 Kathy // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:14 am
I currently live on close to an acre in Jacksonville. I have several different varieties of (4) orange and (3) grapefruit trees along with two pecan trees. I am interested in learning more about your organization.
4 Meg // Jul 28, 2008 at 7:36 pm
What an awesome project! My husband and I are both really into edible plants. We have a small veggie garden and I’ve been foraging around the neighborhood for edible “weeds” and other wild foods to eat/transplant. My current favorites are dandelions and purslane, both of which seem to have transplanted well in the garden. And recently, my husband made a great batch of wild plum jelly (though I like them fresh, too).
Hopefully someday we’ll realize our dream of filling both the front and back yard with edible plants.
5 Aki // Aug 1, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I’m so glad I discovered your wonderful site! It’s very inspiring, my husband and I have been wanting to replace our lawns (over here in Oakland, CA) with edible plants and your info will be very useful.
I have a question re. hibiscus: I’m having a hard time figuring out if I have the edible kind. I have several colors, the type you’d see all over Hawaii, and I keep hoping my red one is edible because it produces so many blossoms - I believe the variety is Hibiscus rosa-sinensis ‘Brilliant’. Does anybody have the answer, as well as some hibiscus recipes?
Thank you!
6 KACEY55 // Aug 4, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I believe your project is just what I am looking for. I am disabled and live on a very limited budget. And very limited room. Food or rather nourishing food has become a high commodity for me. So the alternative is planting and growing my own. Onward and upward.
7 justine // Oct 1, 2008 at 1:18 pm
great idea you made it
8 Adam // Oct 6, 2008 at 12:47 am
Thanks for the great website!
Could anyone point me in the right direction for a listing of “native edible/wild-growing” plants in the North Florida area?
Thanks
9 Debbie // Oct 8, 2008 at 8:40 pm
This is a wonderful site and a wonderful idea! I would love to get involved. I am not one of those people who ignores the bounty around us. I am one of the people who get the crazy looks as I stand by the old school yard picking mulberries, or by the edge of the park picking plums, or on the side of the road picking blackberries…and on and on!!! I am planting what I can, but would really love to do more.
10 Carol Mercer // Nov 10, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Fantastic project!!
Are you assoicated with - or do you know of other similar organizations (in Florida or beyond).
Many thanks. Carol
11 patrick ahern // Dec 10, 2008 at 2:44 am
great idea …central florida plants include numerous fruits, including wild bananna’s(plantains?)-small avacdo trees, besides the numerous citruses that go unpicked for lack of interest — all could be put to better use
thanks
pat
12 David // Dec 21, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Anyone know which plants I can eat here in Florida?
13 purewolf386 // Apr 5, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I live in Lorain, OH, and I have close to 50 LBS. of rabbit manure, which makes awesome natural fertilizer. I desperately need to get rid of this resorce soon. Anyone interested in it please email me or reply to my post!
The weeds are huge when they get into this stuff!! So if your looking for county fair sizes for produce then give me a hollar!
14 nick // May 7, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Greetings everyone! I stumbled upon this site (literally!) and I have a friend who is starting a non profit called the tallahassee nucleus, which is a urban farming project. The site has a lemon tree, two orange/pecan/ fig/ banana/ lots more!! Any one from the epp wanna have a JAM Ba RII?!! We welcome all types of people into our space and designate slots for workshops to be filled soo email me and lets cross pollunate! We do a seed exchange/ drum circle every thursday and all types of farming so come check us out if your in tallahassee, email me and I will set you up! Peace! Whitespectralwind@tmail.com
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