Post Event Workshops

UF/IFAS Tropical Research And Education Center

The University of Florida/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center is the premier teaching, research, and extension institution in Florida with a primary focus on tropical and subtropical fruit crops, traditional and tropical vegetables, tropical ornamental crops, energy crops and natural resources in the warm subtropics.

The Center has 18 faculty, was established in 1929, and is a 160 acre working research-extension farm with a diversity of faculty disciplines including horticulture, agricultural engineering, entomology, plant pathology, agroecology, biogeochemistry, soil and water science, genetics and plant breeding, and agricultural economics.

Due to the region's humid subtropical climate, UF/IFAS TREC is the only state university research and education center in the continental U.S. focusing on a large number of tropical and subtropical crops, strategically situated at the gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean Region. Additionally, it is located on the unique oolitic calcareous bedrock and the shallow Biscayne Aquifer and is in close proximity to Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Marine Park, Florida Bay and major well fields which provide drinking water to the several million people living in the neighboring urban areas.

Visit trec.ifas.ufl.edu to learn more.

Homegarden Tours Organized by Cultivate Abundance

Immokalee Immigrant Gardens – Paraguayan Chaco and Misión Peniel Food Pantry

After meeting while Paul was serving with the U.S. Peace Corps in Reina’s native Gran Chaco region of Paraguay, the Midneys moved to the immigrant farmworker town of Immokalee, FL in the 1980s where they purchased several acres of former farmland and degraded wetlands. Over the decades, they have reforested and cultivated the property, achieving a productive, multistory agroforest. Beneath the overstory of slash pine and baldcypress, the Midney’s have created scattered patches devoted to the production of food crops (e.g., mango, coconut, papaya, cassava, carambola, passion fruit, pineapple) while maintaining nontimber forest species such as sawtooth palmetto berries. Raising chickens as well, their homegarden provides them and neighbors with fresh produce and eggs, with a surplus donated to the local food pantry.

Located one mile from the Midney’s property, Misión Peniel engages Immokalee’s immigrant farmworker community through social services, including a food ministry that serves hundreds of clients every Friday afternoon. Partnering with another nonprofit, Cultivate Abundance, food preferred by Immokalee’s Haitian, Mexican, and Guatemalan residents is grown, collected and shared, including a sizeable portion produced in Misión Peniel’s small donation garden. The Misión Peniel Garden contains dozens of species of fruit and vegetables, among them, a variety of perennial vegetables, including chaya, moringa, Haitian basket vine, chipilín, loroco, and nopal cactus.

Visit cultivateabundance.org to learn more about the mission and work of Cultivate Abundance.

Jamaican-American Heritage Homegarden Tour

Wes Rowe, a native of Jamaica’s upland Cockpit Country, descends from generations of self-sufficient Maroon farmers. Following decades in the accounting profession, Wes and his wife, Vivien, retired to their 1.5-acre property in Lehigh Acres, Florida where he continues his family agrarian legacy by growing a wide variety of tropical fruit, vegetables, root crops, and herbs. His garden provides a high degree of food self-sufficiency as well as surplus produce to share with neighbors and a local food pantry. Wes’ diverse and productive home garden is a study in efficiency and adaptation as he applies a wealth of inherited knowledge to the challenging subtropical environment of southwest Florida.

ECHO Botanical Tours

This is an opportunity for additional learning within the "living textbook" of the ECHO Global Research and Demonstration Farm, located on the campus of ECHO's North America Regional Impact Center. Guided walks will allow for knowledge sharing about various species in our plant collections. We will also explore agricultural systems in which underutilized plant species may be grown. A specialized tour of the ECHO Global Seed Bank will expose participants to a range of technologies for storing seeds of diverse crops. By the end of the day you will not only see and learn about a number of interesting plants but also gain insights into how they can be propagated and integrated into gardens and farmsteads.