June Meeting - Amanda Pike, PhD, ATR-BC - Creating a Kid Friendly Food Forest

 Join us Monday, June 12, 2023 at 7pm.  

Harlee Building/County Fairgrounds, 1303 17th St W, Palmetto, FL 34221

Speaker: Amanda Pike, PhD, ATR-BC

From the Program Committee

Our June speaker will be Amanda Pike, PhD, ATR-BC. She is a board-certified therapist, certified educational leader and owner of a two-acre, Florida permaculture farm complete with hundreds of species of edible plants, free-roaming chickens and 26 beehives. Dr. Pike serves as Education Chair and Chapter Representative for the Palm Beach County chapter of the Native Plant Society. As a local 4-H program facilitator, she helps make food forestry an accessible and practical landscaping option for the community. Her food forest currently provides an average of 70% of her family's daily meals. Her latest book, Transforming Florida Yards: A Regional Food Forest Guide, was published June 1.

At our June meeting, Dr. Pike will speak on Creating a Kid-Friendly Food Forest: how to plan and design a backyard food forest based on kid-friendly perennials that will replace groceries starting in the first year.

May 2023 Meeting - Soil Microbial Communities and Plant Health with Dr Sarah Strauss

 Join us Monday, May 8th, 2023 at 7pm.  

Harlee Building/County Fairgrounds, 1303 17th St W, Palmetto, FL 34221

Speaker: Dr Sarah Strauss

From the Program Committee

Dr. Sarah Strauss is an Assistant Professor at the IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, FL. She is the author of many scientific articles on soil microbiology and its applications to agriculture. Her research and extension programs are focused on examining the interactions between soil microbial communities and plant health and productivity in both citrus and vegetable crops. The goal of her applied research is to provide growers with new information and methods for managing and improving crop production and soil health using soil microbiology.

In her presentation, Dr. Strauss will discuss the concept of soil health, and how and why microbes are key components of it. She will also discuss some methods that can be used to impact soil microbes and soil health.