Closing The Loop With O-Town Compost

4Roots is excited to announce O-Town Compost has moved into the 4Roots Co-Op! Founded by Charlie Pioli in 2020, O-Town Compost is a curbside composting service that removes table scraps and spoiled leftovers from subscriber’s homes and businesses.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Pioli grew up in a culture filled with composting and other environmental conservation initiatives. After college, he moved to Florida to start a career in solid waste & recycling consulting, where he witnessed the egregious waste being generated and poorly managed around the country firsthand. Pioli felt compelled to improve the waste management systems in Florida and started Orlando’s community composter to give his neighbors a sustainable option to recycle their food scraps.

O-Town Compost provides subscribers with a five-gallon composting bucket that is swapped out on a weekly or biweekly basis with a new bucket. The food scraps from the buckets are used to make compost that returns nutrients to the soil. Once the compost is finished, O-Town Compost donates it to local community gardens and provides subscribers with a 20-pound share of compost twice per year after they initiate service.

With over 180,000 pounds of food waste composted since their inception, O-Town Compost is paving the way to waste-free living in Central Florida, and 4Roots is proud to be able to assist them in this process.

Kicking Off Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining 2021

In 2020, Feed The Need was selected as the recipient for Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining program, receiving a record $345,378 donation. To wrap up a fantastic year of food distributions and community events, the Visit Orlando team joined Feed The Need in an event at the 4Roots Co-Op. In just three hours, 410 bags of fruits and vegetables were packaged for the Central Florida community! We are proud to have worked with the Visit Orlando team and honored to have been last year’s Magical Dining recipient.

This year’s Magical Dining will take place from Aug. 27 – Oct. 3. More than 80 of Central Florida’s restaurants will offer a $37 three-course, prix-fixe dinner menu. Funds raised will focus on two organizations, Pathlight Home and IDignity, whom help combat homelessness in Central Florida and facilitate access to necessary services.

The Farmacy Delivery Expans!

BIG NEWS! The Farmacy, is expanding its delivery services around Central Florida!

The Farmacy sells local, seasonal, non-GMO produce grown using a variety of clean growing practices, in addition to responsibly produced meats, dairy products, eggs and other pantry essentials. They also offer weekly, biweekly and monthly subscription boxes of locally sourced/organic produce and meats.

Subscription boxes support the ongoing work of local farmers and of The Farmacy! When you subscribe, you create an order that can be counted on by farmers, helping them plan their growing seasonally.

The Farmacy is housed at the 4Roots Co-Op and supports farmers by making their fresh produce more broadly available to our community. All proceeds generated by The Farmacy benefit 4Roots’ efforts to build a better food future by strengthening our community food system.

See The Farmacy delivery locations by visiting https://www.farmacynow.com/ and scrolling down to the “Where We Deliver” section!

John Deere Makes An Appearance On The Farm Campus

This month, a John Deere “Gator” utility vehicle was delivered to 4Roots. This is the first of several pieces of John Deere equipment that will be demonstrated and used on the Farm Campus. Everglades Equipment Group is gifting the equipment on an in-kind basis to support the project.

Founded in 1963, Everglades Equipment Group is a family-owned and operated full-service John Deere dealership with 18 locations covering central and south Florida.

Clint W. Vaughn, Governmental / Commercial Sales with Everglades Equipment Group commented, “We are thrilled to showcase John Deere’s world-class equipment at the 4Roots Farm Campus being built in the Packing District. The 4Roots project aligns with John Deere’s priority to provide cleaner, greener, and smarter solutions.”

With our expansive campus full of varied terrain, this Gator will be able to take our team where they need to go during every phase of the project.

Thank you Everglades Equipment Group for their ongoing support of the 4Roots Farm Campus!

Create Farm Fresh Recipes At Home

Outside of 4Roots, our Head Farmer, Josh Taylor, keeps busy working on his own farm, Do Good Farm, where they strategically design all of their farms to produce food every single day of the year. To accomplish that, they grow a large variety of edible perennials that aren’t typically available in the grocery store because they won’t survive the global food distribution system. However, having food so accessible opens up an incredible variety that is nutritious and delicious.

In the coming months, we will be working with Josh to feature recipes using unique ingredients that we’ll be growing at 4Roots. Fear not, we’ll give you easy alternative ingredients you can use in place of ingredients you may not have access to.

Today we’re featuring a Moringa Mango Salad. Moringa is a superfood jam-packed with multiple times the nutrients of your typical vegetables. You’ll also notice that the dressing does not include oil and vinegar which is typically a part of salad dressings. This dressing will keep for you in the fridge for up to two weeks.