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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · 22h

Check out the first video up on our YouTube channel, this month's installation of our Agroecology Evening School:

Introduction to Agroecology: From Ancient Joya de Cerén to Modern Mexico to... Chattanooga?

YouTube video by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

www.youtube.com

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · 8d

One half of our bi-monthly sessions- second and fourth Thursdays each month- will be via Zoom so there is an opportunity for folks outside of Chattanooga to participate!

Agroecology Evening School

Introduction and First Meetings

foodforestschattanooga.substack.com

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · 22d

Been a while since we posted a newsletter, here's this month's installment with updates on upcoming events plus an essay on yaupon tea and future possibilities: foodforestschattanooga.substack.com/p/yaupon-tea...

Yaupon Tea and More Forgotten Pasts and Possible Futures

Plus Updates on our Fall Schedule

foodforestschattanooga.substack.com

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Jonathan Parkes Allen @jparkesallen.bsky.social · 25d

"In spite of his advanced years, 'Old Man' Scarborough was still able to work the wooden machinery to chop, crush, roast, and cure the leaves of the yaupon holly when North Carolina naturalist H. H. Brimley interviewed him in 1905. "Scarborough, Brimley explained, was the Black owner

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 24d

Meg & I collaborated on the Philly Native Plant Project that distributed 10,000 native seed packets in Philly. The proceeds from this calendar will fund the 2026 installment! We hope to distribute even more in '26.

Learn about animals, how to help them AND fund a project that supports biodiversity.

a poster is stapled to a brown pole that says plant native plants take one and plant with a bunch of seed baggies clipped to the poster. The poster has echinacea drawn on it

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Jonathan Parkes Allen @jparkesallen.bsky.social · 28d

Some community garden flowers with happy pollinators this evening

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 9

The little community farm at Chattanooga Valley Church of the Nazarene continues to grow- we'll be doing Monday evening volunteer sessions from 5 to 6:30 or so going forward, excited to see what the coming year holds for this site!

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Jonathan Parkes Allen @jparkesallen.bsky.social · Sep 9

Love some partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), such a beautiful plant of marginal and disturbed locales that keeps its insect neighbors happy as well (via both pollen production in the flowers and nectar in little nectary glands at the base of leaves):

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Chris Lilley ✠ 🇵🇸🇺🇦 @frostinthepines.bsky.social · Sep 9

Selection from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Artist: Kreg Yingst (kregyingst.com) #kregyingst #psalmprayers #gerardmanleyhopkins #piedbeauty

Black-and-white relief print by Kreg Yingst, featuring a poetic excerpt from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty.” The text celebrates the divine beauty of “dappled things” with vivid imagery: skies of couple-color like a brindled cow, rose-moles on trout, fresh-firecoal chestnut falls, finches’ wings, and patchwork landscapes. Surrounding the text are hand-carved illustrations—a fish, a tree, and abstract organic patterns—arranged in a rhythmic, visually expressive layout.

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 7

Got a lot done this afternoon at the Chattanooga Civic Center at Mountainside, refreshing the existing beds, pulling a ton of grass and setting in native perennial flowers and fruiting plants, prepping for other plantings soon. Very excited to see what happens here in the coming months!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

I'd like to get some guest speakers at various points, most likely via Zoom, in which case we'll open the sessions up to the wider global public, will advertise here of course in advance! And if you're interested in presenting for a session, reach out and let us know!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

Following up on our environmental history reading group last spring we will be offering monthly (potentially bi-monthly depending on everyone's availability and energy!) sessions on the theory, practice, and history of agroecology, we'll do a potluck and weather permitting hands-on work outside too.

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

Two years ago this hillside was thin grass over hard clay and the thinnest covering of soil; today apple trees (visible here), plums, fig, pecan, hazelnut, serviceberry, raspberries, blackberries, elderberry, and a whole host of ground-level plants are now flourishing happily, it's just amazing

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

What started off as a one-off event for building and painting signs for community agriculture is now a once a month recurring gathering- we'll continue to meet the first Tuesday of each month to construct and paint garden and food forest infrastructure for as long as needs remain!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Aug 31

Starting this week we'll be facilitating weekly morning sessions in the St Elmo Community Food Forest, our volunteer coordinator will be on hand to lead in whatever tasks need to be done week to week so as to maintain and expand the food forest's productivity:

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

𝐀𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐢 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐬 @akhateli.farm · Aug 31

The *very first fruit* from our southern Armenian trees, now blushing yellow. Despite visible hailstorm scars, these persimmons are thriving. 🌱

a green Meghri, Syunik persimmon with a faint tinge of yellow/orange, hanging from a stem, leaf with a hailstone-punctured hole just above

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

Honey Girl Grows @honeygirlgrows.bsky.social · Aug 31

This mature, science-minded high schooler is my new paid intern, met when his home burned with his hive, (he emailed the Santa Monica Community Gardens).
He helped @jstpwalsh.bsky.social and I dig fire soil samples for our 5-year study with Duke, and will get his name on the study ⚡️Community!! 🌱

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Aug 30

This morning we cleaned out and transported the contents of beds from the old Neema Garden- which unfortunately has had to close down due to forthcoming development- to a new garden build at one of the Chatt Foundation's permanent supportive housing site, a little warm out but we got it done!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Aug 26

Coming up THIS SATURDAY: we are partnering with the CHATT Foundation to help build new garden beds for residents at their permanent supportive housing site. If you plan on attending it would be helpful to fill out the volunteer form: chattfoundation.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/.... Thanks so much!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Aug 25

If you are a potential vendor or have an org that would be interested in tabling for this upcoming festival get in touch, otherwise be on the lookout for more info as we get closer to time!

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Reposted by Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition

CABES @cabes.bsky.social · Aug 18

As part of her master’s in science-policy interfaces on biodiversity & climate, Esther Djossou completed an immersive internship at CNRA Ferkessédougou, Ivory Coast-exploring how farming practices impact soil macrofauna. A hands-on step toward sustainable agriculture.
#ipbes #iki_bmuv #biodiversity

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Jul 12

Very productive sign making and painting workshop Thursday evening, lots of new signage- made from recycle/repurposed materials- for community growing spaces around town!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Jul 9

Coming up this Thursday Chattanooga folks!

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Jul 9

"What our Sudanese migrant gardeners have realized is a type of belong to their little corner of the land of the American South, working and planting it and carefully tending the soil and the growing things therein, bringing in new—old—components to make it flourish."

Kawal Coming Back Home

Reflections on Migration, Indigeneity, and the Plants We Carry With Us

foodforestschattanooga.substack.com

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Chattanooga Food Forest Coalition @foodforestchatt.bsky.social · Jul 9

Views from the past week of my (@jparkesallen.bsky.social) home garden and of three of the several community gardens/food forests we've been working in this year around town- Ascension Lutheran, St. Elmo UMC, and Chattanooga Valley Church of the Nazarene. It's been a very productive year so far!

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