On January 22, 2026, nearly two years after first applying, Overalls Farm Three secured its Certificate of Use from the City of Jacksonville to operate legally as a neighborhood farm. Winning a certificate of use granting us permission to grow took 2 years, 3 citations, 4 meetings with city officials, the backing of 5 operational non-profit partners, 11 letters of support from neighborhood business leaders, 13 Greens & Beans community meals, 15 American Gothic inspired community posts, 125 neighborhood uPick Farm Members, 500+ families on our farm member wait list, over 1350 signers on the Petition for Permission to Grow (including 350 immediate neighbors), and over $50,000 in lost revenue – not to mention: having our USDA farm serial number...
September 8th marks six years since we launched our first Overalls Farm. You may have missed it in the beginning because we didn’t post publicly about it for years. Growing up-an-alley in Jacksonville’s Springfield neighborhood- tucked in a residential backyard (mine, as it were)- it was intentionally kept on the down-low, except as far as the neighborhood was concerned. But then, in June 2023, I shared the origin story on the stage of Florida Theater ending with the dream to replicate our neighborhood farm model. Now, with Overalls Farms One and Two thriving, we’re growing Farm Three to fruition, and we need a little help making it happen. When we started, to ensure we were growing in service of our...
A month ago, I told stories from Florida Theater's stage: stories of family, stories of our backyard farm, stories of where we've been and where we're growing. In the month since then, even as we continue to support others to grow their groceries at home, team Overalls received 95 neighbors & community supports for our Farm (2) Raising, and, together, we built our 2nd "unlimited urban uPick" neighborhood farm. Farm Three is already in the works. It's an exciting moment to be wearing Overalls, so I want to share the backstory with you. Just below, you'll find the video, or if you'd prefer to read, look just scroll down. - - - - - - My name is Nathan Ballentine. Folks know me simply as Man In...
"So, I want a garden, but I was wondering if you could build and plant it using the principles of Square Foot Gardening?" Well, "um..." I squirmed. What was Square Foot Gardening? This was back in 2009, just as I was putting on my Overalls. Carol, a friend and the customer asking the question offered, "I've got a copy of the book. I can lend it to you to review, and then when you come tomorrow,...
I want you to grow your groceries.
Could you grow enough food to feed your family if you needed?Could we, as communities, sustain ourselves - even temporarily - if there was some major disruption like a cyber attack, supply chain failure, hyper inflation, economic fall-out, or - God forbid - war? Though I'm a fan of salads & tasty treats like sugar snaps, if you're hungry, those just won't cut it.
