Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the first 2 hours of my 9-hour “ag tour” that I went on 3 Thursdays ago – hosted by UF IFAS Extension – which stands for University Of Florida Institute Of Food And Agricultural Sciences. They have Extension offices in all 67 of Florida’s counties. (I’m in Highlands County.)
After our first stop a few miles east of Fort Meade along U.S. 98 at the Dundee Citrus Growers Association (CGA) Citrus Under Protective Screen (CUPS) farm – we headed east and then south back into Highlands County to the Avon Park area where we would make our next 4 stops.
Our next stop was a citrus grove east of Avon Park. We met 3 members of Biotech Applied Research (BAR) – including Zack Farr (Co-Founder, President, & CEO) and Jeff Williams (Owner of J.W. Harvesting – comprising of about 100 acres of citrus groves).
Jeff’s groves used to be healthy and abundant before greening swept across them in 2013. That’s where BAR comes in. They convert dead citrus (bio-waste) into biochar. What’s biochar ?
Biochar is a soil-focused charcoal made by heating organic material (like wood or agricultural waste) at high temperatures with very little oxygen. The result is a lightweight jet-black material filled with microscopic pores that hold water and nutrients in the root zone, create habitat for beneficial soil microbes, improve long-term soil structure, and stay in the soil for decades. It is not a fertilizer. It does not feed plants directly. Instead – it improves the soil so the nutrients and water you already add work better and last longer.
We all got a free bag of biochar along with an information sheet all about it. (I used some of that information above.) As a non-gardener / non-grower living inside a condo neighborhood – I had no use for it. So – I brought it to the Charles F. Weigle House Museum & Gift Shop earlier this month for one of our Wednesday Morning Socials, and I did a “show-and-tell” on it. I said that whoever wants it can have it, or else I would use it in our front garden of the museum. One of my friends there accepted it. He will use it in his home garden.
After learning all about biochar – we headed into town (Avon Park) to enjoy lunch inside at the Community Center (which I had never been to before). It’s actually located right next door to the Avon Park Historical Society and their Depot Museum – a place that I have visited and written about often.
We enjoyed a plate of steak (grilled outside), scalloped potatoes, veggies, and cookies for dessert. It was pretty good. The steak wasn’t the best quality cut, but it wasn’t bad at all. It was all served on paper plates (doubled-up) with plastic forks and knives, so that was not ideal. I lost part of a prong of my fork, so I had to find it to be careful not to eat it.
Next #TravelThursday – The Ag Tour concludes with caladiums, blueberries, and a geology lesson. Let’s keep traveling together.
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