JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Eat Your Yard Jax, a cute name tackling serious issues. The non-profit edible plant nursery practices organic principles and teaches others about sustainable agriculture.
The owner Tim Armstrong was a steelworker for most of his life but always knew he had a passion for plants and the outdoors.
“I love to go to farms and see the different unusual things you can grow and attempt to grow them myself and so I share a lot of those through myself at the farm," said Armstrong.
Growing up he says he learned how to grow food from past family generations.
"They were subsistence farmers I mean they farmed not because they liked to farm or because it was healthier for them it was because that’s what they had to do to survive," he said.
Armstrong got his first nursery in 2008 and since then business has sky rocketed.
“Folks kept asking me oh you have such a cool farm and why don’t you start opening it to the public and you know can I take my school group there," Armstrong said. That’s when Eat Your Yard Jax was created. 40 acres of land that has over a thousand plants with about 500 different varieties.
“I spent about a year just getting infrastructure in, getting a road in and getting power in because there was no clearing and there was no way to get in.”
Deidre Rando has been a volunteer at Eat Your Yard Jax for years and dreams of having a farm just like this one.
"I just love the versatility, the edibleness of so many plants that most people don’t really know about," said Rando.
On Saturday Rando will hosting a workshop at 10 a.m. teaching others how to plant mushrooms.
"Everybody should know how to grow their own food and know the connection and the peace of growing your own food and owning your own land is about ya know," Rando explained.