Place of Residence:
Florida
Background and Personal History:
His neurotic obsession with edible plants
has led him to grow a variety of species that by all rights should be darned
impossible in his climate. At age five, he sprouted a bean in a Dixie cup of soil — and caught the gardening bug. No seed
in his mom’s pantry was safe after that. Sensing his enthusiasm, his dad put in
an 8 by 8-inch plot for him later that year and David hasn’t stopped growing since.
David is married to the lovely Rachel, who homeschools their six children and
regularly improvises delicious meals from the many bizarre plants in their
collection (and a few tasty weeds they’ve foraged, too). David writes a
regular column for Natural Awakenings magazine in North Central Florida and
volunteers as a Florida Master Gardener. In mid-2012, he launched www.floridasurvivalgardening.com
as a place to share his ongoing experiments with tropical and temperate
edibles. David and his family currently own a sandy little plant-riddled
one-acre homestead in the middle of Florida
and are members in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Current Projects:
Establishing a half-acre food forest
Testing heirloom corn varieties
Toying with aquatic plants and aquaponics
Breeding chickens
Zone-pushing tropical trees and shrubs by establishing
microclimates
Experimenting with tropical staple crops
Trying to become self-sufficient on an acre
Starting trees from seed
Raising test varieties of pomegranates
Working towards an urban gardening test plot with the Master
Gardeners at the local Agricultural Extension
Writing a survival gardening book for the Deep
South
Other Fun Facts:
On particularly
hot days, David wanders around the yard with a straw hat and a cigar,
pretending he’s in Cuba.
He has also been known to toss seeds around and guerilla garden on foreclosed
properties. Shh!
More Places to Find Me
on the Web:
Florida Survival Gardening
David the Good