Help with INFO: Florida and Texas

Hi everyone,

Starting 6/26/12 my family and I are going on a two week vacation.
First week is in Florida and second week will be in Texas.

I am trying to show my family all the great things about Permaculture.
Is there a large I.E.: land food forest, cob building, homesteading, survival skill, primitive skill, tour, event or activities, so on that I can impress my family what's Permaculture all about. I am willing to drive there to pay to stay for a day log or entrance fee to visit these sites.

I would like some information on the two states we are heading to. We have only limited amount of days to attend all events.

Thank you in advance.

ECHO in N. Ft. Myers, FL

http://echonet.org/

They give tours of their facility, and have a tropical fruit nursery, many demonstration areas, and a store on site with plants, seeds, and publications you don't see every day.

Jim

Verde Gardens in Homestead, FL could be a possibility. Contact Jason Long - he's a regular on this forum. It's a 22 acre permaculture operation that feeds the people who live and work there.

Unbelievable Acres Botanic Gardens in West Palm Beach, FL would be another good one.

The Garden was established in 1970 by Gene Joyner and is one of Florida’s largest private collections of tropical fruit trees. The Garden has some 2,000 varieties of plants, including over 170 varieties of fruit trees. It also has orchids, bamboo, bromeliads, palms, and ferns.

Call ahead for a reservation and to find out the schedule of guided tours.

Here's a link to an article from a few years back:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2007-12-15/news/0712130268_1_botanical-garden-2-acre-garden-rain-forest

You might be able to find some sites in Texas through the Worldwide Permaculture Network: http://permacultureglobal.com/

There used to be a small permaculture homestead near us but it closed with new ownership...Wish our place were up to being toured!

Jim Porter wrote:ECHO in N. Ft. Myers, FL

http://echonet.org/

They give tours of their facility, and have a tropical fruit nursery, many demonstration areas, and a store on site with plants, seeds, and publications you don't see every day.

Jim

ECHO is a great farm. They have a bunch of demonstration areas set up to show, for example, growing food on a cement roof with no soil, growing on steep hillsides, etc. Worth many visits.

Thank you so much for the replies. We want to see and get a taste of it before making major life changes. If anyone new to this permaculture that is reading this I suggest they do what I am doing. This is a dramatic change to lifestyle before you purchase or think of going permaculture or homesteading, have a try out for a week. Not everyone can handle this. Please keeps the info coming and I will reschedule my vacation around it as much as I can.

I have posted also on http://permacultureglobal.com/ under drake with the same request. No one yet have reply.

This directory might help you track something down: http://www.austinperm.com/austin-permaculture-directory/

Wow, sad response (or non-response) from Texas.

If you can't find anything else you're welcome to visit my place. I consider myself just a beginner but we have a lot of things going from aquaponics to broad-scale rainwater harvesting earthworks.

FYI, Our vacation plan are as follow:

Florida: Orlando, then drive along the coast to Tampa and Miami for 1 week.

Texas: Fort Worth, then drive to Houston then to San Antonio forming a triangle for 1 week.

Hope some place with homesteading with a sawdust compost toilet to freak my spouse out, so when they see the travel trailer it is like a castle. HA HA.

So far, I have more success in you tube finding information, kinda sad really.

Well if anyone have any information before our two week time line for our flight would be great. thank you.

Here's a contact near Austin: http://ape99.org/about.html

Here are some links and info for Orlando:

The Simple Living Institute runs and supports a lot of permaculture, gardening, foraging and other cool classes:
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/51008426002/ (Facebook group)

Unfortunately you're going to miss the monthly Organic Growers Meeting (June 20th), there are always some permies there.

There's a couple with a 5 acre property in east Orlando called the Econ Farm that incorporates a lot of permaculture techniques - unfortunately the way building code enforcement is around here you're probably not going to find any composting toilets, though they wanted to go all out when they built their place. If you PM me I can send you their contact info.

Keep an eye on the Orlando Permaculture Meetup Group for possible events:
http://www.meetup.com/The-Orlando-Permaculture-Meetup-Group/

Visit the Homegrown Co-op (http://www.homegrowncoop.org/), there are usually some permies working or volunteering there. They are having a potluck dinner Saturday June 30th at 6pm (https://www.facebook.com/events/337611016311287/).

Other things you might want to know about:
Central Florida Sustainable Food Project
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/local-food.html
https://www.facebook.com/groups/128333397187109/ (Facebook group; recently had a conversation about hugelkultur beds here)

Hope that helps!