Nathan Selikoff

To get some face to face time with local permies and organic growers, check out the following if you haven't already:

Monthly organic growers meeting put on by the Simple Living Institute:
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/organic-growers.html

Local food cooperative, to see who is selling what:
http://homegrowncoop.org/
http://homegrown.locallygrown.net/growers/list

In particular you might want to meet Tom Carey at Sundew Gardens who uses a mixture of permaculture and more conventional techniques, and Tia and Terry Meer who use a lot of permaculture at Econ Farm:
http://sundewgardens.com/
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/econfarm.html

Research oriented farm in Fort Myers:
http://echonet.org/global-farm-tours/

-Nathan

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!

Hey all, I'm also in Orange County (Orlando). I've read that Moringa, classified as a legume, has some nitrogen fixing capabilities, although it is not considered a nitrogen fixer. It has a lot of other desirable characteristics, however (good for animal fodder, chop & drop, edible nutritious leaves, grows fast, living fence, drought tolerant, responds well to pruning and coppicing).

Also, I'd recommend digging in to some of ECHO's Technical Notes (http://www.echocommunity.org/?tech_notes) if you haven't already. There's one called Nitrogen Fixing Tree Start-up Guide (http://www.echocommunity.org/resource/collection/E66CDFDB-0A0D-4DDE-8AB1-74D9D8C3EDD4/N-Fixing_Tree_Start-up_Guide_[NFTA].pdf) that includes tropical, semi-tropical, arid lists with some overlap of what's been shared here.

Nick,

Thanks for sharing your list! Off the top of my head I would suggest adding moringa oleifera, yard long bean (Vigna unguiculata), and okinawa spinach (Gynura crepioides). These have all performed well for me in Orlando.

-Nathan