"One Man's Compost is Another Donkey's Lunch."
The animals of Parsley Lane Farm, located in Samsula Florida, have been getting a summer treat in these extra hot months with fresh produce from Norwood's Treehouse (located in New Smyrna Beach Florida) and After Body Meals (located in South Daytona). Both restaurants prep their food daily with local fruits and vegetables and in turn, produce A LOT of compost. While both Norwood's and After Body Meals have compost gardens and recycling systems, they were producing meals at such large volumes that they needed to find another avenue for their fruits and veggie scraps and the animals of Parsley Lane Farms were happy to oblige.
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Pictured: Veggie scraps from Norwood's Treehouse and After Body Meals and a bread drop off from Nadine Larrabee (a local resident who also donates). Believe it or not, this table full of food will only last about five minutes at the farm and serves only as a snack for the animals. They can always use more!
Parsley Lane Farm is a local, heirloom and organic working farm. It was founded by a local school principal and an artist with a vision of establishing beautiful gardens of plants and flowers. Surrounded by Florida’s natural wildlife and the wonderful farm animals, their mission is to share the farm and to educate the public. With over 80 resident farm animals, there are many mouths to feed! Christine Bourne runs the farm on her own, with the help of local volunteers. The weekly drop offs of fresh produce from Norwood's and After Body Meals is a welcome treat that Christine and the animals look forward to. It slightly lowers her very large maintenance cost and helps the animals cool down in the Florida heat.
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Pictured: The animals of Parsley Lane Farm enjoying the fruit and veggie scraps from local restaurants. Parsley Lane Farm is home to donkeys, cows, pigs, horses, chickens, tortoises and more! They host monthly open farm days where the community can visit the farm and meet the animals. For information about their next open farm day and upcoming events, follow their social media pages.
Norwood's Treehouse, established in 1946 has been a local staple in the community for decades. The current owners, who acquired Norwood's in the 80s boast a green eco-initiative and a commitment to the local community. In addition to reducing waste within their own restaurant and sending scraps to Parsley Lane Farm, Norwood's also buys locally from other farms and artisans. Norwood's currently uses local zucchini from Samsula Farms for their famous zucchini bread, purchases eggs and honey locally, features mushrooms from local grower Fungi Jon and bread from Armand, Swiss Baker of New Smyrna Beach. They are truly farm to table to farm at Norwood's. To learn more about Norwood's and their green initiative, visit their website here.
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Pictured: Compost drop off from After Body Meals.
After Body Meals is a meal prep company located in South Daytona. Founded and run by local couple Kirk Girdley and Emily Linton, they offer a variety of fresh and healthy meals delivered weekly right to your front door. They also deliver weekly to the animals of Parsley Lane Farm! Like Norwood's, After Body Meals sources local produce in order to provide the best food for the community. They currently receive produce from Samsula Farms and salad greens from Fletcher Family Farms (both located in New Smyrna Beach). The owners of ABM also tend to a large garden at home and have two garden boxes full of herbs at their restaurant. They are avid about composting both at work and at home. Emily Linton of ABM: "sourcing locally and gardening at home has reduced our waste by so much and we love that its helping feed local animals and encourage regenerative farming." To learn more about After Body Meals and their farm to table to farm initiative, visit their website here.
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Pictured: Local volunteer, Everleigh Stone, distributing scraps to the animals.
While the weekly drop offs from Norwood's Treehouse and After Body Meals are a huge help to Parsley Lane Farm, they could always use more! If you have a local restaurant or homestead that produces large amounts of fruits and veggie compost that you'd like to donate to local animals, please contact Christine Bourne at parsleylanefarm@gmail.com to schedule a drop off!
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-Savannah Kater, Macaroni KID Daytona
