USDA Releases Report on the Growing Importance of Food Hubs in Rural America - USDA.gov (press release)

NEW ORLEANS, La., February 26, 2013 – Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today announced the release of a report which provides a comprehensive look at the economic role, challenges and opportunities for food hubs in the nation's growing local food movement. The announcement was made during a visit to Hollygrove Market and Farm, a produce market, local distributor and farm in downtown New Orleans. In operation since 2009, Hollygrove Farm and Market sources from twenty local growers across southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Hollygrove's mission includes increasing access to fresh produce for underserved New Orleans neighborhoods. The organization first began operations as part of the city's post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts.

"At USDA we are committed to food hubs because we believe that they offer strong and sound infrastructure support to producers across the country which will also help build stronger regional food systems," said Merrigan. "This report is an important addition to the ongoing research in this field and Hollygrove is an example of how it is done."

The new report is titled The Role of Food Hubs in Local Food Marketing. With an increasing demand for fresh, local, foods, the report finds that the success of food hubs is rapidly expanding, with well over 200 food hubs now operating in the United States. They are a part of a distribution system designed to move locally produced food into mainstream markets by supplying chains for goods to go from farms to the table efficiently. To view the full report click here.

USDA's working definition of a regional food hub is "a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand". More information about USDA's work on food hubs is available at www.ams.usda.gov/foodhubs.

The dramatic increase in the number of food hubs since President Obama took office has been supported by state and federal efforts including USDA programs like Rural Business Enterprise Grant, Rural Business Opportunity Grant, Value-Added Producer Grant, and the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program.

For example, as noted in the report, USDA Rural Development's Cooperative grants can be used to support building local food systems infrastructure. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund in Alabama received a grant to establish a vegetable processing and marketing cooperative and a regional goat processing and marketing cooperative. The Federation also trains and supports members involved in direct marketing activities, such as selling at urban farmers markets, redeeming nutrition assistance coupons and selling directly to schools. Part of the grant focused on business planning and training for community development credit unions.

Many such USDA supported projects, as well as others which support local and regional food systems, are part of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative (KYF). This Initiative coordinates Department wide efforts and work on local and regional food systems. Many food hubs, and similar projects are described in the Know Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass, a narrative about USDA's work in local and regional food systems and are on the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass Map which maps investments in local and regional food.

President Obama's plan for rural America has brought about historic investment and resulted in stronger rural communities. Under the President's leadership, these investments in housing, community facilities, businesses and infrastructure have empowered rural America to continue leading the way – strengthening America's economy, small towns and rural communities. USDA's investments in rural communities support the rural way of life that stands as the backbone of our American values. President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are committed to a smarter use of Federal resources to foster sustainable economic prosperity and ensure the government is a strong partner for businesses, entrepreneurs and working families in rural communities.

USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, has an active portfolio of more than $176 billion in loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America.

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New ways of growing food with TechnoServe SA R40m backing - The New Age Online

TNA Reporter

TechnoServe SA has been granted more than R40m from the jobs fund, based on the continuing success of its agricultural projects across several provinces.

Match-funding will come from long- term partners Standard Bank and the funds have been earmarked to expand and accelerate existing job creation programmes in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

TechnoServe talks directly to enterprise development in South Africa, helping entrepreneurial men and women build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.

TechnoServe operates in 30 countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia and promotes the growth of the SMME business sector through programmes that provide expert advice, technical and business capacity building and that open up markets for entrepreneurs’ goods and services and link them to finance.

South Africa country director Earl Sampson says: “We partner with businesses and industry leaders who have the insight to see the value of people and their communities. We work directly with entrepreneurs and other industry stakeholders in the field, to ensure enterprises thrive on their own and generate continued income for rural communities across South Africa.

“We work alongside small-scale farmers and farming cooperatives, together with all other actors in the agriculture value chain to ensure these farming enterprises are linked to secure markets. We ensure they are given access to the resources needed to produce and supply to these markets and to thereby, over time, become a viable and sustainable part of the broader agriculture value chain.”

Sampson says TechnoServe South Africa brings a unique combination of personal and institutional in-depth experience and relationships in the private sector together with solid technical skills and in-the-field experience: “We are deeply rooted in local communities and our predominantly local staff understands how to foster innovation and change in entrepreneurial skills and mind sets and how to develop the local institutions needed to support a vibrant private sector.”

Partnering with Massmart in their Direct Farm launch last year, TechnoServe put locally produced small-scale farmers’ produce on the shelves of Massmart. The first harvest of 15 tons of beans was delivered in September and classed grade 1. Post the launch, several hundred tons of produce has been delivered and sold, with substantial growth predicted. – View the original article here

Hungry in America: Documentary Exposes the Growing Problem of Starvation ... - TIME

Magnolia Pictures

The film, A Place At The Table, sheds light on an issue many Americans are too ashamed to admit: they’re hungry.

Produced by Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and directed by his wife and filmmaker Lori Silverbush, the documentary, which is in theaters and available on iTunes on March 1, focuses on the 50 million Americans, including one in four children, who can’t get enough to eat every day.

The film explores some of the factors contributing to the high prevalence of hunger in the U.S., including poverty, inadequate food assistance programs, and the high cost of healthy food. The film follows several characters, including a single mom trying to feed her kids more than canned spaghetti at every meal, and a fifth-grader who can’t concentrate in school because of hunger pangs.

(MORE: Salt Sugar Fat: Q&A With Author Michael Moss)

About 44 million Americans rely on the government’s food assistance plan, or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides less than $5 per person, per day on average. That’s hardly enough, especially for growing children.

“I think if you ask people, ‘Who’s on food stamps?’ they’d say, ‘People who are out of work and lazy.’ It’s people who work. That’s why I think it’s really important that we increase the minimum wage, because hunger is an issue of poverty,” Colicchio told TakePart.

And if families that are surviving below the poverty line are able to eat, they often aren’t eating well. It’s hard, if not impossible, to buy healthy foods, which often cost more than processed foods, which is one of the many factors New York Times journalist Michael Moss blames for Americans’ addiction to processed food in his new book Salt Sugar Fat. In an interview with TIME, Moss says:

One of the key things for moving forward is that the playing field needs to be leveled in terms of pricing. We all know we should be eating more fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. When you hit that part of the store and you see that blueberries cost $5 for a little basket and you can wheel over to the center of the store and see all these power bars and seemingly healthy things that are in fact loaded with salt, sugar and fat and they are half the price or a third the price, and there are all these other things that can fill up your cart for much less money. That’s a really difficult thing for families to deal with. Everyone is convinced that the government subsidies that support processed food need to be shifted over in some way to fresh fruits and vegetables or it’s going to continue to be hard for even people who want to eat better to do so financially.

That’s a point that Colicchio and Silverbush also make in the documentary. If parents are feeding their children unhealthy foods, it’s because these are the foods that they can afford. Prices, not food scarcity, are a driving factor in what’s purchased at check-out. “It’s easy to demonize parents for making bad choices and feeding their kids fast food with empty calories and lots of fat and no nutrition and sugary drinks,” Colicchio told TakePart. “But if that stuff is cheap and you have no money, the difference between being hungry and crying all night long or putting soda in them—what choice do you have?”

(MORE: Can “Pop-Up” Grocery Stores Solve the Problem of Food Deserts?)

Lack of access also deters healthy eating; with so little to spend on groceries, many families are forced to buy the unhealthy options that fill the shelves at the corner store instead of spending the time and money to seek out fresh foods at grocery stores, which are harder to find in many low-income communities. Such “food deserts” are common in both rural and urban communities where business owners have decided it’s too costly to carry and re-stock nutritious fare. Ree Harris, a mother of four boys in Mississippi who is featured in the documentary, says in the film: “Chips and ice cream and cakes, they have that here. They have lots and lots of stuff like that here. And so that’s why I go to Clarksdale sometime for grocery shopping, or Batesville, about a 45-minute drive. Those that doesn’t have transportation, it’s hard.”

Greater awareness of the prevalence of food deserts, however, spurred grassroots campaigns to bring healthier foods to low-income areas. Some groups have even adopted a “pop-up” or mobile model to provide food to these areas. In July, TIME wrote:

In 2009, the USDA mapped out the nation’s food deserts, tracts that are home to some 23 million Americans. About 10% of the 65,000 census tracts in the U.S. are considered food deserts. Data show that people living in these neighborhoods have limited access to a healthy diet, which can therefore lead to higher levels of obesity and other weight-related illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease. So, can pop-up markets solve the food desert problem? Maybe.

The movement first got going in 2003, when a Bay Area group introduced organic food to West Oakland neighborhoods in a roaming solar-powered, biodiesel-burning food truck. Over the years, the mobile market idea gained steam. In June 2011, Fresh Moves, a Chicago non-profit launched its one-aisle grocery store on board a donated Chicago Transit Authority bus, and currently serves Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods. This August, the Seattle-based group Stockbox Grocers will launch its first store in the city’s South Park neighborhood, serving healthy food and to-go meals out of reclaimed shipping containers and storefronts. Residents of Portland, Ore., Kansas City and Baton Rouge are also seeing groceries-on-the-go rolling through this summer.

In the film, Colicchio and Silverbush also focus on ways to address hunger in America. Leveling prices and redistributing subsidies to help make healthier foods more affordable is one strategy they explore. “Our tax dollars are really going toward prop[ping] up fast food, and if some of that money was siphoned off of corn, wheat and soy subsidies and moved over to fresh fruits and vegetables, it could make a major difference,” Colicchio tells TakePart.

Such advocacy for the hungry may be leading to some solutions. Recently, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited South Dakota State University to announce over $75 million in grants for research, education and projects to promote increased food security in the U.S. and globally. The grants were given to groups at 21 U.S. universities to identify ways to increase the availability of food and reduce the number of Americans who worry every day about where their next meal will come from.

The documentary is also a rallying cry for more action in addressing hunger in America. The filmmakers urge viewers to contact their House and Senate representatives, and provide more resources on their site.

Watch the A Place At The Table trailer here:

Alexandra Sifferlin is a writer and producer for TIME Healthland. She is a graduate from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

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Locally grown food, delivered to your - The Chronicle

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A basket of fresh produce from J. Glebocki Farms. This may, or may not, be representatiave of an actual share, depending on what's in season. A share will contain six to eight seasonal vegetables weighing about a pound or a pound and a half each. Potatoes will be in 8 to 12 pound bags. (Photo courtesy of J. Glebocki Farms)

J. Glebocki Farms' market stall in the growing season. (Photo courtesy J. Glebock Farms)

By Ginny Privitar
GOSHEN — Come this June, savvy shoppers can have seasonal, locally grown and freshly picked produce delivered right to their workplace.

J. Glebocki Farms of Goshen is initiating a new Community Supported Agriculture program they’re calling Workplace CSA.

They already have a farm-based CSA program, where shareholders can come to the farm on Maloney Lane on Thursdays to pick up their weekly share during the growing season. But as owner and fifth-generation farmer John Glebocki noted, many people do not live near the farm, so they’ve started this workplace delivery program to make their produce available to everyone.

For each workplace that signs up at least 10 people, Glebocki Farms will deliver, per person, a weekly box of 6-8 seasonal vegetables, for each of the 26 weeks of the growing season, from June 6 through Nov. 27. That works out to about $15 per week, or a total share cost of $400 for the season. Payment plan options are available.

They will be at each workplace location for an hour weekly and will also have a small market set up with additional items that can be purchased. If the shareholder is out that day, a designee can pick up the items for them. Otherwise the share will be donated to a family in need.

A typical early July share might include red Russian kale, red leaf lettuce, purple potatoes, golden beets, baby carrots, yellow zucchini, artichokes and watermelon.

An August share might include garlic, tomatoes, basil, leeks, turnips, potatoes (8-12 pound bag) and spinach. Each delivery comes with a weekly newsletter featuring tasty new recipes to try and news about the farm and workshop programs.

If an individual arranges to manage the program at their workplace, they will receive a free share.

The season kicks off in June. So far they have signed up Crystal Run Healthcare facilities, the Rockland County Department of Health and SUNY Orange.

But the program is not just for workplaces. Church groups, homeowners associations and other groups are encouraged to become members and receive the same benefits.

Shareholders will not only benefit themselves, but their communities. As Glebocki said, “Our commitment is also to our community members. For each 2013 CSA share sold, we will donate one box of produce each week (that's 26 total) to local food pantries.”

SIDEBAR: About J. Glebocki Farms:

J. Glebocki Farms, owned and operated by John Glebocki, grows a wide variety of vegetables and specialty crops for farmer's markets and specialty wholesalers in the tri-state area. They’ve been in business since 1894. Currently they provide produce to 21 farmers markets in the five boroughs of New York City.

On his website, Glebocki says, “We pride ourselves in offering responsibly grown farm fresh produce that is safe and healthy to eat. Since safe growing practices and product handling are priorities at our farm, our shoppers can be confident in the quality of the produce they purchase from J. Glebocki Farms. We are USDA GAP Food Safety Certified (Good Agricultural Practices).

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Local food movement growing ranks of younger farmers - Chicago Tribune

Prairie Crossing has various micro farmers that grow vegetables and raise goats, chickens and pigs. (Stacey Wescott, Chicago Tribune)

Nick Batchelder and his wife moved to Chicago at the start of the economic recession, hoping their years of experience in ecology and construction would land them jobs.

After months of scouring the Internet for openings and pumping their contacts for leads, it was only when the couple responded to a Craigslist ad for two farmhands on an organic vegetable farm that they found steady employment.

"All the other stuff we knew how to do weren't really hiring," Batchelder said. "We were like (we) might as well. ... It wasn't any spinning moment of clarity."

Now Batchelder and his wife, Becky Stark, both 32, are hoping the demand for local food will help them expand their own organic farming business.

For decades, the average age of farm operators has been rising, but experts say the growth of the local food movement is giving a new generation of farmers a foothold in the market.

Nonprofits, meanwhile, have offered a slew of new programs to not only support new farmers but also give Illinoisans more opportunities to buy locally grown food.

"There is growing consumer interest in local foods. People are willing to pay a premium on that," said Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs. "Young people are learning how to develop and pursue those new markets."

In high school, Curt Elmore never thought he would take over his father's corn and soybean farm in Allerton. But after his father got sick and had to retire in 2006, Elmore felt the lure of a farmer's lifestyle was calling him home.

"That thrusted me into the position of, 'You are on your own,'" Elmore said. "I had to grow up."

Elmore, 34, was the only one of his friends from college and graduate school to pursue farming as a career, he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent statistics, the average age of farmers in the United States is 57. In 1982, 16 percent of head farmers were younger than 35, but by 2007 that number had declined to 5 percent.

But behind the aging industry an even larger force is at work: the consolidation of U.S. farmland, experts say.

As universities and extension centers introduced new technology in the 20th century, farm operators were able grow more crops on larger amounts of land with fewer people. Farms had to grow in size to remain competitive in the commodity market.

"We've had fewer and fewer farms but we haven't decreased farmland," said Conner Bailey, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University in Alabama.

Some farmers sold their land to larger operations, which decreased the number of young people who could inherit a farm. Meanwhile, a farming industry with fewer players but larger territories became even more difficult to break into, experts say.

"We hear from people every day who want to get into farming or ranching," said Virginia Meyer, a rural policy organizer for the Center for Rural Affairs. "I don't think the industry is lacking interest from young people. I think it comes from the lack of opportunity to get into the industry."

Traditional obstacles to getting into farming, such as the price of land and the cost of equipment and materials, have only worsened over the years, experts say.

From 2011 to 2012, cropland values in Illinois grew 17.2 percent, from $5,800 an acre to $6,800, according to a USDA report.

And as farms have consolidated, fewer younger people have been trained in the trade. For those who don't inherit a farm from a family member, the barriers to conventional farming can be insurmountable, experts say.

"I think it would be very tough. The land prices and the initial startup equipment," Elmore said. "You would have to have quite the bankroll. ... There is a lot of money to shovel out."

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Olive Garden Promises Smaller, Cheaper Plates

Fret not, Olive Garden lovers: The "endless" breadsticks aren't going away.

An Olive Garden in Hialeah, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)But new management has big changes in store for the casual dining chain, which touts family-style Italian food and has struggled with declining sales.

The chain's president, Dave George, told investors on Tuesday the changes include creating a new logo and toning down its the "Old World Style," the Tuscan-style stonework and wooden archways that have been a signature part of Olive Garden restaurants since 2000.

"You're not going to see stainless steel showing up tomorrow in a Tuscan Farmhouse," George said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

George, who became Olive Garden's president in January, said the look would be "more relevant." Olive Garden is part of the Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants (DRI) chain that includes Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse.

(Read More: Regulations Mean Subway 'Wouldn't Exist' If Started Now, Founder Claims)

The chain also plans to make its menus more varied and affordable. Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis said that the changes are being made to be "more responsive to the financial realities of our guests," according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Among Olive Garden's changes: smaller plates, cheaper items, and lower-calorie meals. New offerings, placed on the menu in October, include a 420-calorie lasagna primavera with chicken, and a lunch calzone and sandwich combo that costs $6.95. Two weeks ago, all new uniforms were issued - a more contemporary black button-down shirt and black slacks, a shift from the wide ties and white shirts.

The overhaul comes after same-restaurant sales fell 1.2 percent in the 2012 fiscal year that ended in May. For Darden, same-restaurant sales are a year-over-year comparison of sale volumes for restaurants open the last 16 months.

"We became overly confident," read a line in George's presentation. "Our historical competitive advantage has narrowed."

"We were slow to react to changing guest needs," another slide said. "The experience takes too long."

RJ Hottovy, a senior restaurant analyst at Morningstar, said Olive Garden isn't alone. The casual dining market has become tougher in recent years, he said.

(Read More: 10 High-End, Fantasy-Themed Hotel Suites)

"The core casual dining patron finds itself in a much more difficult position than a decade ago -- that's put pressure on traffic trends," Hottovy said.

He said the rise of fast casual restaurants like Chipotle (CMG) and Panera (PNRA) has also encroached on Olive Garden's market.

Dining experience aside, Darden Restaurants said it also was hurt by reports in November that the company planned to cut employee hours to avoid paying for health insurance as mandated for large companies by the Affordable Care Act. The company has since said it would not reduce the hours of full-time workers.

"That's a theme we're seeing across the restaurant industry, not Olive Garden specifically," Hottovy said. "I think that may have been a little bit overblown ... but I think it will be something that ends up pressuring margins for a lot of restaurants next year."

(Read More: Darden Sees Lower Traffic as Consumers Pinched by Economy)

Olive Garden menus are largely the same at its 818 restaurants, although prices vary. At a restaurant outside of Seattle, a grilled chicken Caesar salad costs $11.95. At the same restaurant, a bowl of minestrone soup costs $5.95, and a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce costs $12.95. (Those previously mentioned doughy breadsticks come with every entre and are so popular that they have a Facebook page with 1.5 million "likes.")

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View the original article here

'Endless' Love? Smaller, Cheaper Plates at Olive Garden

Fret not, Olive Garden lovers: The "endless" breadsticks aren't going away.

But new management has big changes in store for the casual dining chain, which touts family-style Italian food and has struggled with declining sales.

The chain's president, Dave George, told investors on Tuesday the changes include creating a new logo and toning down its the "Old World Style," the Tuscan-style stonework and wooden archways that have been a signature part of Olive Garden restaurants since 2000.

"You're not going to see stainless steel showing up tomorrow in a Tuscan Farmhouse," George said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

George, who became Olive Garden's president in January, said the look would be "more relevant." Olive Garden is part of the Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurantschain that includes Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse.

(Read More: Darden Sees Lower Traffic as Consumers Pinched by Economy)

The chain also plans to make its menus more varied and affordable. Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis said that the changes are being made to be "more responsive to the financial realities of our guests," according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Among Olive Garden's changes: smaller plates, cheaper items, and lower-calorie meals. New offerings, placed on the menu in October, include a 420-calorie lasagna primavera with chicken, and a lunch calzone and sandwich combo that costs $6.95. Two weeks ago, all new uniforms were issued — a more contemporary black button-down shirt and black slacks, a shift from the wide ties and white shirts.

The overhaul comes after same-restaurant sales fell 1.2 percent in the 2012 fiscal year that ended in May. For Darden, same-restaurant sales are a year-over-year comparison of sale volumes for restaurants open the last 16 months.

"We became overly confident," read a line in George's presentation. "Our historical competitive advantage has narrowed."

"We were slow to react to changing guest needs," another slide said. "The experience takes too long."

RJ Hottovy, a senior restaurant analyst at Morningstar, said Olive Garden isn't alone. The casual dining market has become tougher in recent years, he said.

(Read More: Subway 'Wouldn't Exist' If Started Today Due to Regulations — Founder Deluca)

"The core casual dining patron finds itself in a much more difficult position than a decade ago -- that's put pressure on traffic trends," Hottovy said.

He said the rise of fast casual restaurants like Chipotle and Panera has also encroached on Olive Garden's market.

Dining experience aside, Darden Restaurants said it also was hurt by reports in November that the company planned to cut employee hours to avoid paying for health insurance as mandated for large companies by the Affordable Care Act. The company has since said it would not reduce the hours of full-time workers.

"That's a theme we're seeing across the restaurant industry, not Olive Garden specifically," Hottovy said. "I think that may have been a little bit overblown ... but I think it will be something that ends up pressuring margins for a lot of restaurants next year."

Olive Garden menus are largely the same at its 818 restaurants, although prices vary. At a restaurant outside of Seattle, a grilled chicken Caesar salad costs $11.95. At the same restaurant, a bowl of minestrone soup costs $5.95, and a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce costs $12.95. (Those previously mentioned doughy breadsticks come with every entre and are so popular that they have a Facebook page with 1.5 million "likes.")

View the original article here

Nature's gift to the garden

Want to know the secret to lush plants and fertile soil without forking out money on garden improvers?

The answer is worms, according to The Worm Shed's Kevin Smith, who has been in the worm business for nearly 30 years.

Mr Smith said worm farms were a great way to recycle food, garden and pet waste while creating nutrient-packed fertiliser gardens loved. He said worms could be housed in anything from a foam or plastic box to an old fridge turned on its side or in the many commercial worm farms on the market.

"A worm farm basically means keeping worms in a controlled environment in the shade and with good drainage," he said.

"Some people use sheep poo or cow poo on their garden but worm poo - also called castings - really is the best there is as it is the most natural fertiliser or soil conditioner you can get."

Mr Smith said that while it could take six to eight weeks from setting up a worm farm to reach the castings stage, it was the liquid a properly set up farm produced daily which was the real boon for the garden.

He said liquid castings, which he bottled and sold as Worm Wiz, was basically the leachate or concentrated form of plant nutrients drawn out of the bottom of the worm farm.

"So instead of using Seasol or fish emulsion, you use Worm Wiz in your garden," he said. "It has no smell and we actually soak our seedlings in it for three-to-four days and then plant them out - it really is a good plant tonic."

Stephen Williamson, managing director of Worm Affair, said it was vital to keep worm farms in a cool, shady spot where they were not exposed to the sun.

"That's the difference between worm composting and worm farming - a worm farm is cool and moist and kept in a shady spot, while a compost bin is kept in the sun to get it as hot as you can while keeping it moist and aerated and then it cooks," he said.

Mr Williamson said liquid fertiliser and castings were pH neutral, so they would not burn plants, and as little as a teaspoon of the liquid would have an effect on a plant. He said it was best to add the liquid to a plant after it had been planted and watered in, while castings could be scattered around the base of the plant.

"It's best to dilute it down by at least half and then you can put it on to your pot plants, your rose bushes, your vegetables, whatever you want," he said.

Mr Williamson said the best worms for farms were red worms, tiger worms and Indian blue worms, and that if food was decaying faster than the worms could eat, they were being overfed and the worm farm would start to smell and attract vinegar flies.

TIP: It is better to buy worms by weight rather than number as it is easier to work out how much to feed them.

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Major makeover for Olive Garden

Remember when you were "family" as soon as you walked into an Olive Garden? Remember when the restaurants' exterior and interior were laden with every bit of faux-Italian kitsch under the Tuscan sun? Yeah, that's over.

Welcome to The O.G. In an attempt to turn around the flagging performance of its Olive Garden chain, parent company Darden International (DRI) is tearing down the stone-and-wood archways that have been in place since 2000 and sprucing up the logo.

After installing new Olive Garden President Dave George in January, cutting quarterly expectations for both its Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains and suggesting to The Associated Press that fewer Olive Gardens will open in the next year, a struggling Darden is getting ready to gut its Italian dining cornerstone down to the bottlomless breadsticks. The chain is promising to vary its menu, lower its prices and make it healthier and more "relevant." Unfortunately, it has done all this before with limited effects.

Back in October, Olive Garden introduced 600-calorie menu items and swapped its "When You're Here, Your Family Slogan" for the peppier "Go Olive Garden." The result? Olive Garden sales fell 1.2% for all of 2012. Now the chain is swapping the staff's white shirts and wide ties for the same black button-down shirt and black slacks customers see at just about every other casual-dining chain.

Extracting what remains of Olive Garden's personality may not solve the chain's personality crisis. Since Olive Garden's heyday in the early 2000s, fast-casual chains like Chipotle (CMG) and Panera (PNRA) have been chipping away at its customer base. NPD Group says casual-dining sales in general have been dropping steadily since early 2010 as diners 18 to 47 years old flee in droves. Unsustainable price specials like 2-for-$20 meal deals have eroded casual-dining's value.

While diners are spending 5.5% more at casual-dining chains that offer healthier options, they're spending a lot less at places like Olive Garden overall. Darden has repeatedly placed the blame for woes at Olive Garden and its other chains on Obamacare, payroll taxes and just about everything besides its food and prices. It's just dressing its old problems in some new clothing.

So, farewell fake Tuscan farmhouse and funny waiter ties. The American dining public that's slowly ditching Olive Garden for fast-casual and specialty chains like Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) eagerly awaits the staid, stainless steel specials factory that's coming next.

More on moneyNOW

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Epcot set to bloom for Flower & Garden Festival

2012 Epcot Flower Fest
One of the fan-favorite topiaries, on display for the 2012 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, Friday, March 3, 2012, at the park at Walt Disney World. (JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival returns for its 20th run on Wednesday. Some elements, including several topiaries and the floating gardens, already are in place at the theme park. There are new twists this year, including 12 marketplaces serving distinctive food and drink plus, for the first time, most of the gardens will be illuminated for night viewing.

We'll have loads of details in next Friday's Calendar section, but in the meantime here are a few of the Flower & Garden attractions in place and a heads-up on future sights.

•When you see the Captain Hook topiary in the United Kingdom pavilion, look up for a new perspective on Peter Pan.

•A garden tied to Disney film "Oz the Great and Powerful," opening March 8, includes a few carnival games, pansies (and colored turf) that form the yellow-brick road, a slew of playground equipment and a shade-providing tent made from a downed hot-air balloon. Nearby: glass poppies.

•It's easy to spot topiaries of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Germany, dancing princesses near France, a troll in Norway, and Lady and the Tramp in Italy. Coming soon: a Sully (touting "Monsters University" movie, which premieres June 21) that's more than 11 feet tall and weighs about 2 tons.

•The front flower bed is installed in the wee hours before the festival begins. Expect a backyard-cookout theme with Mickey Mouse grilling up hot dogs, Donald and Daisy in a badminton match and Goofy perilously balancing a giant cake marking the fest's 20th year.

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Grass-roots efforts in downtown Concord to transform vacant lot to productive garden

CONCORD -- In a literal expression of "grass roots," Oakland Avenue neighbors are pulling up weeds and improving first impressions of Concord. They joined together to transform an unsightly vacant lot facing the Concord BART station into a fresh food garden.

August Wagele and his neighbors started clearing debris and building fences for the Harvest Lot garden last Saturday, but the project officially kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 2.

The Harvest Lot mission is to produce healthy food for the hungry in this area, demonstrate sustainability and beautify their neighborhood.

"It is hard work, but it is great being out there in the fresh air," Wagele says. "It will be even better when there is produce to load up and hand out to people who will eat it."

Weeds, vagrants, trash, campfires and even "occupiers" with signs have littered the lot for years. Real estate agent for the investor-owned 50x150-foot lot tried to secure the property while police kept an eye on it, according to Realtor Chad Elkin of Chad Mitchell Associates.

Still, neighbors watched and worried about security.

"I was passing by on my way home last summer when I realized that the whole neighborhood was dragged down by blight and nuisances. I decided to do something about it," Wagele recalls. "I had been thinking about sustainability and the idea for transforming the eyesore property into a productive resource."

Wagele turned that thought into the

nonprofit Harvest Lot and started recruiting neighbors and negotiating for permission to clean up the lot and plant food.

"I think the garden is a good idea because it will improve the neighborhood, and it could improve property values," Elkin says.

When volunteers Sheila Hill and Brent Nelson joined the Harvest Lot garden board of directors and a two-year lease on the property was signed, Wagele's enthusiasm soared. He went to work on a garden plan and Meet Up connection for communicating with volunteers and posting planting schedules.

"Sheila has extensive experience with the garden at Eagle Peak School in Walnut Creek and we have a Master Gardener coming in," he says.

Nelson says he is glad to be a part of the project.

"It's a great concept ... through education and providing free food, we can help educate people on the benefits and importance of making more health-conscious eating decisions."

Volunteers call it an agricultural restoration.

"Cathy Munneke, at the Concord Department of Economic and Community Development, told me about Concord's agricultural history. This undeveloped lot is a remnant of that history," Wagele says.

"If we can make this work, it can become a model for other neighborhoods," he says. "Vacant lots that are part of the neighborhood, it is a way to bond with the community. Neighbors will watch over it and be able to help others in our community."

The group plans to produce a manual to guide others who can use the Harvest Lot as a template for improving a vacant lot in their own neighborhood.

Harvest Lot produce is destined for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County, the Monument Crisis Center, SHARE on Willow Pass Road, and other local food pantries.

"Hopefully, we will create a more healthy community, to benefit the community as a whole," Nelson says.

Wagele believes their project reflects a larger contemporary movement.

"I think our society has drifted so far away from our history that people want to connect with the earth. So many people have their own chickens, are growing their own food."

The growth of the organic food industry and the popularity of farmers markets, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are evidence of the trend, according to Wagele.

Other signs include efforts such as the Mt. Diablo Unified School District's Iron Chef competition emphasizing nutrition and flavor, Vicente Martinez High School's New Leaf program, Sustainable Danville's garden, and the recent Earth Island Institute application to lease Central Contra Costa Sanitary District land for a sustainable farm.

"Then there is the economy," Wagele says. "People may be thinking that life got a little too easy. Technology, fast food, microwave and dehydrated food; what about the link to rising rates of childhood obesity and diabetes?"

Some have already stepped up to help the garden project. A horse owner brought a load of manure for composting, Ashby Lumber donated some of the wood for fences, and Home Depot gave Harvest Lot a 25 percent discount on other materials.

"We will be reaching out to local individuals, businesses and foundations for financial support and we will have a sponsor plaque at the front of the garden recognizing those in the community who help or contribute to the garden," Wagele says.

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