We follow a group of young gardeners who are traveling the country in a retro-fitted school bus powered on nothing but waste vegetable oil and their own enthusiasm. With a traveling greenhouse, green roof and lots of seeds, they hope to teach edible gardening with sustainable practices in cities and towns across America.
This episode originally aired as Episode 325. Read the full show notes for additional information from this episode at: https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode325/
More Season 3 Episodes – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwY8ORPCFuqqHhO_edy62vUWbIDBw-r8I
Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy™ for Joe’s growing library of organic gardening courses -https://organicgardeningacademy.com
The Vegetable Gardening Book by Joe Lamp’l: Your complete guide to growing an edible organic garden from seed to harvest available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle!
https://amzn.to/4aMkjcO
Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements – www.joegardener.com/subscribe
I’m Joe lample when I created Growing a
Greener World I had one goal to tell
stories of Everyday People innovators
entrepreneurs forward-thinking leaders
who are all in ways both big and small
dedicated to organic gardening and
farming lightening our footprint
conserving vital resources prot
protecting natural habitats making a
tangible difference for us all they’re
real they’re passionate they’re all
around us they’re the game changers who
are literally Growing a Greener World
and inspiring the rest of us to do the
same Growing a Greener World it’s more
than a movement it’s our
[Music]
mission
we love to hear those cool stories about
young people making a difference in the
world and that’s why today’s story
really struck a chord with us we learned
about this mobile farm that was going to
travel the country as a retrofitted
school bus complete with a greenhouse
rain collection system composting system
solar panels and a living space and
would even run on waste vegetable oil
even more amazing was that the idea for
this traveling bus was dreamed up by
four middle schoolers in Durham North
Carolina later as the kids grew into
young adults their idea grew with them
and today this bus idea has become a
reality and the friend’s mission is to
teach Urban dwellers how to grow their
own food use alternative energies and
live more
sustainably meet Eliza borley Reed
Roseman Dylan Hammond and Ellen Duda
while making final preparations for
their six-month Journey we caught up
with the soul food team in their
hometown of Durham North Carolina
several weeks before hitting the road
although we knew we’d be joining them
periodically throughout the trip to
check in and document their progress we
also knew so much would be happening
that we weren’t there to see so we
equipped the team with a video camera to
capture life on the road even when our
team wasn’t
there so we’ve known each other for
close to 12 years now um all of us went
to school together for sixth grade
through uh senior year at a local high
school down here and uh we graduated in
2007 we went our separate ways uh but
all kind of studied the same idea and we
in the same mindset when we came back to
Durham and we’ve formed this nonprofit
since uh with a lot of G gung-ho
attitude from all three of us and also
our fourth member who’s not here today
she is currently finishing up her last
year of school she’s a an integral part
of our team we have known each other for
quite a quite a time and we work well
together as a
[Music]
team I would say that our interest in
the service aspect of our project is
gardening and we’re all Avid gardeners
and have become gardeners over the years
um and so the thought of a service trip
the first thing that came to mind
collectively was yeah we’re going to
we’re going to help people grow food and
U hope to serve communities in their
backyards by uh providing an opportunity
to grow fresh
vegetables in high school we all had
this environmental mindset we were very
Outdoors oriented group of friends um
but as we went separate ways for higher
education we all kind of fell into the
same uh I would call it a national
movement of Youth but um maybe it’s just
where we went to school um but we fell
into the same you know organic green
environmentalism but it’s the way that
we feel about the way that we want this
the country to grow um as young adults
now with that varied background coming
from different places in the country
with different experiences in gardening
Community gardening how you know youth
involvement in gardening can really you
know at the base level change things on
national scale we all had that idea kind
of seated
somewhere our main goal is to build as
many Gardens as we possibly can along
our way um and connect with as many
people who are interested in gardening
and Agriculture and nutrition um and
Outdoor Living as
possible I think one thing that we can
bring to each site that we visit is just
a unique understanding of building in an
urban setting um and there’s a lot of
people around the country that are
working in urban spaces um but the fact
that we’re living on a bus that’s such a
small environment and we’re growing our
own food and we’re operating in a
sustainable way makes us good candidates
just to come into a small garden spot
makes us good candidates to come into an
abandon lot or a parking area or
anything that has a small you know
square footage that we can come in and
say Hey you know this is barely bigger
than a bus and on the bus we’re growing
all these different things and we have
all these sustainable methods of living
um we would love to share whatever we
can of those things with you guys and um
we’re talking about trying to find
spaces that are shovel ready projects um
so areas that are already showing an
interest in those types of things and
maybe have a group of kids that are
already interested in those types of
things but that we can come in and
really you know kind of stir the pot and
get people
[Music]
excited one of the unique parts of this
program is to connect each of the team
sites across the country through their
mobile Greenhouse by transporting and
nurturing seedlings started at a
previous destination students at Future
Workshop locations will plant those and
start new seedlings for the next stop to
Foster even a greater connectedness the
seedlings will be accompanied with
pictures of those who planted them
drawings and maybe even some letters
this Gardener to Garder connection will
serve as a strong visual reminder that
other people had started a garden for
them there’s so many huge problems right
now that people are trying to address in
the Environmental movement as we’re
calling it um that are enormous and that
are going to take generations to figure
out um and I think our generation in
particular are burdened with a lot of
those those issues and gardening is such
an easy and simple way to reach a mass
amount of people and to provide a quick
and affordable solution to Growing your
own food having healthy foods for your
family and you know doing a benefit to
that local environment at the same time
so um it’s just a it’s a duty that I I
think I need to take G and that we have
decided to take
[Music]
on in the ensuing weeks final tweaks
were made and the Soul Food bus was
finally ready to hit the road towards
their first of many stops along this
ambitious
Journey we finished a lot of projects
before we hit the road we put in a home
office we finished our living space we
put in our Greenhouse we installed a
living green roof we installed solar
panels we have worm composting and we
have a rain catchment
[Music]
system so Dylan are you the primary
driver on the bus here well we’ll all
take turns driving but um in terms of
the mechanics of the bus I I I bring a
little bit more to the table and uh and
can contribute a little bit more
information so what about this veggie
power sign here what does that mean all
right so we’re going 8,000 miles
approximately on our trip um and if we
get something around 8 to 10 mil to the
gallon on diesel fuel um and if you add
that up it’s going to be pretty pricey
so um we opted for um reuse cutting off
a waist stream that is in normal um
industrial process uh so we’re
essentially running this bus for the
majority of our time off of waste
vegetable oil which is oil that comes
out of the fryer at your local Chinese
food store or or um you know McDonald’s
so when you make your way around the
country and you stop in to eat something
you just walk out you pay the bill and
grab some vegetable oil on the way it’s
not not quite that simple but um they
most of these fast food restaurants um
Chinese restaurants um any anywhere that
has a fryer they’ll put their waste
vegetable oil or waste fry grease in a
in a grease trap behind their restaurant
um and it’s pretty nasty stuff I mean
you know we’ve got a bunch of it on
board here uh but we we have to filter
it take the water out of it and heat it
up and then we just switch over from
diesel to vegetable oil and uh roll down
the road and then when we’re ready to
shut down we just turn it back off clean
our system out with diesel and
uh hopefully we can get further on a
little bit less of a dollar absolutely
and do something good for the
environment too
exactly
SoJO what do you think hey it’s awesome
this is so great cozy six months of this
huh you were so lucky yeah it’s going to
be really cozy when we get a mattress
don’t worry a a awesome much better so
like one of these for everybody we four
in total everybody will have their own
bed be great yeah yeah air conditioning
yeah uh no air conditioning you know
we’ve got windows so we’ll be driving
pretty quickly get some flow right but
you got heat surely you have heat we’ll
have a wood burning stove it’ll be cozy
excellent okay good just get used to it
yeah good luck thank
you the trip has started and our first
stop is the Long Branch Environmental
Center where we’re going to learn from
Paul gallamore about permaculture
Orchards and berries
[Music]
bushes okay guys so it’s the first
official stop since we last met with you
and you guys are now on your Cross
Country tour officially y yep what that
all about what’s that we’ve been having
a good time it’s a little nerve-wracking
being in the mountains with the bus
going up and down the steep hills but
otherwise it’s been a great trip so
[Music]
far
this is our first official stop on our
tour throughout the country but it’s not
our first accomplishment before we left
town um Durham our hometown we partnered
with our Alma Moder and we formed the
DSA urban farm club we planted a raised
bed garden eight beds and had planted
the first crop with the students there
um and they also planted our first
seedlings in our Greenhouse that we’re
taking around the country so it was a
great success for us and the students
and it really kind of helps solidify um
how our our program is going to run with
the Workshops the 5-day 7-Day 10day
workshops that we’ll be building Gardens
and cities around the country and it was
kind of started us off on the right
foot so a lot of changes have happened
been working diligently in the
greenhouse to make sure all our plants
are looking happy and
healthy we’ve got uh new solar panels on
the roof a brand new battery bank that
stores 10 hours of continuous energy for
the interior we’ve got our office system
set up
and what else have we got all kinds of
things that just make living on the bus
more organized would be my favorite
edition um the bookshelf the office our
kitchen area things like that actual
mattresses on the bunk oh that’s a good
one closets uh in our bedroom to store
all of our stuff um yeah it’s a living
farm at this point it’s no longer just
wood nailed to
some some
metal so have you had any memorable
moments yet going down the road anybody
honking or waving or anything fun we had
some excitement leaving a gas station um
we had a small divot pothole kind of
leav in their parking lot and had some
Tomatoes take flight out of the
greenhouse but they went back on board
and soil was cleaned up and it was fine
otherwise we’ve been pretty good for the
most part people just honk wave gawk
stare any one of those
things so today we’re in Detroit and
we’re heading over to the Earthworks
Community Farm to help them plant
potatoes and build new beds and apply
composts well into their Journey the
mobile Farm has Faithfully taken the
team about as far away from home as they
can get and still remain in the
continental United States as they
continue to spread their message to
hundreds of people over thousands of
miles they’ve finally reached the
halfway
point so we’re in Seattle today we just
got here and we’re working with a group
called lettuce links um Community
Harvest day and we will be working in
the Seattle y for about a
week
[Music]
all right this is our Greenhouse uh
where we grow all of our vegetable
starts for ourselves and also for the
gardens and Farms that we’re working
with um the greenhouse is constructed
out of recycled materials like the rest
of the bus the ceiling is plexiglass
that we set in uh after we cut out the
old sheet metal all the shelves are made
out of pallets and old Salvage Lumber so
it’s modular and can be reconfigured and
designed if need be um the the
greenhouse is split up in function in
two sides so this side we’re growing for
ourselves a lot of culinary and
medicinal herbs and also vegetables that
we eat along the way to supplement our
diet and on this side of the greenhouse
we have all of our sprouts and starts
that we’re continually uh sprouting
along the way for the farms and gardens
that we’re working with as plants to
donate at any given time so we have them
successively planted so that uh we’re
never running short on on starts and
also we can uh donate a wide variety of
different plants to uh to the Farms that
we’re working with and so we irrigate
this greenhouse using uh our rain
collection system collecting water off
the roof and we pipe it up under the bus
and comes out here in the floor
with 3 months now logged on the road
team soul food mobile Farm has finally
reached their halfway point to dat they
log close to 5,000 miles while traveling
up the Northeast Coast and across the
Midwest stopping at many cities along
the way including their current
destination of Seattle Washington in the
process they’ve helped build some
amazing new Community Gardens improv
conditions of existing ones and provided
assistance to Gardens in need of some
Innovative smallscale gardening
Technologies to upfit their current
operation it’s really been a wonderful
trip so far um met so many good people
unexpectedly I mean we knew there were
going to be good people out there but
every single place we’ve gone um you
know it can be a rough part of the city
it could be wherever but it’s always
good people and and um good High Spirits
whenever it’s focused around growing
food it’s it’s a great
time we’ve had a lot of challenges on
this trip um some of them have been very
unexpected such as uh an accidental
veggie oil spill in a parking lot that
we all had to scramble to clean up for 3
hours um so mechanical things have been
unexpected but I think for me one of the
most unexpected challenges has been how
hard it is to live in such Close
Quarters with three other people no
matter how much you love them or how
well you know them um it’s difficult to
not have a lot of personal space um so I
think that’s probably been one of the
hardest things for me how to still have
your own personal space but still be
around three other people in a small
[Music]
box the Highlight for me I think would
have to be our time in Detroit um hands
down we met some of the most wonderful
people I’ve ever met on on any sort of
trip and the closeness and the things we
learned just in the time that we were
there was incredible yeah so many things
have surprised me on this trip and I
think more than anything how tired we
are all the time has been the most
surprising just because we’re doing so
many things on any given day meeting so
many different people traveling so many
miles in any amount of time that it’s a
wonderful tired but just like a deep
exhaustion just from doing so much great
stuff um with different
groups the reaction to the bus has
definitely been varied um on the surface
when we’re driving down the road or in a
busy City Center uh we get a lot of
double takes and a lot of you know
strange looks and then also a lot of
really excited looks and um you know a
lot of people pulling out their fancy
phones to take pictures of us as we’re
driving by so um that’s been really cool
and our our reaction to their reaction
has also been really fun too cuz it’s uh
it still hasn’t gotten old to be seeing
all the crazy faces that you know
especially with our tinted windows not
to be creepy but we get to see people
without them seeing us and their total
sheer curiosity about what’s going on
with the bus and the reaction to the
groups that we’ve been working with has
been super positive uh I’ve actually
been totally Blown Away with the
kindness just uh unconditional kindness
of people all around the country and uh
and just sheer excitement for our
project and then also excited that we’re
excited about what they’re excited about
and uh just gardening and um growing and
and everyone’s happy and so it’s been
really awesome so far we have a lot of
plans for the end of the trip and I
think a lot of it has to do with our
energy to keep going with a similar
project but also wanting to have roots
in the Durham Raleigh area when we get
home um so I think a lot of it depends
on funding and a lot of it depends on
enthusiasm for our project but um we’ve
talked about starting a fleet of
different buses we’ve talked about
continuing on another route and doing a
different trip um all kinds of all kinds
of
stuff at the end of this trip um the
first thing we’re probably going to be
thinking about is Christmas dinner um
and family but uh that’s just from being
on the road for 6 months in terms of the
organization
we’re probably going to look to expand
um and consolidate all of the
information that we’ve gained in 6
months into some kind of uh culmination
of knowledge and do some work in Durham
in North Carolina for a little while
until we can decide what the national
kind of campaign for soul food’s going
to be uh in the
future
[Music]
[Music]
now at this moment the soul food mobile
Farm is still thousands of miles from
home but thanks to the drive and
dedication of these Urban farming Road
Warriors their message of growing their
own food and living more sustainably is
being heard loud and clear wherever they
go now if you’d like to find out about
the rest of their Journey or learn more
about the soul food mobile Farm we have
that information on our website along
with all of our past episodes and Chef
Nathan’s recipes and videos too and the
address it’s the same as our show name
it’s growingagreenerworld.com I’m Joe
lample thanks for joining us and we’ll
see you back here next time for more
Growing a Greener
[Music]
World
[Music]
[Music]
I
[Music]