As a soil biologist and agent for UF/IFAS Extension Nassau County, David Hébert teaches everything from selecting compostable food items to identifying microorganisms. Most recently, he’s done so from within a bustling Fernandina Beach shopping center.
Hébert’s affiliation with Amelia Plaza began in 2023, when Matt Klabacka contacted the Extension office and requested a visit to the garden he had established within the plaza. The garden is adjacent to Klabacka’s restaurant, Townies Pizzeria, and he uses the produce he grows as ingredients in the food he serves.
Hébert surveyed the neat rows of vegetables and herbs.
“There was a space available for composting that he wasn’t doing anything with. It was under a shaded canopy, which is a good site for composting,” Hébert said. “My vision for that area was to have different composting stations and use that soil in the garden.”
And so began a partnership between Hébert, Klabacka, and, eventually, the Winn-Dixie across the parking lot. Since early 2023, the two men have collected more than 1,000 pounds of expired food donated by the grocery store and transformed it into several tons of compost for the garden by adding wood chips donated by the Northeast Florida Fair Association.
To date, about 200 gardening enthusiasts have enrolled in a Townies composting workshop. Some have driven from Georgia to attend.
Workshops cost $5-10 and normally include pizza from the restaurant. Perched atop five-gallon buckets, they gather around Hébert as he progresses through five modules: food scraps; identification of “brown” and “green” composting sources; pile creation; pile maintenance; and microscopy.
“Microscopy has been a really big hit,” Hébert said. “We set up an outdoor TV, plug the TV into a microscope, and then we show the participants the different types of soil biology like nematodes, protozoa, fungi and bacteria.”
Typically, participants leave the workshops with freebies like composting buckets or red wiggler worms, which assist with the composting process.
“Participants always have a great time,” Hébert said. “When they fill out our surveys afterward, they almost always indicate they gained confidence in their ability to compost.”
Hébert’s next composting information session is a classroom lecture July 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at UF/IFAS Extension Nassau County, 85831 Miner Road, Yulee. The next Townies Pizzeria workshop is scheduled for Oct. 5 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the garden adjacent to the restaurant, 819 T.J. Courson Road, Fernandina Beach. Learn more and register by visiting sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/nassau and towniespizzeria.com/garden.
ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.