Abby's Organic Community Farm

03/04/2025

A VERY, VERY UNIQUE FARM INDEED!

Abby’s Farm, unapologetically is not like any farm in this area or in fact any farm I’ve visited, heard of or read about……that’s a fact!
You see, our farm in many ways reflects the stubbornly unique, different and idealistic persona of our benefactor Abby Sayler. I am fond of saying she was a hippie from the sixties that grew up bucking the system and rejecting the social norms of the day. That’s why she was so steely eyed about the importance of health and its relationship to what we eat often reminding us that “food is our medicine”!
Having said all that, here are distinctions that make us unique:

Abby’s Farm doesn’t sell anything…….all of the over 40k lbs of food grown annually is shared by our 100+ volunteer families.
Many community farms operate as a CSA or Co-op and sell subscriptions (or boxes) of food monthly to members. Often the farm is simply purchasing the produce for resale.

Abby’s volunteer families are required to spend 3-5 hours a week (over a couple of days) working, sweating, digging, planting with other likeminded families to grow their own food and help grow in community food that we all share.
Community farms are generally set up for you to simply “rent” a raised bed or growing area and you are on your own to succeed or fail. Gardening in Florida is tricky and best accomplished with community and collaboration.

Abby’s Farm is 3 acres, with over 100 raised beds, 10 row farm growing areas, over 140 fruit trees (and Moringa, neem, sugarcane), our own bee colonies, forty organic laying chickens, an open greenhouse growing areas, education/events area, farmhouse, all of which produce over 40,000 lbs of food for our farm family.
The typical community garden offering is 1/4 acre or less, with raised beds offered to 10-20 families.

Our abundance of wonderful volunteer families and food we produce enables us to have outreaches to our broader community with programs like Abby’s Helping Hands, a program to help families in need…..and Abby’s Healing Soup, a program to serve fresh healthy soup to individuals undergoing a health emergency.

We are different……on purpose. It’s exactly the way Abby would have wanted it and because of that we have attracted families from all over the world. Our current members include families representing about 18:different countries. The community achieved with such a diverse group is truly a marvel to experience and be a part of.

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02/20/2025

Can Gardening Save Your Life?

In 2015 I wrote an article for the magazine entitled “Abby’s Farm…..a heart healthy hobby”. The article was primarily a clinical look at all of the specific cardiovascular health benefits associated with the rigors of being outside and doing farm work. That certainly hasn’t changed but what we’ve learned in our ten years from experience and the experience of our many volunteers, is there is way more to it than that. We now know that the health benefits include not only the physical aspect, but also the mind (mental health), emotional well being and our spiritual life. Below is an article by Todd Heft that includes studies that were conducted regarding the health benefits of gardening. This is wonderful information if you’re considering gardening versus the more traditional thoughts about exercise.

Can Gardening Save Your Life?
BBOG Big Blog of Gardening

By Todd Heft

A group of scientists in Japan and the U.K. conducted a meta-analysis of studies on the health benefits of gardening to see if there was any validity to the benefits gardeners report. Their paper, Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis, concluded that there is a wide range of benefits from gardening.

Study results demonstrate gardening’s positive impact on physical and mental health

Even short-time (several hours) exercise in gardens can provide an immediate beneficial influence on mental health through reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms. It is unknown how long these positive outcomes last after gardening.
12 studies focused on horticultural therapy and investigated changes in people’s health over several weeks or months. One study showed that improvement of patients’ depression severity, life satisfaction, and cognitive function persisted at 3-months’ follow up after the therapy, indicating that gardening has a lasting influence on health.
7 studies focused on daily gardening and found that participants had better health than non-gardeners, such as reductions in stress and BMI, as well as increases in general health and life satisfaction.
There was no significant difference in the characteristics or socio-economic status of gardeners and non-gardeners.
Repeated short-term exercise in gardens has a cumulative effect on health.
Given the robust evidence, the authors concluded that gardening has both immediate and long-term effects on health:

With an increasing demand for reduction of health care costs worldwide, our findings have important policy implications. The results presented here suggest that gardening can improve physical, psychological, and social health, which can, from a long-term perspective, alleviate and prevent various health issues facing today’s society. We therefore suggest that government and health organizations should consider gardening as a beneficial health intervention and encourage people to participate in regular exercise in gardens.

Policy makers need to increase people’s opportunity and motivation to engage with gardening activities. The former requires enough spaces where people can enjoy gardening, and the latter needs the various advantages of gardening to be made apparent to a broad audience. Because gardens are accessible spaces for all kinds of people, including children, elderly people, and those with a disability, and relatively easily and quickly implemented in urban areas as a “land-sharing” strategy, we believe that such actions and policies would at the same time contribute greatly to redressing health inequalities.
Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis
This is remarkable scientific evidence of something we gardeners have known all along.

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01/11/2025

Children………….the future right in front of us. We get to decide what’s important to them and as a result what will be important to them as adults. Spending time outdoors; enjoying and appreciating everything nature has to offer and being aware of our incredible personal responsibilities related to our precious environment………..that’s something worth celebrating and being a part of! Our students are from individual families, homeschool groups, classes from different schools around the area, civic groups, church groups, etc.

Abby’s Farm is proud to serve over 1,200 students each year for Field Trips, Nature Labs and Honeybee Experiences. All of our education experiences are age specific, with all of the details for signing up on our website abbysfarm.org under “experiences”. Our spring schedule is filling up fast, so please reserve your spot today!

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12/25/2024

Merry Christmas from our farm family to you! Thank you for following us on facebook and many of you, thank you for supporting us financially. As a qualified 501(c)3 we exist because of the generosity and support of our loyal community😎. Every year we eclipse our previous related to families and students served. It’s our great honor to serve this community and make our benefactor Abby Sayler proud of what we are doing.
If you would like to support this important and noble work in your community, please go to abbysfarm.org to donate online.

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12/07/2024

WHAT ARE YOU RAISING; WHAT DO YOU GROW; WHAT DOES THE FARM PRODUCE? We are asked those questions constantly but the real answers are a little more complex that you might think.🤔 up
Part of our mission is raising awareness regarding the huge health benefits of eating fresh, healthy, organic food …….that you helped raise with your own two dirty hands😎! Another critical element of our mission is raising awareness for our volunteer families and visitors (field trips, nature labs, bee experiences) regarding our responsibility to nature and our environment by being good stewards. Organic practices are actually good for the soil and the water tables beneath, along with total respect for our farm biome and all living things that interact with our growing.
Speaking of which, we are proud to come along side parents and teachers to help grow……..conscientious, respectful, resourceful and environmentally responsible young people…….the next generation has always been a priority with every decision we make at the farm.
Yes, finally we do in fact produce food and a lot of it. Most fruits and vegetables you can name……..we grow, have tried to grow or have plans to grow. We currently produce about 40,000lbs (just vegetables) a year! However, we take equal pride in producing and promoting good mental, emotional and physical health in our volunteer families. Our volunteers are regularly reminding me that “the farm saved my life”, “the farm is a little piece of heaven”, “it’s my happy place” and “when I go over the railroad tracks…..it’s like I’m in another world”!
The experience is unique and different for everyone, but the consensus is that we have created something really special at our lovely little farm in Lutz.

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11/28/2024

Wishing all of our farm families, followers and supporters the Happiest of Thanksgivings! So much to be grateful for and thankful for this year. We are also prayerful for everyone affected adversely by the recent storms and praying you can enjoy these holidays with your loved ones in peace and health.

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11/19/2024

11/15/2024

11/12/2024

DID YOU KNOW?
At its peak in 1943, over two-thirds of U.S. households planted fruit and vegetable gardens, producing over 80 billion pounds of food, or 40% of the fresh produce eaten by U.S. residents that year.

11/12/2024

Doesn’t have to be that way!

11/09/2024

Think about it! Our little farm in Lutz grows roughly 40,000 lbs of food feeding our 100+ volunteer families! While having a blast, getting dirty, working hard and making lifelong friends!

11/01/2024

FOMO………(fear of missing out😎). Hey we’ve all been there! We see other families doing stuff really fun and healthy for their families and think……..I need to do that. Abby’s Farm is the epicenter of fun, health and adventure for folks simply trying to do better for themselves and their precious little ones. Equally important, we are doing our part in protecting our environment and preserving our natural resources. Many families that join say “my parents did this or my grandparents did this and I’d like to get back to my roots”!
Our society has moved away from this important tradition of being outdoors; growing your own healthy organic food; and making lifelong memories doing something meaningful with our kids.
The farm is currently at capacity with over 100 volunteer families! Please go to abbysfarm.org and complete the two page volunteer application and send to [email protected] and you will be on the waitlist for our spring gardens. No more FOMO!

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10/27/2024

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY WITH OUR FALL/WINTER GARDENS! It’s a little known fact that the fall/winter gardens in Florida are by far the BEST! Overwhelmingly, people that visit or join the farm have never heard that. Primarily because this is not true for virtually every other state other than California. In Florida, we enjoy our longest growing season at this time, coupled with the fact that most veggies we love………love the weather. Generally when I start my garden in October, I’m eating from my garden from late October through February. Most years I’m pulling out producing plants in February to prepare for spring 😎. In fact, our winters are typically so mild, several varieties can stay in my garden from one season to the next still producing beautiful organic food like: kale, Swiss chard, collards, eggplant and some varieties of tomatoes.
Many of our families and neighbors have been adversely affected by the recent storms and it’s been heartwarming to see the outpouring of love and support to our community. While the farm suffered damage, we were largely spared the destruction we’ve heard about and seen in so many communities. Our farm family has rallied and are now busy putting in our precious winter gardens and being reminded that “for everything there is a season”.

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10/19/2024

Wow, what an incredible couple weeks! The farm withstood the storm(s) barely! While our hearts go out to all those affected by recent hurricanes, we know like all things…..this too will pass😎. Our farm family (100+ volunteer families) have been busy clearing out and rebuilding our lovely farm. Honestly, all things considered we were extremely fortunate. We had flooding in some growing areas and lost a huge (100+ yr old) oak that fell on farmhouse. Miraculously the trees huge branches dug into the ground and kept it from crushing our iconic landmark Lutz farmhouse. So…….the show must go on and we had the privilege of hosting about 35 students for a wonderful Nature Lab today that included a “nature walk” through our nearby woods identifying plants, bugs and animals. Kids love everything about the farm and being outdoors 😎.

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09/26/2024

This event is being rescheduled due to logistics related to the storms. Stay tuned😎

Thank you for supporting Abby Sayler’s dream and vision of creating our lovely farm in Lutz. Celebrating 10 years this year, we have had so many milestones……from accepting our very first volunteer (from Venezuela) in 2015 to accepting our 100th volunteer family in 2024. That’s right, we currently serve over a hundred families learning how to grow their own healthy, organic food and over 1200 students annually for field trips, Nature Labs and honeybee experiences.
We are proud to announce our first ever community-wide fundraising event which will be an annual 5k run called the Abby’s Holiday Run. The run will benefit our capital improvements at the farm assuring our continued excellence, that has received notice and recognition globally. In 2015, Abby’s Health and Nutrition received the Sustany Foundation Award (accepted by Abby Sayler and Victor Karydis) for their commitment to sustainable, environmentally responsible practices…..including the creation of Abby’s Organic Community Farm.
Additionally our fund raising event will benefit the TrudyKFoundation which was birthed this year in order to help individuals going through cancer by providing them the possibility to incorporate natural supplements and or treatments that they otherwise could not afford on their own.
Please join me in supporting this event by signing up today at the link or QR code shown. We would love to discuss sponsoring the event and that information is also shown and we look forward to hearing from you.

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