Shaome Cooperative

06/01/2026

Every Sunday morning, we send out the Shaome Cooperative newsletter, and it’s one of the best ways to stay connected with what we’re growing across Georgia.

Inside, we share what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and where Food Forests, school gardens, Food Forest Classrooms, Shaome Skool, and community partnerships are taking root.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get involved, follow our progress, support the work, or simply learn more about food security in action, the newsletter is the best first step.

Join us here:
https://tinyurl.com/shaomenewsletterjoin

You can also visit Shaome.com > Join > Get Connected

We’d love to have you growing with us.

05/31/2026

Why do we plant Vitex in a first-year Food Forest?

Because in the early years, a Food Forest is still becoming.

Fruit trees need time. Berry bushes need time. Perennials need time.

Vitex helps bridge that gap.

It brings height, color, structure, and beauty into a young Food Forest while the edible layers continue to mature. And once it blooms, Vitex becomes a powerful pollinator attractor, bringing in bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects that help the whole ecosystem come alive.

Vitex is also a strong fit for Georgia. It handles heat, humidity, and drought once established, and it has been recognized as a Georgia Gold Medal plant for its outstanding performance in our climate.

So when we plant Vitex, we are not just planting something pretty.

We are planting early structure.
We are planting pollinator support.
We are planting resilience from the start.

Read more in this week’s newsletter. Sign up at
Shaome.com > Join > Get Connected

05/29/2026

A first-year Food Forest may not look picture-perfect at first.

It may look a little wild. A little uneven. A little “in progress.”

And that is not a problem.

It is part of the design.

One of the first and most important things happening in a young Food Forest is soil repair.

In the early stage, we allow certain weeds and pioneer plants to grow because they are doing important work underground. Their roots help loosen compacted soil, pull nutrients upward, protect bare ground, feed soil life, and begin rebuilding the ecosystem from the bottom up.

Those plants are not permanent residents.

Many of them show up because the soil needs them.

And once they have done their job, the system begins to change. As the Food Forest matures, shade increases, soil improves, and the plant community shifts. Those early “weeds” naturally move themselves out without pulling.

That is one of the beautiful lessons of a Food Forest:

The land knows how to heal when we stop interrupting every step of the process.

At Shaome Cooperative, we are not just planting food. We are rebuilding the living systems that make food possible.

Shaome.com

05/27/2026

Here is the interview that Miriam and I did on The Call to Action Show (Radio and Podcast). I think it turned out very well! We are grateful for the exposure.

Shaome Cooperative offers a range of programs and initiatives desig...

05/27/2026

A first-year Food Forest may not look like a forest yet.

It may look like small trees, fresh soil, mulch rings, young shrubs, and open space.

But what you are really seeing is the beginning of a living system.

Every tree, berry bush, herb, and pollinator plant is part of a larger design; One that will grow into food, shade, biodiversity, beauty, and education over time.

At Shaome Cooperative, we plant Food Forests because food security should not be abstract.

It should be visible.
It should be local.
It should be growing in the places where people already gather.

That is how communities begin to see what food security can look like.

Shaome.com

05/25/2026

Every Sunday morning, we send out the Shaome Cooperative newsletter — and it’s one of the best ways to stay connected with what we’re growing across Georgia.

Inside, we share what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and where Food Forests, school gardens, Food Forest Classrooms, Shaome Skool, and community partnerships are taking root.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get involved, follow our progress, support the work, or simply learn more about food security in action, the newsletter is the best first step.

Join us here:
https://tinyurl.com/shaomenewsletterjoin

You can also visit Shaome.com > Join > Get Connected

We’d love to have you growing with us.

05/24/2026

A book can introduce an idea.

A movement brings it to life.

The Food Security Blueprint was written to help people see food security differently — not only as something we respond to in a crisis, but as something we can design into the places where we already live, learn, work, worship, and gather.

That same vision is at the heart of Shaome Cooperative.

Through Food Forest Classrooms, Facility Food Forests, Shaome Skool, and the GROW Program, Shaome is working to turn that idea into something visible, practical, and local.

Because food security is not only about having food available today.

It is also about restoring the knowledge, land use, and community systems that help people grow food tomorrow.

That is why this work matters.

A Food Forest can become a classroom.
A facility landscape can become a source of nourishment.
A public space can become a place of learning.
A child can carry food-growing knowledge home.
A community can begin to see its land differently.

The book explains the vision.

Shaome helps plant it into the world.

Learn more at Shaome.com.

05/22/2026

Radio and TV. Times and locations in the bottom of the ad.

05/22/2026

What if the land around the places we already visit could do more than just look nice?

That is the idea behind Shaome Cooperative’s Facility Food Forests, or F3.

A Facility Food Forest is a productive, edible landscape created on the property of a business, institution, place of worship, community facility, or other site that wants its land to serve a greater purpose.

Instead of maintaining land that is only ornamental, what if some of that land could also grow fruit, vegetables, nuts, berries, herbs, native plants, pollinator habitat, and long-term facility impact?

Facility Food Forests can help facilities:

🌳 Grow fresh food on-site
🍎 Turn underused land into productive landscape
🌿 Support pollinators and restore soil health
🏢 Strengthen the facility’s mission and stewardship
🤝 Create meaningful engagement for staff, members, residents, or visitors
🌱 Show what food security can look like when land is planted with purpose

This is not about replacing farms or grocery stores.

It is about restoring another layer of food security — the layer that grows in the spaces around us.

Every campus, office, place of worship, and facility property has the potential to be more than maintained.

It can be planted with purpose.

Learn more at Shaome.com.