{"id":199539,"date":"2026-03-20T19:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199539\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:08:08","slug":"echo-global-food-and-farm-festival-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199539\/","title":{"rendered":"ECHO Global Food and Farm Festival returns"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Ellianna, Hannah and Chase Broome have a snack at the food tasting demonstration\u00a0at the ECHO farm on Saturday. PROVIDED<\/p>\n

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The annual ECHO Global Food and Farm Festival returned to its roots this past weekend.<\/p>\n

After several years of expansion to the point where the event became a weeklong event, it returned to a single-day where ECHO opened its farm to the public and featured tours, food tastings, and workshops for the entire family.<\/p>\n

Despite the gloomy Saturday morning, people from all over came to the experimental farm on Durrance Road in North Fort Myers and got to experience the complex, what it does and how it has helped save hundreds of millions of people worldwide from starvation by teaching small-scale farmers how to do more with less. <\/p>\n

Elliott Toevs, deputy director at ECHO, said they were excited to hold the festival again and hoped visitors would come to understand the challenges small farmers worldwide face and perhaps volunteer or help ECHO in a financial way.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year it\u2019s something a little bit different with different vendors and different demonstrations,\u201d Toevs said. \u201cOverall, the spirit is the same. We try to engage the public. It\u2019s the one time where we can open our doors to the community and engage people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guests spent the day exploring the 57-acre farm, took part in tropical rainforest demonstrations, discovered approaches to alternative energy such as biogas, and experienced hands-on learning for just about everything.<\/p>\n

Everyone had a chance to taste, touch, and explore their way around the world while learning about global hunger and the practical solutions that make a difference.<\/p>\n

Guests could wander the farm at their own pace, enjoy educational activities such as kids having their passport filled out by ECHO volunteers for visiting certain demonstrations, and take in a full day of discovery.<\/p>\n

Among the things visitors got to check out was sugar cane and peanut butter tasting, wool spinning, microscope exploration, tomatoes, seed saving, regenerative practices for edible landscapes, compost building, cooking shows and more.<\/p>\n

The event wouldn\u2019t be possible without the more than 80 volunteers who lend a hand in one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Haley Briggs was a volunteer who manned the sugar cane press so people can taste the juice that comes out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cane was harvested yesterday by friends from Gordon College. We came here on our spring break to help ECHO,\u201d Briggs said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take much besides effort and it\u2019s easy to make. This press is from Cambodia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lenorah Wonga, another volunteer, put out samples of the meals people from around the world eat. Rice and beans are a staple in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have starfruit pure grown on the farm and we have rice and beans that\u2019s also grown on the farm,\u201d Wonga said. \u201cIt\u2019s a dish you\u2019d find in tropical climates. It\u2019s a standard dish along with vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n

The traditional first demonstration was coffee and how it\u2019s roasted from the people at Bones Coffee. Raul Cotto, sales director for Bones Coffee, and Oscar Clough said the idea was to teach how coffee is roasted and how they help ECHO.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re environmentally friendly. We recycle our chaff and burlap bags,\u201d Clough said. \u201cThey use the chaff for their compost and mulch. The bags are a wheat barrier and they\u2019re getting great results. We give it to them instead of throwing it in the trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were also a lot of vendors displaying their wares.<\/p>\n

Brad Campagna, owner of Blend Lab Cafe, was selling his blended drinks and protein balls. He is mainly online now, but hopes to have a store in Babcock Ranch soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a limited menu because we\u2019re still online. Cold-pressed juices are easy to make, squeeze and deliver,\u201d Campagna said. We have mocktails when we do events like this. We want to have a store in the summer so we can expand to smoothies and protein shakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors seemed to love it. Karen Quinlan from Naples was coming for the first time and said it was amazing, even if she came for landscaping purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have anticipated all the outreach, but I came to see all the different fruit trees,\u201d Quinlan said. \u201cI put a food forest in my yard a year ago and I\u2019m going to put more in soon. I get to see what I\u2019m planting.\u201d<\/p>\n

ECHO is an international organization that \u201cintroduces sustainable plants, techniques, and technologies to farmers around the world who are struggling to feed their families. We go out into the world to provide training and resources that empower small-scale farming families to thrive.\u201d It\u2019s regional impact centers provide training and resources to empower small-scale family farmers in Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, North America, East Africa, and West Africa.<\/p>\n

For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation visit echonet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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