Almost Speechless

I have run out of things to say about our Free Farm Stand. Yesterday I was behind the table handing out the little produce we had grown at the Free Farm and I felt embarrassed that I had so little to give out (most of the produce we did grow was handed out at our stand at the farm the day before). Though it seemed that everyone was so polite and grateful and excited about the fresh food I was handing out. I had to keep reminding myself that we are mainly trying to promote a network of produce sharing among gardeners and that we are not just a food give away program. Further down the table we did have a good selection of organic produce left over from the Ferry Building market. It is hard for me though, something in my wiring, that I just want to help everyone that needs food get it.  Later in the day Kim brought a beautiful selection of produce she harvested from the Secret Garden that was gone in a second.

I tried an experiment of growing lettuce mix in 2 Styrofoam grape boxes in our greenhouse. I was very excited that one of the trays worked out perfectly and I had a nice lettuce lawn to “mow” and give out. Part of it was to demonstrate how we can grow a salad in a kitchen window or on a porch.  A beautiful young 12 year old girl cut part of the tray for us to hand out and it turned out to be such a small amount. Nice theater though.

lettuce lawn in the greenhouse

from the Secret Garden

Here are some photos of what we have in the greenhouse. We distributed a few seedlings at the stand yesterday and they were very popular. Hopefully soon we will have more, so we can encourage more people to grow their own:

sunflower greens

 

waiting to germinate

There are lots more great photos and text on the Free Farm Blog at http://thefreefarm.org/

Here is an interesting article from the New York Times about heirloom vs. hybrid seeds:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/garden/24seeds.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1. It is something I have thought about, especially this time of year when I have been buying seeds to plant. The article points out some of the hype around heirloom seed and the bad rap hybrid seed has gotten. It is pretty unhip these days and almost politically incorrect to talk about this subject and suggest that the heirloom seed  business is  being heavily marketed these days as like everything gardening  is booming. So I appreciate articles like this that question some of the claims being made by the promoters of heirlooms.  The significant point here is that if we grow heirloom seeds or open pollinated seed we should select the plants that do best in our gardens and save them and eventually change them by selecting the plants whose seeds make the best adaptations to our micro-climate and growing conditions.

Last night I went to the Roxie to see a film I had heard about called Queen of the Sun. Here is the website for the film: http://www.queenofthesun.com/. This is a film made by the director of The Real Dirt on Farmer John, another great film. This film is being independently distributed and is worth supporting. I really think everyone should see this film, there is so much to learn here.  It is not just a film about the current global bee crises, but it also is an inspiring look at nature and bees. There is a great cast of characters who are passionate about changing the ways things are. I also like the biodynamic approach to beekeeping that is represented in the movie and it is an approach I think more beekeepers should adopt. For example, it is pointed out that it wasn’t until about 200 years ago that honey was sold. That it was always a precious gift that was shared. How cool knowing that!

One last thing, I have been trying to learn more about the news that part of Hayes Valley Farm has been sold. I think for all of us that that care about HVF and couldn’t attend the first public meeting announcing this news, we would like to find out more, if anyone knows. How long do they have before they have to vacate, what about the part of the land that wasn’t sold, does HVF have any plans for the future or do they need any help?  I know that the site was never to be permanent and that it is good to respect the original deal. Personally, I think it is so short sighted of the city to not promote more open space and farms vs selling land for more condos. I guess business is business.

This ties into the need for our cities to shrink. Last Saturday at our work day at the Free Farm two woman who are making a movie that “aims to document the diversity of new economic cultures emerging” and they wanted to film what we were doing. Tonight at 9pm they are screening their short documentary Life After Growth at the Noisebridge Hacker Space, 2169 Mission St. This film is part of an ongoing project to document the rise of a new movement – calling not for more economic growth, but LESS. The degrowth movement, or “mouvement por le decroissance”, argues that through a voluntary reduction of the economy we can work less, consume less and live better, fuller lives.” I can dig that (I am not sure about the part of working less…seems like a lot of work to create a revolution).

The Greens Economy

The rains stopped miraculously and the day was beautiful for a Sunday Free Farm Stand. Surprisingly we had a great deal of produce (a lot of cabbage, artichokes,  Brussels sprouts, and greens), though it was a little sparse on the Hecka Local side of the table. Saturday it was raining hard and not a lot of produce was harvested at the Free Farm Though hat’s off to tree collards, not only we are still harvesting them from the farm, but the Secret Garden is still offering us a few leaves from just one or two plants. I was especially excited with the four pounds of sunflower greens I grew in the greenhouse, starting with just two cups of sunflower seeds. I hope people learn from this that we can grow salads almost anywhere , even if you don’t have a backyard garden.

tree collards


sunflower greens

My friend LLyn from the Sharing Garden in Oregon (http://alpinegarden.blogspot.com/)  emailed me this letter from a friend in Sendai , Japan. I have been thinking about this inspirational piece all week and how it applies to our actions here:

We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes… If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, “Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another.”

The reason the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm is free is because we feel we don’t need more of a crisis than we have now on this planet to begin living like we are all family and caring for each other.  My friend Pancho also shared with me an inspirational article her wrote about Astrobiology (he will be sharing his interest in this subject at the SF refresh event we will be hosting at the Free Farm on April 16th) http://earthlingopinion.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/astrobiology-red-stars-and-the-new-renaissance-of-humanity/.  Pancho repeats the idea that we need to have a “world community” that looks out for the planet and it’s people. That community I believe has its basic economics based on sharing rather than barter or buying and selling. Sharing the greens or call it the greens economy.

Garden Hoes-annnas

I would like to sing songs of praise to our abundant earth and to the gardeners who work the land and grow food and flowers for our nourishment. I am really appreciating farmers these days after trying to be one myself. The Free Farm Stand felt especially abundant today with hecka local produce. Several friends and neighbors dropped off surplus produce from their gardens. One neighbor showed up with 8 pounds of beautiful rainbow chard from her garden. Friends Pam and Dave brought quite the assortment of garden bounty, including New Zealand spinach, beets, cutting celery, mint, lavender, and bay leaves. Christy had cilantro and chard for us to share.  There were some lemons left from Produce to the People (most went to the other Free Farm Stand). The Free Farm gave away most of its produce to the  farm stand there on Saturday (again I must highly recommend you visit the Free Farm blog, http://thefreefarm.org/, there are great photos of the last workday and a lot of information).  We did give away some yummy kale from the farm though. I am also proud to say that I gave away some of our first greenhouse starts (scarlet runner beans). They were very popular and disappeared as fast as the produce on the table.

beautiful rainbow chard from a neighbor

While singing songs of praise I should mention our great volunteer crew that showed up, including some friends who live in a collective in Scotts Valley who came up today to help.  They took off before the second wave of food showed up, to go help a beautiful project in the east bay that is in the process of being born.

Further thoughts on Monday:

I have a new friend Arlen who is passionate about being vegan and he often sends me articles and information concerning vegan issues. Though the Free Farm Stand doesn’t hit you over the head with a vegan message, I do feel like I am trying to support the idea of doing less harm by eating an animal free diet (though I have given away honey and not all our bread is vegan).  He just sent me information about an event this Saturday March 19th (during our work day at the Free Farm) that sounds like it is worth going to if you are not farming and enjoying our vegan lunch for Free Farm volunteers.  It is a vegan Feed-In at the March and Rally to stop the Wars. It starts at the UN Plaza at noon.

We really should speak out against war, all wars. Violence doesn’t work as a way to build a more peaceful world.

I am slowing getting drawn into a new project. There are two sidewalks, one on Shotwell St. and the other on 23rd St. in front of the beautiful Kali Garden. The sidewalks have been tagged for needing repair and there has been some talk of covering up some of the sidewalk  garden that is there because it is so much work to maintain it. I am thinking of helping them improve the sidewalk garden there and then possibly helping them maintain it on a regular basis. What the sidewalk gardens need most is a low fence around them and I am looking for a volunteer welder to help us create something beautiful. Then I want to plant an artichoke/cardoon orchard as an experimental planting.  Please contact me if you can weld or know someone.