My Moral GPS

Here is what I was dreaming this morning:
I plug in my moral GPS
and put in the location I want to go
to arrive at a just and equitable world
a planet treated with respect
I don’t know how I am getting there
putting trust in my modern moral compass

We all need this GPS unit to guide us on the right path during this time of large waves being created.  I myself have been busy with the constructive program  that my friend Pancho writes about on his blog Earthling Opinion http://earthlingopinion.wordpress.com/constructive-program/. At the same time I have been neglectful in getting  out into the street and joining the Occupiers. I need to figure out  how to be helpful and how can I  integrate the work of the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm with the Occupy movement.

While this is going on the Free Farm Stand keeps chugging along. We have been trying to keep the stand operating in a smaller space  than before, trying not to have a negative impact on the park in terms of how much space we take up and not blocking the entrance, giving park users room to walk, and not blocking the wheelchair accessible ramp. We just applied for a health permit which Recreation and Park wants us to have and that the Health Department says we don’t really need. I am expecting soon a visit by the Health Inspector who will make sure we have a bathroom which we do and being sure that the boxes of produce don’t sit directly on the cement, but are elevated 6” above the ground. We had a trial run setting our boxes on recycling crates and milk crates and it was a bit challenging doing this.

A volunteer made a connection with someone with Terra Firma farm who gave us a great donation of fresh vegetables in (4 boxes of produce). Stanford Glean brought 71 pounds of apples all from one tree and my friend Tom was in town from Santa Rosa and he brought us 130 pounds of various winter squash from Santa Rosa, half given away at the Free Farm Stand at the Free Farm on Saturday. A friend and neighbor brought some chayote squash (4lbs). I love growing that vegetable!

our clean up crew

cinderella pumpkin some of the vegan “meat” that was donated from Eco-vegan and Tofu Town

Maybe your moral GPS will lead you here:

There is an Oakland General Strike on Wednesday Nov 2 http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/10/general-strike-mass-day-of-action/
 
“…we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.”

Sink or Swing

On Saturday night I went to a swing dance birthday party and enjoyed the music, the band and their singer,  the moves, and especially the footwork. The Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm is a swing dance of sorts (Swing Beans, Lindy Hops,  and our Hive Jive on the Free Farm). We definitely swing as our volunteers jitterbug around schlepping boxes of produce, unpacking them, loading up baskets, and setting the stage on the tables for our main event  of distributing for free high quality local organic vegetables and fruits. It is a weekly celebration with neighbors and friends. And it don’t mean a thing if we don’t got the swing.

This week it was quite a lot of foot and heart work  going on, as we had 20 Stanford students come to the stand to lend a hand.

We got a lot of garden work done and we sheet mulched the small orchard that was planted this year. We also gave out a number of seedlings and strawberry plants, and iris bulbs.

 

One thing that I thought was really swinging were the pears we gave out. I picked them up last week from a neighbor named Fred who lives next next to the Little City Gardens (http://www.littlecitygardens.com/). They were the most handsome russet type and tasty pears, and Fred was so generous in offering us four boxes that were surplus from his tree. I also finally got a chance to swing by Little City Gardens for the first time run by Brooke and Caitlyn who are dear friends . Brooke told Fred about us which was great. I have admired Little City Farms from a distance since they started (I had first visited Brooke at her lovely garden on Guerrero St. years ago and was convinced she was serious about growing food when I saw that garden). It is my contention that art and style can almost trump one’s personal philosophy or politics. Everything these two women do is not only well done, but simply beautiful. So I had to put aside my belief that  everything should be  be free and just take in the wonderfulness of their farm while I was there. I think it is the ideal place for a city farm and is just so perfect in so many ways. They are in the situation where a landlord wants to sell the land to developers (they are now on a month to month rental agreement). If it were sold, maybe unlikely in these hard economic times, that would be the end of a great open lot with a gorgeous farm growing on it. I really think all San Franciscans should get together and somehow figure out how to save this land from development. One problem beside the cost of the land are the property taxes which are too high for the women or a land trust to pay.  If they were a non-profit they might have more opportunities open up. Anyway I always learn a lot about farming and growing food when I talk with them and I get totally inspired which is the best we can hope from friends. Also, they gave me some of their salad mix and some lettuce which I brought to our Free Farm lunch and it was so flavorful and delicious.

this photo I took from way in the back of the Little City Gardens…they have more room to develop, like plant an orchard if they had this land more permanently…see how much land there is!

Things are running smoother every week the stand thanks to the organizational talents of a volunteer named Cat. Though it seems we are somewhat cramped for space, things are working out. I am still working with the Recreation and Park Dept. and soon will fill out an application for a permit from the Health Dept.  According to the Health Dept. I technically don’t need a permit to give out produce or day old bread, but the Park’s department wants us to have one. So I will most likely send it in. What that will mean is that I have to have the bathrooms open every week which they are and I have to keep the boxes of food off the ground by 6”. If anyone has any milk crates, or ideally any folding crates or pallets that are small that we can put our boxes on that would be helpful. We do have a bit of a storage crunch, but I think we can manage.

the smooth orderly running stand

two of our best volunteers with name tags

Another piece of news that is mentioned in our Free Farm blog (a fun read) is that I learned last week that developers have offered 5.4 million to St Paulus Church to buy the land the Free Farm is on to make it into housing (I think the idea is to build 90 rental units of which 18% or 16 units will be “affordable”). I heard the latest design is to include a rooftop garden and also 10,000 sq.  ft of undeveloped space would be given to the church. Even if the church goes ahead with this offer it will take at least three years for something called an entitlement phase, which is part of the City’s review process, which might also include an environmental report. St. Paulus is really gracious in supporting our farm and now they must go through the discernment process of what to do with such a tempting offer and balancing that with their desire to do the right thing for the community. I have always known that the Free Farm has been on temporary ground and like in most places I have gardened there has been a similar situation (Esperana and the 18th and Rhode Island site are also places where gardens are with no written contract). I trust that the universe will take care of us and give us good work to do. I encourage us all to meditate on this situation and put out prayers or good thoughts to bring clarity and vision to all involved in this discernment process.

I also continue to voice my support for those people Occupying Wall Street that are dissatisfied with the status quo. I feel like I am in the same boat (I guess we are called the 99%).  If we move towards a society more focused on the common good perhaps we will see the day where city parks are growing food for hungry neighbors who are in need, where more truly affordable housing is built (equivalent to section 8 housing) to shelter the record numbers of families and homeless on the streets or sleeping on couches or cars, where health care is available to all, and where education is a top priority also. Not to mention a day when cities will have more open space, more trees, and less cars, and the environment and nature will be on an up turn.  I think the time is now for us to either sink or swing.

#Occupy Free Farm Stand

Though I haven’t been active in the Occupy Wall Street SF I am inspired. I think there is a tie in with the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm.  Naomi Klein expressed my feelings so articulately in a recent interview  she gave when attending Occupy Wall St in New York (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/07-0):  “ Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It’s because they don’t have roots. And they don’t have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away…The point is, today everyone can see that the system is deeply unjust and careening out of control. Unfettered greed has trashed the global economy… This time our movement cannot get distracted, divided, burned out or swept away by events. This time we have to succeed. And I’m not talking about regulating the banks and increasing taxes on the rich, though that’s important. I am talking about changing the underlying values that govern our society. That is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it’s also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult.” Another interesting interview with her in San Francisco is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjNOtGWtM_4. “It is time to build the radical democracy that we are looking for. Its more than a list of demands.”  Here is another inspiring speech from someone I haven’t heard of until now. From Slavoj Zizek (http://roarmag.org/2011/10/zizek-at-wall-street-protest-dont-fall-in-love-with-yourself/): “But remember, carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal lives. Will there be any changes then? I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like “Oh. We were young and it was beautiful.” Remember that our basic message is “We are allowed to think about alternatives.” I also attended a workshop in saving seed and I heard the same message. That we can fight Monsanto, but we should also have in place an alternative source of seed not owned by the mega corporations. So we have to learn to save our own seed and to share that seed with fellow gardeners.

As my friend Pancho says we have to engage in protest but we also have to create the social programs that are the alternatives to the system. I love it when I hear people actually talking about imagining the end of capitalism, but what do we want to replace it with? Obviously we are not proposing an alternative model based on Marxist-Lenism or any other ism. Naomi Klein says that we don’t really know  how to go about changing this system that we have now and I would agree. We are experimenting and trying things out. The Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm are attempts to see how much food we can grow in the city and to build a network of people growing and sharing food as a way we can all become more food secure. The recent attempt by the Recreation and Parks Dept. to move us out of the park and the spontaneous support by neighbors shows the power of community.  It is a beautiful thing that we need to continue building. Just like the community building that is going on at the occupation, we need to practice and learn to live with each other in intentional communities and to work on common projects together. The temptation to flirt with friendly capitalism I think is a mistake, whether it is slow money, pay it forward or backwards, barter, time bank currency, or whatever. We need to be generous and giving karma yogis and love all, serve all, feed all. We need to get away from linear exchange and understand that the universe provides. That the earth is a common treasury for all to share.

Here is an article updating our recent dealings with Recreation and Parks Dept.: The Free Farm Stand will Stand.

The article is not quite accurate as I am still working with the Parks Department to get the Special Event permit they want me to have to run the Stand.  I am not needing a Health Permit so won’t get one (I sent an email to Parks Dept. with an email from the Health Dept. saying I don’t need a permit to give out produce and day old bread) . The latest email from Dana Ketcham is pretty crazy:

Hi Tree
I need a letter from the DPH addressed to us. I need a clear definition of produce and what “day old bread” means.

I really think that Dana wants people to come get food and then take it with them and get out of the park as quickly as possible. The idea of people hanging out and encouraging them to interact with their neighbors and each other is something she doesn’t seem to get.

It is a bit ironic that we are being hassled by the Parks Dept. this time of year when we move into fall season when the Stand slows down in terms of how much produce we collect and are harvesting ourselves from various gardens. And the amount of bread we get on Saturday night from Acme is way down too. There was a bumper crop of sunchokes from Esperanza Garden and Treat Commons. I love growing this vegetable and I especially enjoy eating them, cooking them my favorite way: washed, pour a small amount of olive oil on them, bake them in an oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

We also hada lot of greens from the Free Farm and some fruit from Stanford Glean, including quince and pineapple guava. We had some local apples, including some apples I brought back from my trip to Quincy in the Sierra Mountains above Tahoe. There are so many apples trees in that town and as far as I could tell most of the trees I saw were not being picked. I literally saw apples that had fallen, collecting in the sidewalks and gutters. I heard the bears were coming in town to eat them. I met one woman who I talked with who seemed a bit embarrassed by the situation and said that they were organizing a “Juice it or Lose It” event  to encourage people to bring in their apples to juice them.

One of the highlights of the Stand was that we moved the seedling table into the garden and invited people to come in while they were waiting for their number to be called. I think it worked better having people come into the garden and in general things ran a lot smoother.We had a lot of seedlings to give away and will have more next week too and they were very popular. Also Claire, my new house guest assistant is going to spend time on Sundays at the Stand working in the garden. This week Will showed up to help her and later in the day a couple of kids that Claire knew from Marshall Elementary showed up and there was a beautiful scene with the kids planting some of the kale seedlings.

This has nothing to do with the Stand but here is a photo of an artichoke I planted in front of my house. May a thousand artickokes bloom on sidewalk gardens!