Holding our Own

In permaculture they talk about patterns in nature that we want to pay attention to. This past week was all about holding  patterns:

Holding a space for peace and non-violence—Pancho  and Adelaja and a sister whom I don’t know were arrested for  meditating at Occupy Oakland. They weren’t actually part of the protest, but were holding open a public space that was likely to become a violent due to an impending raid by armed police. They were “holding their tongues” so to speak. They  were holding that space to be filled with peace and love. Later Pancho, wearing a red vest to signify he was the most dangerous prisoner and shackled,  had an “ICE hold” put up him, as he was waiting to be transferred to Immigration. He held the space there to for peace and love wile meditating in solitary confinement in Santa Rita Jail.

Holding our ground–the Occupy movement is holding it’s ground everywhere. People power is potent and the power of the people got Pancho out of jail and out of ICE’s hold on him, at least for now he is free!

Holding Fast—people are holding fast to their dreams and hopes for a better world

Holding Up—as the banks and the large corporations hold us up everyday,  the Occupy Movement is saying business as usual needs to be held up for now. Capitalism doesn’t “hold water” and is over rated in our view. Yet somehow we are all holding up during these difficult times for the planet.

Here is one of the best articles I have read that is up-to-date about the Occupy Movement written by Randall Amster who is a friend of Pancho’s and visited the Free farm a while back: Power to the Peaceful: Holding Space as OWS Camps Come Under Assault. And here is an article about how Occupy is a new societal model with ways to improve it http://shareable.net/blog/occupy-as-new-societal-model-ways-to-improve-it.

The Free Farm Stand was greeted with our first real rainy Sunday and we decided to dispense with the number system and do things more old style since we had the park to ourselves. I was thinking that we were lucky to finish the rain barrel installation at the Free Farm (see our blog http://thefreefarm.org/), though we actually got a minimal amount of rain.

Robert dropped by with 17lbs of sunchokes from his school garden in Berkeley. I brought  34 lbs of Yacón  or Bolivian suroot from the Free Farm,  a relative of sunflower and sunchoke.

                                 demonstrating Yacón harvest standing next to the plant at the Free Farm

 the yield!

samples on the table…you eat it raw in salads like jicama

 I continue to be amazed at our abundance here in California…we had quite a lot of produce left over from the farmer’s markets for a November. We also had no shortage of people coming for produce in spite of the rainand at the end of the day it was all given away.

Here is another less common vegetable that I like growing. A friend of mine from Santa Barbara brought me two white varieties of chayote that we planted in the garden next to the Free Farm Stand. I was so excited about trying a variety I haven’t seen in the markets here and also nervous about planting such a rare plant. We also gave away a lot of seedlings, including tree collards and Cuban oregano.

We will be closed next Sunday after Thanksgiving and we are also taking a two week break and will closed December 25th  Christmas and Sunday New Years day January 1st and will reopen Sunday January 8th, 2012.

 

 

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