As Is

Just after we closed the Free Farm  around January 1st I had a vision of these words “As Is”.  As is is beautiful and the words for me conjure up warm and fuzzy feelings. Like going to the As Is thrift store, where you root around for something, you don’t know what it is, and then you come up with something fabulous that you didn’t know you needed or wanted. But it is beautiful and glorious! As Is means no guarantees. You get what you got. You accept yourself too As Is….this is important for me to remember because I am often so hard on myself.

So we take the universe As Is, the same message I got a while back about the word “Surrender”.  This doesn’t mean you don’t put in effort to change things for the better, but that all we do is part of the As Is.

Since the Free Farm has closed I have been busy just cleaning up, putting away some of the things we kept for future farming projects, getting ready to go back to where the Free Farm Stand started, in my backyard and growing food there to share with neighbors. I don’t have a schedule yet for what days I will be gardening, but I am more than happy to have company and of course I will share my skills on urban food production with anyone who shows up. Send me an email if you are interested and let me know what afternoons work best.

The Free Farm Stand was closed for two weeks after Christmas and then reopened. Because of the season, we haven’t been collecting as much produce from the farmer’s market and right now there is very little hecka local produce. Thanks to a  small grant from the Pollination Project we will be soon opening our information booth at the stand to help promote urban gardening and eating a plant based diet and everything in between.  We are also in the planning stages for creating a puppet show at the booth with the idea that puppets can get across information in a fun way. Contact us if you want to get involved.

After we closed the Free Farm and replanted it around the city Esperanza Gardens finally got word that they needed to leave it’s vacant property by the end of January. They knew it was coming and thankfully all the trees  and plants got dug up and moved out. That was another beautiful garden that I was involved in I am sad to see it go.  Yesterday I just found out that a large farm in the city  that I adore might go away. Little City Gardens has had a month to month lease on the beautiful property it sits on and now it is officially on the market. You can read about it here  at their blog and it has a link to a realtor who is selling it. On Zillow’s site it says the sale is pending though I don’t know if that is accurate.

I would love it if the Free Farm could move there, but I would equally be happy if the land just remained a farm and was not developed. I have no clue as how to stop the development here, how we could acquire the land and take it off the market:  it seems we need an angel investor or benefactor. Someone who feels we need to preserve something so wonderful and sweet as this spot and or is also passionate about food justice like we are. Angels stand up now!

Here are a few photos from the stand last week:P1010001Thanks to neighbors like these we had a little Hecka Local from their backyard

P1010002Boobs4Food came out and helped (http://www.boobs4food.com/)

Lots of  families with kids come by:

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 Norma who volunteers at the Stand asked me to get the word out about this event:

Do you know Monsanto?

COME TO JOIN US IN A WONDERFUL EVENING OF ART, WORKSHOPS, FOOD DOCUMENTARIES, INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRUE FACE OF MONSANTO AND CELEBRATE THE OPPPOSITION OF GMO’S IN LA MISSION

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1ST

3PM-8PM @ 24TH AND MISSION