Shout Outs and Hallelujahs

Often times I catch myself feeling jealous of other people. Yesterday I watched someone getting baptized and she spoke about feeling free, safe, and like a child.  I was thinking, Jeez I wouldn’t mind feeling born anew. Though going to the Free Farm Stand or being in some gardens makes me feel drenched in grace.  That’s feeling the love, beauty, mystery, and kindness pulsating everywhere, like a cosmic wave.

The two week experiment of my stepping back at the Stand is going well. Lolita has taken over leading our circle and already things are much better. She has gotten everyone engaged by getting all our volunteers to answer some question she has been coming up with. I have gotten to know our helpers more than I have in the past years we have been working with each other. One of our volunteers Zoila even broke out with a song yesterday.

Though there hasn’t been a lot to harvest at Alemany Farm (this I picked beautiful lettuce and  fava bean leaves) and there is less produce from the farmers at the market, the sun was out in full force warming everyone up and the community vibe was going strong.  And the lemons are coming in from neighbors.

16180604398_d5e18b3371_cP1010001Meyer lemons

P1010002Eureka lemons? these came from another neighbor and they look

rounder than the Meyers in this  photo

One person told me I could come and pick her tree (any gleaners out there?). I also am so appreciative of my friend Margaret who has been growing a small garden at St. Aidan’s and she often brings me a small bag of some things she harvested…this week lovey arugula! It’s these  contributions from neighbors and friends that make our work feel so special…like the love that went into that is so powerful and is such a great gift.

We also had a great work day in the Treat Commons Community Garden right next to the Stand.  It is wonderful to garden while others are giving out the produce nearby. I hope to I plan to teach some gardening classes this coming spring and summer and once we get some more work done at the All in Common Garden down the street from the Stand.

P1010003

White Sapotes from my backyard

16180601968_f149cfb832_c

Pax at our Vegan Info Booth…hopefully more people will get it

that we are promoting not killing animals  for food or sport

P1010012

Fava beans an alternative to meat

16367333412_c41962acc1_c

 Some of our free seedlings looked kind of sad. The sad spinach

 came from the leftovers after the planting of the new edible garden at our baseball stadium

farm to (center) field

P1010011

some of our fabulous volunteers

16182021439_2cc1fd753c_c

our guest parrot

P1010015

P1010008

we like it hot

Blessed are the Peacemakers

I have been wanting to write about the Free Farm Stand and our new garden project the All in Common Garden for a long time, but I just didn’t know what to write about. I have been feeling pretty gloomy about the state of the world in general these days. I have tried from the beginning of my blogging career to remain upbeat and positive and to focus my writing about issues related to our work at the Stand and in the All in Common Garden. The sadness in the daily news is overwhelming to me these days and I struggle not to get caught up in that stuff.  I am so glad the Free Farm Stand has reopened after being closed for three weeks. It takes my mind away from the daily news and  gives me fresh air to breathe.

The truth is that yes there is suffering and injustice everywhere, yet there is incredible beauty and mystery, especially if we get closer to nature,  if we dig in the soil and gaze at the galaxies and stars. If we devote some of our time to serving and helping others then we can connect with people on the heart level. That  will fill us with hope and a belief that we can do something to repair what is broken.  We can be peacemakers and that is what is so needed these days.

01a9f4ba68da4de9437e8bba103bf9d1187e834873

my holiday card this year

Here is an example of how the work I do picks me up and makes me feel inspired and hopeful. Yesterday at the Stand I met some people visiting from Texas.  They were visiting friends in the neighborhood and stumbled upon our scene in the park. I met Tony Diaz and his Librotraficante  people that were with him.  Tony told me the incredible story about how Arizona enacted a law banning the teaching of ethnic studies in schools.  I had no idea this went down.  It prohibits courses that “promote the overthrow of the United States government,. are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” Tony help start the Librotraficante  Caravan  in 2012, collecting and “smuggling” banned books back into Arizona. So they were in town to support a 17 year old student who is suing the state of Arizona to overturn the Arizona law in the  Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals here in San Francisco  today (Monday). You can read more here. It was great meeting Tony and his friends and we all were excited that they were on the front lines fighting for justice in this almost surreal case. Peacemakers can be troublemakers.

It was also wonderful that we started off the new year at the Free Farm Stand with not only a fantastic volunteer crew, but also with our fantastic neighbors, some who brought surplus from their gardens to share.  We actually didn’t have much produce, probably because it is the winter season, but it is great that for San Franciscans, this is the start of the lemon  and orange season.

ffs-neighbors-lemons-01112015 (1)

Byron and Erin bring us some lemons

We have also been busy at the All in Common Garden working hard to finish building the greenhouse just in time for the beginning of the planting of spring crops which starts in February. We have the plastic almost all on and we need help hanging a door and trimming it out. This project has really been a community barn raising type event. There have been so many different people that have come by to help out and have helped us in our goal of creating a free garden neighborhood resource center a reality

01ce27d21fd1efa300368345a215313f135c7d9792

Gary helped the other day install the window above the door. It was a gray but happy day.

Here are some photos from a number of weeks ago that Dianne took at the Stonestown Farmer’s market where we get our second shift of produce from.  This is why we are so grateful and thankful to our farmer friends:

.  01ebceec7494064825e1549aba1e571067d150ab3e 012d665456fe53352c3a644022b4f0c710237dd8f8 016d02b4ad5077b88f2c8cdade342fc2303abad1ac 0144e389304952933b6451b95abd3d27184f8473ef

01b7f993e9cd379c8468e166a43dc5359e21a4563901283c5adb4cb070a697b7fc60ad1ade77e9040a96 017763a34544e79395624c63726de785d29b0965d2 01557764ce2b99bb27fffc93c6553063e84f2a4879