The Free Farm Stand was open on Easter Sunday and it was a small crowd and we actually didn’t have the usual tons of produce.  There isn’t a lot to report.

Thanks to our fabulous volunteer crew I am spending more time gardening when I come to the park on Sunday. I brought a lot of vegetable starts to give out and also some plants to put in our newly mulched mini-orchard next to the community garden. Gardening always bring me happiness, especially when I get my hands in the soil. I know people love “shopping” at our farm stand and get joy out of the experience, but I wonder if they would like me have a religious experience growing, harvesting, and eating some of their own produce?  It is such a miracle to plant a seed and have it grow. I was thinking of a line in one of my favorite songs they sang at church for Easter,  Were you There. My lyrics would be “Were you there when the seed was planted?”"Were you there when it rose up from the ground? Were you there when it was harvested? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” Were you there when the seed was planted?”

I have been overwhelmed with the activities at the Free Farm this spring (check out this weeks blog http://thefreefarm.org/). We have been more than successful in getting our seedling production going and I am realizing it is a job in itself to distribute free vegetable starts. Please spread the word that we have plenty of trombone summer squash and Tahitian melon squash available and also we will have some tomato seedlings, cucumbers, and probably kale too. They are available free for anyone not going to sell their produce and hopefully will share their surplus with someone in need. I am also looking for long lengths of 3/4″ electrical conduit or 3/4″ pipe to make trellises to grow our climbing squashes like the ones mentioned above.  Also, please join us in preparing beds and planting our seedlings and planting seeds in the greenhouse.

Here is a picture from the end of the day when we had put away the tables thinking there wasn’t going to be a second drop off of produce from the Stonestown Mall Farmer’s Market.  To our surprise a second load did come in and we were so happy to offer vegetables to those who missed out  from our earlier offering.

Give us our this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses. This was a banner hanging on the  building on Turk St, behind the Free Farm. The building  owned by the Catholic Church that has been an eyesore in the neighborhood for years was appropriately Occupied on Sunday by the  SF Commune with the idea of creating a  community center and also a place that shelters the homeless (ironic that the archdiocese has ignored the homeless  people camped on the sidewalk next to this building for years). By Monday afternoon the police  with the request of the Church cleared everyone out and I read arrested 75 people. The police in their enthusiasm to get rid of the “trespassers” cut the chain and lock of the Free Farm and invaded our sanctuary and place of peace.

This doesn’t directly have much to do with the Free Farm Stand, but I am super inspired by the “Commune” and their ideals and actions. They are the true and beautiful Take Over Artists even if only for 24 hours!  I have looked at those vacant buildings for the last two years while working at the Free Farm and have myself dreamt of them being a house of hospitality  Catholic Worker style or an urban kibbutz so that free farmers could live next to the farm, take in stranger for dinner, house a homeless family, and give meaningful work to people, growing food to feed those in need.  These folks took the courageous step of Occupying so called private property and made a bold statement saying vacant buildings, especially those owned by a church, should be put to use for the common good.  We  at the Free Farm have been lucky so far to have a church that supports our goals of feeding the hungry and letting us use their vacant land temporarily to do that.

I am not sure what it will take to get our neighbors who own that property to get real and see the crisis we are in, to hear the message the artists are putting out their. In the meantime, any constructive program we can undertake these days to make the better world we want is going in the right direction.

The green abundance is upon us and I had the almost more bread and produce than I could fit in the van on Sunday. One highlight for me was the 81lbs of oranges that my friend Bilkis gleaned with her mother from a neighbor in Marin. The fruit tree is a symbol of hope in that it can provide so much for us to feed on. I also brought a lot of seedlings to give away (and I still have a lot left over).

misc. greens from our farm

impromptu music jam…I loved it!

At today’s Free Farm Stand I got to display our official permit to operate from the Health Department. I never thought I would have to have a permit to give away produce and bread, but I am glad that we can continue for now.

I am continually grateful for the opportunity to live a life dedicated to service and for all the amazing volunteers that show up each week. Today an older man I know from the neighborhood who pushes a shopping cart around came by to get some produce and bread.  I actually don’t know what he took and if he has a place to cook, but  I love that we can be helpful to people in his situation who probably live in our neighborhood on the street.

I was pretty proud of our pea harvest this week. Over ten pounds of beautiful snap peas that were planted in October.  They are not as slug/snail proof as fava beans, but it surprised me that we got such a great crop despite losing a lot after we planted them. We also had the last of our our hot peppers also grown on our Free Farm.

lots of sweet kale from the farm too

I have no photo of the pretty chard brought from Pam’s garden

healthy greens means healthy kids

I love our volunteers

Here is the latest news about our Free Farm. St. Paulus Church who owns the land the farm is on has been so gracious in letting us use their land temporarily since 2010. They just signed the agreement with Maracor Development to go ahead with the plan of selling the land to them and having it developed for market rate housing and a new church building for St. Paulus. We now know we have 24-36 months until “entitlement” or when the city gives final approval for the building project. This will include an environmental impact report, community meetings with the neighbors, coming up with a design, and dealing with all legal and building issues. Once entitlement is reached the church signs the property over to the developer. If it takes longer for the project to be ok’d by the city the developer has 3 four month periods to extend the entitlement period, but the developer will have to pay a price if it is extended. Apparently Maracorp wanted in the agreement that we would be out 6 months before entitlement happens. St. Paulus had problems with that since  no one knows when entitlement will be exactly. I think it is in the signed agreement despite St. Paulus not liking it.

What that means for us is that we are now going to be more actively looking for a spot to relocate. Time goes by fast.  We are open to looking at all options that give us a permanent spot to move to. I myself would like to be in the Mission and have the Free Farm Stand be located on the farm (rather than having two Free Farm Stands as it is now). I also would love to find a place big enough to move our 20′ x 30′ greenhouse and have some room left over for a demonstration garden (I would love to have enough space for a big farm like we have now but that may be a lot to manifest). Anyone that wants to be on a committee to help us find a new home would be welcome. This could be an exciting new change and challenge.