Connections

The Free Farm Stand connected with the season on Sunday. We connected with the rain.  We also connected with our friends who come to “shop” for fresh, local, organic produce or those who came with surplus to share. The neighbors in line connect with each other.  People connect with the knowledge of where there food comes from. The produce that was rotted went into the compost bin and the microorganisms connected with the vegetables which will turn them into humus.

Prior to Sunday more connections were made. Lauren my friend who is a Zen student and farmer at Green Gulch Farm in Marin called me and said she had gleaned their fields before they were plowed under for the winter and she harvested 18 boxes of greens. She couldn’t bring them to San Francisco so more connections were needed. I called the two people I know who live in Marin and one of them was coming to the city Sunday morning to work with me at Martin de Porres Soup Kitchen and could pick up and deliver the greens. The greens connection was made.

I am connected with my own demons and bad habits and when grace shines on me I am connected with the holy spirit. That spirit resides in the trees, the wind, the stars, the earth, the sea. When we put our hand in the soil we are connected with life. The connections we make on our farm are many…connections made with our neighbors, with strangers walking by, connections with the birds and insects (and our friends the microorganisms) who have discovered this new feed lot in the hood. Below is an example of one of our great helpers Alena making a connection with our trombone squash that she harvested.

Talking about making more connections (and collaborations): The Free Farm just found out from the Reimagine Money blog (http://rsfsocialfinance.org/2010/11/faf-participants-2011/?utm_source=All+Contacts&utm_campaign=f850df6701-November_10_E_News11_2_2010&utm_medium=email)  that the RSF Philanthropic Services selected us and six other groups “for the first round of fund sharing from our Food & Agriculture Focus Area Fund. This fund demonstrates an innovative form of grant making that invites grantees to learn about each other’s work and collaboratively use a pool of funds to support their missions.” The other groups are Pie Ranch, San Francisco Waldorf School, Marin Organics, People’s Grocery, Partners for Sustainble Pollination, and Movement Generation. We will be fund sharing from a pool of $50,000. It will be an interesting experience working on this with all these other fantastic groups.