Month: April 2011

 

y en Español

Come celebrate Mother’s Day & Plant Fruit Trees at the Free Farm Stand in Parque Niños Unidos: 23rd & Treat Ave.

Support Community Orchards/Community Gardens on Sunday May 8th, 2011

• 11am: Plant Fruit Trees in our newly expanded fruit orchard!
• 1pm – 3pm: Free Farm Stand … Sharing the wealth of urban gardens and farms. Free produce and seedlings to those on tight budgets.

Music and Finger food…

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Ven a celebrar el Dia de las Madres y plantar arboles frutales con el Mercadeo Semanal Gratuituo en el Parque de Niños Unidos 23rd St. y Treat Ave.

Apoya los huertos de la comunidad arboles frutales en parques

Domingo 8 de mayo (2011)

11am Plantaremos arboles frutales en la amplliacion de nuestro huerto de frutales

1pm – 3pm Mercado Semanal Gratiutuo… compartiendo la riqueza de los jardines y granjas urbanas. Semillas, frutas y verduras frescas gratuituos.

Musica y bocadillos!

It’s nice to be reminded that many of the holidays we celebrate, like Passover or Easter, had some original connection to ancient peoples who were more in touch with their land and soil then we are now. A holiday for every season. Now we are entering the spring season (yesterday someone pointed out to me in the garden two lady beetles humping each other). Besides that kind of love fever in the air, it’s a time we should be planting. 50 days of gladness as our hands reach into hopefully loamy soft earth.

Yesterday I think a new record was set for the Free Farm Stand.  I filled up the van with more seedlings and plants than I had produce and bread. I thought I had brought more tomato starts than I could give away (and there were more I had left in the greenhouse at the farm), but in the end all starts of tomato and zucchini were given away, and most of the plants were gone (except for the Yacón root plants).

Besides the farmer’s markets not having as much left-over produce right now, it is really challenging to bring a lot of locally grown produce to our farm stand each week.  One contributing factor to our lack of produce is that now we are running two Free Farm Stands, one on Sundays and one at the Free Farm on Saturdays. This Saturday for example we had 23 people shopping at the stand at the farm. Plus we had 23 volunteers, some of whom took home produce too. I feel like running two big projects is not sustainable, but a not sure what to do about it, except be open to inspiration and fresh ideas. The other challenge we are having is growing a lot of food, despite the fact that we have a lot of space and that there are other potential gardens that could be growing more food to distribute to people in need. Farming and trying to grow a sizable amount of food on a regular basis is hard and it probably takes more than the two days a week we are doing it and with the few experienced farmers/gardeners we have to direct the many volunteers that want to help out.

So I am thinking about these things and trying to figure out if we should change any of our projects at all.  Two stands or one or a move-able Free Farm Stand?  How to get more help to run the show? Feedback is always welcome.

In the meantime one project that I have been working on for a number of years is moving ahead towards the finish line. On Mother’s Day Sunday May 8^th from 11pm-4pm we will be having a fruit tree planting the same time as the Free Farm Stand. If you know any musicians who would like to come play some music please invite them. We will also be having some vegan finger food.

Here is some photos of Mike climbing the flag pole at the farm and hanging an Earth Flag over the Free Farm. A reminder that we are all citizens of the Earth and we must take care of our planet (and the people living on it).

Here some photos of the seedlings and plants we had at the Stand…we still have more if you come to the Free Farm on one of our workdays.

After attending the SFRefresh “Stargazing” workshop lead by Pancho my head has been in a cloud. I have been thinking humans can only be overwhelmed and amazed by the beauty and wonderment of this universe (perhaps animals or plants or even rocks might sense that feeling too). I also realized how much mystery there is in everything, leaving us basically not knowing. Though the science is there explaining so much, it leaves us still forever asking questions.

Then there is a feeling I got of how small we are in the big picture of things. Seeing that here are billions and billions of stars and planets out there and that our planet is just one out of billions and billions (we probably will never know how many).  Certainly our conflicts and worries or joys and excitements seem so very insignificant when we think we are smaller than a grain of sand in an immense expanding universe.

Wow it makes it hard writing or saying anything after going through that head trip. Then I think: Zillions and zillions of blessings out there, we can’t count them all.

The Free Farm Stand was heavy on good vibes Sunday. Stanford students from Page’s Earth System History class came by to help and also brought 194 pounds of oranges they picked from trees on campus.  There were plenty of greens on the table as well and the bread table, though short on bread, had a great selection of spreads to put on bread, including tofu pate, hummus, and citrus jam.

The local urban agriculture movement is currently excited that the Board of Supervisors voted last week to amend our zoning law to allow people to grow produce and sell it on residential land (on a small scale). For $300 one can get a permit and to grow food and sell it and also to make jams and salsa and sell them too. Little City Farms (http://www.littlecitygardens.com/), run by Brooke and Caitlyn, two of the best urban farmers out there, announced they are starting a CSA based on a week to week basis and on a sliding scale model. If one has to buy vegetables this may be the way to go.

I must admit I feel like in I am in the minority of urban farmers who believe that as beautiful as friendly capitalism seems from one angle, I think in the long run it is the wrong direction we should be going.  Here is one example of a project that I think is a better model to follow: http://www.alpinegarden.blogspot.com/.

Let’s rocket to the stars and other galaxies and spiral forward. Our dreams will propel us! Let us create a world now where our Earth’s resources are shared equally with all.

Michael Pistorio posted a cool video of the Free Farm Stand on Youtube (check our sidebar under Videos….).  No words just a short video record of a the Free Farm Stand with jazzy music by Jimmy Smith.

Save the date for our fruit tree planting on Mother’s Day Sunday May 8^th from 11am until about 4pm. This could be the beginning of more Community Orchards planted in city parks.