Bringing in the Leaves

It is nice to take time off from writing this blog every once in a while, especially when it feels like there isn’t anything new to say. The Free Farm Stand feels like it is running on auto-pilot or cruise control and there isn’t much else to say but that it is a lot of fun, seems like a beautiful thing, and always gives me as lots of energy and inspiration back for all the effort I put into it. It is also a good feeling to hear how much people appreciate the free produce and or the experience of the scene. I have also heard volunteers say that being part of the Free Farm Stand community of volunteers has meant a lot to them.

We are in the harvest season, the season of plenty, with plenty of summer squash from our Free Farm (read the latest Free Farm  post by yours truly here …plus plenty of kale, basil, and lettuce leaves,  tomatoes, rocoto hot peppers,  and green beans. Also, we have been able to bring some flowers to the Stand which has always been one of my goals, to share flowers with those who come by. We are rejoicing…

Last week I attended a meeting Recreation and Park held to show the pretty much final drawing design for the new park at Folsom and 17th Streets. Although we didn’t get a food forest or a farm to feed low income people in the neighborhood, there are a lot of good things in the design: a community garden with only four raised beds in boxes (most of the garden will be run communally), a hedge of trees bordering the garden (I think they said citrus trees but this could be negotiated), and a large demonstration garden for wildlife habitat and conservation which will incorporate hands- on garden educational elements, outdoor classroom and amphitheater/stageand espaliered fruit trees. They also are open to the lawn being something different than grass, like perhaps a meadow with wildflowers. Here is a picture of the design:

 The presentation from the meeting isn’t posted yet, but should be here when it is http://sfplanning.org/index.aspx?page=2273.  What is important is that now is the time that people can suggest improvements to their design. One can write the following people if they want to make suggestions to the design:  Mary Hobson is the Project Manager mary.hobson@sfgov.org. Andrea Alfonso is one of the Landscape Architects Andrea.Alfonso@sfdpw.org. Marvin Yee is the one who will take suggestions for the garden Marvin.Yee@sfgov.org. One thing people can do is write him and tell him you support the garden being run communally no individual plots, like Alemany Farm is run. Also, Oscar Grande from PODER is the one to make suggestions for the demonstration/education garden ogrande@podersf.org. He is also the one to suggest a name for the park. Also, any ideas for art in the park could be submitted to the Mary or Andrea for now (in the presentation they said that the artist Carmen Lomas Garza has been chosen by the Art Commission to be the artist for the park). Some of the ideas I want to suggest are an outdoor sink (3 compartment?), some bins for storing manure or mulch or potting soil, a lath house for harding off seedlings, a shed big enough to store a wheelbarrow,  having a big tree central to the park and naming the park after the tree, like Chestnut Park, no grassy lawn but a meadow with wildflowers, a large wooden platform for yoga and stretching, park benches that are made out of cob or ferro cement with mosaic tile (let’s take some inspiration from Gaudi and Park Guell).

Yesterday I ran into my friend Eric that runs the website diggers.org which is the diggers archives. He recently put up the inspiring French documentary made in 1998 Les Diggers de San Francisco.  The link is here  or you can see it on youtube here. Check out towards the end of the video some footage of the soup kitchen Crumbz that our No Penny Opera ran.  What to me is really delightful is that today we have a zillion idealistic folks running around spreading the revolution like manna and making the magic happen again. The Occupy Movement was the start of it…now I got an email asking me to participate in the Human Be In(g):

“We are inviting everyone interested in creating a better world together to gather in Golden Gate Park Sep 15-16

As people offer workshops, skill shares, art, music, and other ideas, we will be posting information to
TheHumanBeing2012.blogspot.com

We have a general e-mail address at theHumanBeing2012@gmail.com

I went to their website and found this interesting note at the bottom of the page:

“The Food Bank of America action was revitalized by the Space TranSFormers on Thursday, June 26th at 3pm at the Bank of America at 23d and Mission.  We will continue to give away boxes of free fruits and vegetables on Thursdays and demonstrate the possibility of a different world where free farms stands replace corporate banking monopolies and abundance replaces scarcity.”

 Wow!

Sow Flowers

“Sow flowers so your surroundings become a garden.”  This is from a poem by Rahman Baba, a seventeenth century Afghan/Sufi poet I recently discovered and the words have stuck with me.  That is all we are doing at the Free Farm Stand is sowing flowers.

We had one of the largest harvests this year from the Free Farm, 258lbs, due to the fact that we harvested a lot of zucchini. We also had a lot of variety in this weeks harvest, including three kinds of basil, the first of our green bean crop, rocoto peppers, cucumbers,carrots, rhubarb, lettuce, and kale. Our numbers are up and the food went quickly.

basil and lettuce seedling that we gave away (we also had some flowers to give away)

music (and they practiced one of my songs!)

I like this photo

after the picnic (including fig jam from figs last week)

Heart Land

I am writing this from what is called the Heartland of America. I have been visiting in-laws in Peoria, Illinois and entirely missed the Free Farm Stand this week.  I am so grateful for all the many hands that have kept the Stand open, from picking up produce to  running the Stand.  I am in the land of  the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM).   I have heard the ads for ADM on public radio, but never knew exactly what the did, except that they are the “super market to the world”. I have learned that ADM is about food processing and turning corn and soybeans into food ingredients or fuel. The idea being that the population bomb has exploded and the only way to feed a hungry planet is to have many ADMs  and corporate and industrial farmers grow and manufacture food for us. It almost sounds convincing like the “Green Revolution” of the late sixties, if you don’t think about the side effects from that kind of unsustainable approach.

The Midwest prairies are gone (I did see one prairie restoration project).  The land around me as I drive from one family function to another is hardly a land with heart…it is corn with round-up ready genes and soybeans.    Going to their website I see  that ADM has launched a program that launches this year called Invest an Acre that has a goal similar to our Free Farm Stand: “every farmer doing business with ADM in the United States will have the opportunity to make a donation to feed their neighbors in need”.

Is there something wrong in the Land of Plenty here? How surreal it feels.

I believe the Heart Land is where food is grown for love not profit.

I heard it on the grapevine that the Stand ran smoothly and it sounded like a big crowd.  I am always happy to hear that others brought their surplus produce to share. Produce to the People brought lemons and plums, somebody came by with 25 pounds of potatoes, the School Farm brought kale and mustard greens. Here are some photos:

Some of mighty women volunteers:

and mighty men volunteers:

Lauren with Produce to the People brings fresh locally harvested fruit