Good & Plenty

The last few weeks we have been bringing some beautiful produce from our Free Farm to the Stand. Last Sunday we brought some pepino dulce to the Stand. They are pretty good tasting like a cross between a melon and a cucumber is the best description I have heard to describe it. I like growing it because it is a perennial and it tastes good and is a beautiful fruit. Another uncommon fruit at the stand this week was Cape Gooseberry or Ground Cherry. They look similar to tomatillo but they are orange rather than green and are sweet and tangy. I just read on the Wikipedia page on this fruit that they are high in pectin and would be good to add to jam and jellies to make it gel or thicken.

I often have plants of this fruit to give away, but beware they can grow big and take up a lot of space.

I loved the variety of peppers we gave out this week, these grown in the hot house at the Free Farm.

I brought nine pounds of lettuce from my backyard to share, plus we had baby gem lettuce from the farm.

The collards and some of the kale and tomatoes were from Alemany Farm.  My friend Gary and Pancho gleaned pears from  a abandoned pear orchard behind a Safeway store in Moraga in the east bay. Some of the pears went to the newly forming Free Farm Stand in Fruitvale and we got 179lbs for our Stand.

We have a circle before we begin and one of things we like to do is give thanks for all the abundance and thanks for all the wonderful volunteer help we get . Right now the Free Farm Stand is mostly run by Goddess energy.

Rachel is an example of a  beautiful volunteer who has taken responsibility for giving out the seedlings and plants we give away.

This is a little handout we distributed about the Free Farm. Copies were made for the Outsidelands event where the Free Farm and Free Farm Stand had a booth. Pam our beekeeper and others printed this paper made from recyled clothes

Here is another great volunteer Julie who also helps at the Free Farm.

We had a lot of organic fruit left over from the farmer’s market.

Not to mention strawberries from our farm.

A friend sent me a link to this wonderful t TED talk by one of the co-founders of the  Incredible Edible initiative in Todmorden, England  that grows all  its own vegetables. I wrote about this town on my blog of January 9 of this year.  This is what we have got to start doing here in San Francisco is making our urban landscape here more edible. As  Pam Warhurst says it is not just about growing food, but starting a revolution. It is time “to invest in more kindness to ourselves and the environment”.  She is serious and is doing it! More here  http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/.   We can do it here as our small Free Farm Stand shows in the pictures  we post show and the fact we have recorded 30,000lbs of hecka local produce being grown and shared since 2009. (by the way already a new business has already claimed  a name for their business that is similar to ours Hella Vegan…they were part of the local street food festival held last Saturday on our neighborhood).

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Good & Plenty”

  1. Hi Tree!  It feels  so good to go to your site — while Keith & I are in Glastonbury.  Please say hello to all your great volunteers. Everything looks delicious and beautiful — wow you even had strawberries from your farm! 
     
    This place is a shangrila of farms from vallies to hills — as far as the eye can see. :)  We got grapes, lettuce and garlic today.
     
    Hope you are well — our best to Angie — we miss you.  Lots of Love –Keith and Carolyn

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