Author: Tree

I have a program on my computer called CCleaner (otherwise known as Crap Cleaner) that looks over all the files on my machine and gets rid of the unnecessary  files that are there slowing everything down (you do have a choice of what to remove). I also have spyware programs that look for bad programs on my computer and they let me fix the problems by getting rid of them.  I wish we had programs like that would do the same thing for the world and identify all the crap on our planet and give us the choice of cleaning things up and getting rid of them. The violence, the land mines, guns and bombs, weapons of mass destruction, the anger,  the greed and selfishness, the materialism, the racism, the antisemitism, the insensitivity to others problems, the fear,  the hunger, the poverty, and so on.  In the meantime I have to rely on myself to not only  clean up my own problems, but work on the problems that are nearest at hand.

Yesterday as we were closing up the Free Farm Stand a group of women came by trying to figure out what had just gone down. They asked me what was this all about. I told them that we were just putting on a magic show, but that some people think we are merely giving out free produce and bread. Hopefully we are generating enough excitement to inspire others to get into the free/sharing lifestyle and to spread compassion and generosity, and at the same time help someone in need.

My friend Pancho is a karma yogi who has been inspired by the Free Farm Stand among many things and with his community in Fruitvale Canticle Farm has started a “FrutaGift in Fruitvale” in front of Casa de Paz. It is their version of the Free Farm Stand.

a neighborhood family eating gleaned persimmons

Pancho communicating with the heart language

Sam who lives at Canticle Farm with gleaned fruit

Pancho and Ross and Rivian  from  Canticle Farm and their “FrutaGift”. Ross apprenticed with us a short while.

There is a website in Spanish that has their write up of one of their adventures in setting up a Sunday Stand  and that is where some of these photos came from (http://grupotomate.org/prueba-desayuno-y-merienda/).

Tomorrow Pancho is going to an immigration hearing which is the continuation of the hearing he had earlier this year to determined  if he has to be removed from this country in the words of immigration officials (see my blog entry for June 4th, 2012). It is Tuesday Dec 18th at 1pm at San Francisco, 120 Montgomery Street Immigration Court, 9th floor Court Room 12. Everyone is praying that the angel who accompanies Pancho in his life somehow comes up with a miracle to keep Pancho with us for now in this part of the planet.

 I think it is so ironic that the government doesn’t understand how Canticle Farm and Pancho are doing the exact kind of work we need right now to help deal with the violence that is so part of our culture. The sad shootings that keep happening will not go away with better gun control laws although that is a good step to take. We also need to teach sitting in receptive silence, yoga, and non-violence in schools, feed children real food,  and  bring neighbors together like Pancho does and get them interacting with each other, building trust and community. We need to take a stand against all wars and global violence wherever it occurs and we need to work on the violence in all our lives and all learn to chill out a bit more. We need peace keepers and promoters of peace like Pancho and his friends. In church services they pass the peace and people hug each other and recognize the love in all of us. I say Don’t Pass Up On Peace.

Here are just a few pictures from the Stand on Sunday:

our volunteer circle before we start

watermelon radish from Ferry Building Farmer’s Market

 lettuce from the garden was harvested and given away

 

In between Free Farm Stand and Free Farm fun, I occasionally attend social events like birthday parties. Being socially awkward at these events, I like to drink a little to loosen myself up and then I go in a corner and scribble poems or doodles onto a piece of paper. Here are three from last week:

The first poem was inspired from an interview I listened to here with Jean Francois Noubel who talks about Collective Intelligence (” the group entity acts as an integrated or coordinated whole. At that point, the collective really has its own consciousness.”). Read the blog and you’ll be turned on. The site where this interview is posted called Global Forest Calls and it has some amazingly inspiring interviews with people that are doing such great work in the world.

Collective Sexiness

the sexy vibe
that is shared across the universe
broadcasting in subtle and not so subtle ways
from smiles to swaying hip movements
seductive & sweet
it is the love thing
and the world needs it now!
not a top down love
but a cloud 9
where the groove
is shared universally
like the internet

Praying Mantises

in a world of never ending tensions
we are all Praying Mantises
living on the edge of a green leaf
waiting for the wind
to blow us off
into the natural world

No Sweat

Meher Baba said
Don’t Worry be Happy
I say
no sweat
no sweating the small stuff
no sweat the world
gone down the tubes
no sweat the current messed up
paradigm
just love
no sweat

The Free Farm Stand was again loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit, another Greens Day in that we had boxes and boxes of every green you can think of from Fava beans leaves to arugula up the wazoo,  plus kale, collards, and chard from both the Free Farm and the markets.. I was especially happy that we got two boxes of locally picked persimmons that were dropped off at my house to give away. Plus the “peeper lady” showed up with about 7 lbs of rocoto peppers (see below our  handsome collection of pepino dulce, pineapple guava, peppers, and persimmons).

Buddha’s Hand

 coffee grounds and pulp and from the juice lady..waste nothing

Here are two important news worthy items:

Kezar Gardens and Recycling Center are facing eviction anytime http://kezargardens.com/save-kezar-gardens/. I was approached by a friend at the Free Farm Stand if I would attend a non-violent action to stop the eviction of the garden and recycling center on  January 3rd. He and the people that he is working with think the eviction will happen around that time and they want to try to stop it. I said I would be there if I am in town. I feel strongly that it doesn’t make sense to get rid of that garden (which I have visited and it seems very functional) and build a new one. Why is the city and Rec and Park spending money on this when it could be better spent in other ways? And why are they so eager to get rid of a recycling center which does a good thing and provides a source of income to low income people? One can write to our mayor and see if he responds…mayoredwinlee@sfgov.org. I just read this from my Inbox:

RALLY: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, NOON, CITY HALL STEPS
Sponsored by: Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

ATTENTION: Small Business Owners, Community Gardeners, Urban Agriculture
Activists, Chinese Community Representatives, HANC Recycling and Kezar
Gardens Center Advocates and others with a vested stake in Zero Waste,
Small Business, Urban Agriculture, and Environmental Legacy in San
Francisco.

Bring your support to the steps of City Hall this Tuesday and demand that
Mayor Lee take responsibility for the negative impacts set to occur once
Haight Ashbury Recycling center is evicted. *We need people, signs, and
voices* to be heard to achieve the following goals.

– Retain HANC recycling and Kezar Gardens Center within the Convenience
Zone it serves
– Issue a Hold on Eviction until a Task Force can determine best course
of action for all parties
– Prevent Small Business from Footing the Bill for NIMBY politics
– Preserve the sustainable economic model: recycling = green jobs +
native plants + community gardens in one space
– Preserve 51 community garden beds and their 100 gardeners
– Create a task force to find a suitable location to house this
important ecology center
– Reinstate the citizen advisory board to advise Recreation and Park on
plans to build a new garden with taxpayer money.

We gather to call attention to a mounting crisis for San Francisco small
businesses, consumers and gardens alike. The system for taking back bottles
and cans for California Redemption Value (CRV) is broken and may be on the
verge of collapse.

The California State Bottle bill requires small markets in the City to
accept recycling (bottles and cans) in store if there is no supermarket or
recycling center nearby. Stores of any size may opt out of this requirement
by paying a $100 a day in lieu fee. While this may not be much for a large
grocery store, smaller establishments will be hard pressed to pay it.

*Impacts on Small Grocers [or Markets] and Beverage Stores*

– All small stores that sell beverage containers with a CRV deposit must
also take those containers back
– If there is a recycling center nearby or a larger grocery store with
recycling services, the store becomes exempt.
– When HANC recycling and Kezar Gardens closes, there will be no
recycling in the area
– Big Business (Whole Foods) will afford the fee and small business will
have to pay up or accept recycling in their stores.
– The fee is $100/day and up to $36K per year.

*Need for Recycling Centers*

– The Small Business Commission is holding hearings to discuss the
shortage of recycling in the city now
– Suspending recycling services in the area will have a negative impact
on recycling rates-50% of recycling in SF goes through a recycling center
– Without a local recycling center, all small businesses will pay high
fees or have to accept recycling in store

The existing recycling centers in SF are well utilized but dwindling in
numbers. Numbering 30 in 1990, now there are only 21. Statewide, there is
one recycling center for every 18,000 residents while there is only one for
every 38,000 San Franciscans. Recycling centers in the City receive half of
all CRV bottles and cans recycled.

Of the 21 recycling centers in the City, only about 12 are conveniently
located at neighborhood supermarkets or nearby. The rest are hard to get to
or only consist of reverse vending machines that slowly receive bottles and
cans one at a time. As a result long lines are the norm at most City
recycling centers.

The City’s eviction of HANC sets a terrible example for supermarkets. HANC
has served the Inner Richmond, Inner Sunset and Haight-Ashbury Bottle Bill
requirements since the law went into effect in 1987. Other recycling
centers are rumored for shut down in the near future, following the lead of
the City. The HANC eviction will have a domino effect leaving thousands of
San Franciscans and hundreds of stores without a place to recycle.

The Mayor needs to address this crisis now by placing the HANC eviction on
hold while a task force is appointed to develop and implement solutions.

12/12/12 Interdependence Day Celebration is happening around the world and below is a listing of events around the city: https://www.facebook.com/events/306832426091860/. Our Free Farm will be having our usual workday at Eddy and Gough from 10am-2pm with a vegan lunch for volunteers at noon. We will be doing a lot of weeding and some work in our greenhouse.

coming my way!   I feel so grateful for that!

This picture sort of tells a lot about the Free Farm Stand this past Sunday:

This was the van when we came back from picking up left-over produce and bread from Food Runners who picked it up from the Ferry Building Farmers market. The heavy rain on Saturday discouraged the crowds from shopping and there was a lot of unsold food. You can’t see it but we also had a lot of produce from the Free Farm, because  few people came out for free produce at the Free Farm. We also got more bread  that evening from Acme, so we had two van loads of food to give away.

So I was prepared for heavy rain, bringing with me the waterproof fisherman’s rain suit my friend Damon gave me at the farm on Saturday (it helped me harvest greens in the rain there). In the morning I volunteered at Martin de Porres soup kitchen and there was actually a flash flood that happened there just before we served brunch.  Then Maureen called me and said that the Stonestown mall farmer’s market was closed because of the rain and that we wouldn’t have a  second delivery of vegetables (and I was actually rather glad). I felt like a gladiator with my invincible gear ready to face the elements.

By the time I got to the park it had stopped raining and the sun came out and I left the rain suit in the van). It turned out to be a most beautiful day and we gave out a lot of produce.  In fact we gave almost all of it away, though a couple of bags of the arugula and some lettuce mix didn’t hold up and I had to compost it. I still have a lot of bread in the van (if anyone wants to come by and get some, perhaps distribute it to friends or ???…mostly baguettes).  I am going to take  what I have to Martin’s on Tuesday.  In reality there is so much extra bread in the cities it is hard to know what to do with it all.

One of the things that makes the Free Farm Stand so wonderful is that it gives people that volunteer a chance to be generous and sweet (and the people that come to the Stand have that opportunity also). I thought of this while listening to a volunteer giving out some vegetables to someone and she was so friendly in her interaction with the person getting the food.

I truly believe we are all like actors on a stage and have the chance to put on a good show every day.  Acting out of kindness, love, and compassion for each other is what we need to be doing in our work and lives to give the sad world around us a happier face. That is what our work at the Free Farm Stand is really about more than anything, sharing that message.

giant celery root

giant Yacón from 18th and Rhode Island garden