Author: Tree

I am thinking of the sweetness of the Free Farm Stand and all the wonderful people who show up every week to either help or get food.  I was sent this poem that I am reprinting that sums up my mood right now:

When I add a spoon of honey to my tea, I give thanks to a dozen bees for the work of their whole lives. When my finger sweeps the final drop of sweetness from the jar, I know we’ve enjoyed the nectar from over a million flowers. This is what honey is: the souls of flowers, a good to please the gods. Honeyeaters know that to have a joyful heart one must live life like the bees, sipping the sweet nectar from each moment as it blooms. And Life, like the world of honey, has its enchantments and its stings.
– Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, The Honey Sutras

This week a mom of five named Katie was in town from Kalamazoo, Michigan, bringing her sweetness and was helping out with her youngest child on her chest. Unlike San Francisco, home prices in Kalamazoo  apparently are very cheap and  Katie not only bought a home there, but was able to purchase a number of empty lots surrounding her home and she now farms on 2 1/2 acres. She said the mortgage on her home was cheaper than paying rent in section 8 housing that she used to live in.  There is some group, maybe a government agency, that will help you buy vacant property that is adjacent to your home, and she got one parcel for I think she said for $170. But you can’t grow avocados in Kalamazoo.

On the topic of housing, here is an event happening Wednesday that I can relate to:  ”

HOMES NOT JAILS TAKES OVER VACANT BUILDING FOR WORLD HOMELESS ACTION DAY

Wednesday October 10, 2012 on World Homeless Action Day, Homes Not Jails will hold an open building occupation to provide housing and to fight against the criminalization of homelessness. In solidarity with squatters across the world and allies for human rights, there will be a rally beginning at 5pm in Dolores Park, followed by a march to take the message to the streets, culminating in a public takeover of a vacant space.

Currently in the US, there are 18.5 million vacant homes and 3.5 million homeless people; in San Francisco the figures are 31,000 vacant housing units to an estimated 8,000 homeless folks.

“This is greed – not an issue of scarcity or supply and demand,” says a Homes Not Jails collective member. “These resources are being wasted.” Another collective member who has participated in similar actions in the past describes public housing takeovers as “incredible and exciting, something you’ve got to take part in to believe.”

So one thing that is happening is that people are moving out of San Francisco to Oakland where it is a little cheaper to live.  My dear friends from Casa de Paz are bringing the love to Fruitvale  and have been running a Free Farm Stand in front of their house on Sundays. I am so inspired by their work and that they are working in a low income neighborhood where I am sure good free produce is appreciated. The photos I got tonight remind me of the very earliest days of the Free Farm Stand. They collected some produce from the farmer’s market there at the end of the day and have been gleaning the abundant fruit trees over there. A friend of mine who lives in El Cerrito  had more oranges than she could possibly use. I told her about this project that I wrote about in the post No Moola about a month ago.  A guy name Doug collects surplus produce from local neighbors in El Cerrito and then gives them to local restaurants. So my friend called him and he came over and picked a handful of oranges and that was it…he never came back. I contacted Pancho and Casa de Paz and they and their neighbors picked the tree and drove away with a car full of oranges to give away at their stand.

the gleaners from Fruitvale

 

I was at the Free Farm Stand only for about a half hour to help with setting things up. Already things were starting to heat up and the word that I got from people who were there was that it was a pretty hot day and people were not even sitting on the grass very much. I brought 7 pounds of chestnuts from the tree a block down the street that I planted 30 years ago. Our mysterious neighbor dropped off more Rocoto peppers from her garden and I brought peppers from the farm. Raise your hands if you can handle the heat from the Rocoto pepper. I am assuming people like them, though I am not a hot pepper fan (I only like to grow them). Here are some pictures from the day:

all food from the Free Farm plus flowers

Sunchoke Season

and Ground Cherry time (the red one is a tomato)

chestnuts

Rocoto Peppers

some of our mighty team

team in action

Just a quickie update on the Free Farm Stand. Things are going great,  recently every Sunday has been gorgeous and the sunny weather has been a treat. It also seems to bring the crowds out. Unfortunately the last two weeks we have had so little produce to share, though the second shift we have been loaded with fruit. I have been able to bring some seedlings, this week cabbage, and they are very popular. I talked to one Latino man who loves taking the seedlings and he said he grows them for his grand daughter so she can have the experience of growing a garden. He doesn’t get a lot of produce to eat from his tiny garden, I think he grows things in containers, but he really enjoys growing the plants we supply. This is the real goal of the Free Farm Stand is getting people to grow some of their own produce.

The Free Farm is winding down in terms of what we can bring to the stand right now. We are bringing the last of the summer crops like tomatoes and peppers and squash. I also brought some of the beautiful perennial sunflowers that I so much enjoy.

How local can we get…Ross and I harvested chestnuts I planted in  1982 on 23rd St. a block from the Stand.

 I noticed a friend of mine wrote on her blog about her chestnut harvest in NE Georgia: http://madhupamaypop.com/2012/09/07/chestnuts-winter-is-near-fall-is-here/. Our chestnuts look somewhat  the same  because hers are Chinese Chestnuts while ours has some Chinese heritage in them.

October 1st is World Meatless Lunch Day http://worldmeatlesslunch.org/. “For the first time, there will be a global movement where all people shall join together on one “virtual table” to see whether they can find a better alternative to meat during lunch break on October 1, 2012.” I wonder how many people know that the Free Farm Stand promotes a vegan diet, though some weeks we get bread or pizza from Arizimendi  Bakery that is not vegan.

Here is some good news for the Free Farm Stand, because we were told we could not give out tastes of homemade jam or honey because they were not processed in a code kitchen: California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616, SIGNED by the Governor! http://www.theselc.org/cottage-food-laws/. As part of a growing movement to localize food systems and stimulate small-scale food production, SELC proposed that the State of California allow for the sale of certain homemade food products, namely: baked goods (but with no cream or meat fillings), jams and jellies, granola and other dry cereal, popcorn, waffle cones, nut mixes, chocolate covered non-perishables (such as nuts and dried fruit), roasted coffee, dried herbs, dried tea, dried fruit, honey and candy. You can read more about the bill that was just signed into law here.”

Our Sunday I heard from Ryan that Kezar Gardens got another eviction notice. I had been there for the Be-in and it was the first time I had seen the garden. It is really beautiful and I don’t understand why the garden has to move  out (or for that matter why does the recycling center have to move out too?). Is San Francisco supposed to be “green” and supports recycling and gardens. Does it matter who uses the garden or recycling center, isn’t it all good? I guess we need to keep an ear open in case they really go ahead with the eviction, I have a feeling there will be non-violent love warriors there try to stop it.