Author: Tree

Though I haven’t been active in the Occupy Wall Street SF I am inspired. I think there is a tie in with the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm.  Naomi Klein expressed my feelings so articulately in a recent interview  she gave when attending Occupy Wall St in New York (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/07-0):  “ Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It’s because they don’t have roots. And they don’t have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away…The point is, today everyone can see that the system is deeply unjust and careening out of control. Unfettered greed has trashed the global economy… This time our movement cannot get distracted, divided, burned out or swept away by events. This time we have to succeed. And I’m not talking about regulating the banks and increasing taxes on the rich, though that’s important. I am talking about changing the underlying values that govern our society. That is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it’s also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult.” Another interesting interview with her in San Francisco is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjNOtGWtM_4. “It is time to build the radical democracy that we are looking for. Its more than a list of demands.”  Here is another inspiring speech from someone I haven’t heard of until now. From Slavoj Zizek (http://roarmag.org/2011/10/zizek-at-wall-street-protest-dont-fall-in-love-with-yourself/): “But remember, carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal lives. Will there be any changes then? I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like “Oh. We were young and it was beautiful.” Remember that our basic message is “We are allowed to think about alternatives.” I also attended a workshop in saving seed and I heard the same message. That we can fight Monsanto, but we should also have in place an alternative source of seed not owned by the mega corporations. So we have to learn to save our own seed and to share that seed with fellow gardeners.

As my friend Pancho says we have to engage in protest but we also have to create the social programs that are the alternatives to the system. I love it when I hear people actually talking about imagining the end of capitalism, but what do we want to replace it with? Obviously we are not proposing an alternative model based on Marxist-Lenism or any other ism. Naomi Klein says that we don’t really know  how to go about changing this system that we have now and I would agree. We are experimenting and trying things out. The Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm are attempts to see how much food we can grow in the city and to build a network of people growing and sharing food as a way we can all become more food secure. The recent attempt by the Recreation and Parks Dept. to move us out of the park and the spontaneous support by neighbors shows the power of community.  It is a beautiful thing that we need to continue building. Just like the community building that is going on at the occupation, we need to practice and learn to live with each other in intentional communities and to work on common projects together. The temptation to flirt with friendly capitalism I think is a mistake, whether it is slow money, pay it forward or backwards, barter, time bank currency, or whatever. We need to be generous and giving karma yogis and love all, serve all, feed all. We need to get away from linear exchange and understand that the universe provides. That the earth is a common treasury for all to share.

Here is an article updating our recent dealings with Recreation and Parks Dept.: The Free Farm Stand will Stand.

The article is not quite accurate as I am still working with the Parks Department to get the Special Event permit they want me to have to run the Stand.  I am not needing a Health Permit so won’t get one (I sent an email to Parks Dept. with an email from the Health Dept. saying I don’t need a permit to give out produce and day old bread) . The latest email from Dana Ketcham is pretty crazy:

Hi Tree
I need a letter from the DPH addressed to us. I need a clear definition of produce and what “day old bread” means.

I really think that Dana wants people to come get food and then take it with them and get out of the park as quickly as possible. The idea of people hanging out and encouraging them to interact with their neighbors and each other is something she doesn’t seem to get.

It is a bit ironic that we are being hassled by the Parks Dept. this time of year when we move into fall season when the Stand slows down in terms of how much produce we collect and are harvesting ourselves from various gardens. And the amount of bread we get on Saturday night from Acme is way down too. There was a bumper crop of sunchokes from Esperanza Garden and Treat Commons. I love growing this vegetable and I especially enjoy eating them, cooking them my favorite way: washed, pour a small amount of olive oil on them, bake them in an oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

We also hada lot of greens from the Free Farm and some fruit from Stanford Glean, including quince and pineapple guava. We had some local apples, including some apples I brought back from my trip to Quincy in the Sierra Mountains above Tahoe. There are so many apples trees in that town and as far as I could tell most of the trees I saw were not being picked. I literally saw apples that had fallen, collecting in the sidewalks and gutters. I heard the bears were coming in town to eat them. I met one woman who I talked with who seemed a bit embarrassed by the situation and said that they were organizing a “Juice it or Lose It” event  to encourage people to bring in their apples to juice them.

One of the highlights of the Stand was that we moved the seedling table into the garden and invited people to come in while they were waiting for their number to be called. I think it worked better having people come into the garden and in general things ran a lot smoother.We had a lot of seedlings to give away and will have more next week too and they were very popular. Also Claire, my new house guest assistant is going to spend time on Sundays at the Stand working in the garden. This week Will showed up to help her and later in the day a couple of kids that Claire knew from Marshall Elementary showed up and there was a beautiful scene with the kids planting some of the kale seedlings.

This has nothing to do with the Stand but here is a photo of an artichoke I planted in front of my house. May a thousand artickokes bloom on sidewalk gardens!

 

 

Here is a rather long write-up of the meeting I attended with Park and Recreation and below that is a short write up of our Stand on Sunday:

My much anticipated meeting with Park and Recreation finally happened last Friday to talk about the fate of the Free Farm Stand in Parquee Niños Unidos.  I already knew in my heart that Park and Recreation was not going to evict us from the park because of the overwhelming support from neighbors, and earlier in the week, Eric Anderson, park manager for our neighborhood already assured me that they were looking for ways for this to work out that satisfied us both. Eric called me in the morning before the meeting to confirm that I would be there and he told me who would be coming, another person from Park and Recreation, Dana Ketcham the manager of the Permits and Reservations Dept., a representative from David Campos office, and Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain who works with me with the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm.

 I was feeling pretty good about things and like I said in the last blog post, so grateful for all the support the Stand and I personally had gotten. I was still receiving emails from neighbors and park users an hour before I left for the meeting and had printed out 57 letters of support to take to the meeting. Plus a friend I know named Alana who is a new mother, on her own put together a petition supporting the park as an appropriate use for our program. She had spent that last two days collecting 82 signatures and brought them to me an hour before the meeting. I am so grateful for everyone’s support and good wishes and emails.

 While waiting in the park for everyone else to arrive,  Pat Delgado joined us.  Pat is, a neighbor who lives across the street, who I have been in meetings with before about the fruit trees I wanted to plant in the park 

  I wasn’t surprised actually, though I wasn’t told she was going to be there. I purposely didn’t inform the gardeners of Treat Commons in an email I sent out to them mentioning the time or location of the meeting, because Eric was clear to me he just wanted to meet with me and maybe one other person whom I work with. Also, I had learned from the Mission Local article earlier in the week that Pat was in favor of the Free Farm moving out of the park which totally surprised me then, because when I had last seen her, in one of the few times she has visited the Free Farm Stand, she was seemingly supportive and had no complaints about it.

 My main thought going into the meeting was to hopefully learn more about the four complaints I had heard and to try to learn more details about the complaints so I could figure out better what to do about them. Eric Anderson and Sheila Chung from Supervisor David Campos office arrived and Dana was stuck in traffic from the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival going on.

 We began the meeting without Dana and I said that it would be hard to talk about anything without Dana since Eric was always telling me to talk to her to get more details.  Eric said “we have become a very sizeable event” and that the accessibility ramp going to the gazebo had been blocked, the entrance too had been blocked, and “the family atmosphere was being impinged upon”.

 Pat said that the Free Farm Stand has a negative impact on the park due to its success. That “it is a worthy and wonderful endeavor, but there are better places for it to be at”. The two places she suggested it be at are at the Cesar Chavez school parking lot across the street and the big empty parking lot in front of the closed Delano’s supermarket (Fresh and Easy is moving in). I pointed  out that I would love to put a garden there since it is across the street from where I live and had already approached them a month ago about that and they wrote me back saying they are just starting to think about the project. I didn’t say that the idea that Fresh and Easy grocery was not likely to let me set up a Free Farm Stand there giving out for free better local and organic produce than they will be selling.

Shelia said that “from our office most people are supportive of the Stand and understand the connection to the garden and farm… that is what we are hearing..” She didn’t know of what impact it would be to the community to have it offsite.

 I said that the issues that Eric brought up can be easily addressed by us like not blocking the ramp or entrance or walkway.

 At some point Dana arrived and she asked some questions about where we set up and our new system of handing out number. I asked her more about the complaints and I never got much of an answer and I didn’t learn who these complaints came from. I asked about the one specific complaint I had read about in the online article that people renting the clubhouse felt that we had “disrupted a children’s birthday party”.  She said that was that was by someone going to the party being “overwhelmed by the line outside”. We all got up and looked at the space and talked about where we set up, how we were asked to move further away from the gazebo and the children’s playground and be right in front of the garden, and to leave 4 feet in front of our table so there is a clear walking path for people.

 We sat down and continued the talk. Dana really feels that she is ok with us having the Free Farm Stand in the park if we meet the requirements that Eric mentioned, but that she still didn’t feel like the project was appropriate for a park.  She said that even with other events that happen in other parks no one gets to use the park regularly more than to times a month. That every Sunday was too much. She said “you need to compromise a bit to balance the different interests people have for park use”. She suggested a long compromise having the event two times a month here and two times elsewhere. Like ”odd and even days having them at different locations one at the park and one somewhere else”.

 If we deal with the accessibility issues and the crowd situation, she will give us a permit to give away unprepared food only because of health code issues. She included no bread specifically in what she wanted to see.

 I explained why it was important for us to give away sample tastes of homemade  jam and prepared spreads, that we were basically not just a food giveaway program. I explained that we were trying to educate people, especially parents and children, about the importance of eating healthy, to understand where food come from (that is why we planted the fruit trees in the park and like being next to a garden), and to understand the environmental implications of our food choices. To inspire others to be compassionate to people in need in our neighborhoods. That our Stand helps to strengthen our community by encouraging people to come to a park every week and get to know their neighbors (like a big potluck party) which we believe will chip away at the violence that happens here. So being in a parking lot will not work nor not being able to give away tastes of jams on bread. That we would like to explore getting a permit to do that.

 Eric pointed out that I was looking at a different set of rules and regulations to do that and to keep it simple we should stay with giving out unprepared foods.

 So there was an agreement to make some changes to the way we set up and that we would contact the Health Department. Dana said let’s stick with the original date of Oct. 15^th to get a permit so Park and Recreation could issue a permit to us. Shelia said their office could help us expedite getting a permit if needed. Dana said “I don’t want you to think we have solved the problem and then you are done”. I think she wants us to find another place to be, at least part time. She said they will issue a permit for 6 months for every Sunday unless there is a backlash against this. Other quotes from Dana: “It is a beautiful place; we don’t want the food thing taking over”.  “This is happening during prime hours for people who want to recreate” (she was saying for people who may want to sit on the lawn and not have to deal with a large crowd). Margaret and I both pointed out that parks are for recreation but also for people (including the vulnerable and poor people among us) to find a place to sit in the shade or otherwise rest. 

 My reaction to this is that it is pretty messed up that one needs a permit to give away free unprepared vegetables and fruit in a park. Though I guess if they say they will waive the fee because I am non-profit group and it is easy to get the piece of paper, maybe it is no big deal. It also seems wrong that I need a permit to for someone to make jam at home  to share on bread with a bunch of neighbors in a park or to share some honey from a local backyard beehive. Or to have a cooking demo how to prepare bitter melon  or to give out roasted sunchokes on toothpicks or beets (like Agnes from the San Anselmo Crop Sharing group that visited us a few weeks back and shared her version of roasted beets with us (http://freefarmstand.org/2011/09/12/pears-and-people-a-plenty/).

 So I have called the health department to see what is involved in getting the permits needed by Oct. 15. A volunteer named Carmen who blogs for our Free Farm contacted Janelle from the Sustainable Economies Law Center about our situation and I learned about a topic that I didn’t know existed.  Laws and Lawyers involved with legal issues around sharing and sharing food. Janelle Orsi wrote this interesting article: http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-shareable-food-movement-meets-the-law. I found out the Free Farm/Free Farm Stand and my name pops up in this publication:  Prohibitions on Sharing Food with People Experiencing Homelessness. I just hooked up with a lawyer named Phil who is just beginning a practice in Sustainable Food Law (legal support for conscious food business) and he offered to do some pro bono research to help with our situation (http://www.sustainablefoodlaw.com/).

Sara Miles just sent me this New York Times article about the Food Truck Revolution in San Francisco: Food Truck Revolution. It talks about a company called Off the Grid that”gives vendors a way to bypass, or at least expedite, the city’s byzantine permitting…Mr. Cohen said San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department, which had tentatively been considering opening park spaces to food trucks, was heartened by Fort Mason’s success  Off the Grid soon began securing spaces in city-owned parks. ” Say what is with this? A tiny non-profit educational and service oriented group being hassled for giving away slices of bread with homemade jam while the revenue stream clients get treated differently?      

This Sunday it was another bit of a crazy day for me at the Free Farm Stand.  The main challenge we have is that at least during this intense abundance month, it is so hard to minimize the impact we have on the park with all the food that is coming in. There was a great improvement with our numbering system and in general things were more calm and there was a lot less crowding in the entrance way to the park and on the walkway.

 It is definitely apple and pear season in this area. Produce to the People picked 561 pounds of apples and pears just from trees in the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Potrero Hill. I also had 16 pounds of apples dropped off from a neighbor, a guy that comes to the Stand who is living in the Excelsior brought 29 pounds of really beautiful pears (he also brought a gallon of fresh squeezed pear juice that we served at the Free Farm workday lunch), and Bilkis gleaned 22 pounds of apples from Marin. There was a total of 648 pounds of apples and pears that we gave out…two boxes were left, but someone is going to process them today.  I also got 17 pounds of produce from the Permaculture Guild garden on Potrero…many thanks to the volunteers who harvested the greens and tomatoes and then dropped them off.  I know there is food to harvest from the Esperanza garden, but I haven’t been able to get to it.

I am totally blown out and amazed by all the emails that have been have been sent in by people who support the Free Farm Stand in the park and love what we are doing. I actually don’t know how to express my feelings when I have read so many stories of what the Free Farm Stand means to people, my heart is really touched by grace. I think this experience of having Park and Recreation wanting to move us out of the park has brought people together in a positive way and strengthened our community.  More people have come out wanting to volunteer and to help us become more sustainable. An older Spanish speaking woman just came up to me at the Free Farm Stand and gave me a big hug! I am feeling very hopeful that this is all good and it has been for me a beautiful learning experience as well so far.

As of today Park and Recreation hasn’t gotten back to me about having a meeting. A new development has arisen though. The San Francisco Health Department has gotten involved (they called me this morning) and I spoke with a very nice and supportive woman named Stephanie Cushing (Princial Environmental  Health Inspector). There are state codes that the DPH follows regulating produce stands which are pretty much exempt from rule/regulations if they are on premises that are operated by a producer (in control of the premises (like if the park would let us be there or we set up the stand at the Free Farm which we control) and they sell or in our case give out only produce. Then if we don’t fit in the category of a produce stand we are bumped up into the classification of a farm stand. At farm stands “food preparation is prohibited with exception of food samples” (and there are regulations about that too) and we have to have a toilet and hand washing facilities available for our employees and operators.

What I talked to Stephanie about is the idea of crop swaps. Remember the Chronicle article a couple of weeks back that we were listed in and I wrote about Crop Sharing? I am trying to promote the idea of neighbors getting together once a week and sharing their surplus produce or their “valued added” product like jams or pickles or pies. It would be like you go over to your neighbors and bring them a jar of some homemade hot sauce or honey you just got from your beehive and they whip out a loaf of organic day old Acme bread and put some on to taste it.  But  instead of going over to your neighbors you would go to the neighborhood garden sharing activity in the park like the Free Farm Stand. There you would share the product you made with a other neighbors, especially those in need that are on tight budgets trying to get by without a job or on little income. So for the health department if you are “giving out” jam or hummus or selling it, you would need to cook or prepare the product in a code kitchen. The area is grey in my opinion if you are sharing it with neighbors in a public space. Is there a difference between sharing something with another neighbor in a public space or giving things away as a food program would do?

Here is part of a recent letter from Stephanie:

“According to my Director, there does not seem to be a food safety concern
with the produce give-away.  We might consider issuing a permit for a
produce market and waiving the fees since this is a non-profit
organization.  However, items such as honey or jams or breads may not be
given away since these foods are “prepared”.  Bathrooms would need to be
located nearby for use.

I also have a call into our Agriculture Commissioner to see if he has
concerns.

The location of the produce give away will be up to DPW or Park and Rec.”

I asked this in a reply email:

I did not understand if you found out if neighbors sharing jams and other valued goods with each other is allowed if the products are made at home.  Tree

“Tree:  Sharing jams with neighbors is fine but not to hand out at produce
market as you are handing out produce.”

So the DPH sees us a food giveaway program probably like Park and Recreation. It is an uphill battle! Since the beginning I have  been trying to do something different,  which is a difficult thing for most people to understand, because it is a subtle difference between giving away large amounts of produce vs sharing the surplus from a farmer’s market, or an apple tree, or from surplus from someone yard or farm. Though from all the emails I think a lot of people do sense that we are different and that the ”sharing”  community we have created is real for them. We will have to convince them that Acme is sharing their surplus breads with their neighbors (also some people say the corporations are people) and that sharing our homemade jams and pickles is what is happening. Though staying in the park is our first important goal to work towards and these other details can be worked out.

Yesterday started out foggy and cool, but most people were happy that it wasn’t as hot as the week before. I would say things went smoother than last week, partly because of less people (167 approximately) and because we are working the kinks out of our system of handing out numbers. It is apple season and we had apples from a few source. Produce to the People gave us over 89 pounds of apples from a tree in Bernal Heights, Bilkis brought apples and pears from Marin, a new friend brought apples and pears from her orchard in Santa Cruz. Again I brought over two large heirloom squash that were donated from the Heirloom Expo a couple of weeks ago.

the long green one is called long of Naples and weighed about 45 lbs

it looked like this inside

some seedlings were given away

there was lots of very sweet soft  or squished nectarines and peaches that I am cooking down as I write

we need a team of jammers and canners to make jam and compotes ready to prepare soft fruit after the stand is over

On Saturday morning Claire and I harvested 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes and hops from Esperanza Garden in the Mission. That garden unfortunately needs attention as I think there are not enough people taking care of it on a regular basis. Another garden that needs help is the Secret Garden.

                                                                                                                        rocoto pepper from Treat Commons

  hanging out after Free Farm Stand playing music…earlier Mike  and Jorge were making music while the Farm Stand was happening

On Saturday I walked by the People’s Tenderloin Garden on McAllister and Larkin St.(http://www.tndc.org/community/garden.html). A very sweet man named Lorenzo who helps run that farm visited our farm last week and told me how it runs. It has common beds and twice a month they harvest and the produce is shared with mostly the people who grew it who are nearby nearby residents and actually anyone who show up on harvest day. How cool is that! The July harvest they had 500lbs! They weigh their harvest like us! I was impressed with their row of very happy eggplant.