Author: Tree

Numbers and Bummers

Yesterday it was a very chaotic day as we began giving out numbers to people so they wouldn’t have to wait in a long line and could instead hang out in the park, sit on the grass, or take off for a while. At the end of the day we gave out 216 numbers and it took from 1 until about 3pm or so. It was a very hot day and the park has few trees to sit under to get out of the sun, so a number of people waited in line because there was shade there in the spot where people used to line up.  I heard from a number of people that people liked this new system better and it seemed to make things go smoother. I think things should get better as we work the kinks out of the way we hand out and call numbers.

We also announced through a flier that Park and Recreation wants us to move our program out of the park by October 15, 2011. See the flier at below (we had this flier in Spanish and English but need a Chinese translator to really communicate with everyone):

There are a number of factors that may be contributing to this situation and why that Park and Rec is focusing on us now after three years of happily sharing food  in the park. One is that we have grown in size and that does have an impact on the park. I noticed yesterday that handing out the numbers basically got rid of the long line down the street, but still people had to wait a long time to get produce and most of those people hung out on the grass. I would like to have a canopy for people to sit under, but supposedly canopies are considered a structure and that is a no no in a park I am told. Also, I was told that both Dolores Park and Mission Playground on 19th st. are under renovation and both those have kid playgrounds that are under construction and closed at the moment. That might mean more parents coming to our park and maybe some disgruntled parent complained when they saw what we were doing.

I have various emotions about this situation. I think it would be sad to stop doing the Free Farm Stand in this park.  At the same time I have to be honest that it is a lot of work to make the stand happen each week and I haven’t been able to find the consistent help behind the scenes that is needed to bring the stand to the park every week…that includes picking up the produce, sorting it and packaging it so it is easier to move, dealing with the surplus soft fruit and vegetable,’and cleaning up afterwards, including putting things away at my home, and doing this every weekend. So sometimes I get tired and feel like I need more help. In the meantime I am doing some discernment and also looking at all the options, and hopefully will talk to Dana Ketcham in the permit office when she returns.  I really believe that change is part of living and that sometimes  unexpected good comes out of difficult bummers.

One highlight of my week was going to the heirloom expo in Santa Rosa. It was an overwhelming experience seeing all the diversity in vegetables and animals that were on display there. Though it did make me feel a little uneasy seeing all the beautiful chickens and turkeys, cows, and sheep, in small pens  being stared at by people like myself like they were in a zoo. I doubt the pumpkins and squash didn’t mind showing off their stuff.  I especially liked the California Rare Fruit Growers display of 60 types of apples and I don’t know how many kinds of pears were there, each with their own label and the pears with some history typed up. The show really made me come away thinking that God/Goddess or life force is such a crazy creative energy with an infinite pallet  to paint with. Through my friend Justin I met his friend Aaron who among other things saves seeds and breeds vegetables. His display of his giant beets and carrots was really fantastic and trippy, and Aaron said they all are quite edible and not woody or tough. I also came away being inspired to grow less hybrid vegetables and grow more open-pollinated plants that one can save seed for (you can’t save seed for hybrids).

I met a woman who was running the Napa County Master Gardenr’s booth that has a display of the most beautiful heirloom squash and sh offered to give them to me for our Free Food Stand after the show was over. So I took home quite a display of winter squash and I brought two  for the Stand yesterday. It took some time to cut them open, but they look  quite yummy inside.

A friend who lives nearby on Treat Ave, came by with 98 pounds of grapefruit from his backyard tree. We had a huge amount of produce as usual including a giant harvest of green beans from the Free Farm, 26 pounds. Of course, we also got hundreds of pounds of green beans left over from the farmer’s market.

The Free Farm Stand is more than  sharing food. A volunteer has been showing up regularly painting the face of kids who seem to really have fun

how local can we get?grapefruits from a block away

I don’t know the variety name of this heirloom pumpkin…I think it is  something like Rouge  Vif d’Etampes

Marina di Chiooga

the long wait to get food…at least people could sit on the lawn and wait, though at least two people left because of the wait

Mike’s hummus and what goes into it

Pears & People a Plenty!

The thing I love best about the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm is all the wonderful people I meet all the time and a new crop seems to come up every week! Such an abundance of good vibes and helpful hands and hearts.

I heard about an abandoned pear orchard owned by a church in Moraga two years ago from my friend Justin who has gone out there and picked the fruit and shared some with me. When he came by with two boxes of fruit last week and told me there was a lot more there, I got inspired and contacted my friends on the “gleaning hot line”, and I organized a trip to go up there and a lot of pears were picked by my loyal fruit picking crew.  Gary, who loves harvesting fruit, drove up again and picked the rest of them (or most of what was left). He actually ran into the pastor of the church whom he knew from years ago and the pastor offed him some work playing music for their church.. We had 860 ½ pounds of pears to give away on Sunday and I think they were very popular.

We also had at least a 100 pounds of produce from the Free Farm (the blog at http://thefreefarm.org/ is really beautiful this week and just a good example of all the many beautiful folks that enrich our work and lives). We have also started getting a regular donation of the lovely produce filled with spiritual energy from Green Gulch Farm.

Last week I wrote about an article in the Chronicle about Crop Swapping. A woman named Agnes came by who was in the photograph that that was published with the article. The photo was a shot of the San Anselmo Garden Exchange. She told me that unlike what was written in the article, the exchange is really about sharing garden produce and flowers  and that you don’t have to have something to exchange to get something. It sounded wonderful. She said she is a caterer who doesn’t have a garden yet and that she has been coming by with various dishes to the exchange. I could tell she was hard core because she had a small food thermometer, a pen,  and  a tasting spoon in breast pocket. She  was so sweet and brought a delicous roasted beet salad in a colorful bowl she had made to share with our crowd. She was prepared becaue she cut up the beets large and brought toothpicks to hand out the dish with. I also learned besides her talents as a cook and devotee of sharing food, she was a “burner” and  at least 3 other Burning Man people were helping at our stand, including Mike our “hummus guy”.When  I talk about an abundance of fabulous people I meet, Agnes is certainly one to be counted.Here is another beautiful soul who brought some small boquets of herbs from his garden to share.

Brittany brought her sister to help. Our intern extraordinaire is going back to school but promises to come around when she can.Clara, a dear friend who helped in grow food for us in the Secret Garden, came by with Jay her partner and her two new twins. Theyare  some of the cutest babies I know.Every week something new in season in over abundance. This time it was cherry tomatoes.Enjoying the hummus .The line was the longest ever, around the corner and down 23rd St. Someone sort of complained that he had been in line an hour and a half.  We announced  to everyone that we are going to start handing out numbers next week so people can hang out in the park if they want instead of waiting in line. We will see if that helps.  We only ran out of food around 3pm, though we did have some left over pears.

This week there is so much happening. There is the Heirloom Expo Fair happening  from Tuesday through Thursday in Santa Rosa, http://theheirloomexpo.com/. Though it costs $10 to get in, I think it may be worth it.  I may have room in our van, especially for possible drivers, and we may do some gleaning while up there in that area. I would be going up early Thursday morning.

The Biosafety Alliance is holding a “justice begins with Seeds State Wide Conference” this week which is GMO Awareness Week ,http://biosafetyalliance.org/. One hightlight of the event is that Dr. Vandana Shiva is speaking right down the street from me at Horace Mann School.  I don’t know if you can get in without registering for the conference and what the “donation” price will be:

Horace Mann School Auditorium
September 13th 7:00 PM
351 23rd Street

I love this quote from her: “The time has come to reclaim the stolen harvest and celebrate the growing and giving of good food as the highest gift and most revolutionary act.” — from “Stolen Harvest”.

This Friday is Parking Day, http://parkingday.org/. I found it hard to find out where there are parking day events happening using this Map. Fun & Cheap, http://sf.funcheap.com/parking-day-2011-sf/, lists some events including the one the Free Farm is helping out with (also listed with http://www.sfenvironment.org/). The Free Farm is offering it’s some  greenhouse space to Feel the Earth, a non-profit that is collaborating with the Dept. of the Environment and the Green Stack program connected with the Public Library. “Come pick up some free compost, learn about the Seed Lending Library, and practice sowing seeds that will be used in the Free Farm and other urban farm and garden projects.” Feel the Earth is looking for volunteers for this event: Phone: 415 294 1395
Email: info@feeltheearth.org or just show up to help starting around 9am.

 

Crop Sharing

I am wondering if newspaper editors come up with a homey working class theme for their newspapers around Labor Day.  Yesterday at the Free Farm Stand a volunteer said we were mentioned in the Sunday Chronicle.  So I looked the article up online and while searching the paper I came up with these articles:

We were mentioned in the article “Popularity of crop swaps is growing”.  I don’t think the reporter contacted anyone in our group about this article and though I thought what she wrote was sort of accurate, she  mistakenly lumped us in as another crop swap where you have to bring something from your garden to trade to get something. I actually just wrote this reporter to tell her my two cents about crop swapping and how that is not us:
“… In fact, although what we do support some of the same goals as crop swaps, we have fundamental differences with the bartering movement, which we see as just another form of capitalism, the “ism” that we have now that is broken and doesn’t work. While we support the idea of building strong neighborhood networks of people growing food, where we differ is that we believe neighbors should get together and share their surplus produce not barter or swap it which is just like selling.  This kind of seemingly friendly activity only encourages more business as usual, as in promoting business behavior among humans who are really all family. As a community we need to cultivate trust and sharing and that is what our program is really about. We are not charity workers, but beautiful share croppers.  Where love is the crop we are growing and we are sharing our crop with all. Yes it is about serving the needs of low income individuals and families, but it is more. We strive to educate people about  the connection between what we eat and their health (we promote a non-animal based or vegan diet) and we encourage and teach people how to grow their own food, even if they don’t have a backyard (we distribute seedlings and recently sprout kits to make it easier for people to try growing something). Most importantly we are all about free and the idea of doing things to encourage the growth of generosity in our hearts. For us having the opportunity to serve and be kind and compassionate to others in need is the most beautiful gift and experience.”
I was thinking that maybe the media attention on local food growing fad might have calmed down a bit (I mean I was thinking what else is there to say about the subject?), but it still seems like things are off the hook with interest in food, farming,  homesteading,  etc.  To me it’s a bit of a vegan hippie’s nightmare out there.  The article about the restaurant Locavore tops the cake of where sort of good intentions go wrong (good intentions like wanting to have a restaurant that serves local organic food and creating a space “that has the right vibe”   by “artfully surrounding the bulbs hanging from the ceiling with chicken wire…a recycler’s dream”.)  I am so out of it I didn’t even know we had this restaurant in my hood (though I do know the owner of another restaurant around the corner from me called the Local Mission Eatery).
We also got written up in Mission Loc@l again without being contacted by the reporter ( What? Free produce!), though I remember him coming out and talking to some of our volunteers and taking pictures. He actually didn’t say much, but it did make us sound like another trendy food trip in the Mission, which I guess we are in many ways.
Not surprisingly, we have, at least during these abundant summer months,  become way more popular with the lines this week and last now going around the block onto 23rd  St., despite it being Burning Man week. Maybe it’s the economic times we are in, because a lot of the folks coming are families and seniors from the neighborhood.  Someone suggested we hand out numbers so people can wait sitting on the grass and not having to stand in a line on the sidewwalk  and I am thinking we may have to go to that system to make things better.
The quality of the food we have been giving out is pretty amazing  too. We had a lot of beautiful lettuce from the Free Farm this week and I brought 22 pounds of potatoes from my backyard.  We set an all time record of gleaned fruit with 1000 pounds of plums from the same orchard we picked last week and believe it or not there are more plums there that can be harvested.  Also, we managed to give them all away. Several mothers collected plums for their schools where there kids attended, because the schools have no money to provide healthy snacks for the children (or is it they don’t also have the will to provide healthy food?). Here is a slideshow from the trip:
a sample of the 22 lbs of potatoes I grew in my backyard
Cuban Oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus) from the Free Farm. It is fun to give out odd food plants and everyone learns something new.  This plant also known as Indian Borage is used in cooking  and has medicinal properties (used for tea for coughs and  sore throats).Two new wonderful volunteers.
It’s funny how you can start a project and if you nuture and love it, the project will grow and become its own self and what it wants to be. The bread table is an example of that, how it started off as just a bread table at the Free Farm Stand. At some point it has involved into a beautiful free food cart, sort of like the food carts or trucks that have become really popular everywhere now,  that sell hip street food from pies to soups. Our table varies from week to week and serves all different kinds of spreads from hummus to jam, kim chee, or pickles. The ingredients are often selected from produce on the table that week or jams or sauces from previous overloads of over-ripe produce. It is what makes our scene hip as the article in Mission Loc@l picked up on. But our food table is free for the masses and people without money can get something delicious and hang out in the park with new friends and nosh. This week our illustrious Mike was absent, drumming away at Burning Man, so I tried to fill in his role and made my version of hummus. I also brought a jar of marmalade that someone gave me and I brought sprouts and sprout kits complete with a cartoon how to book. The idea is to turn people onto growing sprouts so anyone can grow food at home or on the street. Another thing that is fabulous about our food table is that others can bring their creations to share.  One volunteer brought fig jam this week and spicy marinated carrots and Cristina, one of the gleaning gals, brought a delicous plum salad and a sample of plum jam, of course made with the bounty of plums from last week.
Plum salad with olive oil and basil
sprout jar with red clover seeds

When I got home from the stand a friend showed up with a pick up truck loaded with pears he had picked from an abandoned orchard in Moraga in the east bay. Fortunately the pears were hard and they won’t ripen until next week…I should have two boxes for next week. I would love to help organize others to go pick more (the word is there are a lot more to pick).

Last week I got a beautiful letter in the mail written by our friend Richard who died last month of ALS. He wrote the letter for his newsletter “Seasons” for the Auroa Dawn Foundation  & Marty’s Place,  his house for homeless men with HIV. He wrote it several months before his liberation.  He ended his writing with this:
“I’ve always felt that despite all the dogma, morals, control, power and bad example that organized religion has shown the world over the centuries, the real messages Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and other prophets brought us are these two thoughts: first do not be afraid and second, always live in Love.”