Author: Tree

Back from our one month break I am feeling refreshed and our first Sunday  Stand of the New Year was truly wonderful weatherwise and sweet otherwise.  One thing that I should note is that there is less produce this time of year and so come on time if you want to score.

All my feelings about the previous year are summed up in my latest cartoon “Nothing but Blessings” in the cartoon section. If you would like a hard copy please contact me. I personally like to have art in my hand and on paper, though we must always remember the trees and somethings may not need to be printed out.

I really see this new year as an opportunity for us all to move forward on our spiritual path and hopefully we can all put effort into doing our part to make this planet a little more beautiful and full of love and peace. I am  personally keeping in mind the mantras ” Love All Feed All Serve All” or the variation “Do Good Be Good” and when I feel like getting more biblical I  repeat “Love God/Goddess  Love Thy Neighbor”.

We are a bit behind in the food growing business, though it is winter and things are growing slowly. There is a lot of gardening work to be done here and I know a lot of gardens needing attention (including my own backyard). One of my biggest excitements right now is an event coming up at the Free Farm  next Sunday January 16th (see flier below). The Free Farm Stand will still be open (thank you Mike and others), but if  anyone wants to come by later or early  before the stand opens to help us build a greenhouse or get involved in some other garden activities please do (or come by Wednesday and or Saturday to help us prepare for the big day). Not only will be startiing the New Year off with a celebration, but we will be building two greenhouses that will help not only us grow food to give away, but we will  finally be able to step up the production of seedlings and even trees that we can distribute for free to encourage a truly do-it yourself food local food growing and sharing movement. Also, we currently have a lot of the things we could use at the Free Farm so check out our  “What We Need” section if you are one of those resourceful people with lots of stuff laying around. Also, please check out the Free Farm website, we have new bloggers and there are lots of cool photos (I’m the guy in the photos just standing around trying to look busy): http://thefreefarm.org/

Other news:

Here is a nice article about our dear friend and collaborator Lauren and her fabulous project Produce to the People: http://scoutmob.com/san-francisco/scoutfinds/999. I am looking forward to another bountiful year of low hanging fruit.

Talking about fruit, this is the season to graft our trees. The California Rare Fruit Growers is having their annual scion wood exchange this year in El Sorbrante. If anyone wants to drive or carpool let me know.

The Free Farm Stand had it’s Last Stand of this year Sunday and I am not sure if we went out with a bang or not. Actually I think we did  because although we didn’t have much produce the first round, there was more produce from the Stonestown mall farmer’s market that Maureen brought  around 2:30pm and I think almost everyone that came by, except the few that came by after we were mostly packed up, got some produce. I have been handing out the produce at the table recently and I have become more aware of the mothers with children who come and also many seniors. I felt a bit sad that we ran out of vegetables so early the first round (there wasn’t much from the Free Farm and the only other garden that had some produce was the Secret Garden). Art contributed some chills and marigolds from his garden and there were rocoto peppers and tree collards from the Secret Garden.

So we are closed now and will reopen January 9^th, 2011. The Free Farm will also be closed the last two weeks of December, on December 22 (Wed.), December 25th (Sat.), December 29th (Wed.) and January 1 (Sat.). We will re-open for our regular Wed and Sat volunteer days on January 5th.  That doesn’t mean all work will stop. We are trying to have a greenhouse barn raising  day on January 16th, working with Temple Emanu-El. In preparation for that we are reconstructing a large hoop house at the farm that we will be taking down this week. We were hoping to gather a team of helpers to go to Richmond with us on Wednesday of this week, but if it is raining we will try to go next Saturday.  If anyone wants to get involved with that project please keep in touch via email as we might be doing some construction now and then.

I am really grateful and feel blessed for the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people this year. So much thanks I feel. Shalom!

I started drawing a cartoon today as an alternative to writing this blog, but I got distracted with other things and responsibilities and didn’t finish it. Oh well another time.  To Christians and farmers alike this is a season of waiting and patience and winter wonderment (though here it isn’t quite winter because so much keeps growing). I am slowing down naturally and taking a deep breath and waiting for the return not of the Messiah, but for the fava beans to flower next year and for the red clover I planted to sprout,grow, and  flower in the spring. I am looking forward to building a greenhouse and I’m anticipating the abundant cycle to begin again.  I still have garlic to plant and we are going to experiment with a very late planting of potatoes.

We plan to have one more Free Farm Stand next Sunday December 5 and then take a month break and we will reopen January 9^th. Also the Free Farm will close the last two weeks of December (four work days closed starting December 22 and reopening January 5^th).

I am still in the thankful mode and in that sense haven’t recovered from the holiday. Along with being thankful comes feeling generous and I am grateful for the Free Farm Stand for providing us all with a chance to express our kindness to others.  It was another great stand despite that we were pretty low on the hecka local. It is really the greens season (and we haven’t skipped a beet), so get your kale and chard recipes out and your salad tongs handy.

A new customer

Chioggia Beet