Author: Tree

Last week I sent out a special alert about an apricot orchard that needed harvesting and I got a number of responses from people that wanted to help. As it turns out the orchard which is near Davis is going to be picked next Saturday June 26 during Pride Weekend and we can still use some help with drivers and vehicles and boxes. Please let me know if you want to be part of this fun adventure.

I love giving out fresh organic fruit and picking it is just as much fun.  Right now we are just entering fruit season big time around here. One of my favorite “fruits” is the avocado. There will always be a shortage of free avocados in this city until we plant more avocado trees, and they grow here pretty well, at least in the Mission (and I suspect other warm neighborhoods too).  That is true of other fruits as well, we just need more fruit trees in the city. We need to choose trees carefully and try to plant varieties of fruit that will grow here and choose cultivars that might be the best growing and tasting. Like the Haas avocado is a fantastic kind that I have grown in the Mission.

Planting fruit trees is not as easy as you would think. I have been working for over two years to get some fruit trees planted in the park where we set up the stand on Sundays. It is an underused blighted part of the park that gets full southern exposure and would be ideal to grow a row of fruit trees. We have a line of fruit trees in the garden adjacent to this land and five years after we planted them the trees look happy and healthy and are in their 3^rd season of producing fruit (though the two avocado trees we planted aren’t producing yet). What is stopping me from planting the trees is about $3,000 I need to raise to build a fence around the neglected land because Recreation and Park doesn’t want fruit trees in the parks. By putting the trees behind a fence we would be expanding the garden into the park, something that the bureaucracy can handle.

Almost as good as growing your own fruit is to pick fruit from a tree that really needs it and no one is doing it. This Sunday Produce to the People brought us pounds of oranges that were gleaned from a tree nearby and lemons.  Then a Steve a nearby neighbor brought us 20lbs of lemons that he got from his father who lives in Sonoma County.

Short of growing or gleaning fruit, being on the receiving end of left over organic fruit from the farmers market is the bomb. Our new connection to the Sunday’s Farmers Market behind Stonestown Mall, collected and delivered by 3 saintly sisters, is totally unbelievable. The selection and quality of the fruits and vegetables were fantastic; I think we all were blown away.

Actually the stand this week was amazing for the quality and quantity of produce, that included 11 boxes of hecka local produce grown and distributed. Right now most of the produce is coming from the Free Farm. I am a little sad that two of the gardens that have been supplying the stand with produce are in a funky state.  The Secret Garden won’t supply much produce until the youth summer program there gets underway and 18^th and Rhode Island has some things planted but we will just have to wait and see what we get.

There is often something new at the stand. This week we gave away t-shirts from a rescued activist t-shirt archives.

For those who haven’t gotten enough wood chip moving fun in their lives, like at Hayes Valley Farm, there are more opportunities to get involved in this activity. Both at the Free Farm and Treat Commons Community Garden will be getting chips to move (this Wednesday and Saturday at the Free Farm and this Friday at Treat Commons at 10am).

The Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm has a new summer volunteer/intern from the Metta Center for Non-violence in Berkeley named Jacob. I asked him if he would write for this blog to share his perspective with everyone. He wrote the last post and below are is his second report with my added comments in the comment section:

The natural ‘high’ and sense of amazement slowly began to subside throughout my second time volunteering at the free farm stand. Although the feelings of community and abundance remain core motivating factors for me, yesterday brought up some more questions about ‘free’ that I would like to explore here. I welcome any comments on my questions and dilemmas.

As I move through what is soon to become a routine, I seemed to notice (and Tree later confirmed) that we had even more food than the week before. Yet, significantly fewer people came by. I couldn’t help but feel mildly disappointed.

Why wasn’t there a line wrapping around the block this week? Did people not know that we were giving out fresh, semi-local, healthy fruit, veggies, herbs, and bread? Do the people who are most hungry feel comfortable coming to receive our gift to the community?

Over the past two weeks I have had a number of conversations, which have spoken to, but have come short of answering these questions…

Last week, a man was walking through the park and stopped at the table to ask a couple of what I am coming to notice as the standard questions about the farm stand—“So you are giving this food away for free?” and “where were these strawberries grown? And after he got his answers and was about to walk away. Before he did I asked if he wanted any of the food. He stopped and replied that he has a job and buys his own food. This comment seemed to contradict the aims of the stand. The word, or rather his concept of ‘free’ appeared colored his attitude towards the stand and viewed this food as a handout or charity.

This week a volunteer mentioned to me that some of her low-income neighbors told her that they knew about the stand, but won’t come for fear that their friends and neighbors would see them getting free food.  Hearing this saddened me.

After the stand was closed and packed up I sat down to briefly talk with a veteran volunteer at the stand. As we talked we recounted how our mutual friend and free farming regular, Pancho believes the Free Farm Stand is not about giving away free food—contrary to its name. Instead the giving and receiving of ‘gifts’ is the stand’s central practice.

Mid-week a bright friend of mine reminded me that it is easier to decline an offer than to accept a gift and to receive it. Like when I am offered some tea at someone else’s home. It brought to mind how I have grown up in a society which has installed within me a social calculator whose job it is to keep track of worth—receiving something without ‘payment’ produces a feeling of debt. (This is what corporations bank on when they give away ‘freebees’). And on the other side the social calculator is supposed to calculate the ‘profit’ when I give to make sure it is ‘worth’ my time.

Although, I know Free Farming is about giving the gift of food to everyone, I also understand that it is a project of social justice in which feeding the hungry is fundamental. Each of these stories offered thought-provoking and differing perspectives on what Free Farming means for our community. Yet in contrast to the theoretical paradoxes of the classroom, these perspectives actually serve to motivate me to continue to serve the free farm stand.

Yesterday I visited the free farm stand for the first time. As Tree’s summer intern, assistant, mentee this was the beginning of what I anticipate to be a long introduction to the power of ‘free’.

As an academic for the past three years studying peace and conflict, I have spent most hours of my day learning and writing about the roots of the problems of our day. So I would have no trouble writing an analytic essay about the free farm stand. But I won’t. I won’t and can’t because the five hours I spent with Tree and the free farm stand on Sunday wasn’t that kind of experience—it touched at something lectures, books, papers, or even blogs can’t.\

The first surprise of the day was that before the food had even arrived a line of community members had already started. Not just any line but a line of people who for the most part knew each other and Tree, and were ready to help us with getting the stand ready. As the tent was raised and the tables were set, the regular volunteers arrived and did everything that needed to be done. No boss, no bossing; just smiles and helping one another. Each volunteer made me feel like I belonged here. Then it began to occur to be that this stand at Parque Niños Unidos was indeed the meaning of community, manifested in the flesh (and earth).

It was so simple yet very revolutionary.

As the produce and bread found its way on to baskets on the tables and was ready to be given away, I looked up from my place behind the five varieties of lettuce and saw the line of human beings had grown to wrap half way around the block. In my mind this stand was no longer just a small operation for a few locals to get some good free food—this was a weekly ritual, a staple bringing together San Franciscans from all backgrounds to participate in the authenticity of giving and receiving food. And about an hour later a shipment of ripe and colorful fruit showed up. It was then, that the discourse of scarcity that seemed to govern the world my life decisions outside of the gates of the park, simply dissolved into nothingness. There was enough food for everyone there. Not to mention healthy food. And, if you can excuse the cliché, the food was for the soul. As I’m sure you already know, soul food can’t be bought or sold, it must be prepared and given.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand well that this stand in itself won’t solve the big problems of our time. But in fairness to the stand it doesn’t claim to. In any event, on my walk back to the 24^th Street BART station, I was reminded of the larger context of our local task at had. As I approached Mission, a woman looked me in the eye with sadness on her face and asked me for a couple dollars in order for a meal from McDonalds (which we stood in front of. My experience at the free farm stand just hours ago compelled me to stop and respond differently. I stopped, took a breath, opened my bag, and offered her the strawberries and cherries I took from the stand. To me, this seemed like what I needed to do. Yet she declined, insisting on a dollar hamburger.

No matter how much food we give or how many neighbors come to get some, at the end of the day the success of the stand is not measured inside the park, but on the sidewalk and in front of McDonalds. The task of the stand extends through the intersecting issues of the globalized industrial food system, health, local hunger, and the environment, not in solving but in trying out something different. A social interaction of giving not dominated by finance but by human beings caring for one another.

Sunday morning as I was packing the van full with vegetables both that we grew (about 8 boxes) and those that we collected from the Farmer’s markets, I started thinking that maybe I should be growing cut flowers to give away. Maybe I was exhausted from hauling vegetables around the last two days. The sustainable food movement has hit town and it is a big thing now. Certainly hunger and food insecurity is our most important priority and those issues can be approached in a holistic way. Educating people about the links between health and diet and making good choices in what we eat, promoting and fostering local food production as much as possible, and building community and supporting the movement of people getting away from the buying and selling and the private property culture and moving towards a gift giving and sharing (aka free) society.

But we need more local grown flowers in our lives. We need the colors and the aroma of flowers in our home, on our tables, in our shelters, soup kitchens, and sacred spaces. Supporting sustainability of our smiles.  Food for the soul.  I was imagining what it would be like to show up at the Free Farm Stand with van full of hecka locally grown cut flowers to give away. The bees would love them too. And we can teach kids and adults flower arranging. At a MAPP event last Saturday at Treat Commons it seems the kids that attended are already skilled at that art and made there own flower arrangements.
Last week I began working with Jacob an intern or Mentee from the Metta Center for non-violence in Berkeley. He will be working with the Free Farm and the Free Farm Stand until August. On Wednesday Jacob came with about 12 other Mentees to help us on the farm. Fortunately we had plenty of work to do and I think all of us got really dirty. With 12 extra hands plus our regular helpers, we got so much done! A large pumpkin bed was created and planted, 20 cubic yards of compost was moved, and a lot of rubble was moved too. My friend Craig who runs a vegan taco truck business at Dolores Park took a number of hours off from his business to come to the Free Farm to feed us all. He got a donation of vegan cheese from Follow Your Heart and made grilled cheese sandwiches which were a big hit!  On Saturday we had a wonderful and hot workday.  We harvested 62.5lbs of produce and gave away some there (about 10-20lbs). Also, Christy brought some surplus vegetables from her garden (in the spirit of the Free Farm Stand).

The Free Farm Stand was another beautiful event. We had a lot of local grown produce and a number of neighbors and others brought surplus produce from their gardens. Talking about flowers, Pam brought by a bouquet of edible flowers from her garden and they looked fabulous. The flowers were a great addition to the lettuce she brought. Around 2pm or so another truck full of produce arrived from the farmer’s market behind the Stonestown Mall. We got everyone that was there to line up while we put the new produce on the table. It was really amazing all the wonderful fresh fruit we had including red raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and apricots. We also had an abundant plant table with many seedlings and mature plants to give away.