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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.

I have been thinking a lot this past week of matters spiritual in nature and how that intersects with the work I am doing with the Free Farm Stand and the Free Farm. I have actually become a little restless with the local food growing craze in the city and personally feel a need to explore other issues. Specifically I think that now that the spotlight is focused so intensely on global warming,  lowering our carbon foot print, making cities more green and sustainable, paying more attention to where our food comes from and our diets. I want to spend some time dreaming about what is next on our agenda. Not that I want to retire as an urban farmer (now that I have proven to myself that I can grow a lot of produce in the city and that I can grow beautiful crops of cabbages or lettuce).  Perhaps it is because this last week I have been going to more than my share of religious ceremonies (two Christian ceremonies and one Jewish ceremony), and just finished reading Jesus Freak, that I have been questioning my only spiritual path and seeking. I look forward to exploring the idea of adding another dimension to our farm and putting some effort into highlighting its inherent sacred nature. Making it more of a place of worship and inner traveling, making the farm truly a sanctuary without walls (though we may build a combination greenhouse/ worship/prayer/meditation/yoga/healing space). I think there are many people like me who have been alienated from institutional religions, but have the need to gather in community and not only engage in the holy working of farming and growing food and flowers, but want to share the divine with friends and family in different ways and with a variety of ceremonies.  To repair this world this spiritual work on our own souls seems imperative.

I sense the Free Farm Stand is a kind of spiritual ceremony and has a community of people who attend every Sunday. It seems like a joyous event that everyone gets into. This week we had mostly produce from the Free Farm (we picked about 84lbs of lettuce and greens and about 20lbs went to the farm stand at the farm). I did pick some garlic from the Permaculture Guild garden but I decided to let it dry before giving it out. A couple of neighbors came by with extra fava beans,  one neighbor brought a bag of very beautiful Meyer lemons, Pam came by with an assortment of things including lettuce and a bouquet of edible flowers. One woman dropped off some homemade hummus and a big jar of double fermented kombucha drink. We sort of run low on produce after an hour because of the line of people trailing down the block. Now, like I mentioned last week, a friend (and this time with her three sisters accompanying her) came by around 2pm with a truck load of leftover organic produce from the Stonestown Mall farmer’s market (which is about 25 farmers from Marin). She also picked up produce up from Trader Joe’s which I felt like I should take, including things that I think are far from local or organic or fresh.  So it seemed crazy to have all these packages of challenged green beans in plastic and Styrofoam sitting near fresh organic green beans from the market. At the end of the day though, everything was given away. Two other things happened at the stand that made me happy A friend named Jen came by and set up a table and  talked to people about getting a free soil test in their garden (she got a grant to test 100  gardens in several neighborhoods). also Antonio came by and talked to a handful of folks about gardening, mostly answering garden questionsThe Free Farm keeps evolving. Last week we seemed to have slightly smaller numbers of volunteers though we have been getting a lot done. We are still working on infrastructure, planting, harvesting, and working on special projects like building a house for the composting toilet (see our calendar for the June 19^th free workshop on building a composting toilet at the Free Farm). We are also trying to finish up the labyrinth and this Wednesday we will have twelve more volunteers from the Metta Center in Berkeley. We are getting a 20 yard load of compost and can use all hands to move the stuff. We are also still tinkering with setting up a small table with vegetables on it to give to people in the neighborhood and to volunteers. Last week we gave out about 20lbs of greens and lettuce. Last Sunday was the first week that Temple Emanu-El opened the farm for two hours and they got 14 volunteers. They plan to be there the first Sunday of the month (though they are skipping July 4^th).

Here is our new bulletin board that Page built and Case is standing in front of.We could really use some free paint, like primary colors that are bright

Also check out our calendar for the HomoHomestead Bike Tour including the Free Farm this Sunday at 3:30pm. They say they are planning on getting their hands dirty  so it should be a fun way to start a bike tour.

And here is a last minute news item. Check out the latest post by Case on our Free Farm website: http://tinyurl.com/24yscg5. I think it is really wonderful and is a great plug for Free.