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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

for every drop of rain
for every ray of sunshine
for Cinderella pumpkins (did you see one at the stand on Sunday?)
for every blessing of the field
for every act of kindness
for every twist of fate
for every helping hand and volunteer
for so many names I can’t remember them all
for the creatures underneath our feet
for every creature in the air
for Irving who inspired me with his early on vision of avocado forests in San Francisco
for over 80 pounds of avocados
distributed for free at the Free Farm Stand
from one tree that he and I planted
30 years ago
for friends and family
for a roof over my head
for an extra bed to share with someone in need
for abundance of the apple tree
for Tom and his generosity who picked  314 pounds of apples
from an orchard in Santa Rosa and brought them to the city
to share with us
for Produce to the People and Sue who both brought us more apples
for everyone who took home apples
to make apple sauce or a pie
or just to eat fresh
for the Free Farm
and St Paulus Church who loans us the land
for all the blessings too numerous to count
I am thankful

These are some photos that didn’t make it in time from
last week’s Free Farm Stand that help illustrate my thankfulness:

Here are photos from this week:

The stand this week had a lot of special attractions. Mike brought his homemade pumpkin spread. The Emily and Mike put on quite a wonderful cooking demo, showing people  a way to cook pumpkins and winter squash by stir frying it in a wok. The pumpkin was served on top of rice and wrapped in a banana leaf. She also made handouts in English and Spanish that talked about other ways of preparin the squash.The avocados and olives were a big hit too (our small Thanksgiving treat).

We have two more Free Farm Stands before we close on December 12^th and then we reopen 4 weeks later  January  9, 2011. We are also closing the Free Farm this Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but will be there on Saturday Nov. 27th.

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