Well, better than late than never. Summer arrived … just in time for fall. But we at Alemany Farm will take whatever warm days we can get. This especially cold and clammy summer (the coolest in 40 years in the Bay Area) has been punishment to the tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and other heat-loving crops. So hopefully our warm spell (if it lasts) will let those fruits get big and ripen up. We hope so!
Before we forget, please mark your calendars for these upcoming community workdays:
Saturday, Aug 28, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Aug 30, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sunday, Sept 5, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Sept 6, 1 PM to 5 PM
Saturday, Sept 11, Noon to 5 PM
Come on out, get your hands dirty, meet some new friends, and take home some fresh, organic fruits and veggies.
Speaking of food. We’d like to encourage you to check out this coming weekend’s Eat Real Festival in Oakland. The Festival (http://eatrealfest.com/) seeks to make sustainable food as accessible and as affordable as fast food. That means an awesome lineup of street food-style vendors and workshops on everything from making your own homemade wine and beer; to home beekeeping; butchering; edible gardening; permaculture; cheese-making; kombucha-making; and keeping backyard chickens. Alemany Farm co-managers are participating in the Eat Real Lit Fest Saturday at 5 PM and doing a seed-saving demonstration Sunday at 11 am. Join us!
Also, we’d like to give a plug for folks to get involved in the upcoming international day of action happening on 10/10/10 to address climate change, sponsored by the awesome team at www.350.org. Here in SF, community organizers are seeking to make the connection between creating local, sustainable food systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If you want to get involved, please check out the announcement below about an upcoming planning meeting.
Thanks, as always, for your work to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
10/10/10 Announcement:
In a single day, October 10, 2010, 350 San Francisco landscapes, balconies and community spaces will be transformed into bountiful food gardens, bringing local food production into our 7 square miles. Kitchen Garden SF is teaming with the San Francisco Permaculture Guild, Hayes Valley Farm, 350.org, SF Urban Agriculture Alliance and other local organizations and businesses to host gardeners, urban farmers and local food activists in a global environmental work party. The 350 Kitchen Garden Challenge in San Francisco will include citywide garden work parties, kitchen gardening workshops, a harvest party at Hayes Valley Farm and a bike tour of urban farms built on formerly vacant lots and garden action locations.
The 350 Kitchen Garden Challenge will bring San Francisco to the forefront of climate change solutions by creating a healthy homegrown food supply, building soil, saving water and cutting greenhouse gas emissions; it encourages reconnecting to earth’s natural cycles; the 350 Kitchen Garden Challenge supports local businesses, create local currencies and builds resource sharing networks; it beautifies our neighborhoods, builds community, creates local garden networks and empower ourselves to care for the earth, our selves and each other and it provide San Francisco residents the opportunity to participate in something greater than ourselves in solidarity with other 10/10/10 350.org global actions.
Planning is underway and Kitchen Garden SF is looking for partners, sponsors and organizers to participate in the 350 Kitchen Garden Challenge and bring San Francisco to the forefront of climate change solutions. We will have our first public organizing meeting on Thursday, August 26th, 6:00 – 8:00pm at Hayes Valley Farm, 450 Laguna Street. Please RSVP to karlanjohnson@gmail.com if you can come to the meeting or would like to be a partner or sponsor. To register a garden action or sign up to volunteer on 10/10/10 go to Kitchen Garden SF. Feel free to forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested, we want to see the entire city planting kitchen gardens on 10/10/10!