Thursday, June 17, 2010

Urban Farming in SF: a tour begins

There's something I love about getting to know a garden, one garden, through the four seasons. You learn how the sun changes its arc in the garden throughout the year. You know how the finished compost feels, how the soil smells on your clothes after a long days work, you know the history of the place and you have a vision of its future.

But lately I've been inspired by farm touring, visiting and working on projects throughout the city. Workdays are where you really discover a place -- you put your hands in the soil, you discover where the weeds are hiding out, you turn the compost, you make a deal with a willow tree and prune it to shed much needed sunshine on the veggie plots. I get inspired by: garden design, new compost systems, problem solving, tool sheds, the people of the garden, the potlucks, and the bounty at every urban garden I visit.

School garden workdays are the best -- parents, kids, and garden teachers coming together to get the garden in shape for a new season. I recently made the trip to my friend Brooke's beautiful garden at the SF Community School. I came late in the day but I took on the big willow pruning project with Brooke's friends, met dedicated parents learning to help water for the summer, and got a tour of the garden.


a dad from the school MacGuyvered organization in the shed!





thanks for sharing your garden Brooke!!

stumbling upon urban farming interweb gems

I've spent the past few days of work delving into the world of social media. And I've stumbled upon so many good urban ag and food policy pieces along the way...here's a couple worth sharing: check out this video of one of my inspirations: urban homesteader/author/comedian Novella Carpenter.



And Pollan hits the NY Times Book Review with an interesting perspective on the food movement -- yes, the first section is Pollan you've already heard, and yes, it is a survey of food mov't lit, but skim through to the second section and you'll start hitting new territory. (and I must admit, I'm enamored with the design of the NYT Book Review online, worth a visit unto itself...). What does the food movement look like? And where will it go? It's up to us to shape it...

Saturday, June 5, 2010

I'm keeping up the calendar...

Hi all -- Yes, I've been a terrible blogger lately, my hope is to remedy that soon...BUT I am keeping up the calendar of events. Note I'll start to include a lot of biking adventures on the event list since I'm loving my bike right now--and it's such a natural extension of my evolution in living sustainably.