Calendar Confusion: Upcoming Alemany Workdays
By The Farm Team | May 26, 2009
Dear Farm Friends:
We know, we know: It can be really confusing to remember that the Farm’s workday schedule is the First and Third Sundays of the month and the Saturdays In Between.
We have kept up this schedule for the last five summers to ensure that the garden is accessible to everyone, no matter what other plans and obligations you have.
To keep it easy, mark you calendars for these upcoming workdays:
Saturday, May 23
Saturday, May 30
Sunday, June 7
Saturday, June 13
Sunday, June 21
Saturday, June 27
Plus, every Monday afternoon.
So if you don’t have any plans to skip town for the Memorial Day weekend and want to have fun playing in the dirt, stop by tomorrow.
Thanks, as always, for your efforts to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Beekeeping and Lettuce at Alemany Farm
By The Farm Team | May 14, 2009
Dear Farm Friends:
If you’ve decided to skip Bay to Breakers this year — who needs AM drinking and crazy costumes anyway? — but still want to enjoy what is supposed to be perfect weather this weekend, then come to Alemany Farm’s next community workday this Sunday, May 17.
The folks from the CA Native Plant Society will be there helping to weed, water and mulch our ornamental garden in the education circle. We’ll also be doing some work in the medicinal herb garden to put in drip irrigation. As always, there will be other garden tasks such as weeding and thinning the green beans; planting out Brussels sprouts; and mulching the lower orchard.
For those of you who took the first beekeeping workshop last month, there will a second beekeeping class starting at 1 PM with a chance, hopefully, to look in the hives.
At the end of day, we will have mounds of lettuces, pak choi, onions, artichokes and strawberries to harvest and take home.
And if you really feel like wearing a costume to the Farm, that’s cool with us.
Thanks, as always, for your work to make San Francisco more food secure,
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Alemany Farm = Community Hero
By The Farm Team | May 6, 2009
Dear Farm Friends:
We wanted to share with you the exciting news that Alemany Farm, our volunteers, and the staff at the Alemany Resident Management Corporation have been honored with a Crissy Field Community Hero Award.
We hope you can join us this Sat, May 2 for an awards ceremony at the Crissy Field Center, starting at 11 AM.
You can learn more by visiting:
http://www.parksconservancy.org/our_work/crissy/award_recipients.asp
During the coming year, there will be a video presentation at the Center that shares with people how we’ve used the Farm to promote food security, environmental education, and neighborhood empowerment. Big thanks to everyone who has volunteered at the Farm — you’re the heart and soul of our community.
Then mark your calendars for these upcoming workdays:
• Sunday, May 3. Tomato, basil, pumpkin, and pepper planting.
• Saturday, May 9.
• Sunday, May 17. Beekeeping workshop (for those who attended Beekeeping 101) plus irrigation installation in the medicinal herb garden.
• Saturday, May 23.
Keep it growin’
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Upcoming Workdays + Farm Visits
By The Farm Team | April 24, 2009
Dear Farm Friends:
First, many thanks to all of you who came to Alemany Farm for our 3rd Annual Earth Day BBQ last weekend. It was a great way to bring together San Francisco’s diverse communities, and we hope you had as much fun as we did.
If you missed the BBQ, no sweat, because we still have plenty of spring activities coming up. Including these weekend workdays:
Saturday, April 25: Workday with the last of the spring tillage.
Sunday, May 3: Planting tomatoes, basil, peppers, pumpkins.
Saturday, May 9: Regular workday.
Sunday, May 17: Installing the irrigation system in the medicinal herb garden, plus a workshop on beekeeping hosted by the SF Beekeepers Association. This is Part II of the workshop that occurred on April 5, a chance to go inside the hives.
Also: Don’t forget our regular Monday workdays, every week, 1 PM to 5 PM.
A Note on Visiting the Farm: As a public park, Alemany Farm is open dawn to dusk 365 days a year. But please keep in mind that Alemany Farm is a secluded, off-the-beaten-path kind of place, and that you should use your best judgement when stopping by. We encourage you make sure that you only visit with a friend or two, and that you use the same caution that you would when hanging out in, say, McLaren Park or the less-visited areas of Golden Gate Park.
Thanks for your efforts to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
PS: If you don’t have plans for tonight, check out a program happening tonight called Climate of Change: Global to Local Solutions for a Resilient Bay Area. The event will include food, music, and discussion about creating a sustainable Bay Area. Sponsored by our friends at Bay Localize.
6 PM - 8:30 PM, First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th Street.
For more info visit www.baylocalize.org.
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
The Revolution is Growing…
By The Farm Team | March 23, 2009
Dear Friends:
Long before the Obamas put in a vegetable garden at the White House (pretty amazing, right!), city-wide volunteers and members of the Alemany Community were working hard to make the Farm a living example of neighborhood empowerment, food security, and ecological sustainability.
The seeds of that labor are receiving some gratifying recognition this week.
On Saturday, March 28, Alemany Farm will be recognized (along with Tom Ammiano) at the Bernal Heights Neighordhood Center’s 30th Birthday Bash. This should be a really fun event, and we hope you can join us at the Bay View Boat Club beginning at 7 PM. Tickets start at $30. For more info, visit: http://www.bhnc.org/hpEvent/40234612.html or call Mei Le at 415.206.2140 x148.
And in a recent essay in The Nation magazine, SF-based writer Rebecca Solnit, thinking about how progressives can and should respond to the financial crisis, plugs our little operation as part of the solution:
“Organic, urban, community-assisted and guerrilla agriculture are still small parts of the picture, but effective ones–a revolt against what transnational corporate food and capitalism generally produce. This revolt is taking place in the vast open space of Detroit, in the inner-city farms of West Oakland, in the victory gardens and public-housing of Alemany Farm in San Francisco, in Growing Power in Milwaukee and many other places around the country. These are blows against alienation, poor health, hunger and other woes fought with shovels and seeds, not guns. At its best, tending one’s garden leads to tending one’s community and policy, and ultimately becomes a way of entering the public sphere rather than withdrawing from it.”
You can read the whole article at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090323/solnit
… Stay part of that revolution on our upcoming workdays: Sat, March 28; Sun, April 5; Sat, Apr 11; and Sat, Apr 18.
Peace,
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Springtime at Alemany Farm
By The Farm Team | March 19, 2009
Dear Friends:
The days are getting noticeably longer, the weather is warming up, and at Alemany Farm we are digging into Spring.
We hope you can join us at our next workday, Saturday, March 21 as we start on our spring garden bed tillage, compost building, and cover crop mowing. The garden is starting transform itself again, and we hope you can help us make it happen.
Here are some other dates you should mark on your calendar:
Sat, March 28: Typical Farm workday digging beds, with special attention to be paid to the Native Plant areas at the entrance to the Farm and in the West Garden. From Noon to 1 PM the Native Plant Society will host a discussion of local plants and invasive weeds. ALSO: A workshop on mushroom cultivation. A busy day not to be missed.
Sun, April 5: The Start of Spring Planting! More bed digging and then we’ll be putting broccoli, collards, and lettuces into the ground, plus salad mix and carrots in the lower boxes. On this Sunday we will also be one of the stops on a City-wide garden tour organized by the Native Plant Society. Come help us greet visitors from throughout the City. Visit
http://www.cnps-yerbabuena.org/gardens/annual_garden_tour.html for more info. ALSO: Karen Peteros of the SF Beekeepers Association will be hosting a workshop on beekeeping 101. Another busy day!
Sat, April 11: Spring planting continues as we put in our potatoes and beets. We will continue bed digging and compost building.
Sat, April 18: Our Third Annual Earth Day BBQ! For those eager to work, we’ll be planting tomatoes, peppers, basil, and summer squash. For those looking to lounge, we’ll have veggie burgers, grass-fed hamburgers and other treats. We’ll have grill stuff and beverages. Please bring a side dish to share.
We hope to see you at the Farm during this busy season. Thanks so much, as always, for your work to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Mushroom Workshop Postponed
By The Farm Team | February 20, 2009
Dear Friends:
The recent week of rains was long overdue and badly needed. The rain gauge at the Farm recorded 4.8 inches of rain in the last week. Which is awesome.
Except for the fact that the soil is so saturated that it unsettled the portion of the hillside where we were planning on building a mushroom igloo at tomorrow’s scheduled mycelium workshop.
So the mushroom class originally scheduled for tomorrow is being postponed until Sat, Mar 28. Stay tuned.
Tomorrow we’ll have a typical winter workday of weeding our short day onions, stream restoration, and tree pruning.
Thanks, as always, for all of your energy.
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Feb/March Upcoming Workshops
By The Farm Team | February 14, 2009
Farm Friends:
Coming up we have two guest workshop teachers, illuminating worlds of food that we often overlook amidst many beds of traditional annuals like peas, cabbage, and squash.
First, on Saturday, February 21st:
Mushroom Cultivation
Ken Litchfield (volunteer at Alemany Farm, teacher at Merritt College, and farmer in Moraga, CA) will share techniques and concepts around growing edible mushrooms using easy-to-come by materials. The plan is to make a “mushroom igloo” out of straw bales, but we shall see!
Then, on Sunday, March 1st:
Perennial Vegetables for San Francisco:
In this workshop, urban permaculturist Kevin Bayuk will help us explore low maintenance, drought tolerant, edible vegetation for the San Francisco garden. We’ll grapple with the questions like: Why perennials? What is a perennial? What plants work in San Francisco? Can you garden with perennials and annuals? Participants will also get a resource sheet of interesting perennials to try in San Francisco.
Both workshops occur on normally occuring workdays, so come down at noon for the workday and stay for the workshop!
These workshops are free but donations will be accepted.
Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Alemany Workdays: Mark Your Calendars
By The Farm Team | January 29, 2009
Dear Farm Friends:
When two different months split a single weekend, our workday schedule gets complicated.
To clear up any confusion about our upcoming workdays, please mark your calendars:
- Saturday, Jan 31, Noon to 5 PM
- Monday, Feb 2, 1 to 5 PM
- Saturday, Feb 7, Noon to 5 PM
- Monday, Feb 8 1 to 5 PM
- Saturday, Feb 14, Noon to 5 PM
At most of these workdays, we will be continuing on winter tasks such as maintaing the native gardens and herb garden, mulching paths, and fruit tree care. We will also start planting some of our new apple trees.
On Feb 14, we hope to be planting several dozen new trees along the south edge of the property to screen the Farm from the freeway.
Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure.
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Janurary Rain?
By The Farm Team | January 19, 2009
Farm Friends:
By now, if you’re like us, you’re wondering: um, isn’t this winter? Shouldn’t we be cold, cozying up inside, or at least putting mud-flaps on our bikes?
Well, if climate change (aka global weirding) has got you down, come out to the farm for far-too-early-spring cheer!
Besides our upcoming January workdays (this coming Saturday, the 24th; Monday, the 26th, and Saturday the 31st), we will be hosting a free workshop on how to build cold-frames out of strawbales. This will take place on the 24th, at around 3pm. Once we’re done, we’ll rally up with the rest of the volunteers to distribute the harvests from the day.
Thank you, as always, for your efforts to make SF more food secure,
The Farm Team
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off
