Month: February 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 

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