Come volunteer with Friends of Alemany Farm! Learn new ways to grow fruits and vegetables in an urban setting while supporting our food security programs.
We are excited to start welcoming volunteers back to the farm. Everyone, young or old, experienced and/or still learning, is welcome to join our community workdays held currently on Monday and Saturday afternoons from 1 to 5 pm. We are welcoming up to 15 volunteers per day** and registration is required in advance. Masks still required.
** Space is limited due to continuing pandemic restrictions. Please only sign up for what you can commit to and let us know ASAP if you do not plan to attend so we can open your space to someone on the wait list.
With deep gratitude and sincere delight we are happy to report: Thanks to you, Friends of Alemany Farm raised a grand total of $77,000 in our largest-ever fundraising campaign to date. Last summer, our budget spoke for itself: We had to raise at least $75K in the next six months to keep the farm bills paid. With two full-time staff, skyrocketing demand for fresh food and farm programming, and reduced revenue due to the pandemic, we found ourselves in a very different financial world, where our need – and our local community’s – was greater than ever. With some trepidation and uncertainty, we resolved to ask our community for more than we ever had before.
And wow, talk about an abundant harvest! Month after month, we were floored by your generosity. From our fall plant sale all the way through to our spring fundraiser sale, from year-end donations at the holidays, to a slew of offerings made to our Paid Apprentice fundraiser, to the influx of gifts in April in response to the Friends’ $6K “Farm Team Challenge” … slowly and steadily you helped us meet our goal, and right on time. When we launched the campaign in September, we hoped to cross the finish line by April 24; and we tallied $77K on that very day!
Thank you for making Alemany Farm possible: We owe the continuous flow of free food and community energy to your helping hands, our educational offerings to your joyful collaboration, and our capable staff to your abundant financial support. For the contributions of more than 250 donors whose gifts, big and small, made this milestone possible, we say “Thank you very much!”
If you didn’t have a chance to support our 15th Anniversary campaign, rest assured it’s never too late to make a gift. Help us get started on our next 15 years!
Join 12 dedicated team members in support of Alemany Farm. Double your donation by April 24!
Scenes from a community workday at Alemany Farm, June 2018. Photos by Alex Driehaus.
Dear Farm Friends,
We’re excited to report that since launching our 15th Anniversary Campaign in October, we’ve raised $57K of our $75K total goal. We are humbled by this support, especially in a time of so much loss and limitation.
To help us reach our total campaign goal by April 24, twelve of our dedicated volunteers and team members have pooled their resources for the FARM TEAM CHALLENGE GRANT: We’ll match gifts up to $6,150 with an eye on the ultimate goal of getting us to our $75K sweet spot by April 24.
When we undertook our first modest year-end giving appeal in December 2010 ($1,300 from 22 generous first-time donors) we did not imagine that we would ever aim – or need – to set a goal of $75K. Much less that we’d be within sight of reaching it.
But through the years we’ve grown: our activities and programs, our partnerships, our impact and reach, our budget … and our community of support.
If you haven’t yet made a gift to our campaign, please donate today. You can double your donation through the challenge grant, but just as importantly, you can join with us – your peers – in support of Alemany Farm and all the work we do here. The twelve contributors to this challenge grant are some of the folks who’ve been showing up for years to engage the public in our farm work and in the thriving community that has grown here. On the occasion of our 15th anniversary, help us affirm all of this good work and our shared vision for the years to come.
Here’s why a few of our Farm Team Challenge contributors are pledging their financial support to Friends of Alemany Farm:
“…because my neighbors and their families deserve access to fresh, local, organic produce. With good food comes good health, and with the ability to grow one’s own vegetables comes the potential for lifelong nourishment for oneself and one’s communities.”
“…because I believe access to the earth and her gifts is a birthright.”
“…in a year when it has often been hard to imagine the future, my pledge is a way to show faith that the farm and our work here will continue to provide deep sustenance and a sense of place to many people in the years to come.”
Why will YOU donate?
Make an online donation and let us know why you’re joining us to support Friends of Alemany Farm.
When you donate to our campaign, you are supporting:
Growing, harvesting, and distributing fresh produce for free in SF year-round. (We managed to grow over 25,000 of produce in 2020 despite severely reduced staffing. Our work to address food insecurity has never been more important.)
Our internship program and new paid apprenticeship for underserved BIPOC youth. (Our campaign has raised $7.5K specifically for the paid apprenticeship program, which engaged three individuals in its pilot season.)
Low-to-no-cost workshops for the public on a range of accessible topics. (Our pandemic era virtual workshops have drawn hundreds of attendees from the Bay Area and beyond.)
Our popular community workdays and farm visits open to all, regardless of experience. (We can’t wait to resume volunteer workdays again in 2021.)
Environmental stewardship and regenerative agriculture. (We model simple, local, and replicable methods in response to the climate crisis.)
Local, grassroots action and resilience.
A productive and nourishing public green space and habitat that offers refuge for creatures of many species.
None of this can happen without dedicated staff, volunteers, and donors!
Stop by, say hello, get your garden started, and support the farm!
Alemany Farm, 700 Alemany Blvd, SF, CA Saturday, April 17, 10 am to 1 pm Saturday, April 24, 10 am to 1 pm
Offerings will include: Summer squash, tomatoes (limited quantity on 4/17, more on 4/24), peppers, cabbage, kale, chard, lettuce, choi, mustard, broccoli, herbs, lavender, ground cherries, alstroemeria, and more. Check out this full list of plant sale offerings and instructions for care.
Suggested Donation: $5 per plant. Cash only, please! Bring your own box or tray to carry your plants home.
All proceeds support farm operations via Friends of Alemany Farm.
Abby, Youngjin, and Betty at our fall 2020 plant sale!
First, many thanks to our community for your donations at year-end. We are heartened and humbled by your response to our appeal for financial support: Thanks to you, we are now halfway to our goal of raising $75,000 by Earth Day!
If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to donate to help us get 2021 off to a strong start and move us further along to our goal. Visit our 15th Anniversary Campaign page for a summary of 2020 accomplishments, the hows and whys of donating, and a photo garden that offers a peek into Friends of Alemany Farm’s 15 years at the farm. And if you’re able, make a gift!
This month, we’re piloting a new feature. Since we still can’t invite you out to the farm to learn, grow, and volunteer with us, we’re bringing some of our farm knowledge to you. So gather round for some seasonal know-how from our farmers. It may even help you out with your home garden if you have one:
Winter Tasks and Tales from the Farm
Cover crop … Mulching … Fruit tree care
If you’ve visited Alemany Farm in winter or early spring, you’ve likely seen some lush beds labeled “Cover Crop.” If you’ve volunteered, you may have helped sow or chop these beds. Co-Director Jack Thomas offers some fundamentals:
Cover Crop:What is it, and why is it good for the Earth, for vegetables, and for people?
The gist: A key component of environmentally regenerative agriculture is building soil organic matter (SOM). Global soil fertility is plummeting at a rate of 23 billion tons per year due to industrial agriculture practices like tillage and fertilizing with synthetic chemicals. These methods decrease the soil’s organic matter, remove its ability to hold water like a sponge, and effectively bulldoze habitat for billions of essential soil microbes per teaspoon of soil. Bad.
What can you do? One method of increasing SOM and building soil health is with cover crops. Each fall we sow a special mixture of seeds into selected beds where we will not grow food crops during winter months. These plants — fava, vetch, rye, bell beans, and others — are “nitrogen fixing.” This means that as they grow, they draw nitrogen into the soil from the atmosphere and store it in their root system, to be taken up later in the plant’s life to help with flower and fruit production. Not only do these cover crops restore nitrogen — a vital ingredient in all green growth — they also catch raindrops, minimizing soil compaction. And their root systems help retain soil structure to boot.
Each spring, we chop down the cover crop before it can take up the nitrogen in its root. We leave the roots in place, leaving the soil intact, rich with microbiology, and flush with nitrogen to nourish the crops that will grow there in the spring and summer. No tractor, no chemicals, no electricity; just a respectful, intelligent, mutually beneficial collaboration between people and nature.
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Co-Director Abby Bell offers the whys and wherefores of some other winter chores:
Mulch! If your garden is not mulched, this is a good time to make sure that your soils are covered.
Covering the exposed soil around your plants suppresses weed growth, reduces erosion, retains soil moisture and warmth, and builds organic matter content in your soil. At Alemany Farm, we like to use straw to mulch around our annual veggies, and wood chips to mulch around hardier plants like fruit trees, perennials, and pathways. (Your local garden store may have other mulch options.) Your soil’s beneficial microorganisms and fungi feed on the mulch and eventually help it decompose into your soil, adding rich humus or organic matter.
Note: Do not mix the mulch into the soil. Keep it as a covering or else the decomposition process can tie up nitrogen within your soil. Also, be aware that mulch in the winter creates habitat for slugs and snails, so keep on the lookout for these garden pests.
Fruit Trees
Bare root fruit trees: If you have space and desire to plant a fruit tree in your garden, now is the time! Many nurseries are now taking orders for trees. Winter is the time to plant those trees in your gardens. Bare root trees are dormant and look like a stick and some roots, but don’t be fooled! They are just sleeping and will leaf and bud out in the springtime. Not only are bare root trees easier to transport and plant than trees transplanted from containers, but they often have better performance because they are not root bound, do not go through transplant shock, and they tend to have more time for their roots to acclimate, grow, and take hold before the spring comes.
Winter fruit tree pruning: January in the Bay Area, once your deciduous trees have dropped their leaves, is a good time to think about winter pruning. This is an opportunity to begin or continue a conversation with your tree, to support its structure and air flow in order to enhance fruit production in the spring and summer. Remember that winter pruning creates a stimulating response for the trees. We hope to offer some winter pruning classes at Alemany Farm this year if we can safely do so.
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Thank you again for helping to grow food security and ecological knowledge in San Francisco by supporting Alemany Farm! Be on the lookout for news about upcoming workshops and other events. With your support, we can look forward together to the next 15 years of local grassroots action!
In a season marked by rest and counting blessings, we give wholehearted thanks for you, our volunteers, neighbors, and dear community members; there is no Alemany Farm without you. We hope you’ll choose to support Friends of Alemany Farm on #GivingTuesday and beyond.
As co-directors of Friends of Alemany Farm, we are proud to share that the farm team has spent the last year building capacity and laying the groundwork for programs that will achieve greater local impact and greater local food justice, like the paid apprenticeship program. One thing we discovered is that a more impactful farm will require us to do more fundraising. We crunched the numbers, and need to raise $75,000 in the next six months to sustain this period of essential growth and development.
To support our organization’s evolution, please consider giving generously now and in the coming months.
Donate a cash gift: Any amount, big or small, will support the farm to continue growing and distributing free food to the folks that need it most. We are grateful that we have been able to continue this essential work without interruption throughout the pandemic. Donate now.
Give monthly: Monthly giving goes twice as far; it means our small, hardworking team can spend less time raising funds and more time doing the work.
Schedule a farm workday: When the COVID-19 crisis ends, bring your team to the farm for a tour of the garden beds and a chance to sow seeds, plant crops, and harvest produce to bring home. Get your employer to match.
We are proud to continue working with you to achieve greater food justice, food security, and food sovereignty in San Francisco, and to maintain Alemany Farm as a vital community resource and meeting place. Thank you for your ongoing support.
With wishes for your health,
Abby, Jack, and The Farm Team
Abby Bell, Co-Director Jack Thomas, Co-Director
The front herb garden welcomes visitors to Alemany Farm, September 2020. Photo by Erik Rotman.
It’s been a challenging year for all of us, but as we approach Thanksgiving, we realize there’s much to be grateful for, including the support you’ve provided from a distance since the spring. With your help, throughout the pandemic we’ve been able to continue growing healthy local produce at Alemany Farm and distributing it for free to folks in our community who need it. And we’re well-positioned and eager to invite volunteers back to join us in this work when it’s safe to do so.
We’re continuing to observe Friends of Alemany Farm’s 15th Anniversary at the Farm, and in the coming weeks and months we’ll be in touch to reflect on that milestone, and to update you on our various programs and ways to support our work.
Today, though, we write with a time-sensitive request: In the next 30 days, we hope to raise $5,000 to bolster our newly-created Urban Farming Apprenticeship program. If we meet this challenge, we can fund an additional part-time apprentice this spring. In accordance with our mission, we are excited to begin realizing a paid farm apprenticeship program that will benefit youth of color from underserved communities. We hope you’ll be inspired to support this work. Learn more and donate.
Thanks to SeedMoney and Orowheat for providing this fundraising opportunity, and for generously matching up to $600 and $1,000 respectively. But we are setting our sights on the larger goal of $5,000 in order to fully fund an additional apprentice who can benefit from training at the farm.
Amidst the national reckoning on racial injustice spurred by the murder of George Floyd in May, the Friends of Alemany Farm continue to make a concerted effort to understand, take responsibility for, and overcome white supremacy within ourselves and on the farm. Upon reflection, it became clear that our unpaid internship program posed a structural barrier to entry that prohibited many low income Black and Brown youth from participating. The Friends have established this paid apprenticeship program to begin to address this problem.
As part of our celebration of Friends of Alemany Farm’s 15-year anniversary on the farm, we have some great seasonally appropriate plant starts that we’d love to share with you! We will have a socially distanced plant start stand at Alemany Farm on the following days (while supplies last). We still can’t invite you to volunteer with us, but why not drop by the farm to support, say hello, and see what’s growing.
Plant Stand Dates/Times:
Sunday, Sept 27, 10 am – 1 pm
Sunday, Oct 4, 10 am – 12:30 pm
We suggest a $5 donation per plant start; all funds go to supporting Friends of Alemany Farm. Cash only, exact change appreciated! Please follow social distancing guidelines (enforced at the stand and elsewhere).
Location Details:
Alemany Farm, 700 Alemany Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94110
(parking is available on the gravel drive inside the farm gate)
Available starts:
kale, chard, lettuce, choi, mustard, brussel sprouts, kalettes, spinach, broccoli, napa cabbage, bunching onions, ground cherries, romanesco
Plus: assorted herbs; native lupine; alstroemeria; lavender; aloe vera, and more
As we move into fall, we are once again planning events to support and engage our community. See below for details and registration for our September 26 virtual Q&A on fall gardening basics, and a heads-up on our fall plant sale. Together, these events are meant to support you in your home or neighborhood gardening work at a time when we are not able to gather at Alemany Farm.
But first, we want to let you know that all summer long we have continued the essential work of growing and harvesting fresh produce at Alemany Farm for free distribution. Each week, Friends of Alemany Farm co-directors Abby and Jack have worked with RPD staff and a small group of interns to harvest hundreds of pounds of food destined for the Free Farm Stand, the Alemany Apartments Food Pantry and, in partnership with our friends at PODER, for distribution to residents in the Excelsior. We are still unable to welcome volunteers back to the farm, but we look forward to when we can all once again dig into this work together. In the meantime, we hope you’ll engage with us through our virtual events and our real live plant sale!
Ask a Farmer Q&A Series: Basics of Fall Gardening Saturday, September 26, 10-11:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Online webinar – Suggested donation $10, no one turned away for lack of funds
The Ask a Farmer Series is our effort to reconnect and provide resources to our robust and beloved Alemany Farm community! Whether you’re a total beginner or an old farm hand, we hope you’ll join us for this hour-and-a-half long workshop on best practices for fall and winter gardening here in the Bay Area. First, our farmers will cover everything from what crops to plant and when, to autumn garden maintenance and care. This is a chance to anticipate challenges and game-plan solutions in advance. After we briefly cover the basics, the rest of the workshop will be open for an office-hours-style question and answer session.
HEADS UP: Look for more details soon on our upcoming Fall Plant Sale! We will have seasonally-appropriate plants starts available for purchase. (Think broccoli, kale, chard, brussel sprouts, etc., and perhaps a few native and perennial plants.) We’ll be in touch when we have date/time/location and a full plant list set.
In solidarity with Black Lives Matter and in support of racial equity, we hope you will also learn about and support these BIPOC-owned or -led food justice organizations in the Bay Area:
