With the Winter Solstice and the New Year of the Gregorian calendar approaching, we at Alemany Farm are taking time to remember our many accomplishments of 2011. At the same time, we’re thinking about all the work we want to do in the coming year — work that, like it or not, will require money.

And so we’d like to ask that you make a year end gift to Alemany Farm so that we continue our mission of boosting food security and promoting ecological education.

We grew literally tons of food this year. The late rains into June and July, combined with an usually warm spring and summer, helped give us a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables. We produced at least 4,000 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables. Much of the bounty went to the volunteers (that means YOU) who keep the garden and orchards thriving and came to the more than 100 community workdays we hosted this year. From June through November, a good portion of our harvests went to households in the adjacent Alemany public housing community via a free You Pick on Wednesday afternoons that we organized. If you value our mission to boost food security, please visit http://bit.ly/i2JOxV today to make a tax-deductible donation.

In 2011 we also increased San Franciscans’ awareness of what it takes to grow food. We hosted more than 50 field trips — from pre-schoolers to elementary school students to high school students to employee groups from PG&E and Google. No matter the age of our visitors, the newcomers to the garden got to learn about ecological horticulture, local food systems, and the importance of preserving native ecosystems. For the third year in a row we organized an 11-month course for adults eager to learn more about organic agriculture. Through our education programs we helped sow a new appreciation for urban food production.

As an all-volunteer organization, we have little overhead. But it does take money to run an urban farm. We have to pay for seeds, plants, irrigation equipment, and tools, as well as the community events we regularly hold to celebrate our community.

If everyone on this list were to donate $10 today, we would cover our budget for the next two years. Ten dollars — you can barely get an organic-local-sustainable sandwich for that much. So please visit http://bit.ly/i2JOxV today and make a tax-deductible gift.

We thank all of who have worked in the garden this year for the generous donation of your labor. We hope to see you at Alemany Farm soon.

The Farm Team.

PS: Please note our Holiday schedule
Monday, Dec 12, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sunday, Dec 18, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Dec 19, 1 PM to 5 PM
* * * Please Note, we will be CLOSED on Dec 24, Dec 26, and Jan 1 for the Holidays • • •
Monday, Jan 2, 1 PM to 5 PM

We hope that each of you had a bountiful and restful Thanksgiving holiday. At Alemany Farm it’s feeling like autumn. The garlic has started to sprout, much of the winter cover crop is in, and we’re eagerly expecting the arrival of our 2012 strawberries, which we will plant this coming weekend. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be putting woodchip mulch on the paths to keep down grasses over the rainy season.

As we look back on our successful 2011 season and plan for next year, we’ve been thinking about what materials, tools, and equipment we need to keep the garden and orchards thriving. So we’ve prepared a little bit of a holiday wish list. If you — or any aspiring Santas you’re friends with — have extra tools lying around your garage or basement, we hope you’ll consider donating them to Alemany Farm. Scroll down and you’ll find the items we hope to find in our stockings, including a list of native plants.

If you have an in-kind tool or plant donation to make, please contact us at community.gardeners@gmail.com.

Of course, you can always make a monetary donation to us via our fiscal sponsor, The SF Parks Alliance. Please visit
https://sfpt.ejoinme.org/MyPages/FriendsofAlemanyFarm/tabid/249862/Default.aspx
to make your tax-deductible donation today. All donations help to pay for equipment, seeds, and plants to keep our all-volunteer garden alive.

And please mark your calendars for these regularly scheduled community workdays:
Sunday, Dec 4, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Dec 5, 1 PM to 5 PM
Saturday, Dec 10, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Dec 12, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sunday, Dec 18, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, Dec 19, 1 PM to 5 PM
* * * Please Note, we will be CLOSED on Dec 24, Dec 26, and Jan 1 for the Holidays • • •

Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure,

The Farm Team

ALEMANY FARM EQUIPMENT & MATERIALS WISH LIST:

Digging Forks (10)

Hand Pruners (10)

Rain gauge (1)

Loppers (5)

Pruning Saws (5)

Hand Trowels (20)

Pick-mattocks (5)

Shovels (5)

Axe (1) and Axe Handle (1)

Machetes (3)

File, for tool sharpening (1)

Watering wands with handles (4)

Wire brushes, for cleaning tools (5)

Nuts and bolts (of various sizes)

Easy-up/farmers’ market tent (1)

Reusable bags and/or buckets (various sizes)

Water keys (3)

Wooden stakes (36)

Rope/wire/twine/string (various strengths)

Plastic Tarps (3)

NATIVE PLANTS

Coast Tarweed
Hedge nettle
Yerba buena
Hummingbird fuchsia/
Dwarf Coyote Brush
Coyote brush
Kellogg’s yampah
Blue Dicks
Hedge nettle
Silk tassel
Blue Blossom
Ceanothus
Western sword fern
Giant Chain fern
Woodwardia
Western goldenrod
CA goldenrod
Coast Goldenrod
Canada goldenrod
Common bog rush
Spreading rush
Iris Leaved Rush
Oso Berry
Toyon
CA Buttercup
Bluewitch
Beeplant
Wild Hollyhock, checkerbloom
Blue eyed grass
Red Elderberry
Hummingbird sage
CA Blackberry
Thimbleberry
Sticky/bush monkeyflower
Alum root
Creambush/ocean spray
Douglas Iris
Coast Buckwheat
Soap plant
Farewell to Spring
Creek Dogwood
Mugwort
Coast Aster
Common Tarweed
Coastal Tarweed
Ithuriel’s spear
Sun Cups
CA Phacelia
CA Wild Cucumber
Pearly Everlasting
Mule’s Ears
Snowberry
Mexican whorled milkweed

Our typical second summer seems to have been interrupted by cool winds the past couple of days, but don’t worry: The forecast calls for more warm weather this weekend. Just perfect for ripening up more of our tomatoes (which are already bursting off the vines) and cucumbers (which we are drowning in) and apples (coming on strong). It’s a great time to be out in the gardens and orchards at Alemany Farm, where we are having some of our biggest harvests of the year.

And it should be perfect weather for an special herb walk at the Farm. Please join us this Sunday, September 18 when herbalist Katie Delwiche will host a farm walk during which she will identify the medicinal herbs found at Alemany Farm and discuss their uses. The walk will begin at 10 am and will last for about 90 minutes. There will be a potluck lunch after the herb walk, followed by our usual workday. We hope you can join us for this unique event! For more details, please contact Richard at rkinsf@gmail.com.

Also: Mark your calendar for our Seventh Annual Alemany Farm Harvest Festival!

When: Saturday, October 8, 11 AM - 5 PM
Where: Alemany Farm, 700 Alemany Blvd, SF, CA.
Who: YOU plus dozens of other gardeners, friends, family and neighbors
What: Farm tours … games for kids … T-shirt making … face painting … bike powered hayrides … garden and orchard tasks … music … and a BBQ potluck.

Please spread the word far and wide.

And don’t forget about these upcoming workdays:
Sunday, Sept 18
Monday, Sept 19
Saturday, Sept 24
Monday, Sept 26
Sunday, Oct 2
Monday, Oct 3

Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

It’s high summer, and at Alemany Farm we’re enjoying all the fruits of summer: plums and strawberries, yes, but also loads of green beans, potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, and basil. The garden is popping at the seams, and it’s a great time to come out and enjoy a few hours working in the sun.

Even though we’re an all volunteer-run organization, we do have some costs: seeds, starts, irrigation equipment, tools. So we’re really hoping that we are among the winners of the De Loach Vineyards and Organic Gardening contest for the most innovative community gardens and urban farms in the country.

Please visit http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/ today and vote for Alemany Farm!! We are the garden in the upper left hand corner. As you can see below, we are battling for fifth place, so we really need your vote!

http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/

9179 Long Beach Organic
7278 Center for Growing People
6990 Three Brothers Garden
4839 Ocean View Farms
4126 Alemany Farm
4107 Magnuson Community Garden
2069 The Last Organic Outpost
1728 Seattle Community Farm
1488 East 13th Community Garden
1086 The Peterson Garden Project
894 Boca Raton Community Garden
864 Roots in the City
243 Hayes Valley Farm
167 Solano Canyon Community Garden

So visit http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/ and vote for us!

Also, please mark your calendars for these upcoming workdays:
Monday, July 18
Saturday, July 23
Monday, July 25
Saturday, July 30

Finally, please check out Eco-SF’s upcoming urban farming fair, “Roots to Fruits,” happening this coming weekend at the School of the Arts. Pam Pierce (author of Golden Gate Gardening) will be hosting a workshop on gardening in the City’s different micro climates; there will be workshops on fruit tree care; and trainings on urban animal husbandry. Get the details at:

http://www.eco-sf.org

Thanks, as always, for all your work to make SF more food secure. Hope to see you in the garden soon.

The Farm Team

A last minute reminder that this coming Saturday, April 23, is our 5th Annual Earth Day BBQ.

We’ll start Farm tours and work tasks around 11 AM. As always, there will be plenty of tasks to do, including planting potatoes, carrots, beets, green beans, dry beans, and our first round of tomatoes. We’ll also, as ever, be building and turning compost, mulching paths, and taking care of the orchard.

Throughout the day we’ll have plenty of other activities, including T-shirt stenciling (please bring your own shirt!), face painting, and sign painting.

Sometime after noon we’ll fire up the grill to cook sausages, hamburgers, and veggie burgers. We’ll also have a farm-fresh, just-picked salad. We invite you to bring a side dish or a dessert to share. And this year we are encouraging people to bring their own plates and utensils to cut down on waste.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Thanks, as always, for all your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

PS: And please keep voting for us in the Organic Gardening contest at http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/ … Remember, you can vote for Alemany Farm EVERY DAY. So keep stuffing that ballot box.

The soils are warming up, we’ve got our first round of spring plants in the ground, and we’re gearing up for another exciting season at Alemany Farm.

To help us celebrate the longer days, please come to our 5th Annual EARTH DAY BBQ on SAT, APRIL 23.

The festivities will start around 11 AM with some work tasks like potato planting, sowing beans, and planting out our first round of tomatoes. Then we’ll be down at the grill cooking sausages, burgers, and veggie burgers. We’ll have a salad fresh from the garden. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share. (To cut down on waste, we ask that you bring your own plates and utensils.)

We’ll also have t-shirt making, face painting, and farm tours for new comers. Plus acoustic music from some of our favorite bands.

We hope to see you at the party!

In the meantime, mark your calendar for these upcoming workdays:
Sunday, April 17
Monday, April 18

Finally, we’d like to give a big plug to the folks at http://www.howtohomestead.org, who are organizing backyard food production workshops across SF. There’s one on 4/16 at the Bayview Opera House that’s all about chicken raising. Check out their website for other upcoming events.

Thanks, as always, for your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

The biblical rains have finally stopped, the sun is out, and it’s really starting to feel like spring at Alemany Farm.

With the change of seasons, we’ve got plenty of things to do, including clearing the main garden of cover crops; tilling beds; building compost; and getting into spring planting. Plus, as always, plenty of native habitat restoration work in our stream and pond ecosystem and work in our hillside orchard. And then at the end of the workday we have plenty of collards, chard, kale, lettuces, and artichokes to share.

So please mark your calendars for these upcoming workdays and come out and play in the dirt!
Sunday, April 3
Monday, April 4
Saturday, April 9
Monday, April 11
Sunday, April 17
Monday, April 18

And please join us for our 5th Annual Alemany Farm EARTH DAY BBQ on SATURDAY, APRIL 23. More details to come, but you can expect plenty of food on the grill, potluck sides and desserts, music, and games for kids. Plus Potato Planting!

Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

PS: And please remember for vote for Alemany Farm in the Organic Gardening contest at http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/. We currently in a tight race for 5th place, so we need your vote today!!

We are hoping that you can take three minutes to help Alemany Farm raise $3,000.

Organic Gardening magazine, in partnership with the biodynamic winery DeLoach Vineyards, is sponsoring a contest to pick the most impressive community gardens and urban farms in the United States.

Please visit www.deloachcommunitygardens.com today, where you can watch short videos about innovative farms and gardens, and then vote for your favorites. The Top 5 gardens in terms of votes will receive a $3,000 grant.

Alemany Farm’s video and ballot box is in the Upper Left-hand corner of the screen. Please watch our video, and then cast your vote for our garden! And please spread the word to your family and friends via Facebook, etc. This is a quick and easy way for us to raise monies that will help us keep the garden growing.

While you’re at it, please also cast a vote for our friends at Hayes Valley Farm, who are also part of the contest.

One of the great things about the contest is that you can vote EVERY DAY from now through August. So keep going back to www.deloachcommunitygardens.com and keep casting your vote for Alemany Farm. We would be hugely grateful!

And please mark your calendars for these upcoming workdays at Alemany Farm:

Sunday, March 20
Monday, March 21
Saturday, March 26
Monday, March 28
Sunday, April 3
Monday, April 4

Thanks, as always, for all of your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

As you know, the volunteer coordinators at Alemany Farm try to use every workday as an opportunity for skills sharing and community education. But many people remain eager for some more structured learning.

So we are very pleased to announce that for the third year in a row, Friends of Alemany Farm will be offering an Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture.

To apply, please complete the application [word doc, pdf] and return it to: ecologicalhorticulture@gmail.com. We will only be able to accommodate 30 people in the class. The application deadline is March 1.

The 11-month course will take participants through the seasons, covering key garden and orchard tasks that occur in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Apprentices will learn core principals of food production such as soil fertility and composting, propagation and planting, seasonal tree care, water-wise irrigation, plant identification, integrated pest management, and crop planning. The hands-on training — using our vegetable gardens, herb gardens, and orchards — will cover several methods of sustainable horticulture.

The Ecological Horticulture classes will start on Saturday, March 19 and will take place the third Saturday of every month at Alemany Farm. The workshops will take place from 10 am to 5 pm, with a generous break for a potluck lunch.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Thanks, as always, for your work to make SF more food secure.

So please join us at the Farm for one of our upcoming workdays:
Sunday, Jan 16
Monday, Jan 17
Saturday, Jan 22
Mon, Jan 24

Even in the midst of the winter, we’re busy hosting all kinds of field trips and community groups. If you want to arrange a field trip for your school, office, or community organization, please send an email to community.gardeners@gmail.com and we will try to accommodate you.

Speaking of field trips, for the fourth year in a row Friends of Alemany Farm is partnering with the leadership in the Alemany Housing Development and the SF Dept of the Environment to host field trips for public schools in the City. We’re looking for trained, qualified educators to help lead the field trips.

Below is a job announcement. If you have experience in environmental education, we hope you will apply.

Thanks, as always, for making SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

Job Announcement: Alemany Farm Field Trip Co-Educator

Application Deadline: January 18, 2011
Positions Available: 2
To apply, please send resume, cover letter and three references to: community.gardeners@gmail.com

Program and Job Description:
Alemany Farm is an educational urban organic farm located in the Southern Bernal Heights Neighborhood of San Francisco. For four years the Alemany Farm School Educational Field Trips Program has brought San Francisco teens closers to nature, closer to the earth and most of all closer to their food. Educators co-teach 1-hour-long in-class pre-trip presentations covering issues relevant to Alemany Farm. Topics discussed are Food and Environmental Justice, Organic Agriculture, Food Miles, Perennial Agriculture and Orchards, Bioremediation, as well as broader issues such as Recycling, Composting, and Climate Change. During the on-site field trip students experience a farm tour, a group gardening activity including weeding, composting, and general garden maintenance. With teacher facilitation, students collectively harvest greens, other veggies and fruits for a salad. After students head back to school, co-educators clean-up the farm and food prep areas, take out the recycling and lock gate.

Job Requirements:
Two educators will be hired to work in partnership with one other community-based organization (4 educators in total) in the co-teaching, administration and co-facilitation of 10 Middle and High School Field Trips. Educator must be able to work Wednesdays from 9:30am-1:30pm for a period of ten weeks starting in early March ending early June 2011. One-hour in-class pre-trip presentations are given before classes visit the farm. Applicants must be able to perform these pre-trip presentations in addition to the regular on-site field trips. * * * Please note that this position is temporary and part time* * *

Skill Set Preferred:
Garden educators, environmental educators and other teachers are encouraged to apply. Highly qualified candidates will have significant youth education experience. Applicants will have an understanding of class and racial injustice in the Food System and must be able to work in diverse environments with teachers and students of varying ethnicities, genders, classes, races, and sexual orientations. Strong applicants will be multi-lingual in Spanish and/or Chinese. A familiarity with with Alemany Farm and experience volunteering there is also a plus.