The rest of the country might be suffering from crazy heat waves, but at least we here in the SF Bay we’ve got our cool climate to keep it chill. Which, while not ideal for, say, melons and okra, is at least warm enough to bring on an abundant summer crop of squash, basil, tomatoes, and cucumbers. ‘Cause when the sun starts to western and the fog-blown wind dies down, Alemany Farm takes on a golden glow more lovely than just about anywhere else. As long as you ignore the freeway.

All of which is to say … High summer is the perfect time to get your hands dirty at Alemany Farm!

If you haven’t already, please mark your calendars for these upcoming community workdays:

THIS Sunday, August 1 from Noon to 1 PM
Monday, August 2 from 1 PM to 5 PM
Saturday, August 7 Noon to 5 PM
Monday, August 9 from 1 PM to 5 PM
Sunday, August 15 from Noon to 5 PM

We’ve got plenty of summertime work such as mid-season bed tillage and our second round of plantings such as cauliflower, carrots, beets, squash, and beans. Also compost building, weeding, and hillside orchard maintenance. Plus end-of-workday harvesting of plums, berries, squash, beans, lettuces, cucumbers, and our early season apples.

Come on out and dig in.

Thanks, as always, for your efforts to build a more food secure San Francisco.

The Farm Team

Just a quick reminder the the Farm will be closed this coming weekend and again for the Fourth of July holiday.

Please mark your calendars for these upcoming workdays:

Mon, June 28, 1 PM to 5 PM
Mon, July 5, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sat, July 10, Noon to 5 PM
Mon, July 12, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sun, July 18, Noon to 5 PM

We also want to let you know that Alemany Farm took home the First Place Blue Ribbon in the recent Urban Eats County Fair in the “Garden Basket” category!

Thanks so much for your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

Finally a little bit of spring warmth to get the garden really growin’. … And just in time to ripen up some of our squash for the SF County Fair!

Alemany Farm will be an exhibitor at this coming weekend’s County Fair sponsored by the SF Giants and CUESA, the non-profit that runs the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. You can learn about the event at: http://www.cuesa.org/events/urban_eats.php

To pull off an awesome exhibit that will educate Giants fans and others about the importance of local food systems, we need your help! If you can volunteer to help us set up our exhibit on Saturday morning, staff the table on Sunday, and/or breakdown the exhibit on Sunday evening, please email Ellen at: ellen@radicalradish.org.

ANY volunteer at our table will is hugely appreciated!

One of the great things about urban agriculture is that, well, it’s urban. Which means that there are more opportunities to engage people in conversations about sustainable food systems than there might be in the sticks.

In the next couple of week, Alemany Farmers will be speaking at a couple of events we want to make sure you know about.

On Wed, May 12, Alemany Farm co-manager Jason Mark will speak at the SF Commonwealth Club as part of a panel on urban farming that will also feature Oakland homesteader Novella Carpenter and Chris Burley from Hayes Valley Farm. For more info and tickets, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/2385mqe

Then, on Mon, May 17, Alemany Farm co-founder Antonio Roman-Alcala will speak at SPUR as part of Shaping San Francisco’s “Ecology Emerges” series. Antonio will join writer Rebecca Solnit and UC Professor Dick Walker to explore the “Economies of Nature.” For more info, please visit: http://events.sfgate.com/san-francisco-ca/events/show/103720765-ecology-emerges-4-economies-of-nature

Alemany Farm is also happy to help promote an upcoming debate about the role of animals in our food systems: NIMAN vs LYMAN — Can you be a “good environmentalist” and still eat meat? … Featuring Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop, and Howard Lyman, the “mad cowboy” who won’t eat meat. Thursday, May 20, at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley.
For more info and tickets, please visit: http://eii.org/events/vs/

And don’t forget about our upcoming community workdays. We’re in the full swing of spring and busy planting tomatoes, basil and peppers plus spring orchard care and, as always, compost building. Our next regularly scheduled workdays are:

Saturday, May 8, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, May 10, 1 PM to 5 PM
Sunday, May 16, Noon to 5 PM
Monday, May 17, 1 PM to 5 PM

… If you’re still hungry for some gardening, we encourage you to participate in the new weekly workdays at the Children’s Garden at the SF Botanical Garden. Every Thursday, Noon to 4:30 PM. For more info, contact volunteer@sfbotanicalgarden.org.

Thanks, as always, for helping to make SF more food secure!

The Farm Team

First, thanks to all of the volunteers who have been working hard at the Farm despite some less-than-ideal spring weather. The Farm looks great, and your sweat and sore muscles are to thank for that.

Now it’s time for a little celebration to kick off the 2010 Season!

Please join us this Sunday, April 18 as we celebrate our 4th Annual Earth Day BBQ. We’ll be starting a little earlier than usual, around 10 AM, and digging into tasks such as potato planting, tomato planting, and sowing cucumbers. We’ll fire up the grill around noon for organic sausages and plenty of veggie burgers and veggie sausages. We would love it if you could bring a dessert or side dish to share!

In the afternoon we will have plenty of entertainment, including music by Shake Your Peace. Throughout the day we will have fun activities for children.

Hope to see you there.

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

The Farm Team

Fortunately we had a few weeks of spring before winter decided to return. Those dry, warm days right after the Spring Equinox gave us the chance to cut down some of our winter cover crop and dig a half dozen beds in the main garden. Then this last week of rain helped all the cover crop we tilled in break down: perfect conditions for our first spring plantings of collards, lettuces, broccoli, and chois. Meanwhile, the hillside crew has been busy channeling water into a series of small ponds and setting up terraces for an ambitious summer season.

If you want to share in the fun, please join us this coming Saturday, April 10, at noon for our regularly scheduled workday. We’ll be busy knocking down some more cover crop and digging some more beds. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we really need you help, so please come out. … The next regular workday, Monday, April 12, will also be a busy one as we start to set up irrigation lines in the hillside orchard.

And mark your calendar for our 4th Annual Alemany Farm Earth Day BBQ! Sunday, April 18: 10 AM to 3 PM.

We will have plenty of spring work tasks, including potato, tomato, cucumber and squash planting. We will have a BBQ lunch with organic sausages and veggie burgers. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share! … We will have some music and plenty of games for kids, including face painting. It should be a blast.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Farm soon. Thanks, as always, for your work to make SF more food secure.

The Farm Team

We hope that you can join us this Saturday, Mar 6 to celebrate Arbor Day.

Alemany Farm is serving as the host for the SF Department of Public Works’ 10th Annual Clean Team event. Starting at 9 AM, people will be gathering at the Farm to break into different work teams. Some groups will stay at the Farm to plant 25+ new fruit trees and work on gardening projects. Other groups will travel to Holly Court, the Alemany Housing Development, Brotherhood Way, and neighborhoods throughout Districts 9 and 11 for other gardening and clean up tasks.

In addition to work projects, there will be an eco-fair featuring local environmental and community groups. We will have game for kids. Around Noon there will be a BBQ lunch for all volunteers.

Please come and join us. … And for those of you who want to avoid the crowds, please come to our regularly scheduled workday on Sunday, Mar 7 or Monday, Mar 8.

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

The Farm Team

You know how when you throw a big party or a potluck and you have to clean up your house before the event, even though you know you’ll have to clean up the house after the event as well? That’s sort of the place we’re in at Alemany Farm these days.

On Saturday, March 6 we will be hosting the SF Department of Public Works’ 10th Annual Clean Team & Arbor Day Celebration. Starting at 9 AM, volunteers will plant fruit trees, work on gardening projects, spread woodchips, remove weeds, paint out graffiti, pick up litter, and beautify neighborhoods throughout Districts 9 & 11. At noon, there will be a BBQ lunch. The event will also include a green resource fair with plenty of awesome local groups, music, and fun activities.

We’re very excited to partner with SF DPW and SF Recreation and Parks Department for this event, which will attract up to 300 people. This is an important chance to show off the Farm to many people who don’t even know it exists — which is why we’re working really hard in the coming weeks to do some extra beautification.

So we’re hoping you can join us at our upcoming regularly scheduled workdays: Sunday, Feb 21; Mon, Feb 22; Sat, Feb 27; and Mon, Mar 1 as we get the place looking really beautiful. Upcoming projects will include mulching the paths in the lower garden and orchard hillside, weeding our ornmamental native gardens, planting some new natives, and orchard care. At the end of each workday, there will be plenty of collards, kale, chard and cabbages to harvest and share.

Please come out and help us clean up for the Clean Up.

… And if you’re interested in learning more about urban food production, please apply for our 2010 Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture. You can download the application at www.alemanyfarm.org. Some applicants have been unable to fill in the PDF; please feel free to fill in your responses in either a Word doc or in the body of an email.

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

The Farm Team

Dear Farm Friends:

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 second year in a row,
Friends of Alemany Farm will be offering an Apprenticeship in
Ecological Horticulture.

To apply, please complete the application (PDF | WORD) 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 20
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.

The Farm Team

PS: Don’t forget our upcoming volunteer workdays: Saturday, Feb 13;
Monday, Feb 15; Sunday, Feb 21; Monday, Feb 22; and Saturday, Feb 27.

Please join us at Alemamy Farm tomorrow, Sat, Jan 9 as we continue the work on our native tree planting. As you might remember, this exciting collaboration with a Living Library is giving us the opportunity to create a visual and auditory screen from the freeway. The combination of native bay trees, native cherries, and native oaks will eventually make the Farm a little quieter and more private.

We will start at Noon and wrap up around 5 PM.

In addition to the tree planting, we will be doing some garlic weeding
and strawberry care.

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

The Farm Team