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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Winter Break…
By The Farm Team | December 22, 2008
Farm Friends:
Late December is vacation time here at the farm; a time for us to let the cover crop grow, the mulch settle in, and the new perennials establish deep drought-tolerant root systems. It’s also time for us to go on vackay–whether to visit our families across the country, or with a relaxed staycation here in the city.
So take it easy and we’ll see you in the new year, maybe at our first workday on Sunday, January 4th.
Thanks, as always, for your efforts,
The Farm Team
p.s. For those of you considering the 2009 Apprenticeship program: the deadline for submission of applications is January 1st, so get your application in now! We will be notifying applicants of acceptance a week prior to the first class, to be held on January 11th.
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2009 ECOLOGICAL HORTICULTURE TRAINING PROGRAM
By The Farm Team | December 7, 2008
UPDATE: 2009 Course is FULL and CLOSED. Thanks!
Alemany Farm’s 2009 Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture
Download the application here: PDF / Word
If you are eager to learn more about urban food production and wish to gain some of the skills to become your own food producer, you should enroll in Alemany Farm’s Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture.
The 12-month course will take participants through the seasons, covering key garden and orchard tasks that occur in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Workshops will teach 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 different methods of sustainable horticulture such as French Biointensive and Permaculture. In addition to gardening instruction, the classes will include discussions on social and political issues such as food security and government agricultural policies.
Our hope is that by learning the skills, concepts, and cultural context of urban agriculture, you are inspired to go out into the world as a “good food” activist. To this end, part of registering for the course includes committing to 40 hours of volunteer work, ideally at Alemany Farm or another sustainable food project in a low-income neighborhood.
Main curriculum for the Ecological Horticulture classes will be covered the second Sunday of every month, January through December, at Alemany Farm. The workshops will take place from 10 am to 5 pm, with a generous break for a potluck lunch. This core curriculum will be enhanced by 12 other workshops covering issues such as urban beekeeping, medicinal herbs, graywater systems, mushroom cultivation, and food preservation (drying and canning). Course participants have access to nearly 120 hours of instruction.
There is a suggested donation of $125 for the year-long course. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Students will receive a course reader. Non-core curriculum classes are also open to pre-registered members of the general public, but preference will be given to students registered for the Ecological Horticulture program. Participants are encouraged to purchase their own hand pruners and trowels for the class.
To register for the Apprenticship in Ecological Horticulture, please visit www.alemanyfarm.org and download an application. Completed applications should be mailed to: Alemany Farm, 2715 22nd Street, SF, CA 94110. The deadline to submit applications is January 1, 2009.
Download the application here: PDF / Word
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