iBlog for The Free Farm

Photo taken at Occupy SF on Friday

Now almost a month since Occupy Wall Street and Occupy SF began, these movements are based on consensus and remain leaderless, which may be frustrating to some accustomed to conventional accountability (like Harry “The Buck Stops Here” Truman).

As an all-volunteer group like the Occupy groups, The Free Farm gets things done by consensus, which involves anyone who shows up during our volunteer days and meetings. We also get things done regardless of what nature hands to us – like the unexpected downpour of rain on our uncovered compost pile that turned anaerobic last week. Some plant leaves turned yellow indicating over-watering, but we’re still harvesting lots of Hecka Local produce!

Sometimes The Free Farm gets neglected like my recent 3-week absence from blogging. But hey, I made up for it with 3 separate postings last weekend, plus a bonus this past Thursday! Though I provide advance notice and request for volunteer bloggers during planned absences, it can be hit-or-miss if a substitute comes through. I even prepared the following template:

“During today’s workday, ___ volunteers showed up to plant/weed/water/compost. We harvested __ pounds of produce, which included _________. The weather was ________ and we enjoyed lunch (outdoors/indoors). At our farm stand, we gave away __ pounds of produce to __ visitors.”

At yesterday's volunteer day, The Free Farm hosted 20 Stanford students from Margaret’s Food & Community service learning class. Our summer intern Brittany returned with her classmates and Pancho led guided tour.Planting garlicHarvesting beans

Tom harvests basil in greenhouse

Stanford group walks labyrinth

Kris deadheading spent sunflowers

Tomato harvest

Preparing to plant artichokes

Tree points out plants that need pruning

Quick learner shows pruning technique

Jerusalem artichoke harvest

Claire holds up elephant garlic to be planted

When experienced gardener and first-time visitor Sam arrived, we invited him to join tour with Stanford group but he chose to get dirty immediately. Here, he harvests collard greens.

Harvesting kale outside hothouse

Glorious green

As we go about our farming activities, it’s rather un-eventful so I was surprised to hear a few blog readers missed the weekly postings. While I miss being present in The Free Farm (great place to chill out because it’s un-eventful), I don’t miss blogging at all but enjoy the freedom of being off-the-grid. According to my acupuncturist, the difference is being in nature (The Free Farm) supports the flow of my qi (energy), while artificial EMF (electromagnetic fields from electronics) pollution drains qi.

Logging on to blogger to upload photos with my slow internet connection is tedious because just looking at a computer screen tires out my eyes so I usually have to blast some rock music to keep me awake (neighbor, forgive my trespass) – hence, the occasional song lyrics pop up in my postings. Today I liked listening to this one-hit wonder:

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me (whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie
“Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” lyrics by Norman Dolph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16kh-AP4OCU

SF Newbies Sam & Bekah

Alena signals lunchtime

Margaret brought chili & salad for lunch

Hecka Local Produce

Margaret & Tree set-up produce stand

Sander rinses veggies & Mike plants veggies

My relatives and friends who really know me find it amusing that I’m coordinating this blog (which was assigned to me for my Getup service). After all, I’m low-maintenance, but technology demands maintenance so I limit online time and I don’t even own a TV, cell phone, Kindle, car, etc. I won an iPod, but have never used it. I crave privacy, so I don’t belong to any social networking sites.

But recently, to raise more awareness of GMO’s threat to organic food production, I felt the urge to blog about recent events regarding the risks of GMOs and need for GMO labeling so consumers can make informed choices – an important public health issue that has been largely ignored by mainstream media.

Adding to newest compost pile

Shoveling horse manure

K says "weeding is therapeutic"

Tree with latest farm tool

Green tomatoes

Busy farm stand

Anyway, life happens and we all have other responsibilities, obligations and distractions beyond The Free Farm. But it would be awesome to see more returning volunteers become regulars and take on coordinator roles. Since we are based on a sharing economy, we don’t “pass the buck” but volunteers help make things happen so let’s Occupy the Food System with our Hecka Local produce!

Happy faces of volunteers along with our uncommonly beautiful plants always brighten this blog . . . so unplug and come grow with us soon! We appreciate all your support!

Wrenn samples pineapple guava

Happy faces always welcome!

Public Service Announcements:

Mon., Oct 17, 2011, 4-6 pm Biological Science Literacy
Greenhouse Café, 1722 Taraval St., SF
Biological Science: Application to Ecosystems, Biological Adaptation, and Genetically Modified (GM) Crops. Offered through Free University of SF, 5-week class taught by Barbara-Ann Lewis. Email b-lewis@northwestern.edu. http://freeuniversitysf.org/

Tues., Oct. 18, 2011, 6:30 pm Seeding the Future
@ internet archive, 300 Funston St, SF
seeding the future: a town hall meeting for small scale agriculture. featuring a fall harvest potluck, screening of the greenhorns, and roundtable discussion.
debate and collaborate on 2012 farm bill action strategies, decentralized food production, and new strategies for urban farming. music by ed masuga and friends. panelists: Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, Director, The Greenhorns; Rick Prelinger, Founder, Prelinger Archives; Ned Conwell, Farmer, Pescadero, CA; Ed Garrett, Found of Fresh Spin Farms, Davis, CA
http://www.thegreenhorns.net/events.html

Thurs., Oct. 20, 2011, 7:30 pm Keeping Nature in the City
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, SF
Nature in the City’s founder Peter Brastow shares his vision of how we can more meaningfully interact with the wild in our city: restoring natural areas in our neighborhoods and backyards and through projects like the Twin Peaks Bioregional Park and the Green Hairstreak Corridor. Peter Brastow founded Nature in the City in 2005 with the idea of connecting urban people to where we live. Doing this would help the growing movement to conserve San Francisco’s natural areas and biodiversity, helping to carry ecological restoration and stewardship further. Peter had previously served as the Presidio’s National Park Service Ecological Restoration Specialist.
http://sfnhs.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/keeping-nature-in-the-city/

Sun., Oct. 23, 2011, 2-5 pm Community Open House of Aldea Center on Mount Sutro
155 Johnstone at Medical Center Way, SF
Learn more about ongoing open space programs in the UCSF Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served. A brief walking tour of Rotary Meadow and the Aldea seed propagation area will depart at 3 PM.
http://sutrostewards.org/events/community-open-house-at-the-aldea-center-on-mount-sutro

Mon., Oct. 24, 2011, 1-6:30pm Food Deserts: Legal, Social and Public Health Challenges
Hastings College of Law, 198 McAllister, Louis B. Mayer Room, SF
Two Panel Discussions:
1. Nourishing our Neighborhoods: Insights from Law, Planning, and Industry (moderated by Hilary Seligman)
2. Food and Nutrition in Correctional Institutions (moderated by Brie Williams)
Keynote Address: David Kessler, JD, MD, Former Commissioner of the FDA and UCSF Dean and Vice-Chancellor
This conference will address medical, legal and political challenges of food scarcity and food insecurity, and highlight how medicine, law and politics come together to influence a critical topic in public health.
http://ucsf-hastingsconsortium.org/event/consortium-sponsored-conference-food-deserts-legal-social-and-public-health-challenges