Going Steady

We are going steady at the Free Farm with Mother Earth, Sister Soil, Brother Bug, Bee, and Bird. At the same time the Free Farm is going steady. This picture of our seedling collection sitting outside the greenhouse,  baby plants toughening themselves off for the real deal of life in the farm fast lane says it all. Plus one of our Free Farmers, Pancho who is in the photo completes the story of  what makes the Free Farm tick, it is the hands of many great volunteers with a passion to grow food for those in need.

This is going to be quickie in terms of writing this week. I am about to take of for the The National Heirloom Exposition being held in Santa Rosa (http://www.theheirloomexpo.com/). It is being held in conjunction with the California Rare Fruit Growers Festival of Fruit which I love going to when I can. These kinds of events are where I learn the most, by meeting other plant enthusiasts, especially on tours of quirky gardener's home gardens and orchards. Last year I also scored some really beautiful squash that we gave away at the stand.

The Free Farm is growing well and we seem to be in transition. There are a lot of beds opening up and we are working hard to get plants in for the winter season.  So the greenhouse is busy as well as outside the greenhouse as we plant, plant, plant, and prepare beds.

Last week we had a wonderful visit from the Thomas Wang and his City College students He is the new City College teacher of horticulture who luckily replaced Pam Pierce and kept her class going.  It was nice having him around, I learned a lot walking around with him and his class, giving him a tour and the same time learning the names of flies and weeds. Here is a weed I have been wondering about...he called it horse weed:

I looked it  up it's scientific name is  Conyza canadensis (in the Sunflower Family: Asteraceae). Also know as mare's tale. I love knowing what is growing in our garden. While looking this up I found this guy who has made all these cool and educational videos and he made one about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2hAt6oFDfU.
Herre we are checking out the lovage:

Here are some pictures from the week before...we had a huge harvest:

 Stanley weighs it all

 some of the stuff on our cart to give away

 a handsome cabbage

artichoke

Two announcements:

My friend that teaches at USF and is a wonder woman in all the great things she does in promoting urban agriculture and homesteading sent me this flier. The meal has vegan options and she thinks it is vegetarian too. The Farm Stand is "by donation and covers the ingredients not available to us in our garden and needed to cook the fare at our farm stand and the free dinners. No one is ever turned away for lack of funds."

Then there is the Human Be In: http://humanbein.org/?page_id=206
Pancho and I are doing a skillshare and despite the title ( I like it  but is only part of  what I want to share), I will hopefully be talking about how to start a karma yoga type project and make it work.)