Celebration!

Preparing food

Joyce and Pia prepare mixed greens salad

Stanley adds yellow color to bee picture in Tree's artwork of The Free Farm congregation

Vegan dinner menu: Thanks to Bi-Rite, Earl's Organics, Double Rainbow, Rainbow Grocery, and Veritable Vegetable for their donations

Appetizer spread includes Michael's hummus

Sufi dance of universal peace circle

Pam, Ruby, Lolita and John

Dinner line

Honorable mention to my neighbor Jonathan, a winemaker who gave this bottle of antioxidant-rich Syrah

Margaret uncorks wine bottles

Colorful dinner plate

Colorful appetizer plate

Abundant food

Kris, friend and Hannah

No comment :-)

Tree introduces Babar Jug Band

K and friend

Two wise women at this table: Golden Gate Gardening author Pam (http://www.pampeirce.com/) and award-winning filmmaker Karil (http://karildaniels.com/)

Forks over knives

Cheers :-)

The Phaetons

Alen serves up lemonade made with honey from The Free Farm

Ro and friend

Babar Jug Band

Tree and Pam

Artists Stanley and Pam

Margaret shares poem

Margaret and Page

Adelaja shares his thoughts on what The Free Farm means to him

Dessert time

As promised, Alen made her famous Scharffenberger chocolate chip cookies!

K plays Chopin

Yasue scoops up Double Rainbow soy vanilla ice cream

Stanley wrapped these truffle treats and got these cool peace buttons as mementos

Byron looks forward to filling up bowl with desserts

Beekeeper Pam (http://pamdeluco.com/) holds up memento of Tree's artwork (with Stanley's coloring of bee) printed on her homemade paper Pam and Valerie on dance floor

Pam gave complimentary massages after dinner

Claire writes thank you message to Tree on poster board

Tree and Eric

Drummer Ro and friend perform

Pam and Valerie

Dancin' the night away

Heather, Page and Byron

Tree, Claire and Angie

Junko band performs

Public Service Announcements:

Tues., Jan. 31, 2012, 5-7pm, Real Rural Launch Party
California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, SF
The Bill Lane Center for the American West and Roots of Change are proud to announce the launch of journalist and photographer Lisa Hamilton's innovative multimedia project "Real Rural" — bringing California's rural life to the state's urban public. Hamilton's portraits of people and places, along with surprising, provocative quotes from the subjects, will be featured on BART trains throughout the Bay Area beginning in late January, and on an interactive web site. The California Historical Society will mount a related exhibition this fall of Hamilton's photographs shown in conjunction with relevant materials from the California Historical Society's vast collection. See a preview of the project and meet Lisa Hamilton. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.
http://californiahistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/

Wed., Feb. 1, 2012, 1:30-3:30 pm SF Food Security Task Force
City Hall - 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Rm. 278, SF 94102
http://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/mtgsGrps/#foodsecurity

Wed., Feb. 1, 2012, 6:30-9 pm, Chinese Medicinal Herb Farms in the U.S.
ACTCM, 555 De Haro Street, Room H, SF
ACTCM hosts Peggy Schafer of the Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm in Petaluma, CA and Jean Giblette of High Falls Gardens in Philmont, NY. The evening will begin with a social and reception. Then Peggy and Jean will share information regarding their efforts to support the growth of Chinese medicinal herbs here in the United States. Peggy will also share information about her new book, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm: A Cultivator’s Guide to Small-Scale Organic Herb Production, which includes 79 detailed herb profiles, growing information, and medicinal use. The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm is the first cultivation guide of its kind, and presents invaluable information for growers interested in producing high-quality efficacious herbs in all climates of the United States, with the historical connectedness of ancient practitioners. Please RSVP to leeswain@actcm.edu http://www.actcm.edu/events_detail.php?topmenu=5&root=5&id=776&eventsid=127

Sun., Feb. 5, 2012, 10 am-12 noon, Tu B'Shvat at The Free Farm
Join Congregation Emanu-El’s Young Adult Community, Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Contemporaries and Moishe House for this tree planting event!

Sun., Feb. 5, 2012, 1 pm Bees and Flowers
California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park, SF
Pollinators like bees are a crucial link in ecosystems and agriculture around the world, allowing flowering plants—from roses and sunflowers to cotton and strawberries—to reproduce year after year. Bees, who depend on these plants for nectar, communicate the locations of flowers to each other with dances. In this fun, interactive program, discover how these pollination partners help one another, and perform a bee-dance of your very own.
http://www.calacademy.org/events/

Welcome rain + sun + Baltimore Free Farmer!

Our new year rains finally arrived on Thursday and continued with Friday night’s storm to fill our rain barrels (thanks to Kris’ rain dance last Saturday?), which had been empty since their installation in November. Today the sun came out as well as our dedicated volunteers and fellow free farmer, Don from Baltimore (http://www.baltimorefreefarm.org/)!
Dirty work, but somebody has to do it: SF Diggers Chris, Andrew, Don and Rocky spread steaming mulch over cold, wet ground.Greeter Joyce warmly welcomes Stanley and Page at The Free Farm entrance. Note board with Tree's poster for January 28th Volunteer Appreciation Party.
The Free Farm work ethic: Chris and Rocky hold up pitchforks (symbolizing hard labor) as they finish filling up wheelbarrows with mulch.
Pots for sugar snap peas overflow with rainwater.
Opened one of barrels filled with rainwater up to 2' high.
Ro, who will be drumming at our Volunteer Appreciation Party, brought yummy veggies stir-fried with ginger.
Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C for manufacture of collagen (prevent scurvy symptoms like bleeding gums and easy bruising) and immune function. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that help prevent cancer.
White, red and yellow swiss chard has nutritional benefits similar to cabbage.
Workday leader Alen harvests lettuce for lunch salad.
Chris and Andrew plant kale.
Neighborhood volunteers Rocky and Ella plant lettuce.
Pia waters in greenhouse while chatting with Alen.
After his friends Bill and Allison visited The Free Farm last year, Baltimore Free Farmer Don decided to check us out in person to write an article for his new zine about urban farming and homesteading. Well, I ended up interviewing him for our blog :-).

Don and his friends, with fiscal sponsor Fusion Partnership that lends non-profit status, started Baltimore Free Farm (BFF) on a lot about the same size as The Free Farm on January 2010—also about the same time when The Free Farm and Hayes Valley Farm began. Unlike Hayes Valley Farm (which is expected to lose its city-owned lot to condo development this year) and The Free Farm (which may lose its church-owned space to development in the next two to five years), Don explained that he doesn’t foresee developers’ interest in their terraced lot on a 45-degree slope.

According to Don, Baltimore offers city-owned, abandoned lots for free under one-year, renewable leases for community use. BFF is part community garden with 4’ x 8’ lots allocated to individuals, and part raised beds with food grown for volunteers, give-aways and fundraising. Don explained that parts of BFF’s clay-like soil were contaminated with some heavy metals from industry so they have raised beds; they’re also able to grow food year-round with their greenhouse and hoophouse. In addition, BFF has bees for honey, and chickens (maximum four allowed by local ordinance) for eggs and manure. Don said his parents maintained a garden, beehive and chickens so he practically grew up homesteading. BFF coordinates DIY workshops with other gardens on canning, beekeeping, gardening, composting, soapmaking, biodiesel, aquaculture, etc.

Don mentioned that he cooks for Occupy Baltimore and Food Not Bombs. Wow, I asked Don how he was able to do all this? Don replied that many BFF members are urban farming and homesteading as their livelihood, which is unlike most of us volunteers who have work/school responsibilities with limited leisure time for The Free Farm.

In fact, Don said his weeklong trip to SF was the first time he’s been away from BFF since they began. Thanks, Don, for volunteering at The Free Farm during your vacation! I invited him to our Volunteer Appreciation Party next Saturday, but Don said he really had to return to work at BFF on Monday—our Lunar New Year holiday. Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Lunch spread prepared by Alen (harvested Hecka Local lettuce), John (stew) and Ro (veggie stir-fry with rice).
Joyce and Pia share a laugh with Baltimore Free Farmer Don.
Stanley and Rocky greet neighbors at The Free Farm Stand.
John, Jenni and Marie are very tight-knit neighbors :-) It's so cool to have more neighbors volunteer at The Free Farm!

Stanley dropped me off at Golden Gate Park (thanks for the ride, Stanley!), where I head over to SF Botanical Garden Society's Lunar New Year Flower Market. Missed Ernie Ng's 1 pm Asian Plants tour, but I picked up map for self-guided tour.
Chinese naturalist painting is yin-yang: balance, harmony and change.
Grow Plants to Eat Plants - Before sunset, I bump into vegetarian friends outside SF Botanical Garden: Greg, Sharon, Dixie (President of SF Vegetarian Society at http://www.sfvs.org/), Saurabh (President of Vegetarian Society of DC at http://www.vsdc.org/, “the nation’s oldest continuously running vegetarian society,” founded in 1927) and Tom meet at County Fair Building, site of this year’s 40th IVU International Vegetarian Congress/Vegfest on October 5-12, 2012 (http://www.ivu.org/congress/2012/ and http://www.sfvs.org/wvd/). Please save this date: Sunday, March 18, 2012, 12:15 pm, for annual Meat Out Celebration sponsored by SFVS and Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (UUFETA).

Rain or shine: Please join us on our volunteer days and let's appreciate/celebrate together on January 28th!

Public Service Announcements:

Wed., Jan. 25, 2012, 7:30 pm Occupy Everything
CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission at 9th St., SF 94103
Open discussion about the Occupy movement that started in September in the U.S. and has spread across the country, with dramatic events in Oakland, San Francisco, and other locales. Let’s examine the bigger issues, the deeper implications, the broad possibilities of radical reform to revolution, as embodied in this movement.
http://counterpulse.org/?tribe_events=shaping-sf-public-talk-occupy-everything-open-discussion/

GOMBS soup

Rainy weather makes me wanna stay indoors and make soup! Soup is the ultimate comfort food and so easy to make with almost anything but the kitchen sink :-) Here’s my GOMBS* soup recipe (include whatever quantity suits your taste):

1. Soak barley/yiyi ren for 8 hours to break down gluten and make digestion easier. Discard soaked water. (See http://nourishingourchildren.org/Downloads_files/grains.pdf)
2. Cook soaked barley + kombu in water. Kombu adds mineral-rich nutrients and helps activate enzymes to neutralize enzyme inhibitors.
3. Saute in coconut oil: chopped scallions (Onions)+ minced garlic + chopped carrots + chopped celery (Greens) + sliced crimini Mushrooms.
4. Add cooked barley + water + chopped watercress (Greens) + cilantro (Greens) + apricot kernels/tian xingren (Seeds).
5. Top with goji/goujizi (Berries).

My soup is missing Beans because I forgot to soak them in advance, and I avoid canned stuff. Soaking grains, beans, nuts and seeds help break down and neutralize anti-nutrients like phytic acid, which bind with minerals (calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc) and block their absorption. (See http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid)

*GOMBBS is the acronym for Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s cancer prevention foods: Greens + Onions + Mushrooms + Beans + Berries + Seeds.